U.K. signs global cluster bomb ban

DUBLIN, Ireland – In a major diplomatic defeat for the U.S., Britain broke ranks Wednesday and joined more than 100 nations in agreeing in principle to an international ban on cluster bombs, the small, insidious weapons that have killed thousands of civilians in the aftermath of battle.

Although the Bush administration has lobbied hard against the treaty and many U.S. and British officials consider cluster bombs valuable weapons, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown overruled elements of his own military and threw his support behind the prohibition. Brown’s decision cleared the way for an agreement that supporters said will lead to the removal of cluster munitions from arsenals around the world.

The pact, to be formally endorsed Friday by the nations gathered in Dublin for negotiations and signed in December, creates a new international convention prohibiting the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. It requires nations that conduct joint military operations with countries not party to the agreement to actively discourage use of the weapons.

The immediate influence of the draft agreement is limited because none of the major producers and users of cluster munitions, including the U.S., Russia and China, are participating. Russia has said it would not support an international ban.

But advocates have said they believe the new pact will result in sufficient international pressure to prevent any nation from deploying the weapons.

“From our perspective, this is quite an amazing result. Only a year and a half ago, countries would have said you were mad to think the world could turn around and ban cluster munitions with an international treaty, but what we’ve achieved here in Dublin is exactly that,” said Thomas Nash, international coordinator for the Cluster Munition Coalition, a network of 250 organizations promoting the ban.

Momentum for a comprehensive ban similar to that adopted for land mines in 1997 grew after the 2006 war in Lebanon, when Israel deployed large quantities of cluster munitions, which release a spray of more than 200 small, harmless-looking bomblets that often don’t explode until long after a conflict is over.

International investigators said at least 200 civilians were killed or injured in Lebanon as a result of cluster bomb injuries following the war. Thousands of other deaths and injuries have been recorded in Kosovo, Kuwait, Chechnya, Iraq, Southeast Asia and elsewhere.

Advocates of the ban said Britain’s reversal on Wednesday broke open the doors and led several other nations to drop significant objections.

“The whole tenor of the negotiations just abruptly changed when the U.K. made their statement,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch, which is working to win approval of the convention.

“This has completely and totally isolated the U.S., and represents a real failure of U.S. foreign policy. Britain has stood up to the U.S.,” Garlasco said.

U.S. officials have admitted there are significant humanitarian concerns over cluster munitions but have called for addressing the problem in an alternative forum that includes the countries most likely to use them in order to achieve meaningful controls.