By Denis Rousseau in Geneva
Agence France-Presse
A GLOBAL treaty to prevent deaths and maiming by clearing up unexploded bombs in war-stricken countries came into force today but several powers such as Israel, which scattered Lebanon with cluster bombs earlier this year, have not signed up.
From today, 25 signatory countries must start removing unexploded shells, grenades, rockets and cluster bombs left over from conflicts or pay for their removal, under the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War, signed in 2003.
"This is the first international agreement to require the parties to an armed conflict to clear all unexploded munitions that threaten civilians, peacekeepers and humanitarian workers once the fighting is over,'' the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
All the world's main military powers took part in formulating the document, the ICRC said. But key countries such as China, Russia and the United States have not signed.
Also absent from the signatories is Israel, which came under scrutiny over cluster bombs after its month-long bombardment of southern Lebanon in July and August when it tried to crush Hezbollah Shi'ite militants in the country.
Since the conflict, the clearing of unexploded ordnance has progressed slowly because Israel has refused to give details of the areas targeted by these devices. Unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon have killed 23 people and wounded 136 since the official end of fighting.
The ICRC has said that 95 to 98 per cent of cluster munitions are neither reliable nor accurate, while 10 to 40 per cent of the bomblets scattered by a mother bomb fail to explode.
The start date for the new protocol coincides with a UN conference to review another proposed treaty that would go one step further than a clean-up by banning some types of munitions. The conference runs in Geneva until November 17.
Eighteen countries have voiced backing for a new convention to ban cluster bombs, but such a ban is opposed by key powers such as Britain and the United States.
A US official told the conference that Washington held the view that the alternative to cluster bombs was to use an increased number of high explosive rounds, which have a more devastating effect.
The protocol enforced today is an addition to an existing deal, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which bans or restricts the use of some weapons that cause "unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants'' or that indiscriminately affect civilians.
It covers some types of fragmentation shells, some landmines or booby traps, and incendiary devices in civilian areas. The UN and the ICRC have called also for an outright ban on cluster bombs, which release several hundred smaller bomblets when they explode.
Unexploded ordinance was a "constant threat'' to 200,000 refugees and displaced people in Lebanon as well as hundreds of thousands of people returning to their homes and for aid workers, the United Nations said this week.
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were still suffering from the burden of unexploded cluster munitions some 30 years after the end of conflicts there, the UN said.
"As long as there is no effective ban, these weapons will continue to disproportionately affect civilians, maiming and killing women, children and other vulnerable groups,'' the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland said last week.
From today, 25 signatory countries must start removing unexploded shells, grenades, rockets and cluster bombs left over from conflicts or pay for their removal, under the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War, signed in 2003.
"This is the first international agreement to require the parties to an armed conflict to clear all unexploded munitions that threaten civilians, peacekeepers and humanitarian workers once the fighting is over,'' the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
All the world's main military powers took part in formulating the document, the ICRC said. But key countries such as China, Russia and the United States have not signed.
Also absent from the signatories is Israel, which came under scrutiny over cluster bombs after its month-long bombardment of southern Lebanon in July and August when it tried to crush Hezbollah Shi'ite militants in the country.
Since the conflict, the clearing of unexploded ordnance has progressed slowly because Israel has refused to give details of the areas targeted by these devices. Unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon have killed 23 people and wounded 136 since the official end of fighting.
The ICRC has said that 95 to 98 per cent of cluster munitions are neither reliable nor accurate, while 10 to 40 per cent of the bomblets scattered by a mother bomb fail to explode.
The start date for the new protocol coincides with a UN conference to review another proposed treaty that would go one step further than a clean-up by banning some types of munitions. The conference runs in Geneva until November 17.
Eighteen countries have voiced backing for a new convention to ban cluster bombs, but such a ban is opposed by key powers such as Britain and the United States.
A US official told the conference that Washington held the view that the alternative to cluster bombs was to use an increased number of high explosive rounds, which have a more devastating effect.
The protocol enforced today is an addition to an existing deal, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which bans or restricts the use of some weapons that cause "unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants'' or that indiscriminately affect civilians.
It covers some types of fragmentation shells, some landmines or booby traps, and incendiary devices in civilian areas. The UN and the ICRC have called also for an outright ban on cluster bombs, which release several hundred smaller bomblets when they explode.
Unexploded ordinance was a "constant threat'' to 200,000 refugees and displaced people in Lebanon as well as hundreds of thousands of people returning to their homes and for aid workers, the United Nations said this week.
Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were still suffering from the burden of unexploded cluster munitions some 30 years after the end of conflicts there, the UN said.
"As long as there is no effective ban, these weapons will continue to disproportionately affect civilians, maiming and killing women, children and other vulnerable groups,'' the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland said last week.
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