Britain ready to sign cluster-bomb treaty

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Source: TimesOnline

Britain is ready to sign a treaty that will outlaw the use and stockpiling of cluster bombs and millions of pounds will have to be spent on destroying them, senior Foreign and Commonwealth Office sources said yesterday.

The change in Britain’s position on the Armed Forces’ remaining cluster munitions – the helicopter-mounted M73 and artillery-launched M85 – was confirmed in Dublin at the 109-nation conference that is trying to negotiate a treaty that will ban all such weapon systems.

Senior sources said that the definition of cluster bombs which was now being agreed would mean that the M85 and the M73 would be “caught”.

Britain’s negotiating team in Dublin includes military advisers from the Ministry of Defence who, until now, have emphasised that both the M85 and M73 cluster-bomb systems were needed to protect British troops when confronted by an enemy in armoured vehicles. But the sources said: “The policy we’re adopting is a British government position.”

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4016368.ece

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1. Conference accepts draft on cluster bombs ban

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2866126.htm

An international conference accepted on Wednesday a draft treaty to ban the use of cluster munitions.

The conference attended by more than 100 nations, though not the United States, agreed on the draft at its meeting in Ireland.

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"In order to secure as strong a convention as possible, in the last hours of negotiation we have issued instructions that we should support a ban on all cluster bombs, including those currently in service by the UK," Brown said in a statement before the conference's acceptance of the draft.

The United States says it sees "certain military utility" for the weapons, and is not attending the meeting. It has been accused by activists of pushing allies such as Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Australia to try to weaken the treaty.