First 'Cluster Bomb Olympics' held in Washington DC

[Purveyor]

19 May 2008
Children and adults from Washington, DC held the 1st Annual 'Cluster Bomb Olympics' organised by religious groups and others this weekend outside the White House.

The event was organised to generate public awareness of cluster bombs before today's negotiation of a global cluster bomb ban treaty in Dublin.

The US is not among the more than 100 participating governments.

At the Cluster Bomb Olympics, participants took part in events including “cluster bomb hopscotch” and “bocce bomb” while learning about the threat cluster bombs pose to millions of children around the world.

Ralph Nader also spoke at the event, which was organised by the US Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Other speakers included the First Secretary to the Lebanese Embassy, the executive director of Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), a Laotian Fulbright Scholar who grew up in a heavily cluster bombed region in Laos, and a physical therapist who has worked with landmine victims in Ethiopia.

The event was co-sponsored by Amnesty International, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, CIVIC, Democracy in Action, Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers), Jewish Voice for Peace, Network of Spiritual Progressives, and Veterans for Peace.

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http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7160