Archbishop welcomes cluster bomb ban decision

[struggle4progress]

By Matt Westcott

THE Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu has commended "the necessarily tough decision" to join the international ban on the use of cluster bombs.

Diplomats from more than 100 countries unanimously passed a treaty tonight to ban the use of the bombs around the world.

Delegates in Dublin also agreed to destroy any stockpiles of the weapons within the next eight years ...

"These weapons were designed for use against massive military forces during the Cold War", the Archbishop said. "But tragically they have been used disproportionately, for quite different purposes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. Civilians have been caught by them and in Lebanon, for example, children have picked up unexploded bombs" ...

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/display.var.2303840.0.archbishop_welcomes_cluster_bomb_ban_decision.php


UK Government to 'scrap cluster bombs'
By staff writers
28 May 2008

The government is preparing to scrap Britain's entire arsenal of cluster bombs that have killed and maimed hundreds of innocent civilians, reports the Guardian newspaper ...

In 2004, Pope, John Paul II urged the destruction of landmine stockpiles and called on nations including China, Russia, India and the US to adhere to the 1997 Ottowa Convention to ban them. In 2006 the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations called for a specific moratorium on cluster bombs.

Last year - the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Mine Ban Treaty - the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union of Great Britain all called on the UK Government to end the use of cluster bombs by UK forces ...

Well-placed sources said yesterday that despite opposition from the military, the government is prepared to get rid of the cluster munitions in Britain's armoury: the lsraeli-designed M85 artillery weapon used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and in attacks on Lebanon two years ago; and the M73, part of a weapons system for Apache helicopters, reports the Guardian ...

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/7193


Irish bishops call for cluster bomb ban
Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008, 11:47 (BST)

The Irish Catholic Bishops' Commission for Justice and Social Affairs, and Trócaire, the overseas development agency of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, have called for a total ban on cluster bombs.

"Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or extensive areas, along with their population, is a crime against God," the two organisations said in a joint statement to coincide with the opening of an international conference in Dublin earlier in the month on the use of cluster munitions.

The bishops and the aid agency quoted Catholic social teaching on proportionality, the obligation to protect civilians, and key moral and humanitarian issues as they encouraged delegates to recommend a total ban on the use of cluster bombs.

These weapons contain multiple small sub-munitions that, when released, spread over an area of hundreds of square metres. The use of such weapons in populated areas virtually guarantees civilian casualties ...

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/irish.bishops.call.for.cluster.bomb.ban/19050.htm


Another story on the Archbishop of York, stuck here as a complement to the first story above:

Archbishop's parachute jump in sympathy with British soldiers
Posted: 2008/05/28
From: MNN

Archbishop of York John Sentamu is planning a parachute jump to express sympathy and to raise funds for British soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sentamu, who opposed the Iraq war and believes that Britain does too little to meet its debt to the armed services, said the government needs to do more to look after servicemen and women ...

The 59-year old black archbishop is the second highest clergyman in the Church of England. He was noted previously for setting up a peace camp two years ago and hold a fast to express solidarity with the Lebanese people during the latest month-long Israeli invasion.

He was due to leap from a plane from some 3,660 meters Tuesday above the countryside in Nottinghamshire central England, but his parachute jump was postponed until June 6 because of bad weather.

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=593564

[Evoman]

1. Fucking cluster bombs and mines are a menace and kill more innocents than targets.

Although, I wouldn't doubt that sometimes the innocents are the target. Fucking sick.

What I'd like to do is gather everybody who is "pro-cluster bomb" and "pro-mines".

Then I'd put them in a huge field surrounded by mines so they couldn't leave. And then I'd drop cluster bombs on them.

Okay, no I wouldn't...but still. These things should be banned and any human being with a heart can see that.

[Goblinmonger]

2. Good to see

but I don't know that it was a "tough decision." Cluster bombs are a scourge.

[HamdenRice]

3. Good to see. But where are the atheist organizations on this? nt

[Evoman]

4. I don't know why the moderate atheists have their thumbs up their asses.

But us fundie atheists are too busy making clusterbombs to kill religious people to try to ban them.

*joke aside, try not to take S4P's thread too off topic.