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Riksdag approves cluster bomb ban treaty

Published: 16 Mar 12 08:26 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/39698/20120316/

Swedish lawmakers voted Thursday in favour of ratifying a treaty that bans the use of cluster bombs, the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions.

"Parliament voted in favour of the government's proposal that Sweden shall adhere to the Convention on Cluster Munitions," parliament said in a statement.

Sweden signed the treaty in November 2008, several months after the convention was adopted at a conference in Dublin earlier in the year.

Sweden's initial delay in signing up to the treaty prompted criticism from peace advocates, who accused that the government of Fredrik Reinfeldt of foot dragging on an important disarmament matter.

Some 109 countries have signed the convention, which entered into force in 2010, and which requires signatories to stop the use, production and transfer of the deadly weapons.

Cluster munitions split open before impact and scatter multiple – often hundreds – of submunitions, or bomblets, usually the size of a tennis ball, over a wide area.

Many of them fail to explode and can lie hidden for years, killing and maiming civilians, including children, in explosions, even decades after the conflict is over.

China, Israel, Russia and the United States are among countries that have not signed the convention.

Those powers are thought to hoard and manufacture the bulk of the munitions, although the data is secret.

AFP/The Local
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08:37 March 16, 2012 by Iraniboy
Good news! It should have been done before!
08:44 March 16, 2012 by karex
It will be even better news when all nations sign. I hope that they all can be persuaded!
09:49 March 16, 2012 by Abe L
Given the reason it just sounds they need to be improved with a higher chance of going off. Or with a tracker so they can be dismantled if not exploded later on.

It's silly to ban one type of ammunition if it's just a technical difficulty that cause most of the grief. It is otherwise an excellent tool in times of war with a high chance of neutralizing targets.
10:34 March 16, 2012 by occassional
Hope that doesn't affect the business plan of that Saudi plant too badly.
10:37 March 16, 2012 by sometimetoquestion
Quite misleading by a whole government into the intricicies of language. Usage of cluster bombs does not necessarily cover production of and gaining profit from. Well seems blood is necessary to spill on all citizens thru the taxes retrieved of their sale. Just like the Lundin oil business involving a good percentage of the MPs stock portfolios.

Blessup
12:53 March 16, 2012 by pauldavid
I spent nearly 15 years in 2 para(that would be the best british parachute regiment) and tell you catagorically cluster munitions have saved my life in both Bosnia and Sierra Leone, a weapon of war is just that, a weapon! no different then a bullet, bomb, grenade, shell or anything else.it is just stupid to expect a military force to remove a significant,battle winning weapon because other people don't like the sound of them due to publicity. I mean read the article,"Many of them fail to explode and can lie hidden for years, killing and maiming civilians, including children, in explosions, even decades after the conflict is over." or "Those powers are thought to hoard and manufacture the bulk of the munitions, although the data is secret." really? many fail to explode? like the rounds we used to use made in pakistan/india or lie hidden for years? when they were dropped near me on way more occasions then i can remember, secondary sympathetic explosions accounted for any that didnt go off, killing and maiming civilians? what the f**k do you think happens in war? if they were not dropped when i called them in,in the Balkans there would of been a hell of a lot more civvies killed by the murdering ba****ds that we dropped on before being over-run! hoard and manufacture munitions? that's called logistics, kinda hard to run a army without logistical support..
14:23 March 16, 2012 by rohermoker
I worked in a munition factory that made what was called "combined effects munitions" The were made with a timer that caused then to exploed at a certian time after they were armed. Older products, or bomblets didnot have this ability. War is a very dirty business, and very bad things happen, When a polition calls to make war on a someone that they donot like for reasons of religion, ethnic background, or shape of the hats worn by the women of the country, that is what happens. There are areas of France that you cannot go to because of unexploded munitions, and that was nearly 100 yrsa ago. When you call for peace, but you feel free to let "my side" make war on the Bad guys, the bomb or bullet does not know or even care.
15:13 March 16, 2012 by millionmileman
@pauldavid

Well said. there are no pleasantries in war, if it were not one thing it would be something else. I was in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and so many Egyptian infantry who were on drugs provided by the Russians that we had to mow them down like combine harvesters in a Kansas wheat field. They fearlessly climbed on our tanks, like ants. the turrets, with the guns were revolving continually to knock them off. Somehow an air-strike with clusters would have been more palatable.
16:21 March 16, 2012 by tgolan
as the swedish army is so bad how will we defend ourselves against Norway and finlad without cluster Munitions.
18:54 March 16, 2012 by Tanskalainen
Cluster bombs are sexy as hell.
22:49 March 16, 2012 by entry
Heck, I think Kenya should ban the hunting of Polar Bears within their borders. Makes about as much sense as all the other countries that have run out of cluster bomb customers to sign a meaningless ban on cluster bombs. Hey I was wondering could we get a treaty outlawing car bombings before 1145am on Tuesdays and another treaty signed banning gang rapes on Saturdays?
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