For Immediate Release

For More Information
Lora Lumpe, Coordinator, US Campaign to Ban Landmines/FCNL
(202) 361-3028

US Congress Passes Cluster Bomb Export Moratorium
Renews Mine Moratorium for 7 Years

(Washington, DC, December 19, 2007)—Congress today will effectively ban the export of US cluster munitions during 2008. Cluster munitions have caused thousands of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon and Kosovo in recent years. The ban is included in the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act that Congress is expected to pass today, and which President Bush will likely sign before Christmas.

“An export moratorium is a good first step,” said Lora Lumpe, coordinator of the national campaign and a lobbyist at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers).  “We will work in the coming year to make the export ban permanent and to prohibit the US military’s use of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.”

Passage of the export ban comes just two weeks after 138 governments gathered in Vienna, Austria to hammer out a global treaty that will prohibit production, stockpiling, export and use of cluster munitions.  The US government is not taking part in these negotiations, which will be completed in 2008. “With this law, Congress helps move the US closer to the position of most NATO partners and other US allies that are supporting international negotiations and taking national measures to protect non-combatants from cluster munitions,” notes Ken Rutherford, co-founder of Landmine Survivors Network.

The United States is the world’s leading arms exporter, and it has exported cluster munitions to 28 countries—including Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Israel used US-supplied cluster munitions extensively last year in southern Lebanon. Unexploded cluster submunition duds there have claimed more than 200 civilian casualties.

Specifically, language in the Omnibus Appropriations Act prohibits any arms export license or the provision of any military aid for cluster munitions during FY 2008 unless the weapons have a 99% or higher tested reliability rate—meaning that use of the weapons would not result in a deadly minefield of dud cluster submunitions. In addition, the bill would require the importer to sign a statement before export could take place, agreeing that they will not use cluster munitions in civilian areas.   

Human Rights Watch estimates that the US military has a stockpile of nearly 1 billion cluster submunitions, almost all of which have extremely high unreliability rates.  One system widely used and exported by the US is the M26 rocket, fired by the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).  One MLRS volley launches 12 M26 rockets, resulting in a total of 7,728 submunitions raining down over an area 200 yards x 400 yards (an area the size of 2-3 football fields). Any living thing exposed in this area at the time of fire would be killed or gravely wounded. 

In addition, cluster munitions leave behind landmine fields of unexploded, but still deadly ‘dud’ submunitions.  The M26 rocket has a failure rate of 16%, meaning that one MLRS volley will result in more than 1,000 unexploded submunitions littering the area and awaiting civilians returning after the conflict ends. These submunitions are small, brightly colored and often appeal to curious children. (Click here to see how wide an area this weapon would cover in your city.)

“This law recognizes the need to prevent cluster bombs from being used in civilian-populated areas,” said Colby Goodman, Program Manager for Child Soldiers and Arms Transfers at Amnesty International USA. “Congress has taken an important step to protect innocent lives and to demonstrate respect for International Humanitarian Law—the rules that govern warfare.” 

The Omnibus Appropriations Act also includes $79.4 million for humanitarian demining and directs $4 million in so-called “economic support fund” grants to programs that address the needs and protect the rights of persons with disabilities, including as a result of landmines, cluster munitions and other weapons.  The Act also extends a ban on export of antipersonnel landmines that began in 1992 and was set to expire next year.  The ban is now in place through 2014.

A separate piece of legislation, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594, H.R. 1755) would extend the restriction on cluster bomb exports indefinitely, and would place the same restrictions on the US military’s use of cluster bombs.  The USCBL will be pressing in the coming year for passage of this bill.

The USCBL is a coalition of US-based human rights, humanitarian, faith-based, children’s, peace, disability, veterans’, medical, development, academic, and environmental organizations.  Participating organizations include Handicap International, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Christian aid group World Vision, Human Rights Watch and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.  It is the US affiliate to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize ten years ago.