Senate Votes to Restrict Cluster Bomb and Landmine Exports

WASHINGTON (Friday, Sept. 7) – The full Senate voted on September 6 to approve legislation that effectively bans the U.S. from exporting or transferring cluster bombs to other countries where they might be used against civilian populations. The export restriction is included as a provision (Section 695) of the State Department and Foreign Operations bill (HR 2764) which was approved yesterday by a vote of 81-12.

The U.S. has an arsenal that includes more than 5 million cluster bombs. Each cluster weapon disperses dozens of little “bomblets” intended to kill all living creatures within a specific area that is often as large as several football fields. The U.S. has used cluster bombs in civilian populated areas in at least three countries in the last fifteen years and has exported these weapons to more than a dozen other countries.

The specific export restrictions in Section 695:

• prohibit the U.S. government from providing cluster bombs or related technology through military aid or other export programs unless the export agreement states that the importing government will only use cluster munitions against clearly defined military targets and will not use these weapons where civilians are known to be present.
  
• bar the U.S. from exporting any cluster weapons unless the submunitions – the tiny bomblets dispersed by these weapons – have a failure rate of one percent or less. This provision would ensure that if cluster munitions were used, residual bomblets would not threaten civilians returning home post-conflict. Virtually all of the weapons in the U.S. arsenal have a failure rate of more than one percent.

No Senator offered an amendment to strip the cluster export ban from the funding bill, despite the fact that the White House objected to it (as well as a similar ban on weapons exports to countries that use child soldiers). According to the president, “Currently, the sales of cluster munitions are subject to safeguards, and the administration vigilantly pursues efforts to prevent the use of children in combat.”

The Senate-passed version of the bill also extends until 2014 the ban on anti-personnel landmine exports. The ban was first enacted in 1992 and is set to expire in 2008.

The Senate ban is an important first step, but we have more work to do. The House version of the bill does not include the cluster bomb export ban. The next step is for House and Senate managers of the bill to meet and hammer out the differences between the two versions.

The export ban is also threatened by the potential veto of the bill—on unrelated grounds. Both versions of the bill include language that would expand access to funding for family planning groups overseas. President Bush has promised to veto any bill that the administration believes will weaken current federal policies and laws on abortion.

The best way to protect civilian life is to continue working to get your senators and representative to cosponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594 and H.R. 1755), which would also prevent the U.S. military from using these weapons against civilians. Please click here and urge your senators and representatives to cosponsor this important legislation.