GENEVA: U.S. officials said they are willing to start negotiating a treaty on the use of cluster bombs, reversing their previous position that no new agreement on the weapon was necessary.
But the United States still rejects a proposed global ban on the weapon, which 46 countries began negotiating in Oslo in February. Instead, Washington wants to negotiate another treaty, which goes less far, within the framework of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons.
The U.S. position has changed "due to the importance of this issue, concerns raised by other countries, and our own concerns about the humanitarian implications of these weapons," said Ronald Bettauer, head of a U.S. delegation to talks on the treaty this week in Geneva.
"It was determined that the United States should support the initiation of a negotiation on cluster munitions within the framework of the convention," Bettauer said Monday.
The United States said November that it was opposed to a new treaty because it said there were sufficient controls on the weapon in existing treaties.
It said cluster bombs, used carefully, have important military uses, like attacking artillery positions or runways, armored columns and missile installations. Washington wants to limit the impact cluster bombs have on civilians and improve their accuracy.
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The U.S. Government's sudden willingness to negotiate limits on cluster bomb munitions appears to be a ploy to blunt criticism of its refusal to support a total ban on the use of cluster munitions. This is more about public relations and "spin" than anything of real substance. Most recently, American supplied cluster bombs were used indiscriminately by Israel in civilian areas in southern Lebanon, causing the deaths of more than 900 innocent men, women, and children. While this was going on, the U.S. Government stood idly by and said nothing.
The U.S. Government should support the total ban on cluster munitions in order to avoid needless deaths of innocent civilians. There is a growing moral imperative by much of the civilized world that these weapons should be banned permanently. Anything less than a total ban of cluster munitions is not acceptable.
