A worker takes apart an MLRS surface-to-surface missile at the Spreewerk ISL Integrated Solutions weapons decommissioning facility near Luebben, Germany on June 23, 2009. (PHOTO / AFP)
Washington’s supply of widely banned munitions to Ukraine seen as human rights violation
The world must step up efforts to stop and prevent the use of cluster bombs in conflict zones, experts said, as they slammed the United States for providing the controversial weapons to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million military aid package.
Sriprapha Petcharamesree, a law professor at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand, said she opposes the use of cluster munitions, a class of weapon that had been banned by scores of countries as unexploded “bomblets” can maim or kill people for decades.
Citing examples like Laos and Vietnam, where people are “suffering” from cluster bombs decades after the munitions were fired during wars, Sriprapha, who is a former representative of Thailand to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, said deployment of the weapons amounts to “serious human rights violation”.
Cluster bombs pose deadly threat to civilians, especially children, long after the conflict as they release smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Due to the danger, the munitions are banned in more than 100 countries
Cluster bombs pose deadly threat to civilians, especially children, long after the conflict as they release smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Due to the danger, the munitions are banned in more than 100 countries.
Thanks to the US, Ukrainian forces have deployed cluster bombs in its attacks against Russian targets, killing journalist Rostislav Zhuravlev and injuring others in July, according to the Russian Defence Ministry.
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Washington’s recent decision to provide the widely banned weapons to Ukraine has been slammed by human rights groups, with Amnesty International saying that cluster munitions pose "a grave threat to civilian lives, even long after the conflict has ended".
Even before the Russia-Ukraine conflict started, Ukraine was already one of the most mined countries in the world.
“Mines and other explosive ordnances pose a serious risk to children and hamper possibilities of development of those mine affected areas,” Save the Children humanitarian group said in April.
In Ukraine, one in eight civilians killed or injured by landmines and unexploded ordnances is a child, according to the international aid agency.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, said in a tweet on July 9 that America's decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine shows its determination to prolong and complicate the war there”.
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“This is yet another example of America’s destabilizing actions and exports of arms that indiscriminately contribute to more killings and destruction,” said Kanaani.
Naeem Khalid Lodhi, former defense minister of Pakistan, said the US decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs is an escalatory and very irresponsible act because it is against the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions.
It is even against the desire of the NATO allies of the US, Lodhi said in a video interview published by Xinhua News Agency on July 25.
“They once said that Russians are using it, and they gave a very strong statement that this is not to be used, and (now) if they are using it, they are doing something wrong,” said Lodhi. “So, these are double standards.”
This year marks the 15th anniversary since the Convention on Cluster Munitions was adopted in Dublin, Ireland. The international treaty prohibits the use, production, acquisition, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions and requires destruction of stockpiles.
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A total 123 countries have signed or ratified the convention. The US is not a party to the treaty.
Though 99 percent of world stockpiles have been destroyed since the convention was adopted, at least 26 countries and three other areas remain contaminated by unexploded sub-munitions, according to a report released in August last year by the Cluster Munition Coalition, or CMC. At least 149 new cluster munition remnant casualties were identified in 2021.
Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Iraq are among the most heavily affected countries by cluster munition remnants, according to the CMC’s website.
Analysts and officials have voiced concerns over the long-term consequences of cluster bombs as they will not only claim innocent lives but also hinder the development of the affected areas.
Heng Kimkong, visiting senior research fellow at the Cambodia Development Center, said he is concerned about the long-term consequences of using the munitions, as evidenced in post-war Cambodia.
“A lot of Cambodian people have been injured or killed by the remains of the bombs used in the 1970s,” Heng told China Daily.
READ MORE: PM: Cambodia still suffering from US cluster bombs
In early July, outgoing Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen expressed the country’s stance against the deployment of cluster munitions.
Referring to the news of US supply of those weapons to Ukraine, Hun Sen wrote in a social media post: “If this is true, it will be a tragedy for the people of Ukraine for the next dozens of years, or hundreds of years, if this kind of bomb is used in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.”
Hun Sen said Cambodia has not yet found a way to destroy all the cluster bombs even after more than half a century since the US dropped cluster bombs in the early 1970s.
Countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Germany have also voiced their disapproval of the deployment of cluster munitions.
Jan Yumul in Hong Kong contributed to this story.
kelly@chinadailyapac.com