Clusters Campaign - Human Rights Watch

US: Ban Cluster Munitions by 2008

Clusters are terribly inaccurate and unreliable weapons which do not distinguish between military targets and civilians. They scatter thousands of “bomblets” over a vast area and hundreds fail to explode on impact, littering the landscape with landmine-like “duds”. The US maintains a stockpile of close to one billion submunitions and has used them in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Vietnam, and the former Yugoslavia. The suffering that continues in countries plagued by the lasting effects of cluster munitions underlines the urgent need to curb the misuse of these weapons. Cluster munitions used in the Vietnam War are still killing and injuring civilians decades later.

The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007, which has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Dianne Feinstein and in the House by Representative Jim McGovern would ban the use, sale, and transfer of cluster munitions with a failure rate of more than 1 percent. Please urge your elected representatives to cosponsor The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 and support clear, sensible US policy on cluster munitions. Learn More

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Dear (recipient name),

I write to urge you to support the Cluster Munition Civilian Protection Act of 2007 (S.594 and H.R. 1755). This legislation would be a critical step forward in US policy regarding the use and export of cluster munitions, a weapon system in need of urgent humanitarian action. I am deeply concerned about the many well-documented reports that illustrate the dangers posed by cluster munitions to civilians in conflict situations. Cluster munitions are an immediate danger to civilians during attacks due to their inaccuracy and wide dispersal pattern and a long-term danger due to the high number of submunition duds that are left to kill and injure civilians long after the conflict.

The US maintains a stockpile of close to 1 billion submunitions and has used cluster munitions, with devastating consequences, in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam) in the 1960s and 1970s, Persian Gulf (Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) in 1991, the former Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, and Iraq in 2003. In Afghanistan alone, the US dropped 1,228 cluster munitions containing 248,056 submunitions. Considering that some US-made cluster munitions have reported failure rates of up to 23 percent, the danger posed by battery-sized unexploded bomblets is real and requires immediate attention.

Although US cluster munitions procured after fiscal year 2005 are required to have a failure rate of less than 1 percent, no restrictions to date have been placed on the use or export of existing, inaccurate stockpiles. Additionally, current US policy does not restrict the use of these weapons in civilian areas. The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007, introduced in the Senate on February 14th (S.594) by Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Patrick Leahy (VT) and in the House on March 29th (H.R. 1755) by Representatives Jim McGovern (MA), Betty McCollum (MN), and Darrell Issa (CA), addresses both concerns by cutting off funds for the use or transfer of unreliable cluster munitions that have a dud rate of greater than 1 percent, and prohibiting the use of cluster munitions in or near populated areas.

In countries where cluster munitions have been used, civilians continue to suffer on an almost daily basis from the long term effects of these deadly weapons. I urge you to cosponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 and add your voice to growing numbers already opposed to unreliable, inaccurate cluster munitions.

Thank you for your urgent attention to this important matter.

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