| Switzerland
Cluster Bombs
Partial
Ban on Cluster Bombs Draws Fire
Campaigners fighting
to outlaw cluster munitions in Switzerland say a
partial ban approved by both houses of parliament
does not go far enough.
On Wednesday (19 Sept) the Senate followed the House
of Representatives in adopting a ban on "unreliable"
cluster munitions, which would allow the country
to keep its arsenal largely intact. The initiative,
which was passed unanimously by the Senate, calls
for a ban on the production, stockpiling and use
of cluster munitions that pose a serious humanitarian
threat because they are unreliable or inaccurate.
The government, which has already voiced its support,
imposed a moratorium on these weapons in May while
it looks to amend the law.
But the move stops short of the blanket ban sought
by the Swiss branch of Handicap International and
dozens of other non-governmental organisations in
Switzerland, including Amnesty International.
"We are happy with the fact that there is some
kind of awareness that these munitions cause unacceptable
humanitarian harm whenever and wherever they have
been used over the past 50 years," Ueli Anken,
Handicap's head of communications, told swissinfo.
"But the trouble is that the partial moratorium
announced by the government and the partial ban
suggested by this motion do not resolve this issue."
"Indiscriminate"
According to Handicap International, all cluster
munitions are indiscriminate, targeting civilians
and military alike. In addition, it says there is
no such thing as a fail-safe device.
"Manufacturers have added so-called self-destruct
mechanisms to several types [of munition] including
the M85 stockpiled by Switzerland and which was
widely used in Lebanon," said Anken. "But
the trouble is that in many cases they don't work."
Handicap International claims M85 submunitions or
bomblets have a proven failure rate of five to 15
per cent – a figure backed by United Nations
deminers in Lebanon.
NGOs claim the Swiss government has a stockpile
of 200,000 M85s – a figure that the defence
ministry would neither confirm nor deny on Wednesday,
saying the information was classified.
But Colonel Prasenjit Chaudhuri, head of verification
in the army's international relations department,
told swissinfo that all M85s held by Switzerland
were fitted with self-destruct mechanisms "that
satisfied the highest reliability requirements".
He said only two per cent of the bomblets failed
to detonate on impact and only one in 20 of these
duds was dangerous, exploding on touch.
"Therefore only one in a thousand of these
submunitions ends up as dangerous unexploded ordnance,"
added Chaudhuri.
He added that an interdepartmental working group
had yet to establish which cluster munitions would
be covered by the ban.
Cluster munitions
Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munition
Coalition, accused Switzerland of adopting a weak
position on cluster munitions, adding that a partial
ban was "not worth anything".
He pointed out that the M85 munitions used by the
Israeli army in Lebanon and by the British army
in Iraq had left thousands of unexploded bomblets
on the ground.
"It is simply not good enough for a government
like Switzerland, which claims it is taking action
to ban these horrific weapons, to exclude [from
a ban] the very weapons that have caused so much
harm in Lebanon and Iraq," said Nash.
In February Switzerland was one of 46 nations that
adopted a declaration in Oslo calling for a treaty
next year to ban cluster bombs.
But a key parliamentary committee has come out against
a total ban, saying such a move would considerably
weaken Switzerland's ability to defend itself.
Context
Cluster
bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery
shells, bombs or missiles that scatter them
over vast areas, with some failing to explode
immediately.
Unexploded
bomblets can then lie dormant for years after
conflicts end until they are disturbed, often
by civilians. These weapons have recently
been used Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
The
United Nations estimates that Israel dropped
as many as four million bomblets in southern
Lebanon during last year's war with Hezbollah,
with up to 40% failing to explode on impact.
Handicap
International says 98% of cluster-bomb victims
are civilians, more than a quarter of them
children.
IMPORTANT
DATA
A separate parliamentary motion calling for
all cluster munitions to be banned has been
rejected by a key parliamentary committee.
The government has indicated that a blanket
ban would be "excessive".
Switzerland says it has no cluster bombs,
only artillery shells with cluster munitions
and that it stopped production in 2003. |
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