JourneyOnline
AUSTRALIA IS currently considering legislation to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.
Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, is concerned that the Australian legislation contains loopholes allowing for use of cluster bombs under certain circumstances.
Cluster bombs, or cluster munitions, are weapons which can be dropped from the air or fired from the ground releasing
hundreds of smaller bomblets, or submunitions.
Bomblets which fail to explode on impact pose the threat of death or injury long after their deployment.
The presence of cluster bombs means a lack of access to safe land, limiting agricultural development, the reconstruction
of vital infrastructure, and the work of relief and development agencies.
98 per cent of the victims of unexploded cluster bombs are civilians.
One third are children.
With support from Act for Peace, mine action teams have cleared land northeast of Baghdad, Iraq, and delivered mine risk education to villagers, helping them recover and earn a living from the land again.
Act for Peace has launched an online petition telling the Attorney General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP, that they don’t want Australia to assist in the use of cluster bombs under any circumstances.
For more information or to sign the petition click here
Photo : Photo by Sean Sutton, MAG
