Pentagon adopts new policy toward safer cluster bombs

Washington - The US Defence Department on Wednesday announced a new policy for cluster bombs designed to reduce the unexploded ordinance that can harm civilians long after a conflict has ended. The policy is an alternative to an outright ban on cluster bombs, which was agreed to by more than 100 countries, including NATO allies, at an international conference in May in Dublin, the Pentagon said. Defence Secretary Robert Gates approved the policy after persistent international pressure on the US military to ban cluster bombs, which drop hundreds of smaller 'bomblets' that occasionally do not explode and remain dangerous to children or other civilians. The new policy requires that after 2018, more than 99 per cent of all bomblets in US cluster munitions detonate or self destruct as intended, and calls on the military to begin reducing stockpiles that do not meet that standard 'as soon as possible.' Prior to 2018, under the new policy, current stocks of cluster bombs cannot be used without the explicit approval of the commander who oversees all US military operations in the region. Congress earlier this year passed legislation that prohibits the US government from selling to other countries cluster munitions that do not meet the 99-per-cent threshold. The United States refuses to sign on to a ban, arguing that cluster bombs play an important strategic role in combat for hitting enemy troop formations. 'Cluster munitions are legitimate weapons with clear utility in combat,' the Pentagon said. 'They provide distinct advantages against a range of targets, where their use reduces risks to US forces and can save US lives.' The policy shift was not enough to satisfy human-rights groups that want a complete ban and argue that 2018 is not soon enough to use the safer versions. 'Washington's cluster bomb policy is too little, too late,' said Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch. 'Most key US allies have already rejected cluster bombs, because innocent civilians are killed and maimed.' The Pentagon said that cluster bombs account for only a small proportion of civilian deaths when compared to other munitions like landmines. The US State Department says of the 5,759 death caused by unexploded ordinance in 2006 worldwide, less than 400 were from cluster bombs. The United States and other major producers of cluster bombs such as Russia and China did not attend the two-week long Dublin conference, but Washington had pledged to review its policy. The agreement at the Dublin gathering, which will be formally signed in December in Oslo, Norway, requires the countries to stop producing cluster munitions and destroy stockpiles within eight years. The most recent reported use of cluster bombs was during the July- August 2006 Israeli incursion into Lebanon. Israel was heavily criticized for dropping such munitions in civilian areas. The United States used the weapons during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and previously against Taliban forces in Afghanistan. But the US has not dropped cluster bombs since, because the weapons are not well-adapted for use against insurgencies.