UK to cease deployment of cluster bombs

By Aislinn Simpson

Last Updated: 3:54AM BST 31/05/2008

Britain has been given eight years in which to destroy its cluster bomb stocks, although it will have stop stop using them immediately under a deal being thrashed out in Dublin this week.

Britain and others among the 110 countries involved in negotiations have successfully resisted attempts to block nations' ability to fight alongside American troops armed with cluster bombs.

America has taken no part in the negotiations and will continue to use the weaponry.

The final cost of destroying our Armed Forces' stocks of the helicopter-mounted M73 and artillery-launched M85 cluster bombs is not yet known, but destroying another cluster bomb system, the more indiscriminate M26, cost £30 million.

The cost will be boosted by a clause requiring signatories to clear and destroy remnants of cluster bombs in areas under their juristiction or control - for Britain this will entail a major clearance project in southern Iraq.

The convention was formally adopted in Dublin yesterday but it is understood that the Ministry of Defence will continue negotiations over a number of other weapons which anti-cluster bomb campaigners want banned.

Non-Governmental Organisations have fought for years to see cluster bombs, which are predominantly used in countries including Cambodia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Lebanon, banned because unexploded munitions have maimed thousands of civilians.

Britain's negotiating team in Dublin have emphasised that both the M85 and M73 were needed to protect British troops when confronted by an enemy in armoured vehicles and their removal from theatre will leave a gap in our defences.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/