Intellasia News Services -- Landmine survivors push Vietnam to adopt cluster bomb ban

Landmine survivors push Vietnam to adopt cluster bomb ban
Source: 08-SEP-2008 Intellasia | Oneworld
Sep 8, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
Thirty-three-years after the end of the war with the US, landmine survivors in Vietnam are pressing their government to sign a groundbreaking treaty banning the use of cluster bombs.

More than 100,000 Vietnamese have been maimed or killed by unexploded munitions since 1975. As a result, Landmine Survivors Network-Vietnam (LSN-Vietnam) has launched a campaign asking government officials to take a strong stand by signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Convention was adopted by 107 nations in May at a meeting in Dublin, Ireland, and will be formally signed in December in Oslo, Norway. Countries that ratify the Convention pledge to never use cluster bombs, to stop developing and producing the weapons, and to never transfer the weapons to anyone else. Signatories will have six-years to destroy existing stockpiles of the weapons. The treaty also calls for international cooperation to help those affected by cluster bombs and to clear unexploded bombs within five years.

"The signing of the cluster munitions treaty will be beneficial for our country, especially our people, because they've been most affected by cluster munitions," said Kim-Hoa Nguyen, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at LSN-Vietnam. "Hopefully we will be able to obtain international cooperation for victim assistance and mine clearance, which will be very helpful for our survivors, their families, and our communities."

LSN-Vietnam is a branch of Survivor Corps (the former Landmine Survivors Network), and was an influential advocate for victim assistance at the Dublin meeting. Survivor Corps is a partner of The Advocacy Project (AP), and AP recruited Peace Fellow Chi Vu to volunteer with LSN-Vietnam this summer.

Cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched weapons that eject a number of smaller "bomblets." Because the bombs release many bomblets over a wide area, they can kill or maim civilians long after a conflict has ended. Unexploded bomblets are costly to locate and remove.

Vietnam has never produced, stockpiled, or used cluster munitions, but it has felt the bombs' devastating effects. According to the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Fund, about 104,000 Vietnamese have been killed or injured by leftover wartime explosives since 1975. Thirty% of the casualties were caused by cluster bombs. In the past two-years in Quang Tri province alone, 38% of accidents were caused by cluster bombs, with at least 11 people killed or injured.

LSN-Vietnam is working with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped (VNAH) on a campaign urging the government to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Between now and November, the campaign will hold two workshops to distribute information about the treaty to survivors, diplomats, government officials, and the media. Ms Vu helped the group secure US$3,000 in funding for the workshops.

The campaign also plans to produce a short film documenting the effects of cluster bombs in Vietnam, and will drive a "Ban Bus" through the country in November to raise awareness.

For now, Vietnamese government officials remain neutral on the cluster munitions treaty, saying they are still studying the Convention and considering joining it. However, the government has emphasized that it supports international humanitarian efforts to help communities and individuals affected by cluster bombs.

Some of the world's main producers and stockpilers of cluster bombs, including the United States, Russia and China, have so far refused to sign the treaty.