BALKANS: New Call to Ban Cluster Bombs

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Oct 5 2007 (IPS) - Gita Jovic (48) describes herself as “half lucky”, because she survived the deadly attack of NATO cluster bombs on her hometown Nis on May 7, 1999.

The “half lucky”, as she said in an interview to Serbian media, means Jovic survived, unlike 15 people who died in Nis that day. But she lost her right leg, and could not continue working as a nurse.

“On one hand, I was lucky to stay alive; on the other, my life has changed completely. And I will never forget the maiming of people I saw on that day,” the single mother of a 13-year-old boy said.

Nis was targeted by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombers in the military campaign against Serbia in 1999, launched due to the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the regime of former president Slobodan Milosevic.

Cluster bombs, the airdropped or ground-launched munitions that eject a number of smaller “bomblets”, were used 219 times in the 11 weeks of NATO bombing. Serbia received 350,000 “bomblets” in those weeks.

Some 23 square kilometres at six locations have still not been cleared from the potentially deadly explosives.

The cluster bombing put Serbia on the long list of countries that have suffered the devastating impact of the deadly weapons. And this prompted Serbia to join international efforts to host a two-day conference this week on banning cluster bombs.

The initiative was led by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), a regional NGO that brings together 200 civil society organisations.

Norway started moves to ban cluster munitions earlier this year. “The Oslo Process” as it is called aims at a complete ban on use of such weapons by next year.

“The rights and needs of victims of cluster munitions must be at the heart of the new international treaty to ban these weapons,” Thomas Nash, coordinator of the CMC said at the end of the conference in Belgrade Thursday. “The aim is also to call for safe and secure destruction of stockpiles of these weapons as soon as possible.”

Cluster munitions are known to have been used in at least 26 countries, most recently in Lebanon and Israel (2006), Iraq (2003) and Afghanistan (2001-2002). In Laos, they were used 30 years ago, and the effects are still felt today.

So far, attempts to agree an international treaty regulating the use of cluster munitions has met opposition from China and Russia, and received only mild support from the U.S. The opponents argue that existing regulation is sufficient for control of the weapons, and that they have important military use against artillery positions, armoured columns and military installations.

Margaret Arach Orech from Uganda, herself a victim of cluster munitions, told reporters that “people in Uganda know that there are those who don’t want to refrain from production and use of the deadly weapons. I call on them to realise that this is all about human lives, and not about buildings.”

“We know what it means to live through cluster bomb attacks and the consequences of unexploded sub-munitions,” Branislav Kapetanovic, Serbian clearance expert told IPS. He lost both legs and arms while clearing bombs in 2000.

“We know the painstaking and dangerous work it takes to clear them, and we know the challenges of assisting those who survive an accident caused by cluster bombs. We want our governments to take the lead in the ban to prevent other countries, and other innocent people, from suffering what we have suffered.”

Official statistics put the number of people killed by residual cluster bomblets at 18 since the end of NATO bombing against Serbia.

“The reality in the field should never be forgotten when these inhuman weapons are used,” Nash told IPS. “As we were coming here the other day, six-year-old Ali from southern Lebanon was going to his school. He never made it, as a cluster bomblet killed him on the road. We hope that this conference means a step forward, and that such deaths will become a thing of the past.”