Britain drops opposition to cluster-munitions

[WhiteTara]

Source: International Herald Tribune Dublin

DUBLIN: A sudden change of British policy by Prime Minister Gordon Brown has lent momentum to negotiations on an international treaty to ban cluster munitions and created fresh pressures on the Bush administration, which had counted Britain as one of its staunchest allies in opposing the ban.

But as negotiators from 109 nations prepared to work through Wednesday night on a treaty text, it seemed clear that even a new pact agreeing on a ban would leave most of the world's stockpile of cluster weapons untouched.

The United States has been joined in its outright opposition to the ban - and its boycott of the Dublin conference - by military powers that include China, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan and Brazil, which is one of the world's largest exporters of cluster munitions.
snip
Britain's new policy means that it is ready to destroy stockpiles of its last remaining cluster weapons, an artillery-fired weapon known as the M-85, and an air-fired weapon, the M-73, that is fired from Apache attack helicopters.

But weapons experts estimate that the United States, China and Russia each have at least a billion cluster munitions in their stockpiles, dwarfing the stockpiles likely to be destroyed.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/28/europe/cluster.php

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Good for the British Government. In January of 2009, I hope our government will follow suit.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Cluster bombs?

:popcorn:

[EFerrari]

2. Boy, that headline sure is confusing! n/t

[DavidDvorkin]

3. Right. It's actually the opposite.

[WhiteTara]

4. I know, I had to keep reading the article

a couple of times because it was so confusing.

[darue]

5. JAN 21ST WE BAN THE FUCKING THINGS fuck any country that wants them

starting with you know who

[freedomnorth]

6. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3328086

[IndyOp]

7. The title of the article is confusing - could you add "ban" in parentheses after

the title? I know that you have to use the Herald's title because you are posting in LBN, but I think you can add clarifying words in parentheses after it and the article is about Britain dropping its opposition to a ban on cluster munitions isn't it?

[LeftishBrit]

8. Well, good for our government - and I don't say THAT very often!

By the way, they haven't dropped opposition to cluster munitions, but to the proposed *ban* on cluster munitions - quite the opposite!


www.clusterbombs.org.uk

[grassfed]

9. thx for the link