“The United States And Cluster
Munitions”
Cluster Munitions Survivors Forum
World Conference On Cluster
Munitions
Dublin, Ireland
May 26, 2008
I am grateful to be here with Lord Dubs, Ken Rutherford and
Steve Goose. This is the third time Lord Dubs and I have had
the pleasure of meeting, Steve played a critical role in the
negotiations on the Ottawa treaty banning antipersonnel landmines,
and Ken Rutherford is one of my heroes.
Ken testified in the United States Senate 15 years ago about
losing his leg from a landmine in Somalia, in some of the most
moving testimony I have heard.
The Ottawa treaty established a new international norm for
landmines, just as the Oslo treaty will for cluster munitions later
this week.
Although my own government is not participating here, which I
regret, I came because I want people to know that there are
Members of the
United States
Congress who support this effort.
I do not speak for my government, but I do speak for myself and
for many Americans who have been concerned with cluster
munitions for many years.
My concern dates to the use of cluster munitions by the United
States in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and ’70s, when millions of
bomblets were dropped on Laos which still claim innocent lives
and limbs today.
The Leahy War Victims Fund is used in Laos, as it has been in other
countries, to provide medical care and rehabilitation. I just
met with survivors of cluster munitions, and I know Ken, Steve
and others have worked with them to address their needs in the Oslo text.
There is no doubt that cluster munitions have some military
utility. The same could be said of landmines, or even poison
gas. But anyone who has seen the indiscriminate devastation
cluster munitions cause
across a wide area must recognize the unacceptable
threat they can pose to civilians.
In the Congress, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and I, along with 19 other Senators, have
introduced legislation to ban United States use of cluster munitions
unless they meet strict requirements. This would cover 99.9
percent of existing
U.S. cluster munitions.
In the meantime, an amendment I sponsored to ban United States
exports of such cluster munitions was signed into law this
February. So we have taken a first step, and the Oslo treaty will provide new momentum.
We also know that our Department of Defense is close to
announcing a new policy on cluster munitions. I will be briefed
on the policy when I return to Washington.
While I am not so naïve as to think that the Pentagon’s new
policy will go as far as I or many people here would want, I am
hopeful that it will at least be a step forward.
In November, the American people will elect a new President. As
I have said many times, among the first tasks of our next
President will be to reintroduce America to the world. We need to
reject the “us versus them” unilateralist approach that has so
diminished our image and our leadership.
I am confident that whoever is elected will be far more inclined
to work with other countries to address problems that none of us
can solve ourselves, whether protecting civilians from landmines
and cluster munitions, to stopping AIDS and global warming.
These negotiations could not come at a better time. The Oslo treaty will not only set the rules for
states parties, but it will
also influence the conduct of non-parties.
I know there will be discussions
this week of proposals dealing with contentious issues like
transition periods and interoperability. These are not easy
questions.
But at the end of the day, I
believe we should be guided by the conviction that this is,
above all, a moral issue. Weapons that are inherently
indiscriminate, whether by design or effect, should have no
place in today’s world.
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