Mother of solider killed in Iraq by US cluster bomb calls on Senate to act

For immediate release: November 5, 2007

Washington, DC…Lynn Bradach, the mother of a U.S. marine who was killed in Iraq by a U.S. cluster bomb, asked Congress today to honor the memory of her son by passing a ban on the weapon that killed him. She spoke in front of a backdrop of 98 silhouettes representing civilian victims of cluster bombs at a press conference marking a Global Day of Action. (Watch Lynn on YouTube.)

“As a people, as a country, we are so much better than this,” Bradach said, referring to the United States’ use and sale of cluster bombs. “Please help me celebrate my son’s life by saving others.” Her son Travis was killed in July 2003 while clearing landmines and unexploded cluster submunitions from an Iraqi battlefield.

Other speakers at the event, organized by the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, included Representative Jim Moran, a cosponsor of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (H.R. 1755); Serge Duss of World Vision; and Simon Conway, a former de-miner with HALO Trust and the British Army, and currently Director of Landmine Action, UK and Co-Chair of the global Cluster Munition Coalition.

Cluster munitions pose a danger to civilians during and after conflict. When used, they scatter over wide swaths of land. After use, malfunctioning bomblets become de facto landmines. In the last 10 years, the U.S. has used cluster bombs in civilian-populated areas of the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. The U.S. arsenal includes nearly 1 billion bomblets.

Today’s press conference coincided with a National Call-in Day with the goal of persuading the Senate to pass its version of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594). The legislation would ban the use of cluster munitions in civilian-populated areas.

The Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Bombs, which includes activities in 20 countries, was organized in Washington by the USA Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL), including the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Adopt-A-Minefield, UNA-USA, Handicap International, and the Friends Committee on National Legislation, among others.

In a statement released in observance of the Day of Action, S. 594 sponsor Sen. Diane Feinstein urged her colleagues to show their support for human rights by supporting the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act.

"My belief is this," Feinstein said, "It is simply not acceptable for the United States to use, sell, or transfer these weapons when we know very well the impact they will have on innocent life...And at a time when our standing in the international community is at an all-time low, it is critical that we reclaim our leadership role in the fight for human rights." Read the full statement.

For more information go to http://www.banclusterbombs.org

Read H.R. 1755 sponsor Rep. Jim McGovern’s statement in support of a ban (PDF).

Urge your senator to support the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act