Cluster Bomb Export Moratoria Enacted!

Great news!  On December 26, President Bush signed the FY 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Act into law.  Included in the bill is language, passed by the Senate in early September, which effectively bans U.S. cluster bomb exports during the current fiscal year (ending on October 1, 2008).  The noise you made about cluster bombs helped keep this provision in the final bill.

The United States is the world’s leading arms exporter, and it has exported cluster munitions to 27 countries—including Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Morocco, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. Israel used U.S.-supplied cluster munitions extensively last year in southern Lebanon. Unexploded cluster submunition duds there have claimed more than 200 civilian casualties.

Specifically, language in the Omnibus Appropriations bill prohibits any arms export license or the provision of any military aid for cluster munitions during FY 2008 unless the weapons have a 99% or higher tested reliability rate—meaning that use of the weapons would not result in a deadly landmine field of dud cluster submunitions. In addition, the bill requires the importer to sign a statement before export could take place, agreeing that they will not use cluster munitions in civilian areas.   

Human Rights Watch estimates that the U.S. military has a stockpile of nearly 1 billion cluster submunitions, almost all of which have very high (5-15%) unreliability rates.  Without this law the U.S. government would have been able to export this large stockpile of unreliable weapons. If exported and used, these weapons could result in massive widely dispersed minefields endangering civilians.

The Omnibus Appropriations bill also includes $79.4 million for humanitarian demining and directs $4 million in so-called “economic support fund” grants to programs that address the needs and protect the rights of persons with disabilities.

Pat yourself on the back…and roll up your sleeves! The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594, H.R. 1755) would extend the restriction on cluster bomb exports indefinitely, and would place the same restrictions on the U.S. military’s use of cluster bombs. The USCBL is still pressing for co-sponsorship of this bill as a matter of highest priority.  So keep up the pressure!