Demonstration takes place in Dublin, Ireland, against the use of cluster
bombs as representatives from over a hundred governments release a draft
treaty banning their use, manufacture and stockpiling.

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTE OF THE RED CROSS- 
  A wide-ranging global ban on cluster munitions came close to
adoption on Wednesday (May 28) with the publication of a new draft treaty and
a promise from Britain to end the use of the devices by its armed forces. 
    Cluster munitions open in mid-air and scatter as many as several
hundred "bomblets" over a wide area. They often fail to explode,
creating virtual minefields that can kill or injure anyone who finds them
later. 
    On Wednesday campaigners lay down in the street in the centre of Dublin
to illustrate cluster bomb strikes in the centre of towns as more than 100
nations -- though not the United States -- are seeking agreement on the new
treaty at a meeting in Ireland. 
    The top producers, users and stockpilers of cluster bombs -- the United
States, Israel, China, Russia, India and Pakistan -- skipped the conference
but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been pushing his reluctant
military leaders to ban the use of the munitions and ordered a Ministry of
Defence review earlier this month. 
    "In order to secure as strong a convention as possible, in the
last hours of negotiation we have issued instructions that we should support a
ban on all cluster bombs, including those currently in service by the
UK," Brown said in a statement.  France said last Friday it would
withdraw a type of munition that accounted for 90 percent of its cluster bomb
stocks. 
    Campaigners said a draft treaty circulated on Wednesday by the
conference presidency was "groundbreaking" but left some important
issues unresolved. 
    Thomas Nash, co-ordinator for the 'Cluster Munition Coalition' told
reporters:
   "It's an incredibly strong document because it will ban forever all
cluster munitions. There's a very strong restrictive definition in here that
doesn't allow for any cluster munitions to be ever used again."
    Nash said that the draft treaty would lead to a change in international
standards.
    "This is an incredibly positive document, it's going to set a new
norm, a new standard of international behaviour that will say 'cluster
munitions are unacceptable'. They will be stigmatised and it will also say
that the use of explosive force in areas is also beginning to be unacceptable
for the international community. So it's a hugely significant document and the
Irish have done a brilliant job in pulling it together so quickly."
    Simon Conway, Director of 'Landmine Action' was also enthusiastic about
the draft treaty.
    "We've seen personal intervention by Gordon Brown who has
stepped-in to say that he wants to support a strong treaty and that means that
current UK stockpiles of cluster munitions will be banned under this treaty.
We will see destruction of all cluster munition stockpiles within a period of
time, a deadline that is still being negotiated and then the removal of
stockpiles of other countries from UK territory," he said.
    Conway said the effect of the treaty would be felt worldwide.
    "This is massive, this will make a huge difference in the world.
We're talking about tens of thousands of people who would otherwise lose their
lives or their limbs," he said.
    Still to be resolved are the issue of military cooperation with
countries still using cluster bombs and whether non-signatories such as the
United States could keep stockpiles of such weapons in states that have signed
up to the ban. 
    The United States says it sees "certain military utility" for
the weapons, and is not attending the meeting. It has been accused by
activists of pushing allies such as Britain, Canada, France, Germany and
Australia to try to weaken the treaty. 
    The draft treaty forbids signatories to assist anyone engaging in
activities prohibited by it, but Stan Brabant, spokesman for Handicap
International, a founder of the Cluster Munition Coalition said Australia,
Canada and France were fighting to keep a clause that may leave the door open
to military cooperation with non-signatory states using the devices. 
    Earlier requests from U.S. allies and others for a period of transition
before the treaty comes into effect were now "off the table",
Brabant said.  
    The Oslo Process against cluster bombs began three years ago and is
modelled on the campaign against anti-personnel landmines, which won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1997 and led to the 1999 Ottawa Treaty banning them. 
    Two years after the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, international and
local deminers continue to hunt for the tiny but deadly bomblets scattered in
the plains and fields, near houses and schools in the south. The U.N.
estimates that Israel dropped a million or so of those during the final hours
of the war, triggered by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July
12, 2006. 
    Naema Ghazi is one of many Lebanese victims of unexploded cluster
bombs. She was working in her tobacco field one day when she stepped on one.
One leg was torn off and the other badly hurt. "I was returning back from
the field, I stepped on the ground and I don't know how it exploded, I was
bleeding, I felt immediately that I lost my leg, it was connected to the body
with just one vein. My mother saw that and started screaming," she
said.
    In addition to the pain and suffering caused to individuals, cluster
munitions also have long term economic consequences, making farmland unusable
and preventing travel and communications.