2023-07-10 15:23:14
© Sofia Bobok/Anadolu Agency via Getty Imagesdee
Reacting to the news that the US is transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine, Patrick Wilcken, Military, Security and Police Researcher at Amnesty International, said:
“Amnesty International has long insisted that cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons that have caused untold harm to civilians around the world, sometimes decades after conflicts have ended..
“Russia’s war of aggression has brought enormous suffering to the people of Ukraine. Humanitarian considerations, as well as concern for civilian populations in countries torn by war and its aftermath, have led 111 states, including many of Ukraine’s allies, to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions and ban the use, manufacturing, transfer and storage of these types of weapons.”
“The Biden administration’s plan to deliver cluster munitions to Ukraine is a step backwards that undermines considerable progress made by the international community in trying to protect civilians from such dangers both during and after armed conflict.”
“Amnesty International urges the US government to reconsider the issue, accede to the Convention, destroy its stockpiles of weapons and suspend any use, production and transfer of cluster munitions.”
Cluster munitions are small submunitions that are launched and dispersed by rockets, artillery barrages, and containers dropped from aircraft and spread over a large area, sometimes the size of a football field.
Many of these systems have high ‘failure’ rates, leaving large areas contaminated with unexploded ordnance that can remain lethal long after the conflict has ended. The United States is reportedly planning to send MCMDP (Enhanced Conventional Dual Purpose) cluster munitions, which have failure rates of 6% or more. US law prohibits the transfer of weapons with rates greater than 1%.
Civilians, especially children, are most at risk of being injured or killed by unexploded cluster munitions in the aftermath of conflict, and the land can remain contaminated for years, preventing its use for farming or farming activities. another type.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions, which entered into force on August 1, 2010 and has been ratified by 111 States, prohibits the use, manufacture, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. Russia, Ukraine and the United States, among other countries, are not States Parties to the Convention.
Customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of weapons with inherently indiscriminate effects; launching indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians constitutes a war crime.
Immediately after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Amnesty International condemned this action as an act of aggression constituting a crime under international law. Amnesty International has also documented war crimes and other violations of international law during Russia’s war in Ukraine, including the extrajudicial killings of civilians by Russian forces, torture and other ill-treatment, abuse of prisoners of war , the deliberate bombing of a theater in Mariupol that was used as a refuge for the civilian population and other war crimes. Specifically, we have documented the illegal use of cluster munitions by Russian forces in numerous cities in eastern Ukraine, in attacks that in some cases amount to war crimes. We urge both sides to respect the laws of war and hold those responsible for violating them to account in fair trials.
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