These are real life stories from people around the world who have had contact with cluster munitions.
More Real-Life Stories and images can be found at the Image Gallery on Cluster Munitions.
To read more about the experiences of survivors of cluster munitions and their work to achieve a ban, visit the Ban Advocates web site.
Thoummy Silamphan, 22, lost part of his left arm in a cluster bomblet accident when he was 8, and now advocates against cluster bombs. Photo credit: Tracie Williams
By Gemima Harvey
Think of an issue you believe in more than anything else; an issue that has deeply affected your life. Imagine you are an advocate for this cause. Consider sharing your concerns and feelings in front of an audience.
Pink sandbags signal where unexploded cluster bomblets and other explosive remnants of war will be demolished at a clearance site in Xieng Khuang province, Lao PDR. Photo credit: Gemima Harvey/CMC.
By Gemima Harvey
Xieng Khuang is a heavily bombed province in Laos, where an estimated 46 million cluster bomblets were used. At a clearance site in Pek district, pink sandbags marked crater sites of cleared weapons and deminers had placed markers to denote where newly discovered war remnants lay. A delegate was called on to trigger the first explosion. At the push of a button, dozens of bombies detonated, the explosion symbolising a legacy the Convention on Cluster Munitions seeks to dismantle.
 Quang Tri province, Vietnam. Credit: Wikipedia |
More than three decades after the Vietnam War ended, explosive remnants from the conflict are still injuring and killing civilians in Vietnam. Unexploded cluster submunitions are among the deadliest legacies of the war. Known locally as “bombies, ” these tennis ball-sized bomblets are filled with thumb tack-sized pieces of metal that disperse upon detonation, frequently causing civilian injuries and deaths. The Convention on Cluster Munitions will become binding international law on 1 August 2010 after reaching 30 ratifications in February. Vietnam’s neighbor, Lao PDR, which suffered the effects of the same war and is the most heavily cluster-bombed country in the world, has been a leader on the treaty and is hosting the First Meeting of States Parties to the convention in November. However, Vietnam has yet to sign the Convention. As the Cluster Munition Coalition counts down to the Convention’s entry into force, we’re urging affected countries like Vietnam to join the treaty without delay. |
Audio Slideshow
“Burden of fear: Cluster bombs in Vietnam” is a three-part audio slideshow highlighting the impact on civilians of Vietnam’s deadly legacy of unexploded cluster submunitions.
“Burden of Fear” reporting and production by Daysha Eaton. Photos by Amanda Koster.
Switzerland to ban investment in cluster munitions
(London, 12 March 2010) – Switzerland is poised to join a number of countries that have outlawed investments in cluster munitions, after the Swiss National Council passed two motions on 10 March 2010 to prohibit financial support for the production of all banned weapons. The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) welcomed the step and called on more countries to follow suit, to eradicate the double standard of banning cluster munitions while allowing financial institutions to benefit from their production elsewhere.
Lao PDR: Five children killed in cluster bomb blast
Rights of survivors, urgent clearance of remnants should be priorities at November meeting
(London, 11 March 2010) – Five children were killed and one injured when a cluster submunition exploded in a village in Lao PDR’s Champasak province on 22 February 2010. The incident highlights the need for urgent action to assist survivors and ensure the clearance of cluster munition remnants when states parties to the treaty banning cluster bombs gather for their first official meeting in the Lao capital, Vientiane, this November, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said today.
