An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion has helped persuade his country to change its stance and join nearly 100 nations in signing a treaty banning the disputed weapons.
Afghanistan was initially reluctant to join the pact — which the US and Russia have refused to support — but agreed to after lobbying by victims maimed by cluster munitions, including 17-year-old Soraj Ghulan Habib.
The teenager, who uses a wheelchair, met with his country’s ambassador to Norway, Jawed Ludin, on Wednesday at a two-day signing conference in the Norwegian capital.
PHOTO: EPA
“I explained to the ambassador my situation and that the people of Afghanistan wanted a ban,” said Habib, who was crippled by a cluster bomb seven years ago.
Speaking through an interpreter, Habib said the ambassador called Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who agreed to change his stance on the treaty.
“Today is a historic day,” Habib said.
Afghanistan’s reversal even surprised the activists who are urging countries to join the pact against cluster munitions, which have been widely criticized for maiming and killing civilians.
“It is just so huge, to get this turnaround. Afghanistan was under a lot of pressure from the United States,” said Thomas Nash, coordinator of The Cluster Bomb Coalition. “If Afghanistan can withstand the pressure, so can others.”
Australian activist Daniel Barty said the Afghan ambassador appeared to start changing his mind after meeting Habib at a reception on Tuesday.
The US, Russia and other countries refusing to sign the pact argue that cluster bombs still have legitimate military uses, such as repelling advancing troop columns.
Cluster bomblets are packed by the hundreds into artillery shells, bombs or missiles, which scatter them over vast areas. Some fail to explode immediately. The unexploded bomblets can then lie dormant for years until they are disturbed, often by children attracted by their small size and bright colors.
The group Handicap International says 98 percent of the victims of cluster bombs are civilians and 27 percent are children.
Organizers hoped that more than 100 of the 125 countries represented would have signed by the end of the conference yesterday. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said 92 countries did so on Wednesday.
The treaty must be ratified by 30 countries before it takes effect.
His country, which began the drive to ban cluster bombs 18 months ago, was the first to sign, followed by Laos and Lebanon, both hard-hit by the weapons.
Britain, formerly a major stockpiler of cluster munitions, also signed the treaty, which British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said showed that a NATO country can defend itself without cluster weapons.
Miliband said he would urge US president-elect Barack Obama’s administration to reconsider the US stance.
The Bush administration says a comprehensive ban would hurt world security.
“Although we share the humanitarian concerns of states signing the [accord], we will not be joining them,” the US State Department said in a statement. “Such a general ban on cluster munitions will put the lives of our military men and women, and those of our coalition partners, at risk.”
In Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said his government had decided not to join the treaty and instead believes the issue of cluster bomb use should be addressed through the UN Convention on Conventional Weapons.
The anti-cluster bomb campaign gathered momentum after Israel’s month-long war against Hezbollah in 2006, when it scattered up to 4 million bomblets across Lebanon, UN figures show.
“In southern Lebanon, for more than two years, children and the elderly have been victimized [by cluster munitions],” Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Saloukh said.
Activists hoped the treaty would pressure non-signers into shelving the weapons, as many did with land mines after a 1997 treaty banning them.
“The cluster bomb treaty will save countless lives by stigmatizing a weapon that kills civilians even after the fighting ends,” said Steve Goose, arms director of Human Rights Watch.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS