RP contributes proposals to new global treaty banning cluster bombs

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines succeeded in contributing at least four substantive proposals into the new international treaty banning cluster bombs adopted last Friday, May 30, at the close of the two-week Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions. The conference, attended by representatives of 110 countries, a number of international organizations, and NGOs led by the global Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), was organized to address this weapon condemned as causing unacceptable harm to civilians. Cluster bombs consist of a large shell containing “bomblets" that can cover a wide area. Handicap International estimates that 98% of those killed and injured by the weapons are non-combatants. They also say cluster bombs leave a large number of unexploded “duds" which continue to kill and maim long after a conflict has ended. A Philippine proposal which addressed the possibility that non-state armed groups could also use prohibited cluster munitions is now reflected in the Preamble of the new treaty. Human Rights Watch had once reported that the Hezbollah had fired cluster munitions-bearing missiles into northern Israel during the southern Lebanon war of 2006. Hezbollah, however, just recently denied this, showing that the weapon is already stigmatized even for non-state armed groups. A second Philippine proposal has resulted in the inclusion of those “who have been killed" or have died, not just those who have been injured or wounded, in the new treaty’s definition of “cluster munition victims." This proposal is also responsible for the diplomatic understanding that the definition of “cluster munition victims" covers “all" persons victimized, including migrants, refugees and other non-nationals, in the affected areas, in recognition of the big number of Filipinos migrant workers, many of them in cluster munitions-affected countries like Lebanon. A third Philippine proposal accepted into the new treaty was the significant addition of international humanitarian law, aside from internal human rights law, as a term of reference for victim assistance to ensure that cluster munition victims will receive the full measure of assistance, rights and benefits due them. A fourth Philippine proposal resulted in a new formulation on national implementation measures which now cover the whole range of legal, administrative and other measures, no longer just limited to criminal and penal legislation on prohibited cluster munition activity. Other measures would include changes in military doctrine and operating procedures and the notification of organizations involved in arms development, production and transfer. The Philippines is not known to be a producer, user, or stockpiler of cluster munitions. It has also not itself been affected by this weapon so far, other than through the danger posed to overseas Filipinos, such as migrant workers, peacekepers and deminers, in the affected areas of the world. However, the Philippines’ “special relations" with the US, the biggest producer, user and stockpiler of cluster bombs, creates the real possibility of the country’s being used as at least a transit point for US cluster munitions in its global military operations. In the past, US military bases in the Philippines were believed to have contained stockpiles and been used as launching pads of cluster munitions that were used during the Vietnam War. The US dropped cluster bombs in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Laos in the 1960s and 1970s, and more recently in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Iraq, including in the vicinity of civilian communities. These munitions continue to kill and maim civilians, especially children, up to the present, even long after the armed conflict. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates that in Laos alone, nine to 27 million unexploded submunitions remain, and some 11,000 people have been killed or injured, more than 30 percent of them children. An estimate based on US military databases states that 9,500 sorties in Cambodia delivered up to 87,000 air-dropped cluster munitions. The Philippine Delegation was led by Assistant Secretary Evan Garcia of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), with Assistant Secretary Lamberto Sillona of the Department of National Defense (DND) as deputy head and Geneva-based Minister Jesus Domingo of the DFA as member. They were supported by a team of the CMC-affiliated NGO Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines (PCBL) composed of its Coordinator lawyer Soliman Santos Jr., professor Paz Verdades Santos and Bangkok-based international representative Alfredo Lubang, the latter also working with the Thai Campaign to Ban Landmines. PCBL brought to the Dublin conference from the Philippines a petition in support of a cluster munitions ban treaty in the form of a long canvas cloth signed by and with hand imprints of more than 120 Filipino youth gathered by another CMC-affiliated NGO, the Philippine Action Network on Small Arms (PhilANSA). The latter was also responsible for securing a letter last March from Archbishop Antonio Ledesma, as President of Pax Christi-Pilipinas, urging President Arroyo to support the treaty. - GMANews.TV