What Are Cluster Munitions?
Originally developed to attack concentrations of infantry, U.S. cluster munitions are increasingly being used in or near civilian-populated areas such as in Afghanistan, former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and southern Lebanon, with devastating consequences for civilians, including many children. For example, U.S. forces have reportedly dropped more than 10,500 cluster munitions in Iraq in 2003, including in villages of al-Hilla and the al-Baladiyat quarter of Baghdad with several direct civilian casualties. As of December 2004, approximately 90,000 unexploded cluster sub-munitions litter Iraqi areas such as cities, farmland, and roads from the U.S. use of cluster bombs, continuing to threaten civilians.
Cluster munitions are considered to have an indiscriminate effect, and when used in civilian-populated areas, present a very high risk of violating the international humanitarian law prohibition on indiscriminate attacks. Dropped from the air or launched from the ground, cluster munitions - also called bombs and rockets – open in mid-air scattering dozens to hundreds of small sub-munitions randomly over a wide area, sometimes up to two football fields. At impact the sub-munitions are designed to explode spewing out deadly shrapnel. In most cases, however, large numbers of sub-munitions fail to explode and remain on the ground, presenting a grave danger to civilians similar to landmines for many years to come.
In the last ten years, several major recipients of U.S. arms exports have used cluster munitions in civilian-populated areas. Most recently, for example, Israel fired hundreds of thousands of cluster munitions in Lebanon during the conflict with Hizbullah last summer, including in the villages of Ainata and Rashaya al-Foukar using U.S. cluster bombs. According to the Lebanese Red Cross, 285 people were killed by cluster munitions during the conflict; after the conflict, unexploded cluster munitions have so far caused 30 deaths and nearly 180 injuries, including several to children. There is also credible evidence that the Colombian military dropped a cluster bomb from a U.S. supplied helicopter on the village of Santo Domingo in 1998, killing 11 adults and 6 children.
Attempting to address some concerns with U.S. cluster munitions, the U.S. Department of Defense now requires that all procured cluster sub-munitions must have a dud rate (failure rate) of less than 1 percent. In 2005, the Defense Department also stated it developed “strict rules of engagement and targeting methodologies, intended to minimize risks to civilians in or near the zone of conflict” for cluster munitions. However, the United States reportedly has millions of cluster munitions with higher dud rates that it can use or export, and the new U.S. rules of engagement do not specifically prohibit cluster munitions use in civilian-populated areas. The United States also does not systematically restrict the use of all U.S. exported cluster munitions.
For the above reasons, Senators Feinstein, Leahy, Mikulski, and Sanders have
introduced the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 (S.594). This
bill seeks to prevent any U.S. funds from being spent to use or export cluster
munitions unless the sub-munitions have a 1 percent or lower dud rate and will
not be used in civilian-populated areas. While S.594 provides a Presidential
waiver that would allow the use or export of U.S. cluster munitions with a higher
dud rate for national security reasons, this bill takes an important step in
curbing the use of U.S. cluster munitions in civilian-populated areas and reducing
their devastating effects.
