Observers laud cluster bomb ban but questions remain

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

DUBLIN (AFP) — A landmark convention banning cluster bombs was welcomed by politicians and campaigners Thursday but some questioned its worth without backing from key powers like the United States, China and Russia.

After 10 days of painstaking negotiations at Croke Park stadium in Dublin, diplomats from 111 countries agreed Wednesday the wording of a pact to outlaw the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.

Norway, which led the initiative, insisted the treaty would stigmatise the use of cluster bombs and could not be ignored by those countries keeping their stockpiles.

"It would have been better if they were all here but the approach we have chosen is the realistic approach and it was not realistic to have them here," Norwegian...