UK Banks And Insurers Are Blacklisting Cluster Bomb Manufacturers

UK Banks And Insurers Blacklist Cluster Bomb Manufacturers -- The Guardian

Lloyds and Aviva among the major firms invoking 'stop lists' to purge cluster munitions companies from their share portfolios

Four of Britain's biggest banks and insurance companies have blacklisted a dozen companies that manufacture cluster bombs and landmines, including two of the world's largest defence firms.

The Guardian has learned that major firms such as Lloyds Banking Group (through its investment arm Scottish Widows), Aviva, the UK's largest insurer, and the Co-op have imposed a blanket ban on holding shares in companies that make or supply cluster munitions, purging them from nearly all their share portfolios.

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My Comment: Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and the South Korean industrial conglomerate Doosan are included in this blacklist. If more major banks and insurers get on board .... this could have an impact. But I doubt that this boycott will expand.

An International Consensus On Banning Cluster Bombs?

Can The World Finally Find Consensus On Cluster Bombs? -- Diana Wueger, The Atlantic

Much of the world has banned the weapons for their dangers to civilians, but the U.S. is among a handful of states resisting their abolition.

Last week, representatives from 130 governments gathered in Beirut for the second meeting of parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), a 2008 treaty signed by 90 countries in an attempt to abolish cluster munitions. After years of failed attempts to roll back these weapons, the CCM attempts a new approach to limiting cluster munitions, bombs that open mid-flight to release smaller bombs (known as submunitions) over a wide area.

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My Comment: An international convention to ban cluster bombs it is not going to happen. Cluster bombs are effective weapon systems .... and because they are .... they are probably going to be around for a long time.

Global Summit Opens In Laos On Cluster Bombs

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.

Global Summit On Cluster Bombs Opens In Laos -- Xinhuanet

VIENTIANE, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is held on Tuesday in Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic' capital, to put the treaty's vision into action.

The four-day meeting, the first of its kind since the Convention entered into force on Aug. 1 this year, will lay the foundation for implementing the Convention and translating its obligations into concrete and measurable actions.

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More News On The Global Summit On Cluster Bombs

Global talks in Laos seek quicker removal of cluster bombs -- Yahoo News/AFP
Cluster munitions convention signatories meet in Laos -- Australia Network News
Ending the suffering caused by cluster munitions for all time -- ICRC
HRW sounds alarm on cluster bombs -- UPI (Special Report)
Diplomats learn about scale of cluster bomb problem on visit to Xieng Khuang -- Cluster Munition Coalition
9-12 November: Summit on cluster munitions in Laos, the world's worst affected country -- News Wire

My Comment: Like most unexploded explosives .... long after the end of a war .... the casualties will still come in. What is surprising to me, is that Laos is the world`s worst affected country from cluster bombs.

British Military Ex-Commanders Call For Action To Ban Cluster Bombs

From Times Online:

Military men call for action in a letter to The Times as 100 countries gather in Dublin to negotiate international treaty. Former British defence chiefs and military commanders are urging the Government to scrap its stock of cluster bombs because of the danger to civilians worldwide. As more than 100 countries gather in Dublin today to negotiate a new international treaty aimed at banning cluster munitions, the group of senior retired military figures has written to The Times and to Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, demanding that Britain's Armed Forces “move away from the use of indiscriminate...weapons which pose a threat to civilians and to our troops alike”.

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Letter To The U.K. Government -- Cluster bombs don't work and must be banned

My Comment: The comment that stuck in my mind was the last paragraph of the story ...

Simon Conway, director of Landmine Action, said: “If Britain is to be a force for good in the world, the Government should totally ban these weapons - no exemptions, no loopholes.”

To be a force for good .... in other words to feel good .... we should all do this. Cluster bombs are most effective when used over a large area, the alternative to cluster bombs in a war situation are weapon systems far worse than cluster bombs. Like land mines, the movement to ban these weapons is now a political argument not a military one. The ultimate goal for all of these groups is to ban all weapon systems, but we all know (with the exception of those who are trying to ban these weapons) that this is not realistic. Will cluster bombs themselves be banned .... as long as there are enemies who wish to do us harm this will not proceed.