Cluster Landmines Issue
Cluster Landmines, one of the deadliest bombs used by the military personel around the word, is used to stop and delay the enemy frontline. The bombs are really useful for military use as it kills many of the soldiers that are running. However, the problem with these landmines is that it has been left at the locations after the war which causes the loss of many innocent people. For the last 40 years, these bombs have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent citizens even after the location of the bomb was not at war.
In the past few decades, cluster bombs have affected many civilians in locations like Kashmir, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Korean Border. The landmines have cuased a plethora of deaths and 60 percent of those deaths have been innocent people, notably most of them were children. The cluster bombs have a huge impact on the environment as the bombs tend to ruin many plants. However, the fact that the cluster bombs cause so much destruction and have the power to destroy several homes, causes the world to go against the landmines. In fact, many times the landmines don’t detonate and just set off at another time, sometimes in a possibility where there are innocent people around.
Cambodia has one of the biggest problems with landmines in the world. In 2002, it was recorded that 98% of the deaths that happened from landmines were of innocent civilians. The landmines in Cambodia have also affected the agricultural and commercial areas. In Central America, there are about 100,000 live landmines that will explode if someone steps on them. These landmines have not been taken away since the wars in the 1980’s. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan are countries that have had quite a history of conflicts between each other and Uzbekistan wouldn’t take back all their landmines they put in place. Many of their landmines were located on the rural areas in Tajikistan, mainly to harm the economy of Tajikistan. Also, the government of Uzbekistan aimed to stop drug trafficking and terrorism, but in the process of placing land mines, many innocent lives had been taken.
The main problem about the landmines issue is not only that many innocent people are dying, but also that at least 38 countries through out the world have not signed this treaty. Those countries include many superpowers like the United States, India, Israel, China, Israel, and South Korea. There are various reasons of why these countries have not signed the treaty and one of them is because many of the countries are manufacturers of the bomb. The problem is that these countries that haven’t signed the Ottowa treaty, are not willing to go back and defuse the landmines.
So, in conclusion, even though there is a convention that has been signed against the development, production, use, and stockpiling of landmines, many countries have not signed these treaties. These landmines have caused a mass full of destruction as well as the loss of many civilians in the past few decades.
Points to pay attention to:
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Many countries are not willing to stop cluster munitions production because the proceeds are part of the national income. The Disarmament committee should come up with ways to make signing the convention and giving up production worth- while to those countries.
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Regional cooperation for eradicating stockpiles of munitions bombs, which are dangerous not only because weapons can be taken from them and used, but also become de facto antipersonnel mines
Helpful Sites:
The website of the Cluster Convention:
http://www.clusterconvention.org
The website of the Cluster Munitions Coalition:
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/
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