US tries to dodge cluster bomb ban

In Dublin in May, 111 countries agreed to ban cluster bombs. The United States didn't show up for the conference and, according to a report in The Guardian, has now published its response: to reduce the number of unexploded bomblets each one contains; and Amnesty is just one of a wider range of organisations which has been campaigning for the treaty. We hosted a briefing for politicians at Stormont and a public meeting in Belfast in the run-up to the Dublin negotiations. Mark Durkan lodged a supportive EDM. The Guardian reports that Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who has led efforts to outlaw cluster munitions in the US, has called the Pentagon's plans a retrograde step, accusing the Bush administration of "another squandered opportunity for US leadership". One positive to take from the Pentagon policy memo is that it is... [read full story]