The international ban on cluster munitions and similar inhumane weapons is founded on the aspiration of hope and humanity beyond the darkest hours of war. We have seen over the last half century how contamination caused by cluster munitions and weapons with indiscriminate effects has a far-reaching impact, long after the end of hostilities. Our hope is that the prospect of long-term human suffering and delay to development, or even its reversal, should outweigh tactical considerations.
MAG joins the rest of the humanitarian disarmament sector in expressing our deepest sadness at the rapid advancement of Lithuania’s plans to withdraw from the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
We understand that the prospect of conflict and the need for self-defence looms large for the Government of Lithuania and for its people and we call on the international community to strive for peace and the protection of those whose objective is peace so that these fears can be allayed.
Entered into force in 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions is one of the most comprehensive humanitarian disarmament treaties, which not only bans the use, manufacture, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions, but also brings together, under a framework of shared cooperation, states that share the belief that the consequences cluster bombing are too deep and long-lasting to be borne.
The numerous submunitions released mean that cluster munitions are often indiscriminate at the time of their use; furthermore, like landmines and all other explosive remnants of war, they become entirely indiscriminate when they fail to detonate. Submunitions are released in a random manner that cannot be properly controlled, causing unpredictable contamination patterns. They are spread on the ground, as well as on trees, buildings and other elevated positions, creating a three-dimensional contamination profile that causes lasting risk. In recent research on food security, farmers, for example, explained how unexploded submunitions caught in olive trees prevent them from carrying out their work safely.
We are also gravely concerned about the implications of Lithuania’s withdrawal for the whole system of humanitarian disarmament and international humanitarian law: a further erosion of the principle of humanity in a series of episodes that are unravelling the common rules that aim to preserve humanity during and after conflict.
The decision to withdraw from the Convention on Cluster Munitions could be a very quick act that undermines more than a century of progressively protective humanitarian achievements in the name of humanity. The contingency of today should not undermine decades of work and inflict decades of human suffering.
We hope that the Lithuanian Government and Parliament may still re-consider the decision and, if the decision is upheld, we call on all the international community to prevent this from becoming “the thin end of the wedge”; we must continue to pursue universalisation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and other instruments of humanitarian disarmament, and uphold their norms, even in these challenging times.
