EDITORIAL
An important bridge was crossed this week when more than 90 nations signed an international treaty in Norway to ban cluster bombs that have killed or maimed tens of thousands of people. Known as the Oslo Process, the treaty signing was the climax of a campaign inspired by the Ottawa convention in 1997 that banned landmines and won the Nobel Peace Prize for those spearheading the drive.
For one reason or another, Thailand was not among the signatories, an oversight that can be rectified when there is an appropriate rethink of policy. This year's succession of revolving-door governments has almost certainly been preoccupied with other matters, which might explain why we aligned our stance with that of Burma, Singapore and Vietnam and not the majority of the Asean states, which supported the draft outlawing such weapons.
This was not the only disappointment in recent weeks. After winning well-deserved acclaim for being in the forefront of those ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty in 1998, we now find ourselves in the disturbing position of missing our 10-year deadline for clearance of these landmines and having to seek an extension. And the fact that we are not among the early signatories in Oslo this week will be a matter of concern for many, especially now that we are listed by the umbrella Cluster Munition Coalition as being among the 75 countries with existing stockpiles of the weapons they are campaigning against.
Dropped from warplanes or fired from artillery guns, cluster bombs explode in mid-air to randomly scatter hundreds of bomblets, which can be as small as eight centimetres. Many bomblets fail to explode, littering war zones with de facto landmines that can kill and maim long after a conflict ends.
Worldwide, about 100,000 people have been killed or maimed by cluster bombs since 1965, 98% of them civilians, says Handicap International, a group campaigning for their abolition. More than a quarter of the victims are children who mistake bomblets for toys.
There is no lack of awareness of the humanitarian aspect. Thailand has sent observers to several meetings of the Oslo Process and we have a first-rate embassy in the Norwegian capital. The Cluster Munition Coalition did petition former foreign minister Sompong Amornvivat on Oct 28 to try to persuade Thailand to join the effort to ban cluster bombs, describing the kingdom as a "top priority country for our campaign". But it was not to be.
Unsurprisingly, Laos, the country worst affected by cluster bombs, beat Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and Japan to become the second signatory to the new Convention on Cluster Munitions after Norway. Vientiane has not forgotten that between 1964 and 1973, during the wider Vietnam conflict, the US air force dropped 260 million cluster bombs on Laos, or the equivalent of a fully-loaded B-52 bomber's payload dropped every eight minutes for nine years.
Despite the absence of major arms producers such as China, Russia and the United States, opponents of cluster bombs say the treaty helps stigmatise the use of such weapons, as happened with the Mine Ban Treaty.
It would be understandable if we had become disheartened by all the problems encountered in clearing landmines along our borders, but we did the right thing in making that commitment. By the same token, it could be interpreted as somewhat illogical to oppose anti-personnel landmines but not their cluster bomb cousins. Neither have any place in the civilised world of the twenty-first century.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
Next
