MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK will sign Cluster Munitions Convention Monday in Oslo

Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander

A three-year extension to the United Kingdom de-mining program, which will continue vital work to reduce the number of casualties caused by land mines and cluster munitions across the globe, was announced by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander

This comes on the eve of a meeting celebrating the historic signing in Ottawa of the Mine Ban Convention, and just a week before the remarkable move by over one hundred countries to end the use of cluster munitions as a weapon of war. Next week the UK, and over one hundred other countries, will sign the Cluster Munitions Convention in Oslo. We will be banning an entire category of weapons which can leave a deadly post-conflict legacy for civilians, claiming many innocent lives. The Foreign Office release underscored £30 million has been pledged for the clearance of landmines and other unexploded ordnance including cluster munitions from 2010 to 2013. This funding shows the UK's continued commitment towards making the world a safer place. "Since 2001 the Department for International Development has played a leading role in ridding the world of the scourge of anti-personnel landmines and other unexploded ordnance. It is now eight years since the UK ratified the Mine Ban Treaty (the Ottawa Convention). Since then over 30 million stockpiled anti-personnel mines have been destroyed, and in Afghanistan casualties have more than halved. Despite this, much more needs to be done" said Secretary of State for International Development, Douglas Alexander. "Over the next three years, we will aim to reduce the impact of anti-personnel mines in developing countries through support to well established and effective de-mining organizations. And we will help mine affected countries develop the means to manage and deal with the remaining problems themselves" he added. The Convention on Cluster Munitions or Oslo Convention is to be signed Monday December 3 in the Norwegian capital by the 107 participating states of the May Dublin Conference where is was agreed to adopt the text of the new convention. "Conclude by 2008 a legally binding international instrument that prohibits the use and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians and secure adequate provision of care and rehabilitation to survivors and clearance of contaminated areas". The new convention prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of Cluster Munitions. Separate articles in the Convention concern assistance to victims, clearance of contaminated areas and destruction of stockpiles. The convention is a result of the Oslo process, an open and time-bound diplomatic process that included States, Civil Society, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations. China, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the US did not attend the Dublin conference.