5, May 2015 Cluster
Bombs
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Saudi-led military coalition has
recently used cluster munitions supplied by the United States near villages in
Yemen’s northern Saada Province.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in airstrikes near a military base in Yemen’s capital,
Sana, near the city of Al Hudaydah; and at a camp for internally displaced
people in northern Yemen. A bomb struck a residential area in Sana killed
at least 14 people, including at least five members of one family.
111 nations, including many of our NATO partners signed a
treaty to outlaw cluster bombs and require the destruction of stockpiles within
eight years. Sadly, our nation joined Russia, China, India Pakistan and Israel
in boycotting the talks and refusing to sign the treaty. Cluster munitions,
made to resemble children’s toys, are used to carpet bomb battlefields and
inevitably inflict terror and mayhem on the local population. Hundreds of
children suffered fatalities and serious injuries after our hasty exit from Vietnam,
Cambodia and Laos. Lebanese children were victims after Israel carpet bombed
their common borders with 1 million ‘bomblets’ in 2006. Israel continues to
withhold maps identifying the locations of these killing machines despite
repeated requests from Lebanon. It is time our nation and our allies banned
these terrifying weapons.
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