Cluster Bombs

In August Russia began an armed offensive against Georgia. What started out with sniper attacks turned into a full invasion by the Russian military. On August 15 Russian airplanes began an air assault, dropping cluster bombs on Georgian targets, according to Survivor Corps.

“Russia has said it is only seeking to restore stability to the two regions,” according to an article on the NPR website. “Russia responded with air strikes on Georgian positions, not just in South Ossetia but also in Abkhazia, where Georgian troops still had a foothold in the Kodori Gorge region.”

The area also contains one of Georgia’s most important assets, a pipeline that carries gas and oil from Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to Turkey, said NPR.

Russia was not the only country guilty of using clusters bombs in this action.

“Georgia's Defense Ministry acknowledges use of the M85 cluster munitions,” stated the Human Rights Watch in an article by the Boston Globe.

Cluster bombs can be deployed from the air or the ground and release smaller munitions that spread out across an area. Once cluster bomb can house as many as a few hundred smaller bombs known as “bomblets”.

“Many bomblets fail to explode on contact, becoming in effect the equivalent of a land mine,” states an article by the National Catholic Reporter. “Estimates of failure rates range from 5 percent to 30 percent.”

The unexploded bomblets lie on the ground dormant until disturbed. Children easily mistake the small munitions for toys and pick them up to play with them. When so, they explode, killing or permanently maiming them. According to the Survivor Corps, 80 percent of cluster bomb victims are civilians.

Afghanistan is another country that has a brutal history with the Russians and cluster bombs.

“According to United Nations Mine Action Programme, Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world,” stated the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs website, “with 732 million square kilometers of its territory littered with mines and UXO.”

In May more than 107 nations came together in Dublin to negotiate a treaty to ban cluster bombs at the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The treaty is expected to be finalized and signed in Oslo in December.

If you would like more information regarding cluster bombs and their effects to civilians please check out the Survivor Corps and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. As well as, you can sign the People’s Treaty to ban cluster bombs.