Madam, - For more than 40 years, cluster bombs have killed and wounded tens of thousands of innocent people in more than 20 countries. These weapons have terrorised defenceless people wherever they have been used. In particular, they have inflicted horrific suffering on children.
Cluster bombs cause death and injury to civilians not only during attacks, but also for years afterwards, because of the lethal contamination that they cause.
They hamper post-conflict rebuilding and rehabilitation. The dangerous work of cluster-bomb clearance absorbs funds that could be spent on other urgent humanitarian needs. Without determined action, the suffering and death caused by these weapons both during and after conflict will continue to grow.
But now there is a real opportunity to make these weapons a thing of the past. A comprehensive ban on cluster bombs can and must be negotiated at the Dublin Diplomatic Conference starting in Croke Park today.
We are calling on the Irish Government, as chair of the conference, to ensure that the Dublin negotiations deliver a treaty that will enforce an immediate total ban on the manufacture and use of cluster bombs, and ensure that affected communities are given aid for survivors and assistance to clear their land.
Governments must put the protection of civilians, not the protection of arms company profits, at the core of their approach to the treaty.
The Dublin conference has the opportunity to deliver the most significant disarmament treaty in more than a decade. We must grasp this historic opportunity. We owe it to the victims of cluster bombs. Anything less would be unthinkable.
- Yours, etc,
BRENDAN GLEESON, MARIAN KEYES, ALICE MAHER, PATRICK McCABE, CONOR McPHERSON, PAULA MEEHAN, PAUL MERCIER, JOSEPH O'CONNOR, LIAM Ó MAONLAÍ, DONAL O'KELLY, DEIRDRE PURCELL, PETER SHERIDAN, Palmerston Road, Dublin 6.