Cambodian Representative to Attend Munitions Meeting

Cambodia will send a representative to next week’s meeting of the Convention on Cluster Mu­nitions in Lebanon to study the pos­sibility of signing up to the convention, Chum Bun Rong, secretary-general of the Cambodian Mine Action Authority, said yesterday.

The Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Clus­ter Munitions, which begins in Beirut next Tuesday, will address how states signatory to the convention are currently working toward implementing their obligations to ban cluster munitions, and also en­courage states that have yet to join the convention to consider doing so.

One hundred and nine countries have joined the convention—first adopted in 2008—61 of which are states parties, who have started to implement it. States parties must agree to timelines for de­stroy­ing stockpiled cluster munitions, clearing remnants and assisting victims.

Cambodia is one of the countries most affected by cluster bombs: The US dropped approximately 80,000 cluster munitions, containing 26 million sub-munitions, on the country between 1969 and 1973.

Cluster sub-munitions disperse in­discriminately over a wide area when dropped from the air or launched from the ground. They sometimes fail to explode on im­pact, and remain dangerous for a very long time.

Despite this, Cambodia has yet to join the convention.

Mr Bun Rong said Cambodia would attend the Beirut meeting to hear what other countries had to say.

“We are now studying the possibility of joining the convention…. In principle, we are for the signing, but it’s a question of timing,” he said, adding that joining also de­­pended on the position of the Ministry of National Defense.

Jeroen Stol, country director of Han­dicap International, an organization that has long campaigned against cluster munitions, said that he was hopeful Cambodia would sign up.

“I feel the debate in-country is more advanced—the signs are better than last year,” Mr Stol said. “They have a reason to sign, as cluster bombs have a devastating effect on a daily basis.”

Campaigners against cluster mu­nitions from 70 countries, in­cluding Cambodians who have been maimed by the bombs, are ex­pect­ed to attend, ac­cording to the Clus­ter Munitions Coalition.