Goodbye cluster bombs, almost

It seems that finally an agreement for a treaty to ban cluster bombs has been reached and at least one hundred countries are going to sign it. This treaty adds to the arms trade treaty and the mine ban treaty.

This three treaties are one the most successful things that the movements and organizations against armament and illegal trade of arms have achieved. Obviously this arrive late for the millions of people that have died or will die in the future because some heartless want to make money from the suffering of the innocents.

The bad thing about these treaties are that the countries that produce most of the armament that they ban have no intention to sign.

The USA, Russia, Israel, China, Pakistan and India among others are the countries that produce most of the cluster bombs that are fired in actual conflicts and they are not going to sign the treaty. They make and sell this weapons despite knowing that most of the victims that this kind of bombs produce are civilians.

A cluster bomb is a bomb that is formed by hundreds of smaller bombs that are spread in an area. This kind of bomb does not discriminate the target and are often used to attack cities as in the Lebanon War of 2006 by the Israeli Army or the invasion of Basora by the British army.

A proportion of the munition of this bombs does not explode when it is dropped, so they are a permanent danger to the people in the area where they are used. Often children pick up the bombs and die in the blast.

Is it more important to make money than protect life? For some people the answer is yes. They deserve a special place in hell.