UNA-UK presents cluster bomb ban petition to Foreign Secretary

UNA-UK Chair Lord Hannay was part of a Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) delegation which presented Foreign Secretary David Miliband with a list of more than 30,000 signatures collected in the UK. The petition calls for a ban on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs.

Lord Hannay was joined by Lord Elton and Lord Ramsbotham, as well as representatives of Landmine Action, Handicap International and No More Landmines - along with UNA-UK leading members of the CMC. The signatures were collected on and around 19 April - the Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions. Many UNA-UK members had signed the petition, having added their names at this year's Annual Conference in Exeter and at the Central Region meeting held in Birmingham to mark the Global Day of Action.

The delegation urged the Foreign Secretary to ensure that the UK government would support the negotiation of the strongest possible treaty at the Dublin diplomatic conference in May. They also called on the UK not to weaken the treaty by calling for exemptions to the types of cluster munitions that the UK stockpiles. Simon Conway from Landmine Action stressed that if the UK fought for exclusions to the definition it would create loopholes in the treaty. The Foreign Secretary told the group that the UK government is committed to the Oslo process which aims to bring about a treaty banning cluster munitions by the end of 2008.

All Photographs © Landmine Action