13m cluster bombs have already been destroyed, says minister

Published on Tuesday 8 December 2009 21:00

THE UK has destroyed "nearly 13 million" of its stockpile of 38 million cluster bombs and is on track to destroy the remainder within three or four years

The Foreign Office minister Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead said yesterday that the destruction of UK stocks was "well under way", with one-third of total stocks already destroyed.

She told the House of Lords: "We intend to see that the considerable majority, if not all, of our stocks will be destroyed by 2013."

This would be well within the eight-year deadline for signatories to the Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions, she said in a debate on the Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill.

The bill, which has cross-party support, allows the UK to enforce prohibitions set out in the first article to the convention and paves the way for UK ratification of the convention. The bill, which has penalties of fines and prison terms of up to 14 years, follows similar legislation in 1998 to ban the use of land-mines.

Lady Kinnock said it was her "firm expectation" that there would be no permanent stockpiles of other countries' cluster munitions on UK soil within eight years.

She said that 103 countries had signed the convention, including 24 that had already ratified. But other peers noted that non-signatories included the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel.

The minister added: "I believe that this bill and the UK's subsequent ratification will send a clear and strong signal and a political message to other countries that a new standard is being established in international humanitarian law.

"With this legislation, the UK will again be setting a strong example and continuing with our leading role in making the world a safer and more secure place."