Military

DATE=6/26/2003

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=REMNANTS OF WAR (L-O)

NUMBER=2-304772

BYLINE=GORDON MARTIN

DATELINE=GENEVA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The ending of a conflict does not mean the end of civilian casualties. A London-based research group, Landmine Action, has issued a new report showing the risks from unexploded cluster bombs and other explosive remnants of war. Gordon Martin has more from Geneva, where the report was released.

TEXT: The director of Landmine Action, Richard Lloyd, says that while the problem of land mines has received widespread publicity, little attention has been paid to what are technically known as E-R-Ws, or Explosive Remnants of War.

Unlike land mines, which are often fitted with delayed-action trigger devices, E-R-Ws are weapons designed to explode on impact, but fail to do so.

The most dangerous and lethal of such weapons are cluster bombs. Each air-dropped cluster bomb can contain over 200 bomblets which are scattered over a wide area, and a high proportion of these bomblets fail to explode.

These cluster munitions have been intensively used in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and many other conflicts. And the report says that the lives and livelihoods of people in at least 92 countries around the world are threatened as a result. Richard Lloyd gives the details.

/// LLOYD ACT ///

There are 24 countries in Africa, 9 countries or territories in the Americas, 19 in the Asia-Pacific Region, 23 in Europe/Central Asia, and 17 in the Middle East/North Africa that are affected. What I mean by that is these are countries where there is an impact on the social and economic fabric of those countries and territories caused by the remnants of war.

/// END ACT ///

According to the report, males between 18 and 40 are most at risk from contact with unexploded ordnance and children are also a high-risk group.

/// 2nd LLOYD ACT ///

A recent example of that is Iraq of course. There are growing numbers of reports of children, in particular in Iraq, being blown up by unexploded ordnance. And very often that's explained by children deliberately inter-acting, picking up items of ordnance. They're interesting, the are unusual shapes, they are quite often shiny, and they'll pick items up and that's when they'll get blown up.

/// END ACT ///

Richard Lloyd says that he and his colleagues are now seeking to impress on delegates to the Geneva talks on the U-N Convention on Conventional Weapons the need for urgent action. He says increasing numbers of countries are getting into the business of producing cluster bombs. (Signed)

NEB/GM/KL/MEM/FC