US cluster bombs to be banned from UK

Good for Gordon Brown. He has actually gone ahead and banned the UK from using cluster bombs, but he has dared to go even further, banning the US from stockpiling any cluster bombs on US bases on British soil.

This is the kind of clear, moral distinctions which he should be making to put some light between his government and Cameron's conservatives.

Bush's government had made it very clear that they were opposed to this treaty, going as far as to say that it's endorsement would hinder US participation in joint peacekeeping and disaster relief operations, as most US military units carry cluster bombs. The notion that the cluster bombs could be removed from US military units obviously wasn't something which team Bush had even considered. Once again, Bush was offering threats, in this case the threat that the US would abandon joint peacekeeping if Europe went ahead and outlawed the use of these dreadful weapons which maim thousands of children every year.

I am very pleased to note that the Bush regimes threats have not only been ignored but that Brown has gone much further, banning the US from even keeping these weapons on their own bases on British soil.

The government has agreed to scrap the two types of cluster weapon in the armoury of British forces, but it will also ask the US to get rid of its cluster bombs based here, and it will no longer ask for a "phasing out" period for its newest cluster munition - the M73, which is attached to Apache attack helicopters.

Both this weapon and the M85 - an Israeli-designed artillery shell used by British forces during the 2003 invasion of southern Iraq - will now be scrapped as soon as possible. Cluster weapons scatter "bomblets" across a wide area. Many of them fail to explode, later killing and maiming civilians long after the weapons are fired.

Gordon Brown yesterday described the treaty - due to be formally signed in Oslo in December - as "a major breakthrough". He added: "We will now work to encourage the widest possible international support for the new convention." In a statement released by Downing Street, he said: "I am delighted that the negotiations in Dublin have come to a successful conclusion, and congratulate the Irish government and all those involved. I am confident that this agreement is in line with British interests and values, and makes the world a safer place."

At last, Brown's government has made a clear moral decision, giving not a fig what the neo-cons threaten to do if he goes along with it. Indeed, by going even further and banning these foul weapons from American bases, Brown has considerably upped the ante. And he has done so whilst maintaining the moral high ground at all times.

Campaigners and human rights groups welcomed the UK government's ban on cluster weapons.

"The treaty will create a new international standard that will prevent the use of cluster munitions even by those countries that have not signed up," said Simon Conway, of Landmine Action UK. Along with the US, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan are not taking part in the Dublin talks.

At last a Labour government is doing something, not because we are keeping in with our allies, and not because we are acknowledging "the real world" as the right wing always call it, but rather we are doing something because it is the right thing to do.

We can create the kind of world we want to live in and, in Dublin yesterday, we stated clearly that we want to live in a world where those who use cluster bombs will face prosecution. That's a great step forward.

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Tags: Gordon Brown, cluster bombs, United States, war crimes, international law