June 28th, 2009: Participants at a Berlin conference on Saturday called for immediate implementation of the 'The Oslo Convention on Cluster Munitions" which bans cluster bombs. Delegates from 75 countries pledging to destroy their stockpiles of cluster bombs on Friday concluded the two-day conference to assess progress since a 2008 ban on the weapons. The conference on cluster bombs gave a "clear signal" to implement a ban on the weapons as soon as possible, said Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who described the meeting as "a milestone in conventional arms control".

A handful of cluster bomb survivors who had lost limbs, suffered serious injury or lost family members to the weapon were also present at the Berlin conference. Opening the conference in Berlin on Thursday, German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler announced that his country had become the 11th nation to ratify the Convention. "I'm confident that the 30 countries required for the Convention to come into effect, will be reached in 2010 by the latest", he said. Germany began destroying its cluster bomb stockpile in 2001, Erler told the Berlin conference. Since 3 December 2008 almost 100 countries have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

The Oslo convention will prohibit the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster bombs. The document, drawn up in Oslo last December, is undergoing ratification by 98 signatory states. The convention comes into effect six months after 30 states will have ratified the document, giving countries an 8-year deadline to destroy any stockpiles of the weapon. Cluster weapons - criticized for their high risk of maiming or killing civilians - can be fired by artillery or dropped by aircraft. It contains multiple, often hundreds, of small explosive submunitions, or bomblets. Military experts describe cluster munition as "the weapon of cowards" as they can wipe out large numbers of troops without engaging them directly on the ground. Cluster bombs use explosive fragmentation to kill troops and destroy soft (unarmored) targets.

Unexploded submunitions not only make farming dangerous but also tend to harm children, since they sometimes mistake the bomblets for toys. Cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians during the last 40 years and continue to do so today. They cause widespread harm on impact and yet remain dangerous, killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of cluster bomb casualties are injured while undertaking their normal activities. Cluster bombs were first operationally used in World War II by German and Soviet forces.

According to a 2006 report by human rights group Handicap International, there have been at least 13,000 confirmed post-conflict cluster bomb casualties, but the actual number of unreported deaths may be as high as 100,000. Under the Convention, signatories are requested to destroy their cluster munition arsenals within eight years after the treaty will have come into effect. It also requires clearing areas of unexploded submunitions within 10 years. From the 98 signatories, only Spain has so far completed the destruction of its cluster munition arsenal.