Costa Rica Hosts
Anti-Cluster-Bomb
Conference
Costa Rica hosted a
conference on cluster
bombs Tuesday in a bid
to make the region the
first area free of such
weapons.
At the opening of the
conference, Vice
Minister of the
Presidency José Torres
said that Costa Rica had
joined the fight against
the use of such weapons,
applying laws to bar
their use.
Cluster bombs or cluster
munitions are
air-dropped or
ground-launched
munitions that spray 10
to 400 mini-bombs.
"This nation calls for a
ban on the production,
use and sale of such
weapons and backs the
notion of Latin America
being the first region
free of these weapons,"
Torres said.
Speaking at the same
meeting, José Manuel
Hermida, working for
Costa Rica's United
Nations Development
Program, said "such
weapons have serious
effects on food
security, causing
hygiene problems,
displacing communities,
exacerbating poverty and
limiting both local and
national reconstruction
and development
capacity."
Some 98 percent of
cluster bomb victims are
civilians, including
many children.
Steve Goose, the
executive director of
Human Rights Watch, said
he was optimistic that
Latin America would act
as a united force "to
create a new 2008 treaty
banning the manufacture
of cluster bombs."
The non-governmental
organization Handicap
International said 400
million people in 25
nations which are in "defacto
mine fields" are at
risks from cluster
bombs.
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