Cluster Bombs 76 Million : ProjectPineapple 10,029

Some time during this first week of December 2010 Project Pineapple received hit number 10,000. A far cry-y-y-y-y-y-y from the 76 million hits the Americans have left active in Laos. But have you noticed? We, the concerned, are still hitting while the world opinion against the use of Cluster Bombs prevents the USA and others from hitting us with any more of these awful devices. So all those bullies out there with no conscience are slowly being shown for whom they are. Patience, bully boys and girls, we are coming after you in our masses and we are stopping you.

And the person who made hit number 10,000 comes from, appropriately:
United States Mountain View, California

Yeahhhh, good for you and I am sure you know who you are as I notice many hits coming from Mountain View. If you want to say Hello then please send an email to project.pineapple@yahoo.com

Campaigners celebrate as Convention becomes binding international law

The Convention on Cluster Munitions takes effect on Sunday, 1 August 2010, when it becomes binding international law in countries around the world. In dozens of countries, campaigners from the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) will join UN agencies, governments and international organisations in events celebrating the swift entry into force of the most significant disarmament and humanitarian treaty in over a decade.

Read full story at:
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=2555

KENYA: The Darkening War Monday, Time magazine,Mar. 08, 1954

Commanding General Sir George Erskine sent his 39th Brigade in pursuit. The crack Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers caught one Mau Mau detachment at a river crossing, ambushed another in the Maragua Valley. In this valley alone, the Fusiliers bagged 76 Mau Mau. The R.A.F. strafed and bombed the Mau Mau remnants as they fell back to their forests, and the British soon had them cornered on a wooded hill known as Blarney Castle. Mau Mau losses in the battle so far: 197 killed, including two "generals." Total British loss: three wounded.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889888,00.html#ixzz13RsO71d0

Some believe that this RAF bombing may have included Cluster Bombs

At the present rate, UXO clearance will take 300 years.

Cluster bombs blanket large swaths of land and have a high “dud” rate, meaning they don’t explode on contact and go on injuring and killing civilians long after wars officially end. Experts say the cluster bombs used in Vietnam are estimated to have a “dud” rate between 5 and 40 percent.

Three years ago, while digging for scrap metal, Thang came across a cluster bomb and carries the scars of that encounter with him today. Watch this video about Thang's experience:

For full story an watch video, please go to:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/vietnam/100602/cluster-bombs-landmines-demining-quang-tri

Thanks to Global Post

Kenyan MPs Move to Ratify Convention on Cluster Munitions

Kenya: After kicking off the 100-day countdown last month with a visit to survivors of UXOs and bombs, the Kenya Network to Ban Cluster Munitions have made contact with two MPs who have agreed to support the cause. Already, one MP has sent questions to the AG and will be following up next week. The second MP will work on a commentary to be sent to the print media on why MPs must push for the ratification and domestication of CCM. The Kenyan Network Against Cluster Munitions also wrote two letters to the Minister for Foreign Affairs requesting a progress report on what Kenya is doing to ensure they ratify the CCM. Contact: Daniel Aghan, Handicap International Kenya: aghandan@yahoo.com

Congratulations to KIS International School, Bangkok

Belated congratulations.
Students at KIS International School in Bangkok held an exhibition on cluster munitions to raise awareness in their school and with the media in advance of Thailand’s week in the 100-day countdown. The students collected about 400 signatures and a created a big hand, on which they collected handprints in support of Thailand signing the CCM. They plan to present these signatures along with letters to the Government of Thailand during Thailand’s week of action at the end of July. Contact: Danield Dunlevie, KIS International School: Danield@kis.ac.th

See more at:http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/news/?id=2306

World Peace Day, 21st September 2010 - RedR Security Management Course

Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief, RedR, provides a high quality international recruitment service for leading aid agencies, governments and the private sector involved in disaster relief.

Its reputation is based on the quality of the candidates supplied and high level of service with 30 years experience recruiting specialist professionals following major emergencies, such as the Asian tsunami or Pakistan earthquake.

RedR operates across a wide range of disciplines, sectors and countries. Through its register of 1,700 highly experienced members it is able to respond to emergencies at short notice.

RedR's training programmes are used by individuals and aid agencies worldwide. From introductory courses for those interested in getting into the sector, to credit-rated training for professionals.

I joined RedR in 1985 and have had various missions over the years. I decided to take their Security Management Course due to the significant rearrangement of global power groups.

On behalf of Peace One Day I invited fellow course members to join in marking the conception of World Peace Day being recognized by United Nations (see picture).

Peace One Day
St George's House
15 St. George's Road
Richmond TW9 2LE
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 833 49900
Fax: +44 20 8948 0545
www.peaceoneday.org

BBC World News - Peace One Day by Jeremy Gilley

Dear Robert Kinnear

We'd like to invite you to take part in the latest discussions in BBC Global Minds.
This week our featured programme is Peace One Day by Jeremy Gilley.
The film documents Jeremy Gilley's successful attempt to have 21st September recognised as World Peace Day by the United Nations.

Peace One Day will be shown at:
02:10 and 15:10 Saturday 18th September and
09:10 and 21:10 Sunday 19th September.
All times are GMT.

Please click here to leave your comments and feedback on the film.

Paddy O'Connell will be interviewing Jeremy Gilley on Weekend World this weekend so please do tune in to hear what Jeremy has been getting up to since he made Peace One Day.

Have a great weekend,

BBC Tom


MY REPLY TO BBC GLOBAL MINDS

I've been in touch with Peace One Day for a long time and supported them. I have a project about Cluster Bombs which I will promote more on 21st September than usual.

Please view : www.projectpineapple.blogspot.com

I have an entry about my recent trip to Iceland where I visited Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Iceland with a special event this year up there as she celebrates what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday 9th October. Lennon was of course one of the the earliest vocal peace activists

This week I am taking a course with RedR, Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief, www.redr.org, on Security Management where I will remind everyone about Peace One Day.

Love and Peace

Robert

Make your commitment for Peace Day 2010 here: www.peaceoneday.org

IMAGINE PEACE TOWER - Yoko Ono's Tribute to John Lennon

I walked around the platform of native Icelandic stone in reddish ochre, light grey and bluish grey, in a striped mosaic pattern. I walked around the Wishing Well of pure white glass, I touched it, I felt it, IMAGINE PEACE carved in 24 languages.

I walked the pebble beach below IMAGINE PEACE TOWER, the same beach Yoko Ono walked, feeling the energy of the tower, feeling the energy of Yoko, feeling the energy of John.

Beach combing, I found a yellow spade, a little lilac toy bear of determined expression decorated with a heart, a dolphin, a radiant sun face with shades hovering over CALIFORNIA in bright colours.

With my new found cuddly toy and spade, I eased on to the peace platform to enjoy the sun's warmth and imagined peace.

Every year the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER, on Videy Island opposite Reykjavik Iceland, emerges between October 9th (Lennon's birthday) and December 8th (his death day). It also emanates from winter solstice to New Year's day, during the first week of spring and other rare days agreed by the artist.

My ride along the Ho Chi Minh Trail also sat between two dates of note, 30 April, the end of the American War in Viet Nam, 1975 and 20 March, the start of the American War in Iraq, 2003.

Take a look at Yoko Ono's www.imaginepeace.com

Politics: Laos Takes Centre Stage in Cluster Bombs Treaty

It's been a while since I added a posting but please access this page of Global Issues highlighting the new position of Laos.

http://www.globalissues.org/news/2010/08/05/6518

Opening paragraph:
After being relegated to the shadows for decades by its more powerful neighbours, Laos is finally taking the lead role in a global campaign to ban the use of cluster bombs.

by Marwaan Macan-Markar (Bangkok)Thursday, August 05, 2010
Inter Press Service

Marwaan is the President of the Foreign Corespondents Club of Thailand, FCCT, to whom I have been continually raising this issue.

Obama, BP's Mess and America's Mess

Obama is furious about BP's mess in the Gulf of Mexico and rightly so. Lucky for him it was not an American oil company. Mind you, he seems to be overlooking the fact that BP bought Amoco, American Oil Company, in 1998 and all its American assets including personnel who were prominent in this current fiasco. Is Obama in this new political zest for cleaning up America's mess overlooking American military waste in Indochina that has been adversely affecting lives there for 40 years, not just reducing their income but reducing their lifespan? What if Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia decided it was time to put their foot on America's neck and insist they clean up their mess and not one penny to be picked up by their governments and taxpayers and every one affected by the contamination by UXO's sue the American government for loss of life and livelihood in a xenophobic frenzy? Ha, that'll be the day Democracy reaches the United States of America.

Educating Nate Thayer by Al Rockoff and Project Pineapple

Nate Thayer came over to say hi. There were only staff in the FCCT, Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, no customers. He didn't need to introduce himself by name. This is the man who interviewed Pol Pot after an 18 year absence, the same year he died. He also interviewed Duch, the executioner of thousands in torture camps, found by photographer Nick Dunlop working for ARC, American Refugee Committee. Duch is presently being tried for Crimes Against Humanity, awaiting sentencing. I worked for ARC 1998-1999 on the Cambodian border supplying two refugee camps with water.

It was during the Red Shirt occupation of down town commercial centre of Bangkok in which FCCT is located that we met and hung out for a couple of weeks last month, May. I rode my bike through two Red Shirt check points to an empty car park surrounded by a linked barrier fence. The bike is of course not the Minsk which I sold in Phnom Penh last year but my old faithful Yamaha DT 200. Built for dirt track, it works well in this city riding through the sunken manhole covers and drains, mounting the high kerbs when the traffic jam is too dense to get through. Whizz along the pavements through accommodating pedestrians. Everyone does it, if they've got big wheels.

In pursuit of Pol Pot and other stories, Nate had made a heavily armed elephant ride, a convoy of four, the only way to safely travel through Cambodia's Ratanakiri Province during the Khmer Rouge strife. This is the intersection point. I too had ridden my Minsk along unpaved trails somewhat improved through the same territory only last year in search of a different story, one generation earlier. The Viet Nam story of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and it being carpet bombed with clusters.

"Clusters bombs?" Nate questioned, being more familiar with the widespread use of landmines in the Khmer Rouge war mongering days. "Yes" chipped in Al, "along the Ho Chi Minh trail in the north east and around Phnom Penh too". Al Rockoff is an old Cambodia and Viet Nam hand, a respected photographer. He's the one played by John Malkovich in the Killing Fields. Have a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Rockoff

So there you are. Project Pineapple's purpose was to raise awareness of the Cluster Bomb issue. A well worn journalist such as Nate who was focused on the Khmer Rouge problem with Pol Pot and Duch was surprised to learn of their use in Cambodia. Imagine the ignorance remaining in the minds of most who have far less possibility to be aware.

So children in the carpert bombed areas continue to die every month, around 10 'on average'. Now at least one more is aware of this little publicised fact, Nate Thayer.

To read Nate's story go to: http://www.cybercambodia.com/dachs/killing/polpot.html

Among his peers, Nate Thayer is known as "a man with a mission, a mobile, and an AK-47". In his yet to be published book, Sympathy For the Devil, he recounts his search for Pol Pot, Duch and other tales. Nate kindly offered me some sections of the manuscript over which to cast an eye. A good read.

One Year Anniversary, the Minsk

It has just passed. At the end of May last year I rode into Phnom Penh to end the over 7000 kilometer ride along the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia to help raise awareness of the Cluster Bomb issue. It was planned only to be about 3500 kilometers but with invitations and detours it extended. Ride one, get one free.

The final few hundreds of meters brought me to a guest house not far from Phnom Penh Post. To my surprise, I saw two other Minsk motorbikes sitting outside. Chatting with the guys they said a friend was arriving soon looking to buy one too. Saddle sore, I gladly offered my Minsk.

Next day while hugging the toilet with my only bout of bad belly, another guy whom I'd helped repair his Yamaha turned up with Aussie Tom looking for a Minsk. After talking to his Dad back home and viewing this blog he agreed to buy it.

Next day, yahoo, I was on a bus to Angkor Wat. It was raining so, yahoo, I didn't have to take shelter. I could doze without the possiblity of being wiped out by ten wheeled truck, yahoo. I was grateful to Tom for relieving me of my extended marathon.

Earlier this year I was on a trip in Indonesia. While walking along the beach road in south Kuta, Bali, noticing the developments from three years earlier, through my day dreaming I heard, Robert, then more loudly, ROBERT, as a hand came down on my right shoulder. It was Tom. A great reunion with him and his brother.

Tom was refused exit by the Cambodian border guards. He was aware of the 1500 kilometer detour I had to make coming from the Vietnamese side. He ignored the guards and pushed the Minsk through to the Vietnamese side. The Cambodians called him back only to stamp his passport. Ha, attaboy, he was on his way. The Minsk had Vietnam plates so possible to do it that direction.

After two months of touring Vietnam with his two friends, Tom sold the Project Pineapple Minsk in Hanoi. Who knows where it is now. Anybody know?

Heaven and Earth Movie Based on Le Ly's True Life Story

Le Ly was at the photo shoot when I met Oliver Stone for the first time. Well, actually in was the second time. Back in 1992, Heaven and Earth starring Tommy Lee Jones was being shot in Phuket. I was selected, while playing an 'extra', for a walk by so Stone could decide if I was suitable for another part. No is the answer.

Le Ly invited me to the Open Forum, Psychosocial Response to Disasters Focus on Children in Asia held next day after Stone's FCCT presentation. Her traumatic experiences while a child, her due recovery and ability to deal with life in such a positive and constructive manner proved to be inspirational to the forum.

She founded East Meets West Foundation then moved on to found Global Village Foundation focusing on sustainable community, development projects, www.globalvillagefoundation.org

Some of this work covers areas affected by Cluster Bombs in Viet Nam

Oliver Stone Talks to Project Pineapple Again....

Oliver Stone made his speech at the Foreign Correspondence Club of Thailand, FCCT, on 25th January 2010. Stone made thought provoking observations and assessments with eloquent words such as "the highest stance to have is to co-exist in our existance". Surprisingly, he even quoting Winston Churchill's
"Through the need to sweat and toil we will kill. Keep my conscience awake and not fall asleep".
Stone went to to say he is "trying to undo some of the knots" like the "recent debacles in Iraq".

Then he said "The Bomb is very much with us now. It will threaten life on this planet".

Indeed, Mr Stone, but not just 'that bomb'. There are millions of these little Cluster Bombs still killing young kids every month after the 'American War'.

At this time, the Cambodia Tribunal is hearing the case against Duch, head of Special Security for the Khmer Rouge, charged with Crimes Against Humanity for systematically torturing 15,000 prisoners and the execution of 12,000. Around 1.5 million died during the Pol Pot era in Cambodia.

During the American War, or Vietnam War, around 3 million died many due to carpet bombing by Cluster Bombs.

I asked Mr Stone what his thoughts were on this incongruity and to put it into his perspective.

"We have an enormous story to tell. We cannot deal with all the injustices in the world. When making a movie, it has to catch the audience's attention. I get so many letters about injustices in the world. It's just too much" he said, grasping his forehead, rubbing it anxiously.

In 2007 Stone abandoned due to lack of funding, the making of 'Pinkville', the story set around the events of the My Lai Massacre. The movie was to have starred Sean Penn and Channing Tatum. On March 16, 1968, more than 500 Vietnamese (or 367, depending on the source), including unarmed women, children and elderly, were slaughtered by American soldiers who were given a "search and destroy" order.

Perhaps Mr Stone would be able to thread something of the Cluster Bomb issue into that movie were he able to be refinanced.

Oliver Stone Talks to Project Pineapple.... Just

Oliver Stone was in Bangkok for a Bridges - Dialogue For Peace event on 25th January this year, 2010. Along at the press photo shoot in the Dusit Thani Hotel, across from where the Red Shirts are now, a few questions were accepted but I didn't get one in then. Only after he stood up and was moving towards the exit I managed to show him this Blogspot address for Project Pineapple and asked him to please take a look.

"It's about Cluster Bombs" I said. "Of course" observed Stone, director of movies such as Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven and Earth, not to mention the highly relevant 'JFK', replying with the awareness of someone intimately knowledgeable of the American War and all associated issues.

Many have asked why this is called Project Pineapple, thus some elementary photo explanations in this blog. Stone, familiar with the jargon, he knew straight away.

A Project Pineapple Rider (almost)

Bjorn Holland got in touch as Project Pineapple was in it's planning stages. But for incompatible timing Bjorn would have joined the ride for part of the way. He too was and still is concerned about Cluster Bombs in Laos.

Here is a recent email from him. Look at his amazing journey that he continues on after his spell through Indochina.

Click too the Charity banner on his webpage:

http://www.panomoto.com/

Around The World By Motorbike


from Bjorn Holland
to rkinnear
date Sat, Apr 10, 2010 at 5:21 AM
subject Re: Around The World – News from Bjorn
signed-by gmail.com
hide details Apr 10 (10 days ago)
Hi Robert,

Good to hear from you! I got to say, I'm jealous for your location (Bangkok) – so close to some really great countries and fantastic riding opportunities! Especially Bali & Lombok must have been great. Did you go diving there?

Regarding cluster bombs: I had news from Handicap International in the UK that the UK government has signed a ban of cluster bombs just recently. So at least there's progress..

At the moment I'm in Cochabamba / Bolivia. I've got to say that after the rather boring straight roads in Argentina & Paraguay, I now really enjoy the off-road mountain-tracks here in Bolivia. It's a constant rumbling & rattling on the bike, as there's hardly any tarmac in this country. For the past week or so I followed the Che Guevara trail – which is basically the route he took after the revolution in Cuba, when he tried to set up Guerilla camps in Bolivia back in the 60s. I visited the place where he was captured, and also his original grave (next to an airport runway, where he was secretely buried for about 30 years before his body was sent back to Cuba).

As winter is closing in over the next few months here in S-America, I'll try to get into Colombia for some better climate and some more Spanish lessons. Literally every traveller I've met has been raving about Colombia, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it myself.

Best wishes
Bjorn

PS: I've changed my blog a while ago into a "photo diary", which I update every few weeks.

http://www.panomoto.com/

Around The World By Motorbike

Lao PDR: Five children killed in cluster bomb blast

Rights of survivors, urgent clearance of remnants should be priorities at November meeting

(London, 11 March 2010) – Five children were killed and one injured when a cluster submunition exploded in a village in Lao PDR’s Champasak province on 22 February 2010. The incident highlights the need for urgent action to assist survivors and ensure the clearance of cluster munition remnants when states parties to the treaty banning cluster bombs gather for their first official meeting in the Lao capital, Vientiane, this November, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said today.

“Children in Lao PDR continue to bear the brunt of accidents from ‘bombies’ left as the deadly legacy of a secret war that ended decades ago,” said Channapha Khamvongsa, Executive Director of Legacies of War, a CMC member organisation that advocates for the removal of unexploded ordnance in Lao PDR. “Accidents like this one occur with sickening regularity in Lao and underline the need for governments to adopt an ambitious plan in November for cleaning up cluster bomb contamination in Lao and elsewhere.”

According to Lao government sources, a group of eight children found a BLU-3 cluster submunition while they were feeding buffalo in rice paddies about 2 km from the village of Ban Noundeng Nue, in the Soukhouma district of Champasak province, near the border with Thailand. The device exploded while the children were playing with it in a hut on stilts in the rice paddies. The blast instantly killed five of the children and injured one, while two who were farther away were not harmed. The US widely used BLU-3 cluster submunitions – also called pineapple bombs because of their resemblance to the fruit – in bombing raids over Lao PDR in the 1960s and 70s.

“If this kind of tragedy happened in the US, there’d be a national outcry,” said Titus Peachey, Director of Peace Education for the Mennonite Central Committee, a CMC member organisation. “The Lao people are doing all they can to deal with a problem they did not create, but much more support is needed. With the First Meeting of States Parties taking place in Lao PDR in November, we have an opportunity like no other to find solutions to this ongoing injustice against the people and communities suffering from this weapon.”

The Lao National Regulatory Authority for the UXO/Mine Action Sector has promised a detailed investigation of the accident, but it will be delayed due to a current backlog of accidents under investigation.

Lao PDR is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world, with 14 out of 17 provinces affected by unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from a “secret war” waged by the United States against Pathet Lao insurgents four decades ago. From 1964 to 1973, the US led more than 580,000 bombing missions in Lao PDR – equating to a mission every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, over nine years – dropping more than 2 million tons of bombs and blanketing the countryside with some 270 million submunitions.

Known locally as “bombies,” unexploded cluster submunitions are commonplace in Lao PDR and – along with landmines and other explosive remnants of war – continue to claim up to 300 new victims per year, decades after the armed conflict ended. A recent nationwide survey recorded 50,136 UXO casualties between 1963 and 2008, 40 percent of which happened after the bombing ceased, and 26 percent of which were children. In the period of 2004-2007, cluster submunitions were the largest cause of civilian casualties.

Because of the immense scale of cluster bomb devastation in Lao PDR, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) work with the government to reduce the impact of explosive remnants of war on civilians, by clearing contaminated land and providing mine-risk education and assistance to victims and affected communities. NGOs actively involved in this work in Lao include AAR Japan, COPE National Rehabilitation Centre, Handicap International, Mines Advisory Group and Norwegian People’s Aid.

Cluster bombs also continue to claim civilian lives in neighbouring Cambodia and Vietnam. In Vietnam, a 40-year-old man was killed by a cluster submunition explosion in Quang Tri province on 12 February, leaving behind a wife and six daughters. The CMC urges both countries to follow Lao PDR’s example and sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions to gain access to much-needed victim assistance.

Less than two years since the Convention opened for signature in Oslo in December 2008, a total of 104 countries have signed, and it will take effect on 1 August after reaching 30 ratifications in February. The next milestone will be the First Meeting of States Parties in Lao PDR in November.

The Convention comprehensively bans use, production, and transfer of cluster munitions and sets strict deadlines for stockpile destruction and clearance of contaminated land within eight years and 10 years respectively. In addition, the Convention obliges states to support survivors and affected communities.

The CMC called on all states not currently on board the ban treaty to sign and ratify as soon as possible, and urged countries that have already ratified to step up implementation of their treaty obligations.

For more information on casualties caused by cluster submunitions, landmines and other explosive remnants of war in Lao PDR, please visit the following:
· Landmine Monitor 2009 country chapter on Lao PDR: http://lm.icbl.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=2009&pqs_type=lm&pqs_report=lao
· Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice country chapter on Lao PDR:
http://lm.icbl.org/index.php/publications/display?act=submit&pqs_year=2009&pqs_type=cm&pqs_report=lao
CONTACT:
In Washington, DC, Channapha Khamvongsa: +1-202-965-1785; or channapha@legaciesofwar.org
In Pennsylvania, Titus Peachey: +1-717-859-1151; or tmp@mcc.org
In London, Conor Fortune: +44-(0)207-820-0222; or conor@stopclustermunitions.org

NOTES
About cluster bombs
A cluster munition (or cluster bomb) is a weapon containing multiple - often hundreds - of small explosive submunitions or bomblets. Cluster munitions are dropped from the air or fired from the ground and designed to break open in mid-air, releasing the submunitions over an area that can be the size of several football fields. This means they cannot discriminate between civilians and soldiers. Many of the submunitions fail to explode on impact and remain a threat to lives and livelihoods for decades after a conflict.

About the Convention on Cluster Munitions
The Convention on Cluster Munitions bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and requires countries to clear affected areas within 10 years and destroy stockpiles of the weapon within eight. The Convention includes groundbreaking provisions requiring assistance to victims and affected communities. Signed in Oslo in December 2008, it is the most significant international disarmament treaty since the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

About the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC)
The CMC is an international coalition of around 350 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in 85 countries to encourage urgent action against cluster bombs. The CMC facilitates NGO efforts worldwide to educate governments, the public and the media about the problems of cluster munitions and to urge universalisation and full implementation of the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/

The following 104 countries have signed the Convention:
Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte D'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, The Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar , Malawi, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Zambia.

Of these, the following 30 countries have ratified the Convention:
Albania (16 Jun 2009), Austria (2 Apr 2009), Belgium (22 Dec 2009), Burkina Faso (16 February 2010), Burundi (25 Sep 2009), Croatia (17 Aug 2009), Denmark (12 February 2010), The Holy See (3 Dec 2008), France (25 Sep 2009), Germany (8 Jul 2009), Ireland (3 Dec 2008), Japan (14 Jul 2009), Lao PDR (18 Mar 2009), Luxembourg (10 Jul 2009), Macedonia (8 Oct 2009), Malawi (7 Oct 2009), Malta (24 Sep 2009), Mexico (6 May 2009), Moldova (16 February 2010), Montenegro (25 January 2010), New Zealand (22 Dec 2009), Nicaragua (6 Nov 2009), Niger (2 Jun 2009), Norway (3 Dec 2008), San Marino (10 Jul 2009), Sierra Leone (3 Dec 2008), Slovenia (19 Aug 2009), Spain (17 Jun 2009), Uruguay (24 Sep 2009), Zambia (12 Aug 2009).
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