And I quote...
"As one of the very last acts of the Howard Government, Brendan Nelson bought $14 million worth of cluster bombs ..."
My response being "He did WHAT?"
How have I not heard about this before? It must have been more that 6 months ago. Where was the outcry? Where was the media ruckus?
Where was the opposition? The debates?
And why has no one denounced it and said "never mind the expense, we will get rid of these right now." and then done so?
And sorry to sound a little clueless if there is an obvious answer to this, but why exactly does Australia need cluster munitions? Are we keeping them for just in case?
I heard about it because there is a petition from the group Get Up, which is doing the rounds. It is to put pressure on our current government to be stronger supporters of the total ban of cluster munitions. An international agreement on this is currently being debated and apparently Australia is not behaving as many of us would expect.
I will paste the email below.
But I was surprised at it's content. And I'm a student of international politics. Perhaps I ought to study harder. But perhaps also, there are lots of things being swept under the carpet.
Bec
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Dear friends,As one of the very last acts of the Howard Government, Brendan Nelson bought $14 million worth of cluster bombs - weapons that contain mini-bombs, some of which remain unexploded on the ground for years awaiting innocent civilians. It's the first time Australia has bought such a weapon, and one we would hope the new Government would categorically reject.
But right now, as the international community meets in Dublin to ban them, the new Australian Government is going out of its way to frustrate the process. They're calling for their 'SMART 155' bomb to be excluded, and for rogue nations who persist in using cluster bombs to be permitted to do so. We've got just a few scarce days left before the fragile international agreement is drafted. Sign the petition today telling Kevin Rudd to ban the bomb: no loopholes, no exceptions.
www.getup.org.au/campaign/BanTheBombs
Thousands of civilians have lost their lives and limbs, mainly children from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. So much so that the international symbol of the campaign is a limb. Just last week the Pope took the unusual step of calling on the international community to outlaw the deadly weapons.
But our government has refused to accept that a total ban on cluster munitions has to prohibit countries from assisting other nations who use cluster bombs. They are also arguing that the Smart 155 is not a cluster munition, despite having no independent tests on its safety and refusing to provide any evidence to back up that claim.
The UK Prime Minister yesterday reversed his decision to exempt his own weapons, leaving Australia increasingly isolated. We should be encouraging positive international agreements to save lives, not hindering them. Tell the PM today - as this decision is being made right now - to ban the bombs:
www.getup.org.au/campaign/BanTheBombs
The Government is hoping this issue will slip under the radar without anyone noticing - but the stakes are simply too high to ignore. Despite technological advances, cluster bombs can't distinguish between combatant and civilian - we need a strong international treaty to prevent horrors like those experienced as a result of land mines, and that decision is being made right now in Dublin.
The PM has shown what a 'creative middle power' can achieve - advocacy on Tibet, ratification of Kyoto, the Apology. Remind him we're supposed to be one of the good guys.
Thanks for being part of the solution,
The GetUp team
