Afghan campaigner will highlight need for action on deadly cluster bombs

International cluster munitions campaigner Soraj Ghulam Habib will visit Australia from 1 to 14 May to raise awareness of the grave threat posed by cluster bombs and other remnants of war. He hopes his visit will help highlight the need for strong international action to implement the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, a groundbreaking international treaty which seeks to completely ban cluster munitions for all time.

The 19-year-old Afghan man, from the Afghan Landmine Survivor Organisation, lost both his legs at the age of 10 to a cluster bomb explosion at the start of the war in Afghanistan. The explosion also killed his cousin and injured four other members of his family. Habib is now an active campaigner against cluster bombs and runs psychosocial peer-to-peer support for other landmine and cluster bomb victims in Afghanistan.

Cluster munitions are bombs with an outer casing that breaks open in mid-air, scattering smaller “bomblets” over a wide area, with a radius of up to a kilometre. Many of these bomblets fail to explode on impact, remaining as a hazard, especially to children, for decades after the conflict ends. A 2006 Handicap International study found that 98 per cent of victims of unexploded cluster bomblets are civilians.

The Cluster Munition Coalition – Australia, which is supporting Habib’s visit to Australia, has serious concerns that the Criminal Code Amendment (Cluster Munitions Prohibition) Bill 2010, currently before the Australian Senate, contains significant loopholes which weaken Australia’s stance on cluster munitions. This could pave the way for Australian troops to continue providing active support to allies like the USA in their use of cluster bombs.

John Rodsted, co-founder of the Cluster Munition Coalition, said, “The Australian legislation reflects neither the spirit nor intention of the treaty. It makes no difference to the status quo and possibly makes things worse. The Australian military will still be able to identify targets for cluster bomb attack and load and aim the gun, provided they don’t actually pull the trigger. This weak piece of legislation does nothing to further the international ban on cluster bombs despite the spin the Government is trying to put on it.”

Soraj Ghulam Habib will visit Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. He will be involved in a series of seminars on human rights and the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, with other guest speakers in each city including Alistair Gee, Executive Director of Act for Peace, Professor Ron McCallum AO, Chair of the Committee on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva and 2011 Senior Australian of the Year and John Rodsted, co-founder, Cluster Munition Coalition.

He will also meet with parliamentarians and government representatives, and participate in a wheelchair basketball event.

For more information on the visit of Soraj Ghulam Habib or the Convention on Cluster Munitions, please contact Emma Halgren, Act for Peace, on 0458 303 515, (02) 8259 0828 or ehalgren@ncca.org.au, or Michelle Fahy, Cluster Munition Coalition – Australia, on 0415 848 641.