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POLITICS: Japan Supports Ban on Cluster Bombs

By Catherine Makino
TOKYO - A dramatic decision to join a ban on most types of inhumane weapons was announced by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda at an international conference attended by 110 nations in Dublin at the end of May. On the last day of the conference, the Japanese government, which had wavered, said it would support the ban.
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IRELAND: Less Bombs Here, More There
By David Cronin
DUBLIN - Irish diplomats won plenty of kudos from governments across the world over the past week for brokering a ban on cluster bombs during an international conference in Dublin. It may seem ironic, then, that despite having a decades-old tradition of military neutrality, Ireland has deepened its involvement in the arms trade in recent years.
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RIGHTS: Cluster Bombs May Drop Out of Sight At Last
By David Cronin
DUBLIN - Cluster bombs should be outlawed in most of the world thanks to an agreement formally endorsed by over 100 governments in Dublin May 30.
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POLITICS: Cluster Bomb Ban Passed Over U.S. Objections
By Katie Vandever
UNITED NATIONS - After more than a year of contentious negotiations, diplomats from 109 countries meeting in Dublin agreed Wednesday on a treaty that would outlaw the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions, which have killed and injured thousands of civilians over the last four decades.
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THEATRE-US: The Year the War Came Home

By Lucy Komisar*
NEW YORK - On this 40th anniversary of 1968, the year that for the United States was the apogee of opposition to the war in Vietnam, two new Off Broadway plays explore divergent ways that U.S. citizens protested -- and ponder the best way to contest a senseless war.
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LEBANON: Peace Brings No Joy to Children
By Mona Alami*
BEIRUT - Over the years, Lebanese children have faced war and bombings enough to make violence a staple in their lives. With the situation becoming increasingly volatile as Lebanese factions are gripped by a lasting and deadly discord, this vulnerable population is left at greater risk.
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RIGHTS: Grudging Support For New Cluster Munitions Treaty
By Neena Bhandari
SYDNEY - Six-year-old Umarvek Pulodov was playing in the dining room of his home in Shul village, Tajikistan, when a cluster bomb pierced through the roof, instantly killing his brother, cousin and another relative and severely injuring him, his sister and two younger brothers.
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RIGHTS-US: Congress Takes Action on Cluster Bombs, Child Soldiers
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Human-rights and humanitarian groups are hailing provisions of a major appropriations bill approved by Congress this week that bans the export of most U.S.-made cluster bombs and U.S. military aid for foreign governments that use child soldiers.
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LEBANON: Palestinians Brave a Hazardous Profession
By Rebecca Murray
TYRE, Lebanon - Kamel Mohammed was pruning lemon trees last winter when his red electric saw detonated an unexploded cluster bomb, blasting shrapnel all over his body. After an operation to remove the metal shards from his chest, Mohammed, a 44-year-old father from the nearby Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidieh in south Lebanon, went straight back to work cultivating fields and chopping wood for coal.
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POLITICS: U.S. Agrees to Talks on Cluster Bombs
By Abra Pollock
WASHINGTON - As anti-cluster bomb advocates rallied in 40 cities around the world on Monday as part of a Global Day of Action, the United States delegation to a U.N. conference in Geneva this week announced a reversal of its longstanding opposition to negotiations on cluster munitions.
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RIGHTS: 'U.S. Resisting Ban on Cluster Bombs'
By David Cronin
BRUSSELS - The U.S. is leading efforts to resist a complete ban on cluster bombs, human rights activists have complained.
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CHILE: Breath of Fresh Air for Community Radio Stations?
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - After a seven year wait, community radio stations in Chile are celebrating a draft law that would regulate and promote their activities, which the government of President Michelle Bachelet has sent to Congress. But they remain aware of the hurdles that still lie ahead.
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LEBANON: What A 'Safe' Cluster Bomb Did
By Rebecca Murray
TYRE, Lebanon - The explosion ripped through the tiny garden in rural south Lebanon, hurling Naemah Ghazi to the ground. The shrapnel from the bomb sliced through her legs, and she rapidly lost consciousness. "There was a lot of blood," her mother Khadija recalls. "All her body was bleeding."
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"I lost my right eye and the bomblet tore a huge chunk of flesh from my hand and back. I can still recall that fateful day of Feb. 23, 1992, when in a fraction of a second our entire lives were changed forever... I want governments to stop using, producing or stockpiling cluster bombs, which have been killing and maiming tens of thousands of civilians and harming children like me."

Umarvek Pulodov was six years old when a cluster bomb pierced the roof of his house in a Tajikistan village. The bomb killed his brother and several relatives in addition to severely injuring him and three other siblings.