GENEVA: U.S. officials said they are willing to start negotiating a treaty on the use of cluster bombs, reversing their previous position that no new agreement on the weapon was necessary.
But the United States still rejects a proposed global ban on the weapon, which 46 countries began negotiating in Oslo in February. Instead, Washington wants to negotiate another treaty, which goes less far, within the framework of the 1980 United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons.
The U.S. position has changed "due to the importance of this issue, concerns raised by other countries, and our own concerns about the humanitarian implications of these weapons," said Ronald Bettauer, head of a U.S. delegation to talks on the treaty this week in Geneva.
"It was determined that the United States should support the initiation of a negotiation on cluster munitions within the framework of the convention," Bettauer said Monday.
The United States said November that it was opposed to a new treaty because it said there were sufficient controls on the weapon in existing treaties.
It said cluster bombs, used carefully, have important military uses, like attacking artillery positions or runways, armored columns and missile installations. Washington wants to limit the impact cluster bombs have on civilians and improve their accuracy.
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In the photo below, a CPI funded deminer prepares to remove a decades-old cluster munition in central Vietnam. CPI no longer funds demining work and instead focuses on victim assistance efforts.
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