The Sierra Leone Action Network on Small Arms (SLANSA) and Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC) has held a day consultative meeting with Parliamentarians of the Defence and Human Rights Committees, at the China Friendship Hall in Freetown.
CMC Sierra Leone Focal Facilitator Abu-Bakarr Sheriff said that, the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) negotiated and adopted at the Dublin Diplomatic Conference on 30 May 2008 by 107 states, is a legally binding international treaty that prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions and is in accordance with international human rights and international humanitarian law.
He stated that, the convention would open for signature in Oslo on 3 December 2008 and would enter into force 6 months after the country has deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary General of the United Nations, who will be the depository for treaty.
He maintained that, the production, stockpiling, use and transfer of all cluster munitions are prohibited in all circumstances, including in international conflicts and conflicts of non- international nature; noting that, it also prohibited to assist, encourage or induce anyone in any activity prohibited by the convention.
The treaty, he said, requires states to destroy existing stockpiles within eight years and to clear contaminated land within 10 years.
In Africa, he disclosed that Egypt and South Africa are the only two Countries on the Continent known to have produced and exported cluster munitions in the past.
This poses a serious risk in Africa with the production of cluster munitions in these two countries, he said.
He urged Parliamentarians to ratify the document after it had been signed in Dublin to ban cluster munitions in Sierra Leone.
On their part, the Parliamentarians assured all that they would reinforce their effort in getting this document passed in Parliament without delay. They also raised the concern that CMC should target the manufacturers and producers of cluster munitions.
Alphonzo Gbanie, Director of Organization for Development and Human Rights said that, cluster munitions pose a high risk to civilians and a quarter of these causalities are children.
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