Secret Deal Let Americans Sidestep UK Cluster Bomb Ban

The United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband signs the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008. Photo Credit: Gunnar Mjaugedal/catchlight.no

The recent release of State Department cables by Wikileaks verify that wherever the US military is located around the world, it undermines the rule of law and the democratic will of the people in the host country. The latest prominent example of how US militarism undermines the rule of law and the democratic will of the people in a country where the US military is located, is the disclosure that the United States is keeping cluster bomb munitions at bases on British soil in violation of a treaty signed by Great Britain banning the weapons.

The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, commonly referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty, was adopted on 18 September 1997. The Treaty then entered into force on 1 March 1999.

The Mine Ban Treaty prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines. It is the most comprehensive international instrument for eradicating landmines and deals with everything from mine use, production and trade, to victim assistance, mine clearance and stockpile destruction.

According to a Guardian article,

Leaked US embassy dispatches, David Miliband, who was Britain's foreign secretary under Labour, approved the use of a loophole to maneuver around the ban and allow the US to keep the munitions on British territory.

Unlike Britain, the US had refused to sign up to an international convention that bans the weapons because of the widespread injury they cause to civilians.

The US military asserted that cluster bombs were "legitimate weapons that provide a vital military capability" and wanted to carry on using British bases regardless of the ban.

Whitehall officials proposed that a specially created loophole to grant the US a free hand should be concealed from parliament in case it "complicated or muddied" the MPs' debate.

Gordon Brown, as prime minister, had swung his political weight in 2008 behind the treaty to ban the use and stockpiling of cluster bombs. Britain therefore signed it, contrary to earlier assurances made by British officials to their US counterparts.

The US had stockpiles of cluster munitions at bases on British soil and intended to keep them, regardless of the treaty.

The British military did not want the government to sign the Mine Ban treaty out of fear that the treaty would allow civilians in foreign countries like Egypt, where the British government dropped cluster bombs during the 1956 Suez conflict, to sue the British government. Despite opposition from the British military, the Mine Ban treaty was signed in 1997 and ratified by the British Parliament in 1998.

There are currently 156 States Parties to the treaty and the treaty is still open for ratification by signatories and for accession by those that did not sign before March 1999. States not party to the Mine Ban Treaty include China, Egypt, Finland, India, Israel, Pakistan, Russia and the United States. Ironically, Afghanistan is a country that has signed and ratified the treaty, but because the United States has not, the US can still use cluster bombs and mines in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan, which had suffered grievous civilian casualties from the continuing war on its territory, also unexpectedly signed up to the treaty in December 2008 "without prior consultation with the US government" and "despite assurances to the contrary from President Karzai".

Washington's reaction was to seek to convince the Kabul government that the US could still legally use cluster munitions on Afghan territory under the treaty, even if the Afghan regime itself could not.

The secret deal by members of the British Parliament to allow the US to transport and potentially use cluster bomb munitions from bases operated by the United Kingdom is the latest example of how secrecy and war undermine democracy.

The disregard and contempt by the United States military towards the wishes of British citizens mirrors similar actions by the United States military. In Japan the US military has balked at closing Marine Air Corp Base Futenma and the in Italy wthe US military and Italian government have disregarded the wishes of its citizens by refussing to stop the expansion of an Air Force base outside of Vicenza Italy.