JBeukema
Rookie
- Banned
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BANGKOK A campaign to rid the world of cluster munitions has still to rope in the U.S. government, a major producer and stockpiler of the deadly payload, on the eve of a key global conference in Laos to ban its production and use.
The mixed messages that Washington has been sending are expected to hover over the historic cluster munitions conference to be held Nov. 9-12 in Laos, a poverty-stricken Southeast Asian country still grappling with the legacy of the bombs dropped by U.S. warplanes four decades ago.
Thus far, there are few signs that a U.S. government delegation will be attending the meeting as observers.
We are hoping they [the U.S. government] will send a delegation even at the last moment, says Thomas Nash, coordinator of the Cluster Munitions Coalition (CMC), a global network of civil society groups that have thrown their weight behind the worlds newest disarmament treaty, the Cluster Munitions Convention.