Kids against Clusters protest
Other things to do/campaigning materials
Information on cluster bombs and unexploded ordnance

KIDS AGAINST CLUSTERS PROTEST

Sunday August 17th 2003
Organised by Voices UK and Children Against the War.

Since the end of the war over 1000 children have been injured by weapons such as cluster bombs dropped by the US/UK, or by the thousands of tonnes of munitions stockpiled and abandoned by Iraqi forces in public buildings and residential areas (UNICEF press release, 17 July 2003). According to UNICEF' s representative in Iraq, Carol de Rooy, the US and Britain 'have a clear obligation under international law to remove these dangers from communities. ' Oxfam believes that 'cluster bombs... can by their very nature only be indiscriminate' and that their use is therefore illegal (Oxfam press release, 20 March 2003).

On Parliamant Square with anti-cluster bomb balloons from Landmine Action


Kids against Clusters outside Downing Street after delivering a letter to Tony Blair asking why cluster bombs are used when so many innovent people die and why they are not being cleared up.

more pictures

Other things to do:

If you would like to organise a similar action in your local area a free Cluster Bomb Action Pack (with sample leaflet, press release and media guide) is available from the Voices UK office.

Background information on cluster bombs and unexploded ordnance

Since the end of the war over 1000 Iraqi children have been killed or injured by unexploded US/UK cluster bomblets, or by the thousands of tonnes of munitions stockpiled and abandoned by Iraqi forces in public buildings and residential areas (UNICEF, 17 July 2003).

According to UNICEF’’s representative in Iraq, Carol de Rooy, the US and Britain ‘have a clear obligation under international law to remove these dangers from communities.’

US/UK cluster munitions – which the British Government has admitted to using in built-up areas in Iraq - killed over 200 Iraqi civilians during the war. Each cluster bomb contains about 200 bomblets which it disperses over a wide area. When the bomblets explode, they saturate the area with tiny flying shards of steel. ‘Landmine experts say that up to 10,000 separate [unexploded] cluster bombs and bomblets could be lying in cities, farmland and on the main road arteries across [Iraq]’ (Observer, 1 June 2003).

Oxfam believes that, ‘cluster bombs can by their very nature only be indiscriminate’, and that their use is therefore illegal (Oxfam, 20 March 2003).

For more information about the impact of cluster munitions, visit the Landmine Action web-site