The dangers of cluster munitions

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Cluster bombs are unpredictable, due to their mechanisms and high failure rate. When submunitions explode, they project hundreds of shrapnel fragments, which are capable of killing or severely injuring anyone close to, or even at a distance from, the blast.

Unlike landmines, which are designed to maim rather than kill, cluster bombs contain more explosive power and metal fragmentation, making them more likely to kill and to cause multiple casualties.

In many countries accidents occur when people attempt to move unexploded ordnances out of economic necessity, curiosity or social responsibility. Civilians have to clear land for farming and housing or to prevent children from playing with them. In poor communities, it is common for civilians to salvage military debris like cluster munitions for their saleable scrap metal.

Their interesting shape, size, and sometimes, bright colour make cluster bombs especially attractive to children. In most contaminated countries, the majority of victims are children. 

Human Consequences

• People - mainly children - lose lives and limbs through cluster bombs every day.
  The fragments of exploding submunitions travel at high velocity. When they strike they set off people pressure waves within the body, which do horrific damage to soft tissue and organs. Even a single   fragment can rupture the spleen, or cause the intestines to explode. If a victim survives the accident, they may suffer from a variety of injuries including loss of limbs, burns, puncture wounds, ruptured eardrums, and blindness.
• A weapon more likely to kill than maim the victim
• A weapon designed to terrorise
• Psychological trauma for the victim and his/her family
• Orphaned children
• Increase in the number of disabled people in impoverished countries

Social consequences

• Injured and disabled, the victim cannot play an active role in society
• The victim may not be able to get married, have children or find a job, especially in traditional rural areas
• Loss of identity
• Stigma / Exclusion from the community
• An accident will also affect relatives of the victim both economically and psychologically

Financial consequences

• Loss or decrease of income
• Relatives of the victim may have to stop working to look after him / her
• Expensive medical treatment, which most people cannot afford. Either the victim doesn’t get treatment or the family have to sell all their possessions
• People starving as fields are impossible to use
• Affects the national economy: costs of rehabilitation services, fewer accessible fields (most developing countries rely heavily on revenues from agriculture)

Environmental consequences

• Pollution of fields, roads and water points
• Housing problems: new lands contaminated by cluster bombs or displaced people unable to return home
• Reduced access to services, such as hospitals, schools, electricity supply