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Cluster munitions are large weapons that open in mid-air and scatter widely in smaller submunitions, which usually number in the dozens or hundreds.

These munitions spread their contents over a large field, with a radius of up to 600 m. They can destroy broad targets like airfields and surface-to-air missile sites. They are also effective against targets that move or do not have precise locations, such as enemy troops or vehicles.

Cluster bombs carry up to 200 bomblets, each the size of a soft drink can.

Cluster bombs have been used over the last 60 years in about 17 countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan.

During the war against Iraq in 1991, Iraqi soldiers called this weapon “steel rain”.

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The submunitions are designed to explode on impact, which differentiates them from antipersonnel mines, which are designed to be activated by the victim.

However, when cluster bombs fail to explode as expected, they remain hazardous and will explode when touched or disturbed.

Cluster munitions are more dangerous for a number of reasons:

• There are large numbers of released submunitions. Nearly every cluster bomb will leave behind a significant amount of hazardous unexploded ordnance.
• Cluster munitions are even more volatile and difficult to clear and destroy than landmines.
• Cluster bombs are much more likely to cause death than injury, making them in facto more lethal than landmines.

• Most cluster bombs are unguided, so they can miss their mark, hit nearby civilian objects and disperse over an area that is not always predictable.

Military should not have the right to use arms they know have dramatic consequences against civilian populations, even after a conflict is over.