BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The signing of an anti-cluster bomb treaty by officials of more than 100 countries at a conference in Beirut, Lebanon, marked a step forward, a delegate said.
The treaty is meant to eventually ban the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions worldwide, Bikya Masr reported Monday.
The United States, Russia and Israel, all countries that manufacture and stockpile cluster munitions, have yet to sign the treaty.
"We are moving forward but work is not even close to being finished until we get all countries to end this weapon of war," one delegate said.
Delegates who attended the conference last week got a first-hand look at the devastating results of cluster bombs.
"Many delegates who came here, diplomats who are used to going to Geneva, to New York and sitting in a room and looking at paper all day and debating resolutions … this is very a different experience for them to go down to meet the people who have been affected by cluster ammunitions," said May Wareham from Human Rights Watch.
The United Nations mission in Lebanon estimated up to 3 million unexploded cluster bombs, dropped over the country during a 2006 33-day war with Israel, remain in the southern part of the country.
