HC Deb 17 January 2002 vol 378 cc405-6W
Harry Cohen

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he has been informed by his United States counterpart of the locations in which cluster bombs have been used by US armed forces in Afghanistan since the beginning of December. [26433]

Mr. Ingram

The US and UK have been in close political, diplomatic and military contact throughout the operations in Afghanistan. A wide variety of issues have been discussed, including the locations where cluster bombs have been dropped.

Tony Cunningham

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much progress was made at the Review Conference for the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to reduce the hazard to civilians from(a) cluster bombs in particular and (b) unexploded ordnance in general. [26047]

Mr. Ingram

The Review Conference of the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons agreed a mandate for a group of governmental experts to discuss ways and means to address the issue of explosive remnants of war and to submit recommendations at an early date to the State Parties to the Convention. The mandate covers consideration of all unexploded munitions, with a specific reference to sub-munitions, which include cluster bombs.

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