Toespraak Verhagen bij de 'Convention on Cluster Munitions' (Engels)

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Gelegenheid: Convention on Cluster Munitions

On one of my recent visits to Afghanistan I met a young, likable, professional cameraman, Stan Storimans. On 12 August, I was shocked to hear that he, together with other innocent civilians, had died. A Dutch fact finding mission later confirmed that he was killed by a Russian cluster bomb.

The death of Stan Storimans really brought the truth home: cluster bombs kill. The recent use of cluster munitions in the conflict over South Ossetia and Abkhazia made clear once more the importance of our efforts to ban them. Not only did the use of these weapons, by both sides, kill innocent civilians. The unexploded submunitions will also remain a danger for innocent civilians, including women and children, for many years to come. I am deeply committed to continuing our efforts to ensure full adherence to international humanitarian law during conflicts and universal compliance with the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

This Convention, which we are signing here today, codifies the strongest possible norms. I am confident that it will attach such a stigma to cluster bombs that even countries that are not present today to sign it will think twice before using these weapons.

I believe the text agreed in Dublin, in view of the international context and other limitations, is an ambitious one:

- not only because it is an historic milestone in international humanitarian law;

- not only because we have expanded the definition of victims;

- but most of all – to quote a campaigner who has already left a mark on history – because we showed we can.

Despite all the different views from different countries, we reached agreement on the Convention on Cluster Munitions within a mere 22 months. Because we had a common understanding of the urgency of the problem.

We should not stop here. Negotiations on a new protocol on cluster munitions are still under way within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons. These efforts should continue.

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

In 2008 the Netherlands, through UNMAS and specialised NGOs, contributed 20 million euros to the clearance and destruction of explosive remnants of war. We intend to maintain this level of support. We have also begun destroying our stocks of cluster munitions. And we will start the process of ratifying the Convention right after the signing ceremony.

Let me conclude by thanking the members of the core group, and Norway and Ireland in particular, for launching the negotiations and steering the process in the right direction. I am proud that the Netherlands was part of the Oslo process from the beginning.

Thank you.