Afghanistan Says It Will Sign Cluster Bomb Treaty: Break with Bush administration

Source: New York Times

In a surprising last-minute change of policy, the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan agreed Wednesday to join about 100 nations signing a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions, Afghan officials said.

The decision appeared to reflect Mr. Karzai’s growing independence from the Bush administration, which has opposed the treaty and, according to a senior Afghan official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, had urged Mr. Karzai not to sign it.

“Until this morning, our position was that we were unable,” Afghan’s ambassador to Norway and the Nordic countries, Jawed Ludin, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday afternoon. “But given the persistent campaign by the various civil society organizations and victims,” he said, Mr. Karzai gave his authorization.

The news was greeted by raucous cheers and celebration in Oslo’s city hall, where the signing ceremony began Wednesday. Even though it is one of the nations that has most suffered the effects of cluster munitions, especially in terms of civilian casualties, Afghanistan had been a significant holdout from the treaty.

“It’s a huge deal because no one here was expecting it,” said Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Right Watch and a former Pentagon military analyst, in Oslo. A group of Afghan survivors of cluster bombs, most of them in wheelchairs or on crutches, burst into tears when they heard, he said....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/world/04cluster.html?hp=&pagewanted=all

:thumbsup:

:kick:

Good for Afghanistan.

By "rest of the world" I meant everyone else. Bush is in his own little world.

in the near future in Afghanistan. Seems when anyone in Iraq and Afghanistan do something that does not sit well with the Bush/Cheney cabal, the civilian casualties rise dramatically. imo


K&R for Karzai.

Good decision.

of course this is just one more area where a third world country outclasses the US. Hopeful PE Obama can start bringing back some respectability to this country.