Now Lebanon - Berri supports ridding world of cluster bombs - September 14, 2011

Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday that the setting of the conference of the signatories to the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions –  held this year in Beirut – is an opportunity to support ridding Lebanon and the world of cluster bombs.
“It is not possible to separate between Israel and fatal cluster bombs,” Berri said during a reception held for the participants in the conference.
The speaker added that Israel “is, on purpose, turning Lebanon into a country with a distorted economy.”
“Israel, during its war on Lebanon, violated our maritime borders, air space… and harmed the environment.”
Berri also voiced his support for international efforts that aim to issue an act to prohibit cluster bombs.
The United Nations estimates that Israel dropped four million bomblets over southern Lebanon in the final days of its deadly 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Since then, more than 50 people have been killed and 350 injured by cluster bomb explosions in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army says 67 percent of the affected lands have been cleared but 75 million dollars are still needed to render the country free of cluster bombs.
Hundreds of activists and officials from around the world gathered in Beirut Monday to rid the planet of cluster munitions, which have killed or maimed tens of thousands of people worldwide.
The conference, which runs through Friday, brings together representatives of 80 of the 107 countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which calls for the eradication of the deadly weapons.