Switzerland has noted the US's decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine and urges states around the globe not to use them, Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told Sputnik on Monday
GENEVA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2023) Switzerland has noted the US's decision to supply cluster munitions to Ukraine and urges states around the globe not to use them, Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger told Sputnik on Monday.
"Switzerland has taken note of the measures by the United States. As a member state of the Convention on Cluster Munitions it supports the ban on these weapons and calls on all the states not to use them. Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks are banned and are a serious violation of the international humanitarian law," he said.
On July 7, media reported that US President Joe Biden had approved the provision of US cluster munitions to Ukraine and was expected to announce the move as part of a new $800 million military aid package. On Friday, Democratic US Reps. Sara Jacobs and Ilhan Omar introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act banning the transfer or sale of cluster munitions.
Cluster munitions are not equipped with self-destruction devices. According to the data of the US military, 5% to 14% of such munitions might not go off at all due to being stored for too long. Thus they could lie around for years similarly to land mines and pose a threat to the civilian population even after the end of the conflict.
Human Rights Watch said last week that supplies of such munitions to Kiev would inevitably lead to long-term suffering of the civil population and cancel out their international condemnation.
