The banks and the cluster bombs

UK banks are still funding the dangerous weapons outlawed by many countries…

 

© Cluster Munition Coalition

 

We’re all used to hearing news stories about the banks, and it has become rather fashionable to complain about them. Banker’s bonuses. Government bailouts. They caused this mess. All legitimate complaints. Financial institutions are responsible for something more sinister however, and though covered by some sections of the media, it isn’t exactly appearing on the six o’clock news or causing angry Five Live listeners to call radio phone-ins and lament the injustice of it all.

According to Amnesty International 98% of all cluster bomb victims are civilians, and a third of those children. They can be dropped from planes or fired as shells, showering the ground with hundreds of “bomblets” which are scattered over a wide area. Human Rights Watch has described them as “unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons.” Many fail to explode immediately and lie on the ground for years….decades even.

Ask the people of Laos, the most heavily cluster bombed country in the world following the Vietnam War. The result is 300 fatalities a year. Wait… but wasn’t the Vietnam War ages ago?? Yes, it finished in 1973. Almost four decades later, people who weren’t even born then, and even those whose parents weren’t born then, are being hurt by bombs dropped in the USeffort to prevent smuggling through Laosand Cambodiaalong the “Ho Chi Minh Trail.”

Ask the people ofLebanon. When Israel left Lebanon after the 2006 incursion, it had dropped a staggering 4 million cluster bombs, and an estimated 40 per cent remained unexploded. In the six months after the ceasefire, around 200 civilians were killed or injured by unexploded bomblets. An Israeli Defence Force commander told Israeli newspaper Haaretz,

what we did was insane and monstrous; we covered entire towns in cluster bombs.

In August last year, the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions came into force, banning the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of the weapons. It now has 110 signatories, including the UK. There are of course many notable (and predictable) omissions, including Israel, the United States,Russia, and China.

Despite the convention having the UK Government’s support, British high street banks have for a long time been lending money to manufacturers that produce these abhorrent weapons, therefore profiting from arms that primarily kill civilians, many of whom are children.

There is room for optimism however. Recently Amnesty International launched a campaign, calling for banks to end this practice. Since then, more than 10,000 people are said to have emailed RBS chief executive Stephen Hessler to demand that the bank stops investing in companies that produce the munitions. Members of the public also contributed towards an advertising campaign due to be released later this month. Amnesty believes that it was the threat of this campaign that turned the tables, and on 1 September RBS declared it would stop investing in the companies.

There is still work to do with Lloyds TSB, Barclays and HSBC all named as businesses that have provided funding for the makers of cluster munitions. The initial success of the Amnesty campaign shows what can be achieved when banks feel threatened with (further) humiliation, and provides hope the others will follow the example of RBS.

 

Paul Hunt writes on subjects including international relations, human rights and international development, you can find him on Twitter @PaulJ_Hunt

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