Human rights groups accuse MoD of hypocrisy over cluster bombs

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Source: The Guardian

· Weapon reclassified to escape ban, say critics
· Unexploded munitions are threat to civilians

Humanitarian organisations accuse the Ministry of Defence today of reclassifying one its newest weapons to escape an expected world ban on cluster bombs.
The MoD last year described the Hydra CRV-7 system, which delivers a number of bomblets from a helicopter-mounted rocket pod, as a cluster weapon.

Later in the year, Margaret Beckett, then foreign secretary, said the government did not consider the weapon fell within the term "dumb", because virtually all the bomblets exploded on impact. Des Browne, the defence secretary, announced earlier this year he had banned the use by Britain's armed forces of "dumb" cluster bombs. He said Britain would deploy only cluster bombs which had a self-destruct mechanism.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,2171521,00.html