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Letter TO President OBama May
6, 2009 The Honorable Barack Obama President of the United States of America 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President, Thank
you for stating through your spokeswoman last December that your administration would review the previous
government’s decision not to participate in the global treaty banning cluster munitions, then being
signed by America’s closest allies. Before you begin this review, we would like to request that you
meet with three victims of cluster munitions: Lynn Bradach from the United States, Raed Mokaled from Lebanon
and Soraj Ghulam Habib from Afghanistan. May 30, 2009 will mark the one year anniversary
of the adoption by more than 100 countries of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans production,
stockpiling, transfer and use of these weapons. Although the U.S. government did not attend the treaty
negotiations last year, victims of these weapons did. They lobbied governments to develop and support a
strong treaty, one that seeks to end the use of unguided, inaccurate cluster munitions, which cover a very large area with deadly shrapnel at the time of use and leave behind hundreds to hundreds of
thousands of unexploded cluster submunitions that threaten civilians far into the future. The reason that
the world community responded to their call is vividly illustrated by their personal stories. Soraj
Ghulam Habib was 10 years old in December 2001, when he picked up a yellow BLU-97 submunition on the ground
of a public park in Herat, Afghanistan, thinking it was a can of food. It exploded, killing two of his
cousins and tearing off both of his legs. Raed Mokaled’s 5 year old son Ahmad was killed by a decade-old
submunition that he found in a park in Nabatiyah, southern Lebanon, on his fifth birthday. Lynn Bradach’s
son Travis, a U.S. Marine corporal trained in explosives ordnance disposal, was killed in Karbala, Iraq
in July 2003 while clearing unexploded U.S. cluster submunitions from a farmer’s field. They—and
we—believe that U.S. participation in this treaty would reaffirm and underscore your government’s
commitment to ensuring that protection of civilians is a top priority in the conduct of foreign affairs,
particularly to those regions of the world that have, in recent years, suffered a great deal from this
weapon. They would welcome a chance to discuss this issue with you at your convenience to help your government begin a period of balanced reflection on this issue. With our highest regards, Wendy Batson Executive Director
Benedict XVI is making an urgent appeal to the whole international community to ban anti-personnel
mines and cluster bombs. The Pope made this request today before praying the midday Angelus in St. Peter's Square. He
recalled the United Nations' 4th International Day for Mine Awareness, observed each year on April 4. This awareness day,
the Pontiff noted, has great importance ten years after the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines entered into effect
March 1, 1999. The signing of the treaty banning cluster bombs took place in Oslo on December 3, 2008. "I would like
to encourage the countries who have still not yet done so," he said, "to sign without delay these important instruments
of international humanitarian law, which the Holy See has always supported." "Moreover, I express my support for
any measure intended to guarantee necessary assistance for the victims of these devastating weapons," the Holy Father
added. **************************************************************
Dear peacemaker, The path to banning cluster bombs leads through Lansing, Columbus,
and Indianapolis. If senators from Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana support a cluster bomb ban, the next administration and Congress
are more likely to join the rest of the world in banning these bombs that keep on killing, years after they are dropped. The
United States is the world's largest producer, exporter, and stockpiler of cluster bombs.
That's why FCNL's Lora Lumpe spent two weeks this month driving a wheel-chair-accessible
van around the Midwest. She organized this tour because FCNL wanted people in these key states to hear the stories of the
17-year-old Afghan boy who lost his legs, the Lebanese father whose five-year-old son was killed by these weapons, and the
mother of a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq cleaning up cluster bomblets that the United States dropped.
Lora's
cluster bomb tour succeeded. Now we need your help to sustain FCNL's effort back on Capitol Hill. In FCNL's 65th anniversary
year on the Hill, will you make a special contribution of $65, $650, or $6,500 to help our uphill work for peace? With your partnership, we can ban cluster bombs.
FCNL's tour resulted in a city council
resolution urging a cluster bomb ban, many public events, and media coverage across the Midwest. It touched the hearts and
minds of more than a thousand people including representatives of the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and other religious
communities, local elected officials, Arab Americans, Quakers, and college and high school students.
In each state
Lora urged local leaders to reach out to their senators, and she explained why their particular senators need to act. Because
of their committee positions and respect among their colleagues, Sens. Carl Levin, Richard Lugar, and George Voinovich could
all be leaders in winning bipartisan support in the Senate for the cluster bomb ban.
Lora and her team
need your help to sustain this work. In FCNL's 65th anniversary year on the Hill, will you make a special contribution of $65, $650, or $6,500 to help our uphill work for peace?
Lora is also paying attention to the next administration. The Midwest tour included a stop at Barack
Obama's campaign headquarters to meet with a sympathetic military and foreign policy advisor to the campaign. Here in
Washington, she's reached out to John McCain'scampaign. Cindy McCain, John's wife, is on the board of directors
of a group that specializes in removing landmines.
The cluster bomb ban still has powerful opponents in the United
States. While the military leaders of more than half the world, including most U.S. NATO allies, have agreed to ban these
indiscriminate weapons, the Pentagon insists the United States needs to keep them in its arsenal until at least 2018.
None of us can predict what the next president will do, but FCNL will make every effort to ensure that he and Congress understand
these issues and are ready to act for human security.
Your contribution today will make a real difference.Can you make a special, secure online contribution of $65, $650, or $6,500 to help FCNL continue this work to ban cluster
bombs?
Thank you,
Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
P.S. Read the stories the tour participants told audiences across the Midwest, and check out media coverage of the tour.
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