LIMA CONFERENCE ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS

UNCLAS LIMA 001918 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PGOV SNAR PE SUBJECT: LIMA CONFERENCE ON CLUSTER MUNITIONS REF: THOMAS-BROOKS E-MAIL 5/23/07 ¶1. (U) Peru hosted a 108-nation conference on cluster munitions at the Sheraton Hotel in Lima, 5/23-25. Peruvian Vice Minster of Foreign Relations Ambassador Gonzalo Gutierrez opened the event, which was dedicated to promoting an eventual international agreement that would ban the production, transfer, storage and use of cluster munitions. The meeting also dealt with setting up mechanisms to help in the rehabilitation of victims of cluster bombs. Peru is one of six countries, including Norway, Austria, Mexico, Ireland and New Zealand, that have been pushing for a global ban. ¶2. (U) Most publicity on the conference focused on a U.S. citizen participant, Nobel Prize-winning anti-mine activist Jody Williams. Williams gave several press interviews in which she criticized the United States for using cluster munitions in various conflicts, citing the collateral damage that the weapons cause to civilians when bomblets do not explode upon use, but remain a latent threat to civilians, particularly to children. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The conference did not make major waves in the media. In general, this is not a high-profile issue for a Peruvian public, parts of which have become inured to harsh measures taken in warfare against terrorists from Peru's experiences in the 1980s-1990s. STRUBLE