Clearing mines

Lebanese women of the Swedish Rescue Service Agency search for cluster bombs east of the Lebanese port city of Tyre Feb. 22. During the 34-day conflict last summer, Israel is believed to have dropped more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon. Typically, cluster bombs open in midair and scatter dozens or hundreds of submunitions or bomblets over a wide area. A percentage do not explode and can remain a threat for many years. They pose a particular danger to children, as they are easily attracted to the bomblets' bright, colorful casings, mistaking the volatile explosives for toys. In Geneva last month, a Vatican representative to a meeting about a proposed international ban on "inhumane weapons" urged governments to prohibit the production, possession, trade and use of cluster bombs and bomblets. No government interested in human rights would allow cluster bombs in its army's arsenal, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

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