More than a dozen financial companies based in European states, Japan, and Canada invest in major cluster bomb producers, in violation of an international treaty prohibiting their production that has been ratified by their home countries, a report says.
Investment in companies that produce cluster bombs continues to grow despite an international agreement banning the use and production of such munitions that has been signed by more than 100 nations to date, a Netherlands-based NGO called PAX noted in its latest report on the issue.
Over the past four years, the total volume of investment in cluster bomb producers amounted to $31 billion, while the total number of investors reached 166 financial institutions, the report published on Tuesday says .
Investment sharply increased between 2016 and 2017, jumping by $3 billion.
Cluster bombs are banned under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) , an international treaty adopted on May 30,2008, which entered into force on August 1,2010. So far, it has been signed by 119 countries, of which 101 have ratified it. Madagascar became the 101st nation to ratify the CCM on May 20.
The convention explicitly prohibits the use, production, transfer, or stockpiling of cluster munitions, as well as facilitating any of those activities.
Cluster munitions, which are dropped by air or fired by artillery, scatter hundreds of explosive submunitions, or bomblets, across a wide area, causing indiscriminate damage. The bomblets often remain unexploded on or in the ground, where they can kill or cripple civilians long after being dropped.
The PAX report, entitled ‘Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions; a shared responsibility’ , examined investments in six major cluster bomb manufacturers: US companies Orbital ATK and Textron, as well as China’s Norinco and China Aerospace Science and Industry, and South Korea’s Hanwha and Poongsan.
The NGO found that most investors are not from countries that signed the CCM, with 85 of 166 from the US. As many as 30 financial institutions that fund cluster bomb production are located in China and another 27 are based in South Korea.
