Vatican official: Growing number of countries favor cluster-bomb ban

Published: 2008-01-21

ROME (CNS) -- The tide is turning among a growing number of the world's diplomats and government officials in favor of a ban on cluster bombs, said a Vatican official. Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva, said, "The sensibility is increasing to be more reasonable and to spend less on military hardware." While the United Nations continues to negotiate proposals on cluster munitions, a separate treaty begun with the so-called Oslo process is making major progress, he said in a Jan. 21 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from his office in Geneva. During the Jan. 14-18 negotiations in Geneva on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the archbishop called the use of these munitions "unacceptable" and urged nations to pay the price of peace and eliminate stockpiles of such weapons.

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