PHNOM PENH, April 6, 2011 (AFP) - A global campaign group on Wednesday condemned Thailand's alleged use of cluster munitions against Cambodia during recent heavy fighting on their shared border.
The Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) said it had investigated and verified Cambodian government claims that the deadly
weapons had landed on its territory in four days of unrest between the neighbours in early February.
The group, which campaigns against the bombs, also said the Thai ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva had confirmed the use of cluster munitions in a meeting on Tuesday.
"The ambassador said Thailand used cluster munitions 'in self-defence', using the principles of 'necessity, proportionality and in compliance with the military code of conduct'," it said in a statement.
"It's appalling that any country would resort to using cluster munitions after the international community banned them," added CMC director Laura Cheeseman.
Thai officials were not immediately able to confirm or deny the ambassador's comments.
In August last year the Convention on Cluster Munitions came into effect, requiring signatories to stop the use of the weapons, but neither Thailand nor Cambodia have signed the treaty.
CMC said the Thai-Cambodian conflict was the first confirmed use of cluster munitions anywhere in the world since the convention became international law.
It added that a cluster bomb had killed two Cambodian policemen during the February clashes and warned that thousands of people remained at risk from unexploded bomblets in several villages along the northern border.
Launched from the ground or dropped from the air, cluster bombs split open before impact to scatter multiple bomblets over a wide area. Many fail to explode and can lie hidden for decades.
