Cluster Munitions Coalition

May 6, 2016

Human Rights Watch finds evidence of Textron cluster bomb in Yemen

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Focusing more sharply on Textron, a new Human Rights Watch report calls on the United States government and the Rhode Island-based conglomerate to stop selling cluster bombs. The report offers fresh evidence the Textron-made weapons – banned by 119 nations but not by the US – were used by Saudi Arabian forces in Yemen, injured civilians and malfunction more frequently than US trade law allows.

“The United States should cease its production and transfer of cluster munitions to conform with the widely accepted international ban on the weapons,” says the HRW report. Textron spokesman David Sylvestre declined to comment.

Textron-made cluster bombs injured a woman and two children in December, 2015 and two civilians in April, 2015, according to the report. HRW documents six separate locations where unexploded cluster bombs were found, most recently in February of this year.

The report also contains new proof that Textron-made cluster bombs malfunction more often than US trade law allows. US export law prohibits the use of cluster bombs in populated areas and only allows the sale of cluster bombs that malfunction less than 1 percent of the time, a rate HRW says Textron’s cluster bombs have not complied with.

“Following multiple attacks in Yemen, it is now obvious that Sensor Fuzed Weapons are not the ‘reliable’ or ‘intelligent’ cluster munitions they have been promoted as,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch and chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, the international coalition working to eradicate cluster munitions. “The US should cease production and transfer of these weapons following the evidence of their failures and their use in and near civilian areas and should join the international ban on cluster munitions.”

RI Future reporting on Textron and Rhode Island grassroots activism targeting Textron is cited in the HRW report.

In an RI Future article on February 24, 2016, a Textron spokesperson, David Sylvestre, asserted that the company cannot be held liable if the weapons are misused, reportedly stating: “We’re not in the plane dropping the bomb. If it was dropped in an area that is perhaps too close to a civilian population, that is not supposed to happen.” The report said that he affirmed that CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons are provided to the US military for delivery to foreign recipients, stating: “No company can put that on a boat and deliver it to a foreign government.”

Sylvestre described the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapons as “intelligent” munitions and said: “They are not intended to target human beings at all…. They are made to target armored-vehicles.” None of the CBU-105 attacks documented by Human Rights Watch in Yemen have involved armored vehicles nor have any damaged or destroyed armored vehicles been documented at the strike locations.

During an April 19 demonstration at Textron’s corporate headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island, Textron representatives apparently refused to receive a petition signed by more than 3,000 people calling on the company to cease its production of cluster munitions. Two days later, Rhode Island police arrested three activists who chained themselves to Textron’s front doors during a protest against the company’s production of cluster munitions.

Megan Burke, the director of the Cluster Munitions Coalition who participated in the April 19 demonstration outside of Textron headquarters in Providence, said in a news release, “The only way to ensure that no lives or limbs are claimed by cluster munitions in the future is to eliminate those weapons altogether. The United States should stop producing and exporting cluster munitions, and join the Convention.”

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here:

April 21, 2016May 6, 2016

Anti-cluster bomb activists arrested for chaining themselves to Textron building

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Peace activists chained themselves to Textron’s world headquarters in downtown Providence this morning, protesting the RI-based conglomerate’s role in supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.

Police arrested three activists who chained themselves to Textron’s front doors. Pia Ward, Mark Baumer and Lee Stewart used bike locks to chain themselves to Textron’s front entrances. They were handcuffed and placed in a van. An officer said they were being taken to the station to be processed.

“The climate change crisis demands that we end militarism and put those resources towards creating a better world for all, human and nonhuman alike,” said Ward in a prepared statement. “As a resident of Providence I don’t think we should accept a company like Textron who makes cluster bombs, kills civilians and profits off of death and conflict.” said Mark Baumer. “Fighting for my humanity in a country that produces and sells cluster bombs that kill innocent people means rejecting personal complicity by taking action,” Stewart said.

Providence fire fighters unscrewed door handles to remove the activists. They had construction-grade grinders on hand in case that didn’t work. At least two police cruisers and four fire vehicles responded. The activists disrupted traffic at the intersection of Westminster and Weybossett streets for at least 30 minutes. The entrance to Textron was blocked for at least 15 minutes before police arrived.

Textron has come under what the activists called “intense scrutiny” for its role in supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia. Human Rights Watch exposed in February that Saudi Arabia is using cluster bombs in areas populated by civilians in Yemen. Cluster bombs, which pose a danger to civilians, are banned by 119 countries but not by the United States. The US buys cluster bombs from Textron and sells them to Saudi Arabia.

RI Future was the first to report that Rhode Island-based Textron is involved in the growing international resistance to the US role in supplying Saudi Arabia with cluster bombs.

Senators Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, recently proposed new legislation that would halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia. A spokesman for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said he is evaluating the bill.

According to Providence Police Commissioner Steve Pare the activists are charged with vandalism and malicious mischief. They will be released today. The activists asked that donations to support them be made here.

This post will be updated.

Steve Ahlquist contributed to this report.

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here:

April 19, 2016April 19, 2016

Peace activists call attention to Textron cluster bombs

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Peace activists took to the sidewalks in front of Textron’s world headquarters in downtown Providence yesterday to protest the conglomerate for making and selling cluster bombs.

“These weapons should never be used,” said Megan Burke, the director of the Cluster Munitions Coalition who traveled to Rhode Island for the event. “They are a relic of the past and they have no place in the modern world. And yet the United States government buys them from Textron and sends them to Saudi Arabia. What does Saudi Arabia do with them? They drop them over the capital city in Yemen where they hit hospitals, they hit schools, they hit marketplaces and the kill and injure civilians.”

Textron’s cluster bombs, one of the world’s most controversial weapons of war, made international news recently after Human Rights Watch exposed that Saudi Arabia is indiscriminately using them in Yemen. Cluster bombs are outlawed by 119 nations, but not by the United States which buys them from Textron and sells them to Saudi Arabia.

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here:

“Right now Textron is fulfilling an order fom the US government to send to Saudi Arabia,” Burke said. “And this is after we already know how Saudi Arabia is using these weapons. We have evidence, we have proof.”

She said Americans “need to tell our government that this needs to change. If we can convince our government that this needs to change, Textron won’t have a market.”

About 25 protesters stood in contemplative silence with signs, played joyous music and/or delivered impassioned speeches while Textron employees filed out of their office building.

“I don’t have an opinion on that,” one Textron employee said when asked about the anti-cluster bomb action targeting her employer. A Textron security guard watched the entire event, and threatened to have activists arrested if they attempted to deliver a petition with more than 3,000 names on it to Textron executives. There were four Providence police officers on hand.

The activists lamented the grip the military industrial complex has on the American and Rhode Island economy.

“I put it to you that whether you are a Democratic or Republican, a supply-sider or a bleeding heart welfare stater that the fat to trim is in the Pentagon,” said Bob Short, of PAX Christi, a Catholic peace group. “For not only is each dollar spent there a betrayal of our needs and hopes but each dollar spend there is a destabilizing influence on the order of things abroad. the cult of expertise and masters of war are not making us more safe but are making us less safe each day.”

He added, “Our discretionary military spending is nine times greater than our education budget [and] our health budget. No more! Our discretionary military spending is 50 times greater than our food budget. Not one dollar more!”

Pat Fontes, also of PAX Christi, broke down the economics of cluster munitions. By her estimates, each cluster bomb sells for about $700,00 and Saudi Arabia has bought close to $1billion worth of cluster bombs. She also described how cluster bombs work.

“Another one of the articles I read called these ‘heinously smart’ bombs,” she said. “If it hits the top of a tank it destroys it and it messes up the insides. That’s human beings. It messes up the insides. How much more revolting can you get? This is a shameful business they are in. I’m not proud to be an American.”

The great @Peter_Night. pic.twitter.com/v0Ae7cWzhs

— Bob Plain (@bobplain) April 18, 2016

At the @Textron protest. pic.twitter.com/kWQjRpanMW

— Bob Plain (@bobplain) April 18, 2016

Protest at @textron is now protesting @textron all over downtown #PVD. pic.twitter.com/Zybn0mQ4uU

— Bob Plain (@bobplain) April 18, 2016

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here:

April 15, 2016April 15, 2016

CODEPINK, peace groups join campaign against Textron cluster bombs

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Multiple peace groups are targeting Textron because the Rhode Island-based conglomerate provided cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia that were used in the conflict in Yemen, injuring civilians and contributing to a growing human rights catastrophe in the severely impoverished Middle Eastern nation.

CODEPINK, a female-organized anti-war group, the Cluster Munition Coalition, (ICBL-CMC) an international group that lobbies against cluster bombs, Pax Christi, a Catholic peace organization, the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, and others plan to protest at Textron’s world headquarters in Providence, 40 Westminster St., on Monday at 4:30.

“The only beneficiaries of Endless War have been the huge military industrial complex,” according to a news release from the groups. Textron, according to the release, “produces many pieces of the war machine.”

After a Human Rights Watch report detailed the dangers posed by cluster bombs used by Saudi forces in Yemen, RI Future reported that local RI business Textron made and sold the cluster weapons in question. Textron is one of only four private businesses in the world that still makes cluster bombs, and the only one in North America and recently sold cluster bombs to Turkey, Oman, United Arab Emerites, South Korea, India, Taiwan as well as Saudi Arabia.

Cluster bombs have been outlawed by 119 nations across the planet because of the indiscriminate harm they can cause to civilians during and after military conflicts. They are not banned by either the United States or Saudi Arabia.

“When these weapons are dropped, it is impossible to be sure they will not hit people’s homes or neighborhood. Each cluster munition contains many small submunitions- some of which do not explode when dropped,” said Megan Burk, director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition, who will speak at Monday’s action. “These unexploded submunitions act as landmines.”

CODEPINK recently started a petition asking Textron to end production of cluster bombs.

“We, the undersigned, call on Textron Industries and CEO Scott C. Donnelly to immediately cease all sales of munitions to Saudi Arabia,” it says. “Textron’s munitions have been part of a campaign that has caused the death of 3,000 innocent Yemeni civilians. It’s time for this to stop. Please immediately cease all weapons sales to Saudi Arabia to ensure that your products are not used to commit further atrocities.”

After protesting at Textron, the group plans to deliver a copy of the petition to Rhode Island’s congressional delegation. Most of the delegation has spoken out against the use of cluster bombs.

“Cluster munitions pose an unacceptable danger to civilians,” said Congressman David Cicilline. “I’ve advocated for restricting the use of these weapons in the past, and I’ll continue working to limit the risk they pose to civilians.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a co-sponsor of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, said, “Cluster bombs can take a terrible and lasting toll on civilians, which is why I’ve cosponsored legislation to restrict their use. I hope the Senate will take action on this bill to help protect innocent civilians from these dangerous weapons of war.”

Senator Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, “has supported efforts to limit the sale and transfer of cluster munitions and to ensure the use of more precise technologies to protect civilians,” according to spokesman Chip Unruh.

Read RI Future’s full coverage of Textron’s cluster bombs here: