The Ban Bus

MEDIA RELEASE

Greece is being urged to join the global fight to help save innocent lives, with the arrival in the country of The Ban Bus.

Setting out from Belgrade six days ago, The Ban Bus will travel 10 thousand kilometres through Europe and arrive in Oslo to coincide with the signing of the world’s most significant disarmament and humanitarian treaty in more than a decade, in December. Already the team on board has met with Cluster Munition survivors and witnessed the devastating effects these weapons have had on their lives.

The Convention on Cluster Munitions will outlaw these horrific weapons and ultimately reduce the suffering of innocent men, women and children.

Once fired, cluster bombs break open in flight and spray numerous smaller submunitions, or bomblets, making them highly inaccurate. Even civilians not killed or maimed in the attack are still at risk from cluster bombs, because in many cases the submunitions fail to detonate and explode later when they are accidently disturbed.

It’s estimated one third of the world’s cluster bomb victims are children, but despite this the government of Greece is yet to endorse the treaty.

So far more than 100 of the world’s governments have agreed to sign the treaty in December, but even as The Ban Bus rolls into Athens, the Greek government is maintaining an unwillingness to be a world leader on this vital issue.

“We have found that many governments have been willing to listen to their populations on this, some countries that wouldn’t support the ban initially are now supporters purely because of public pressure and hopefully our visit to Greece will show the politicians here that people want them to step-up and help save innocent lives,” says Ban Bus co-founder, John Rodsted.

As a veteran photojournalist and long time campaigner, John Rodsted has seen the horror of these weapons across the globe, “It makes me angry that a handful of governments are putting this weapon ahead of the lives of ordinary people, the government of Greece has a chance to make the world a safer place for innocent men women and children and they need to do the right thing now.”

John’s partner on this trip, Mette Eliseussen, has also seen the effects of these weapons on the ground, “Cluster bombs don’t discriminate, they kill and maim the innocent wherever they’re used, many governments are now saying enough is enough and Greece needs to join that long list of nations.”

“This isn’t about defending ourselves, because as a weapon cluster bombs aren’t particularly effective, it’s been proved around the world that they often do more harm to civilians than military targets, so why would the government even want to keep them in our country’s arsenal?” says Dimitros Botsos, Director of Amnesty International Greece.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

- Friday 1pm: Media Conference and Ban Bus Public Street Action: Megaron Mousikis

CONTACTS:

In Greece and on the bus: Daniel Barty, +381 61 233 1169, media (at) thebanbus.org

In Greece: Dimitros Botsos, Amnesty International Greece, +3069 365 05543, director (at) amnesty.org.gr

In London: Natalie Curtis, Cluster Munition Coalition: +44 (0) 20 7820 0222 or + 44 (0) 7515 575174, Natalie (at) stopclustermunitions.org