The Ban Bus

Media release
21st November. The Royal Norwegian Embassy together with FOND, PATRIR and Red Cross Romania have organized today, at the Law Faculty in Bucharest, an information event on the occasion of an international advocacy and awareness raising campaign against the use of the cluster bombs « THE BAN BUS TOUR ». The Ban Bus is an advocacy initiative striving to achieve a ban on cluster bombs by the end of 2008, during an 8 week tour through European cities. The main speakers during the event were Mr. Øystein Hovdkinn, the Ambassador of Norway to Romania, the Ban Bus representatives, UN Information Centre Bucharest and Red Cross Romania representatives.
The final objective of the initiative - The Ban Bus Tour - is to convince as many European states as possible to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, when it will be ready for signing on the 3rd December 2008 in Oslo, Norway. Romania is being challenged to be a leader the world’s fight to help save innocent lives, with the arrival in the country of The Ban Bus. At the end of the trip, The Ban Bus Europe would have been passed through the following countries: Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Leetonia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Setting out from Belgrade at the beginning of October The Ban Bus is travelling 10 thousand kilometres through Europe and will 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, politicians, community leaders and residents of numerous countries in the region.

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. So far more than 100 of the world’s governments have agreed to sign the treaty in December. As The Ban Bus rolls into Bucharest, we trust that the government will decide to sign the treaty with the other countries during the ceremony on 3 December in Oslo.

As a veteran photojournalist and long time campaigner, Ban Bus co-founder 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 Romania 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.”

“We have found that many governments are 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 Romania will show the politicians here that people want them to step-up and help save innocent lives,” he says.

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 Romania needs to join that long and growing list of nations.”

“Currently Romania is listed as a producer and stockpiler of cluster bombs and that is a situation we should all be trying to change. These weapons have a terrible history of killing and injuring the innocent and now is the time for us to sign the treaty and condemn cluster munitions to history,” says Romanian Campaigner, Claudia Iatan.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

- 1000 am, Tuesday 21st October: Ban Bus Media Conference, Film Screening and Public Forum: University of Bucharest, Bd. M. Kog?lniceanu 36-46 Sector 5, cod 050107, Bucure?ti

CONTACTS:

In Romania and on the bus: Daniel Barty, +381 61 233 1169, media (at) hebanbus.org
In Romania: Claudia Iatan, Event Coordinator: +40 724 759 986, mc_cla (at) yahoo.com
Monica Popa, The Royal Norwegian Embassy, tel: + 40 722 656 018, mopa (at) mfa.no