KEY POINTS:
They're bright, shiny, glitter attractively in the sunlight, and cause terrible damage to ordinary people.
New Zealanders who have seen close-up the devastating impact of cluster munitions hope an international conference in Wellington this week will be a step along the way to seeing the weapons banned.
Red
Cross nurse Marianne Whittington first dealt with the victims of cluster bombs when working in Afghanistan in 2002.
"We started seeing injuries from cluster munitions, particularly amongst civilians. They are very attractive to children because of their bright colours ... I am very supportive of the Red Cross' stand against cluster munitions."
Lieutenant Commander Steve Lenik, who last year led a team of New Zealand troops to Lebanon to defuse cluster bombs dropped by Israel in their campaign against Hizbollah, calls the weapons indiscriminate. His team saw the bodies of people killed by the weapons and met the maimed.
"If it was a farmer or a herder, that was the end of their being able to generate a living for their family," Mr Lenik said.
"They are quite difficult to defuse. They are particularly sensitive munitions."
Some of the bombs fell on soft ground and became buried below the surface. Others were covered by overgrowing scrub and grass, effectively leaving southern Lebanon like a giant minefield.
An international treaty signed by 158 countries limits the use of landmines, and countries attending this week's conference are working towards a similar agreement against cluster munitions.
Around 120 countries will attend the five day conference, the fourth in a series of international meetings developing the framework for a treaty, due to be signed in Dublin this May.
The movement has snowballed from an initial meeting of 49 countries in Norway last year, and major munitions-making countries such as Britain, France and Germany will be at the Wellington conference.
However, major makers of cluster munitions such as the United States, Russia and China are not taking part, and neither is Israel, whose indiscriminate use of cluster mines in Lebanon two years ago kickstarted international efforts to ban them.
Countries which support efforts to ban cluster munitions hope nations which currently do not support the convention will be shamed into action by concerted international pressure.
The conference will discuss what types of cluster munitions should be covered by the convention. It will hear from victims of cluster munitions, and get updates on efforts to clear bombs from contaminated countries.
WHAT ARE CLUSTER MUNITIONS?
A bomb which fragments into lots of smaller bombs after it is fired. Millions of such bombs exist, with smaller bombs totalling in the billions.
HOW MANY COUNTRIES MAKE THEM?
34 countries are known to have made 210 different types of cluster munitions: 21 will be represented in Wellington. 76 countries have stockpiles of cluster munitions: 41 will be in Wellington. Some cluster explosives are used for peaceful purposes such as clearing avalanches, and will be exempt from the convention.
HOW MANY COUNTRIES HAVE THEY BEEN USED IN?
25 countries since they were first used, in World War 2. The weapons have a high failure rate, with around a quarter of bombs dropped not exploding on impact. Even modern bombs, which have self-destruct mechanisms, have a failure rate of around 10 per cent.
