The Bureau recommends an investigation by Amnesty TV into UK banks that invest in companies which manufacture cluster bombs.
In March this year, the UK introduced a law banning the manufacture, use or trade of cluster munitions – bombs which fragment into multiple smaller explosives, or ‘bomblets’. Although investing in cluster bombs is illegal under British law, banks remain able to invest in the arms companies that manufacture them.
According to Amnesty TV, HSBC, Barclays, RBS and Lloyds TSB continue to have financial relationships with companies such as Lockheed Martin and Textron, which manufacture cluster munitions. In an interview, a coalition government minster indicated to Amnesty TV that it had no intention of closing the loophole which permits this ‘indirect’ investment in cluster bombs.
The Cluster Munition Coalition, a campaigning group that opposes the use of the devices, told Amnesty TV that 98% of all cluster bomb victims are civilians, and one third of those are children.
Filmmaker Chris Atkins travelled to Laos to investigate the impact of cluster bombs, where an estimated 80 million cluster bombs dropped during the Vietnam war remain. Approximately one third of the smaller ‘bomblets’ that remain there are still dangerous.
For the full investigation, click here. For an opinion piece by the filmmaker, published in The Independent, click here.
