[IMC-Boston-Dispatch] 08/02: Protest Cluster Bombs at Raytheon

[Sofia JarrinT]

    Demonstration on Thursday, August 2nd from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
  in downtown Waltham at Waltham Common in front of commuter
 rail station (Carter St.).to protest cluster bombs and manufacturer
 Raytheon.              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 July 18, 2007
 Contact: Marilyn Levin
 crisismiddleeast (at) yahoo.com
 http://www.middleeastcrisiscoalition.org
 
 RESIDENTS TAKE ON CLUSTER BOMB MANUFACTURER ON WAR ANNIVERSARY
 
 The Middle East Crisis Coalition announced today that it will hold a
 demonstration on Thursday, August 2nd from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
  in downtown Waltham at Waltham Common in front of commuter
 rail station (Carter St.).to protest
 Raytheon's manufacturing of weapons designed to indiscriminately kill
 all living things in a wide area.
 
 Raytheon, headquartered in Waltham, is the biggest missile
 manufacturer in the world, one of the world's leading manufacturers of
 cluster bombs, and ranks fourth in terms of military sales.
 
 Cluster bombs scatter "bomblets" that frequently do not
 explode (like landmines) and remain lethal when moved. One bomb can
 strike carpet an area as large as 250 acres. Many children have been
 killed or severely injured by the shiny battery-sized bomblets long
 after the fighting has ended. They are designed to kill and maim
 people, not to destroy enemy targets.
 
 Weapons that target civilians, like cluster munitions and landmines,
 meet the criteria for being banned by international law and the Geneva
 Conventions and their use can be called a "war crime". The United
 States won't support international efforts to ban their use, and is
 one of the primary users, suppliers, and stockpilers of these
 horrendous weapons. They have been exported to at least 27 countries.
 They were used in Afghanistan and Iraq. American bombs were sent to
 Israel and used in Southern Lebanon in 2006, where millions of
 unexploded ordinances make much of the area uninhabitable. American
 tax dollars pay for them.
 
 
 Protesters will gather in downtown Waltham on Thursday August 2nd
 from 5-7:00 pm to protest the government's use of cluster bombs and
 Raytheon's immoral profits from weapons of civilian death, not
 defense. The group will meet at Waltham Common in front of commuter
 rail station (Carter St.). The station is one block south of Main St.
 (Rte 20), just east of Moody St.
 
 Organizers say they are also calling for the US to: sign an
 international treaty to ban the production and use of cluster bombs;
 stop investment in cluster bomb manufacturers by US banks and
 investors; halt Raytheon's manufacturing of cluster bombs; and support
 legislation to prevent the use and export of these inhumane weapons.
 
 The group is supporting the legislation introduced by Senators Dianne
 Feinstein (CA) and Patrick Leahy (VT) and passed 6/28 by the Senate
 Appropriations Committee and S594, the Cluster Munitions Civilian
 Protection Act of 2007 and referred to the Senate Foreign Relations
 Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of
 Representatives.
 
 MIDDLE EAST CRISIS COALITION
 www.middleeastcrisiscoalition.org
 crisismiddleeast (at) yahoo.com                  See also:
    http://www.middleeastcrisiscoalition.org
       
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