Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Virgil Wiebe, a law professor and consultant on cluster munitions, brought models of the small weapons along with large questions.

Virgil Wiebe holds models of bomblets as he talks with AMBS students and faculty. — Photo by Mark Gingerich/AMBS

A cluster bomb is about the size of a D battery, and 644 of them fit in one rocket cone, said Wiebe, theological center guest at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary Oct. 13-15. Between 5 percent and 30 percent fail to explode on impact and may kill or maim people years later.

Wiebe told the story of Raed and Ahmad. On Ahmad’s fifth birthday, while his family was enjoying a picnic, Ahmad found a cluster bomb. He was so badly injured when it exploded that his father, Raed, did not know what to do, even though he was trained by the Red Cross as an emergency responder. The son died several hours later.

Wiebe has served as a consultant to Mennonite Central Committee for 15 years, joining Titus Peach­ey, an activist in this area for 30 years.

Late in 2008, more than 100 countries adopted a treaty banning the use of cluster munitions. Wiebe acknowledged this as a victory but also recounted some unintended consequences.

“One of the good consequences that has come from the actions of MCC and other pacifist organizations is the influence on the larger church and society,” he said. “There is a push in the direction of peace even if others don’t join us in a Christian pacifist position.”

He recounted how an Air Force colonel confided that because of Wiebe’s writings on the subject the Air Force has been forced to do further study on the legality of cluster munitions. Although the United States did not sign the treaty, “it did make them take a closer look,” he said. He hopes his work contributed to reduced use of the bombs.

On the other hand, “we are causing them to build better bombs,” Wiebe said. Manufacturers are trying to design ones with a better rate of exploding immediately. In addition, the U.S. military has said, “If you don’t let us use these little bombs, we will use bigger ones in the same numbers,” he said.

Wiebe, who teaches at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, Minn., said that in the campaign against cluster bombs “we have had to learn the language of international humanitarian law, but it’s really the language of war. The challenge has been to be faithful to work in the name of Christ as double outsiders. We are outsiders like other humanitarian organizations. But we [Christian organizations] also are outsiders from those outsiders.”