"They are an attractive tool for the inexpensive spreading of death," explains William M. Arkin, the chief military consultant to Human Rights Watch, which issued a report about the danger of duds titled "Ticking Time Bombs." The report states that the actual dud rate, as measured in the Gulf War, was close to a quarter of the bomblets, over four times the official Air Force estimate. Arkin said duds result from a variety of reasons and that their fuse work is often shoddy. He added that the cluster bombs have "Gameboy-like electronics," in an effort to create widescale destruction at minimum costs.

With approximately 1,100 bombs dropped over Yugoslavia, there may be tens of thousands of duds lying in the former battlefields. The world got a dramatic look at the sort of damage these bomblets can cause when in June, two British Gurkha peacekeepers died while collecting unexploded bomblets from a schoolhouse in Negrovce. The explosion was so fierce that no part of their bodies could be found.

Yesterday, the London Guardian reported that four Serbian children died and two more were seriously injured in Mogila when a bomblet they had discovered detonated.

And so, in the aftermath of the bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, the final deaths have not been counted. Hiding in the countryside is American and British munition destined to kill.

This may seem a familiar story. "Cluster bombs obviously have effects similar to land mines," said Marissa A. Vitagliano, coordinator for the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines. "We abhor them." Vitagliano agreed the situation is hauntingly reminiscent of the damage inflicted by the fields of abandoned land mines that remain around the globe.

And her organization should know about the gravity of these issues: it helped found the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its work.

Vitagliano said her organization, in light of recent events, considered adding cluster bombs to its international treaty in progress. But, citing the current opposition of the United States to the land mine treaty, among other reasons, she said it would not be feasible at this time. However, Vitagliano did say that "one of the fears is [that] as the mine ban treaty becomes universalized other countries may see cluster bombs as a replacement."

"What we have learned with land mines is that they have legitimate military uses, but our day-to-day experience is overwhelmed by the irresponsible uses of mines," Arkin said. He said that international pressure--alongside effective military alternatives--made the land mine treaty possible.