Thousands of emails have been sent to Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen's official email account protesting against cluster bombs, the prime minister's office said Wednesday, Since Tuesday, some 50,000 e-mails were sent to the premier's account, Hannu Kuikka, director general of the preparedness department in the prime minister's office told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa. Kuikka said the emails were sent from foreign-based servers but he declined to specify which countries they were located in. The messages were not always signed, he said, adding that as of Wednesday morning the incoming emails were blocked. Kuikka said while there had been similar campaigns earlier, none had been conducted "at this level." Finland is taking part at a conference in Dublin, Ireland, where delegates were discussing an international treaty to ban the bombs. Cluster bombs are large weapons that spread dozens and even hundreds of smaller bombs, often called bomblets, over a wide area. Critics have highlighted that unexploded bomblets pose a threat to civilians who risk being maimed or killed. The Finnish government has said it backs a ban of cluster munitions "without a fail safe mechanism" but has called for an "exemption for technically more advanced cluster munitions," likely triggering the flood of emails.
