"Ready-to-fire delivery" is the headline of an advertising brochure from Finnish arms manufacturer Patria Weapon Systems. Here Patria writes that they offer the weapon 120 MOCA to their customers.

Mark Hiznay is a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's weapons department, based in Washington DC.
- 120 MOCA is clearly a cluster bomb, says Hiznay to Ny Tid.

Patria Weapon Systems and the Norwegian state each own fifty percent of the ammunition manufacturer Nammo. In addition to the ammunition factory at Raufoss, Nammo is involved in operations at Løkken Verk near Trondheim, and in Aurskog.

Patria's communications manager, Satu Palm, confirms to Ny Tid that the company offers the weapon 120 MOCA to its customers.
- This is a new type of ammunition, and it has not yet been put into serial production. 120 MOCA's self-destruct mechanism and the other security mechanisms are designed to meet the strict requirements of the Finnish Ministry of Defense, says Palm. She rejects that this weapon is a cluster bomb.

Mark Hiznay knows about the self-destruct mechanism Palm refers to.
- It is not approved in the new convention, he says. The Class Weapons Convention to which Hiznay refers must be signed in Oslo 3. December, and is a prestige project for the Norwegian government.

"Passively dealing with the emergence of this type of ammunition is contrary to the humanitarian law's requirement to distinguish between warring and civilian," Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said ahead of the Dublin negotiations in May this year, which resulted in an international ban.

Several countries, including Finland, have not yet decided whether they will come to Oslo to sign the agreement in December. Grethe Østern is an adviser to Norwegian People's Aid and has worked extensively with cluster munitions issues. She is only surprised when Ny Tid reports that the Norwegian state is a business partner with a cluster munitions manufacturer.
"It is simply sad that the government, which has worked so hard to put the ban on cluster munitions in place, gets this issue in the hands," says Østern.

She agrees with Mark Hiznay that the self-destruct mechanism does not exempt this weapon from being banned under the Cluster Weapons Convention.

The 107 countries that adopted the Cluster Weapons Convention in Dublin refused to enter exceptions for weapons with self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms.
- Improved technology will never be a good enough solution to this problem, says Østern.

- Finland is unlikely to sign

The Finnish state owns 73 percent of Patria. It is still uncertain whether Finland will sign the Cluster Munitions Convention, says Pentti Olin, senior adviser at the Finnish Ministry of Defense to Ny Tid. He acknowledges that 120 MOCA is a cluster munition.
- Is it acceptable for Patria to produce cluster munitions as long as Finland has not signed the cluster bombing ban?
- Yes, it is not a problem that Patria offers 120 MOCA now, but if Finland decides to sign the treaty, this will change, says Pentti Olin.

Lately, Finnish media have written extensively about Patria, but not because of the cluster gun debate. The Finnish weapons company is involved in a corruption scandal that is now being rolled up. Patria is accused of bribing politicians in Slovenia and Egypt to buy them Finnish weapons. Chief Executive Jorma Wiitakorpi has resigned and several employees have been arrested. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa is also involved in the case.

In addition, the tragic school shooting episode has led to yet another gun-related debate. Consequently, the cluster weapons convention has received little attention.
- I doubt that Finland will sign the convention, says Oili Alm, editor of the Finnish peace movement's magazine.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen has stated that the government will make a balanced assessment, and then sign the treaty if it improves the security situation for Finland, and if not, let it be.

Finnish Defense Chief Admiral Juhani Kaskeala believes it will cost Finland more than one billion euros to exchange cluster weapons to defend the 1300-kilometer border with Russia.

- It is difficult to say where the border goes

Gro Nystuen heads the Petroleum Fund's ethics council, is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, and has been involved in preparing the text of the new cluster munitions convention. Ny Tid spoke to her before we had documentation that Patria offers cluster munitions.

- The Norwegian arms industry and arms manufacturers, which are partly owned by the Norwegian state, are part of a number of different ownership constellations, and more or less binding forms of cooperation with other, foreign arms manufacturers. Where is the limit for what the state and Norwegian companies can and cannot do in relation to the new cluster munitions convention?

- It is difficult to give a general answer to this question, and we will probably have to look in practice exactly where the border will go, Nystuen answers.

She believes that if Norwegian ownership interests have decisive authority over a decision to produce cluster weapons, it is likely that this will be affected by the new treaty.

- But the case with Aker Kvaerner and Guantanamo shows that it will take some time before charges are brought in cases concerning companies' liability for participation.

However, there may be cases that will not lead to any legal reaction, but which can nevertheless be highly controversial, politically speaking, says Nystuen on a general basis, without knowing the Patria case.

Norway needs to clean up

Both Mark Hiznay and Grete Østern believe the Norwegian government must now clean up.
- This will be an unpleasant and difficult case to handle. But there should be a way to clean it up, says Østern. She compares the case to having a brother-in-law in the family engaged in illegal activity.

- It is not okay to just turn a deaf ear, says Østern.

Mark Hiznay in Human Rights Watch thinks it will be embarrassing for the Norwegian government if this problem is not resolved before the ceremony in Oslo on December 3.

- The Norwegian government must find out what they are involved in and end the cooperation with cluster munitions manufacturers, he says.

The Convention will come into force for the States that have acceded to it, six months after the 30th State signs. Exactly what this means for the states that have joined, and their ownership of the entangled weapons industry, remains to be seen.

- Unfortunate for Norway

The government will not take any action against co-owner Patria Weapon Systems.
- The government distances itself from any type of production or distribution of cluster munitions that is prohibited in accordance with the convention that was negotiated in Dublin in May, says BjørnSvenungsen, communications adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

- It is unfortunate that a part owner of a Norwegian company invests in a product with unacceptable humanitarian consequences, and for which there is no longer a market. This is a concern Patria's owners should address, he concludes.

State Secretary Øyvind Slåke in the Ministry of Trade and Industry replies that the Norwegian state does not have business or product cooperation with Patria.
- Mark Hiznay in Human Rights Watch says that the Norwegian government must end cooperation with cluster munitions manufacturers. Is it acceptable for the government to continue such close cooperation with a cluster munitions manufacturer?

- Patria must consider its ownership in Nammo. We can not decide anything on our part. The government emphasizes long-term ownership in Nammo to support good industrial development and maintain head office functions at Raufoss.