UN: Israel cluster bomb use in Lebanon ‘Outrageous’

[Scurrilous]

Organization’s humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon says ‘most bomblets were fired by the time the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of Resolution 1701’; adds: it seems to me extraordinary that they were fired off in the last hours of the war into areas where civilian populations were known to be going

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3305802,00.html

<snip>

"A UN official said on Tuesday that Israel dropped at least 350,000 cluster bomblets on south Lebanon in its war with Hizbullah guerrillas, mostly when the conflict was all but over, leaving a deadly legacy for civilians,.

“The outrageous fact is that nearly all of these munitions were fired in the last three to four days of the war,” David Shearer, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, told a news conference in Beirut.

“Outrageous because by that stage the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1701,” he said."

<snip>

"Shearer said Israel had not explained why it fired so many cluster bombs across the south as the war drew to a close. Nor had it responded to a UN Request for the map coordinates of the cluster bomb strikes to hasten clearance efforts.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has called Israel “Completely immoral” for using them in residential areas."

[mom cat]

1. Thanks for posting. Too bad it cannot be reccommended!

[Stockholm]

2. Important article

If I could I would recommend it.

[Solo_in_MD]

3. Usual uniformed Reuters puff piece

- Rockets were still being launched at Israel in that timeframe, so Shearer's claim that the conflict was nearly resolved are specious
- Cluster munitions are the preferred tactical means to take out artilery positions, including rocket launchers
- No indication whether or not there were rocket launches from that area
- Considering the legal gadflies gathering with misconduct complaints, I would not tell anybody anything if I was the IDF.


Couple of other observations:
- The claims a few days ago were millions of submunitions were used. Now its half that.
- 1701 is proving out to be useless as Hezbollah refuses to disarm
- The IDF is continuing to withdraw regardless

[Douglas Carpenter]

4. Amnesty International's Action Alert/RE: Cluster Munitions

"Lebanon: Cluster-bombs threaten civilian lives

Nineteen-year-old Hussein Qaduh, a student in accounting at the Beirut Islamic Technical Institute, was severely injured by a cluster bomb on 28 August in the southern Lebanese village of Soultaniye as he walked along a path in the village next to a football field.

Unexploded cluster bombs in south Lebanon - fired by Israel forces during the recent conflict - are threatening the lives of civilians, especially children. Numerous unexploded but still lethal bombs have been found in villages and even inside homes.

Following the conflict where an estimated 1,183 Lebanese people died – about one third of whom were children – Israeli cluster bombs are posing a terrifying threat to hundreds of thousands of civilians in post-conflict Lebanon. Children, such as six-year-old ‘Abbas Yusef Shibli, are particularly at risk. He picked up a cluster bomb while playing on 26 August, suffering multiple injuries for which he has so far undergone two blood transfusions.

Cluster munitions spread bomblets – small bombs - over a wide area, many of which do not explode on impact but remain live, and lethal. According to the UN Mine Action Coordination Center, more than 400 areas targeted in Israeli attacks are now contaminated with as many as 100,000 unexploded bomblets. Israeli forces carried out 90 per cent of their cluster bombs strikes In the last 72 hours of the 34-day conflict - when a ceasefire was in sight – according to a senior UN official.

Israel has so far failed to respond adequately to UN requests to hand over maps detailing the areas it targeted with cluster bombs. These are vital to assist bomb clearance and reduce the potential for further civilian casualties.

Take action!

Write to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and to the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Force calling for the immediate hand-over of Israeli maps to the UN to reduce the risk of unexploded cluster-bombs to Lebanese civilians.

link:

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/lbn-010906-action-eng

Dear Mr Peretz and Lieutenant-General Halutz,

I am writing to express concern that civilians in Lebanon, particularly children, are at risk of death or injury from cluster bombs fired by Israeli forces during the recent conflict.

I call on the Israeli authorities to take immediate action to hand over to the UN maps and other information detailing comprehensively and specifically the locations in Lebanon of cluster bombs and other unexploded ordnance were dropped, to enable the UN to coordinate the clearance of these devices.

Yours sincerely,"

You can copy and paste this sample letter into an e-mail or a document to print out. If you are planning to write your own appeal please read our letter writing guide. link: http://www.amnesty.org/campaign/letter-guide.html

Please send appeals to:


Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence
Amir Peretz
Ministry of Defence, 37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel

Fax: + 972 3 691 6940 / 3 696 2757 / 3 691 7915

E-mail: [e-mail]; [e-mail]; [e-mail] "

[Scurrilous]

5. Victim Of The Lebanon Cluster Bombs

'I saw a little cylinder in the plants. It was brightly coloured so I began playing with it. Then it suddenly blew up. I could see bits of my hand on the floor. It was pain I could not believe possible ..'

<snip>

"A Boy whose hand and arm were blown apart by a cluster bomb in Lebanon has been brought to Britain for treatment.

Hassan Hemadi, 12, is being cared for at a private hospital - the first child casualty of the devastating war with Israel to be treated abroad.

Four fingers and a huge chunk of his right arm were ripped away last week after he innocently picked up the deadly device in his garden.

Fragments of the bomb, powerful enough to pierce tank armour, also lodged in his chest and bowel.

In the coming days, surgeons will remove the shrapnel and then try to reconstruct his hand - possibly by grafting on his big toe to replace one of the missing fingers.

Hassan is expected to be well enough to travel home to the village of Deir Qanoun in about three weeks."


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17767403&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=victim-of-the-lebanon-cluster-bombs--name_page.html

[Recursion]

6. The coloring is a dilemma

If you make munitions brightly colored, adults say "oh crap, that's a munition; stay the hell away" but kids say "ooh, bright colors... I'm going to play with it." If you make it dull and metallic, kids aren't interested but adults say "hmm... some scrap metal; I'll salvage it".

Incidentally, they're supposed to all explode when they are used; this is not a FASCAM munition. The fact that there are so many left over suggests either we sold the IDF bad munitions, or they used them improperly. A properly built, maintained, and used clustered munition is specifically not supposed to leave a swath of booby traps on the ground, because the tactical doctrine is that these munitions precede your own infantry or armor advance, so you don't want your own guys walking into a minefield of your making (it happens, though).

Now, if it turns out there are so many UXO left over because of a design or manufacturing flaw, the manufacturer should be liable. If it was a misuse of the munition by the IDF, they should be responsible.

[Englander]

7. 'Million bomblets' in S Lebanon

Up to a million cluster bomblets discharged by Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah remain unexploded in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.

The UN's mine disposal agency says about 40% of the cluster bombs fired or dropped by Israel failed to detonate - three times the UN's previous estimate.

It says the problem could delay the return home of about 200,000 displaced people by up to two years.

The devices have killed 14 people in south Lebanon since the August truce.

The manager of the UN's mine removal centre in south Lebanon, Chris Clark, said Israel had failed to provide useful information of its cluster bomb strikes, which could help with the clearance operation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5382192.stm