Israel in Lebanon: The misuse of Cluster bombs

The following article has been extracted from CNN:

U.N.: Cluster bombs litter south Lebanon/ U.S. State Department investigates whether Israel broke agreements
Saturday, August 26, 2006 Posted: 0416 GMT

Homes, gardens and highways across south Lebanon are littered with unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israel, the U.N. said Friday, and the U.S. State Department has reportedly launched an investigation.

"There are about 285 cluster bomb locations across south Lebanon, and our teams are still doing surveys and adding new locations every day," said Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, which has an office in the southern port city of Tyre. "We find about 30 new locations per day," she said.

This week, the U.S. State Department began investigating Israel's use of American-made cluster bombs in south Lebanon, and whether their use violated secret agreements with Washington, The New York Times reported Friday.

Since a U.N.-brokered cease-fire took hold August 14, eight Lebanese have been killed by exploding ordnance, including two children, and 38 people have been wounded, according to a U.N. count.

"A lot of them are in civilian areas, on farmland and in people's homes. We're finding a lot at the entrances to houses, on balconies and roofs," Farran said. "Sometimes windows are broken, and they get inside the houses."

The State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls launched an investigation into Israel's use of three types of American weapons, anti-personnel munitions that spray bomblets over a wide area, The New York Times reported. The Israeli army said all the weapons it uses "are legal under international law, and their use conforms with international standards."

The newspaper quoted several current and former U.S. officials as saying they doubted the probe would lead to sanctions against Israel, but that it might be an effort by the Bush administration to ease Arab criticism of its military support for Israel. The U.S. has also postponed a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets -- another cluster weapon -- to Israel, the paper said.

During the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel said it was forced to hit civilian targets in Lebanon because Hezbollah fighters were using villages as a base for rocket-launchers aimed at Israel. Some 850 Lebanese died in the fighting, compared to 157 Israelis.

Lebanon's south is also riddled with land mines, laid by retreating Israeli soldiers who pulled out of the region in 2000 after an 18-year occupation. Hezbollah has also planted mines to ward off Israeli forces. Lebanon has long called for Israel to hand over maps of the minefields.
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It is clear that Israel used the “made in USA” cluster bombs against civilians in Lebanon. But will the world protest against Israel? The answer is no. Israel always seems to be an exception to the rule. The US and UN can make as much sound bites as they want to but in the end no action will be taken against Israel.

Cluster bombs are a dirty way to kill people. Cluster bombs are useful against tanks, massed conventional forces and other purely military targets but they should never be used in populated areas - by nature they kill indiscriminately.

Cluster bombs, in particular the bomblets (they sound cute don’t they?) are the mess left behind for people to find when they return to their homes when the war is over. The small size and bright colours of some bomblets (sometimes resembling marbles) make them attractive to passers-by, especially small children.



A lot of people have died in the war, Israeli casualties have been dominated by death of soldiers whilst Lebanese casualties have been dominated by women and children. With thousands of unexploded bomblets scattered across Lebanon the civilian deathtoll will undoubtedly increase.


Facts you might not know:
1. Cluster bombs can be launched from the air or rocket launchers. They open in mid-air and send out loads of mini-bombs. Cluster bombs contain as many as 200 smaller bomblets and up to 30% of these fail to explode on impact but, like landmines, remain deadly for many years. They get less stable with each passing year. They can explode at the slightest touch

2. It is estimated to take 6 months to one year for the UN weapons clearance team to clear the cluster bombs. The Mine Action Service had a presence in southern Lebanon long before this year's fighting, clearing mines and unexploded ordnance from previous conflicts.

3. Cluster bombs can be deceiving: Eighteen months ago, in western Afghanistan, a 15-year-old boy picked up what he thought was a packet of food - it blew his head off. Sayyid Ahmad Sanef believed the bright yellow object lying on the ground near his home was one of the 37,000 plastic humanitarian aid packages of the same colour dropped on Afghanistan by UN.

4. Agreements governing Israel's use of U.S. cluster bombs date back to the 1970's when they were first supplied, and are understood to require that they be used only against organized armies in conventional war situations.

5. Charges against Israel are not unprecedented; the Reagan administration imposed a six-year ban on sales of cluster weapons to Israel in the 1980's, after a congressional inquiry found that they had been used improperly in Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion.

6. There have also been a number of U.S. inquiries over the years, all of them apparently inconclusive, into charges of Israeli violations of the 1976 Arms Export Control Act, which requires that American-supplied weapons be used in legitimate self-defence.