Amnesty Faults Israel, Lebanon On War

Taken from Yahoo News, Wed Jul 11
By Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Neither Israel nor Lebanon has investigated allegations of war crimes from last year's conflict between the Jewish state and Hezbollah guerillas, Amnesty International charged Thursday.

The human rights group has harshly criticized the Hezbollah militant movement for firing nearly 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, and Israel for bombing civilian areas and using cluster bombs in south Lebanon.

Amnesty said more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the 34-day war. Since then, 24 more people have been killed in south Lebanon by explosions of cluster munitions fired by Israel during the war, the group said in a statement.

"Without a full, impartial U.N.-led inquiry that includes provision for reparations to the victims, there is a real danger of history repeating itself," warned Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program.

"The Security Council should declare and enforce an arms embargo on both Israel and Hezbollah until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons will not be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law," Smart said.

In response, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "The Israeli system of justice is independent, professional and transparent. Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Israeli military personal have been thoroughly investigated."

No comment was immediately available from the Lebanese government.

Amnesty urged Israel to turn over maps of areas targeted with cluster bombs in south Lebanon, and it called on Hezbollah to provide information about the two Israeli soldiers it captured a year ago in a cross-border raid, setting off the war.

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Israel needs to provid ethe maps to the Cluster boms it planted in the Lebanon. Over time these bombs get embedded into the soil and slowly move, and can get lost. Cluster bombs from the first Lebanon war are still killing innocent children who mistake them for toys. Last year a few Israeli soldiers got killed in the borders of Lebanon by cluster bombs planted by the IDF, this was due to them not properly reading the maps. Israel is amongst a few countries that withdrew from a treaty to stop using cluste bombs. How many more innocent people need to be killed? With regards to the Lebanon - it needs to try and address the issues regarding the two captured soldiers, whom should be rightfully released, but at the same time Isreal needs to release thousands of Lebanese people it captured (whilst occupying Lebanon in the 1980's). These pople are innocent and were abducted for defending their countries, some were abducted for no apparent reason other than being in the way of the IDF. They possess no security threat and have no access to a fair trial, in fact Israel has not given permission to human rights agencies to assess their condition or speak to them. The UN needs to take greater action instead of flapping around like an ostrich with its hand stuck in the sand.