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Headlines : InternationalUnexploded Cluster Bombs Prompt Fear and Fury in Returning Refugees
Cluster bombs were first used by the Germans in the second world war but have become a standard weapon for many countries, including Britain, France and Italy.
The most popular delivery device, the American-made M26 rocket, scatters 644 bomblets over 20,000 square metres. Under test conditions up to 23% of bomblets from the M26 failed to explode on impact. The United States keeps 370,000 such rockets in stock.
The M26 inflicted hundreds of civilian casualties in Iraq in 2003, says Human Rights Watch, over populated areas. The British army used M26s in the 1991 Gulf war.
The US halted cluster bomb exports to Israel in 1982 after indiscriminate use against civilians but rescinded the ban in 1988. Belgium is the only country in the world that has banned cluster bombs.
[Posted By ShiftShapers]Republished from the Guardian UK via Common Dreams
When the guns went silent in Aitta Shaab, a war-ravaged village close to the Israeli border, three children skipped through the rubble looking for a little fun.
Hurdling over lumps of crushed concrete and dodging spikes of twisted metal, Sukna, Hassan and Merwa, aged 10 to 12, paused before a curious object. Sukna picked it up. The terrifying blast flung her to the ground, thrusting metal shards into her liver. Hassan’s abdomen was cut open. Merwa was hit in the leg and arm.
“We thought it was just a little ball,” said Hassan with a hoarse whisper in the intensive care ward at Tyre’s Jabal Amel hospital. In the next bed Sukna, a ventilator cupped to her mouth and a tangle of tubes from her arms, said even less.
Her mother watched anxiously. “The Israelis wanted to defeat Hizbullah,” said Najah Saleh, 40. “But what did these children ever do to them?...
Posted by ShiftShapers
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Special Democracy Now! Report from Southern Lebanon: Ana Nogueira Investigates the Lasting Dangers of Unexploded Israeli Cluster Bombs: Israel dropped thousands of cluster bombs on at least 170 villages in southern Lebanon during its month-long war against Hezbollah. The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians. At least eight people have been killed and 25 wounded from the unexploded ordinances. Democracy Now!‘s Ana Nogueira files a report from southern Lebanon. [Listen/Watch/Read]
Landmines and Unexploded Ordinances: Israel’s Legacy in Southern Lebanon: Steve Goose, executive director of Human Right Watch’s Arms Division discusses the leftover landmines in southern Lebanon from Israel’s 18 year-occupation, new landmine legislation in Washington, the threat to civilians of unexploded cluster bombs and where it all fits into the framework of international law. [Listen/Watch/Read]
I am proud to live in the ONLY country (Belgium) on the face of this planet that has banned cluster ammunition, but sad for the same reason. Why is it so difficult to push for an international ban on this type of ammunition, when it is known for many years that a large number of innocent civilians get killed or maimed by unexploded bomblets?
were they not technically banned by the Geneva Convention?