World Condemnation of U.S.-Israeli Crimes
• “No Place for War Criminals
Among Us!”
• Declaration Against the Israeli War on Lebanon
• Irish Refuse U.S. Bomb Shipments Headed for Israel
Legal Proceedings against British Government
• Opposition to Military Shipments to Israel
U.S.-Israeli State Terrorism
• Israeli Carnage Triggers Global Outrage
• Israel Taking Vengeance on Lebanese, Palestinian Civilians
• Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action
by President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert
• Israeli Cluster Munitions Hit Civilians in Lebanon
2,500 Palestinians protest against Condoleezza Rice
“No Place for War Criminals Among Us!”
Ramallah, July 25 —- “We are struggling for justice and there is no place for murderers and war criminals among us!” Under this slogan, some 2,500 Palestinians held a mass protest in Ramallah against Condoleezza Rice, U.S. foreign policy in the region and the meeting that was scheduled that day between her and Palestinian President Abu Mazen. Popular anger and determination to resist all those that want the surrender of the Palestinian people’s struggle for justice was boiling in the streets as the presidential guards were attacking the protestors.
The National and Islamic forces had called for a commercial strike for the whole day and for a demonstration towards the presidential compound to protest the presence of Condoleezza Rice. The demonstration took off from al Manara square through the city center towards the presidential compound. The thousands of people demanded that Abu Mazen not meet her and kick her out of the country.
The people carried Palestinian and Lebanese flags and posters of the martyrs of both people fallen in the struggle against Zionism. They called upon the Palestinian Authority to take the Lebanese resistance as an example and to stay away from the “diplomacy” of massacres and destruction with which the U.S. government attempts to implement its plan for a “New Middle East”.
Condoleezza Rice, calling the war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza the “birth pangs” of a “New Middle East,” embodies the White House financial, political and military support for the Occupation. The crowd was denouncing these U.S.-backed crimes and the green light that the U.S. gives to Israel to attack anyone resisting Zionist aggression. The people’s rage against the U.S. veto in the Security Council in support of the ongoing siege and bombing of the Gaza strip as well as the U.S. support for the destruction of Lebanon was expressed as pictures of Rice and Bush were burnt. The crowd dispersed determined to continue the resistance against the Occupation, its war crimes and its backers.
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Declaration Against the Israeli War on Lebanon
We, residents of the Galilee and the Valleys, Arabs and Jews, do not believe the declarations of the government of Israel and the military.
We, residents of the Galilee and the Valleys, Arabs and Jews, do not believe the government of Israel and the military who maintain that war is being waged in self-defense and for the purpose of releasing the captured soldiers. We do not believe them because it is now common knowledge that the military steps were planned a long time ago. We know that about a month before the Hizballah attack on the army patrol, a military exercise was conducted as a rehearsal for an attack on Lebanon.
Similarly, the kidnapping of the ministers and Parliament members of the Palestinian Authority was planned weeks ahead of the capture of the soldier Gilad Shalit by the Hamas.
We do not believe the government of Israel and the generals because there is a huge gap between the declared aims of the war and Israel's actual military operations. What is the connection between the declared aims of this war and the destruction of Beirut? How are the declared aims of the war served by the demolition of a baby-food plant? Or by the destruction of the city of Nabatiyeh? Or the bombardment of Gaza's power station? Or the destruction of the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and Gaza? Or turning over half a million Lebanese civilians into refugees?
We cannot believe them because one cannot allegedly protect a civilian population by a cruel and deliberate attack on another civilian population.
We refuse to allow the government of Israel and the generals to use our names, the residents of the Galilee and the Valleys, in destroying a whole neighboring state, Lebanon. This cruel and brainless act will not carry our name! This is not the way to defend the population of the Galilee and the Valleys. We have already learned from earlier Lebanon wars that the aggressive approach that leads to war crimes and crimes against humanity, to the total destruction of a state, also leads to the destruction of any prospects for peace and calming. The present tragic situation is a product of a similar policy conducted in Lebanon by Ariel Sharon in 1982. Each military step taken by the IDF ends up hurting the civilian populations on both sides, though first and foremost inflicting an intolerable price on civilians on the Lebanese side.
We do not believe the government of Israel and the generals because we are convinced that this war mainly serves the interests of the American policy in the Middle East.
The government of Lebanon has requested a ceasefire. Hizballah has agreed to a ceasefire. The European Community has requested a ceasefire. Only the government of Israel has refused to consider a ceasefire.
The Bush administration is encouraging the government of Israel not to stop the military action.
We, residents of the Galilee and the Valleys, along with all the peoples of the region, are victims of the plans for the reshaping of the Middle East, victims of a desire to establish a new order in the Middle East that does not serve the interests of its peoples. The American army did not bring peace to Iraq.
The Israeli army will not bring peace to Lebanon. The American army will not establish a democracy in Iraq, the Israeli army will not bring democracy in Lebanon.
The American policies have brought chaos and destruction upon Iraq. The implementation of similar policies in Lebanon by the Israeli army will only bring more chaos and destruction.
We refuse to allow our name to be used in bringing disaster to another civilian population. Even if the government of Israel and the generals could convince us that their policy is the quick road to ridding the northern border of the threat posed by Hizballah, we would not have accepted this policy on moral grounds. We refuse to accept a policy that justifies deliberately harming any civilian population, whether it targets civilians in Gaza, in Lebanon, as well as in the Galilee!
We believe that there is an alternative to this aggressive policy, a policy predicated upon the violation of the Geneva Conventions. We demand that the government of Israel declare an immediate ceasefire. Every moment of fighting generates more victims. We are convinced that an Israeli ceasefire will lead to a ceasefire on all other fronts.
We demand that the ceasefire be used for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and for the negotiated release of prisoners-of-war -- Israeli, Lebanese and Palestinian. The question of political prisoners and prisoners-of-war is now the central issue. Only such a move of an immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and negotiations regarding exchange of prisoners-of-war can offer the region a way out of the threat of a comprehensive war, bringing the peace and calming that all the peoples of the region all crave.
Signed:
Residents of the Galilee and the Valleys, Arabs and Jews, against the war.
Irish Refuse U.S. Bomb Shipments Headed for Israel
The Irish government refused to allow U.S. planes carrying bombs for Israel, including depleted uranium “bunker buster” bombs, to land in Ireland. The U.S. wanted to use Shannon airport but the Irish refused. Instead, the planes with the 600 lb. radioactive bombs landed at Prestwick airport in Scotland.
According to The Scotsman newspaper, the U.S. did not bother to notify the British of the change. More planes with more bombs are expected to continue using Prestwick on their way to Tel Aviv. The U.S. is also negotiating to use Prestwick for planeloads of U.S. troops on their way to Iraq. This would also be a shift from Shannon airport. The change is in part due to the numerous struggles at Shannon opposing the use of the airport for U.S. planes and troops headed for war against Iraq. The people in both Scotland and Ireland continue to oppose use of the airports for U.S. war and aggression.
Legal Proceedings against British Government
Opposition to Military Shipments to Israel
The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in Britain, on August 3, 2006, issued a press release which said: "Following many complaints that we have received from British citizens whose family members are in Lebanon and facing grave danger as well as acts of terror, the Islamic Human Rights Commission has decided to issue proceedings in the Royal Courts of Justice against the Civil Aviation Authority, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as well as the Secretary of State for Defense, to prevent them from their continued acts of aiding and abetting grave and serious violations of International Humanitarian Law and crimes against the Geneva Conventions that are continuing in the Republic of Lebanon."
The IHRC points out that Parliament as well as other members of the Cabinet and the relevant members of the government departments that are parties to this action have continued to ignore the anger and the will of the British public. They are willing participants in the war crimes that have taken place in the Republic of Lebanon.
Chair of IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh stated: "Rather than preventing the shipments of military hardware, ammunition, and munitions from the US to the State of Israel, the UK government has ignored its own policy and guidelines on the export of such materials to areas where they are likely to prolong an already bloody conflict."
Israeli Carnage Triggers Global Outrage
More than 60 people were killed, many of them sleeping children, when Israeli warplanes bombed the village of Qana on Sunday. The massacre triggered global outrage and warnings of retribution for this war crime as a ceasefire appeared more remote than ever.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose latest Middle East mission was thrown into turmoil by the attack, said it was time to “get to a ceasefire” in Lebanon but stopped short of calling for an immediate halt to hostilities.
The LBCI said more than 60 villagers, including 37 children, were killed in the pre-dawn air raid that left homes in ruins and villagers trapped under the rubble. It was the bloodiest attack since Israel launched its war on Hizbollah following the capture of two soldiers on July 12.
Israel expressed “regret” over the civilian deaths and ordered an inquiry but said it had warned residents to leave and pinned the blame on Hizbollah for launching rockets from the village.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was in “no rush” for a truce and told Rice that Israel needed 10 to 14 days more to continue its offensive against Hizbollah, an Israeli government official said. But he promised that humanitarian aid would be allowed to reach Qana.
“We will cooperate with appropriate officials to allow humanitarian aid to reach the victims of the Qana bombing,” Olmert said during a weekly cabinet meeting.
Amid faltering diplomatic efforts to staunch a conflict now in its 19th day, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the Security Council in an emergency meeting to call for an immediate ceasefire. “We must condemn this action in the strongest possible terms, and I appeal to you to do likewise,” Annan told the meeting of the 15-member council.
Annan also said that Israel informed the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) that it was important for residents of Ramieh and Aita al Shaab to evacuate their towns before Sunday evening, a signal that warplanes would resume pounding these areas.
Prime Minister Fouad Saniora denounced the Qana carnage as a “war crime,” demanding an immediate ceasefire in a conflict that Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said had killed 750 people.
An Agence France Press (AFP) count has put the death toll at more than 500, while the U.N. has said around one third of the casualties were children.
In Beirut, angry demonstrators smashed into the U.N. building as thousands took to the streets in protest while Hizbollah and Palestinian militant movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad vowed revenge.
“This horrible massacre, like the others, will not remain unpunished,” said Hizbollah, which has fired off waves of rockets against northern Israel since the onslaught began. Israeli officials said fourteen civilians were injured after more than 140 rockets landed across northern Israel on Sunday.
In Qana — scene of another deadly bombardment 10 years ago — rescue workers with only their bare hands clawed through rubble of flattened homes and an underground shelter to find survivors while mothers hugged their dead children in a final hopeless embrace.
“The first thing I remember is spinning around. My head hit the wall and I heard screams,” said Qassem Shalhoub, who lost many family members. “They were all calling at me. They were saying, ‘stop the bleeding.’ Others said, ‘pull my son from the rubble.’”
Saniora ruled out any talks on putting an end to the conflict until there was an immediate halt to Israel’s offensive, signaling the likely failure of Rice’s efforts to win support for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon, which has borne the brunt of the offensive.
Speaker Nabih Berri, entrusted by Hizbollah to negotiate a prisoner exchange with Israel, said that conditions he had set for the release of two captured Israeli troops had changed after Israel’s bombing of Qana. The cabinet, in a meeting later in the day, declared Monday a day of mourning for the Qana massacre victims.
A U.S. official said Rice would return to Washington Monday to start intensive diplomacy aimed at reaching a U.N. resolution on the conflict.
Reaction to the Qana carnage was fierce across the Arab world, and even Britain, Washington’s closest ally, branded the Qana attack as “quite appalling.”
The village, said by some to be where Jesus turned water into wine, was the site of an Israeli bombing of a U.N. base in April 1996 that killed 105 people during Israel’s “Grapes of Wrath” offensive — also aimed at wiping out Hizbollah.
Fresh fighting also flared on the border after Israeli forces made a fresh push into southern Lebanon near the village of Taibe. The Israeli army said rockets fell Sunday on the northern Israeli towns of Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona and an area close to Maalot. The rockets mostly fell in open areas, and no injuries were reported. Hizbollah said it had shelled Israeli outposts along the border.
Meanwhile Lebanon’s main international border crossing was closed, a day after Israeli warplanes targeted the road to Syria, further increasing the country’s isolation, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. Heavy bombs had gouged out large craters on the road leading to the Syrian border at Masnaa in eastern Lebanon, he said.
In related news, Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Saturday to strike cities in the center of Israel, declaring that the Jewish state had failed to win any military victory after days of bloody clashes with his group.
The Hizbollah leader also hailed his fighters’ “legendary resistance” in the deadly clashes on the ground as sparking increasing calls worldwide for a political settlement to the conflict. “Afula is only the beginning,” he said, referring to Friday’s attacks on the northern Israeli city, the deepest city yet hit by Hizbollah inside Israeli territory.
“Many cities in the center will be the target of the ‘beyond Haifa’ phase, if the aggression continues against our (civilian) people,” he said in a televised address broadcast on Hizbollah’s --Al-Manar TV station. Nasrallah had previously vowed to fire rockets “beyond Haifa,” Israel’s third city, if the Jewish state continued the offensive it launched on Lebanon July 12 when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers to secure a prisoner swap.
Nasrallah also said that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had returned to the Middle East “to impose conditions on Lebanon... as part of attempts to establish the new Middle East order.”
“Israel is ready to cease fire because it is scared of the unknown. It is the United States that insists on continuing, and Israel is here to execute their plan. Today, and more than ever, Israel seems like the obedient tool for the implementation of the American plan,” he said.
Nasrallah hailed Syria and Iran for continuing to “stand by” Hizbollah and Lebanon and “using all their capabilities to stop the aggression on Lebanon, so that nobody accuses them of using their (influence) for their own interests in the region.”
Israeli forces “did not achieve any military victory. As for the killings of civilians, the destruction of the infrastructure... this is only a savage achievement, of which (Israel) will not be able to take advantage,” he said. “Besides hiding its failures, the enemy is also hiding its losses,” he said. “The important thing today is to remain steadfast, to be victorious and we will be victorious, God willing.”
Nasrallah said rising calls to end the crisis were made possible by the “legendary resistance on the ground.” He declared that Hizbollah’s “victory” in battles with Israeli ground troops should not frighten citizens in Lebanon.
“Victory will be for all of Lebanon, all its religious communities, regions, movements... it will be a victory to any honorable Arab, Muslim and Christian who stood against the aggression,” he said.
“Victory should be an incentive for more love and unity among the Lebanese. Nobody should be scared from the victory of the resistance, but from the failure of the resistance.”
Israel Taking Vengeance on Lebanese, Palestinian Civilians
After more than two weeks of its military assault on Lebanon and more than a month on Gaza, which failed to achieve its declared goals of disarming Palestinian and Lebanese anti-occupation groups, Israel is taking vengeance on civilians with impunity and with a green light from the United States and Britain, killing more than 650 Palestinian and Lebanese children, women and elders.
Israel has bombed international observers out of the fighting areas. An Israeli air strike last week killed four United Nations peace observers, forcing the remaining observers to evacuate their posts in southern Lebanon.
The United States and United Kingdom ruled out a ceasefire, cart-blanching Israel to go ahead with its onslaughts. [ ]
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, asked on Friday [July 28] for a 72-hour truce in fighting to enable relief workers to evacuate elderly, young and wounded people from south Lebanon and to bring in emergency aid. Early Sunday a new Israeli massacre against civilians was unfolding.
An Israeli air strike killed at least 55 Lebanese civilians, including 21 children, in the southern village of Qana, in the bloodiest single attack during Israel's 19-day-old war on Lebanon. Several houses collapsed and a three-storey building where about 100 civilians were sheltering was destroyed, witnesses and rescue workers said.
In April 1996, Israeli shelling killed more than 100 civilians sheltering at a UN peacekeepers base in the village during Israel's “Grapes of Wrath” bombing campaign.
Death toll in Lebanon on Sunday topped 480, the vast majority of them civilians. 800,000 Lebanese have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught. 51 Israelis were killed in cross-border fighting, most of them soldiers, as 500,000 Israelis are living in bomb shelters. Reports estimate that more 500,000 trees were torched in Lebanon by the Israeli bombardment during the same period.
Meanwhile the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) extra-judicially killed two Palestinian activists in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight Sunday. An IOF undercover unit surprised Hani A’waijan, 29, and A’mid al-Masri, 22, while they were playing soccer with friends and relatives.
According to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), between July 13 and July 19 Israeli occupation forces carried out more than 27 attacks on targets in the West Bank. A Palestinian doctor was killed by the IOF troops as he attempted to come to the aid of wounded protesters.
The IOF also have destroyed more than 70 houses in the West Bank city of Nablus. They have kidnapped more than 30 people and detained more then 100 Palestinian security personnel in the city.
Separately in the Gaza Strip, Israeli tanks pushed back into the north of the coastal strip before dawn Saturday and the IOF warplanes started an intensive campaign of air strikes on densely-populated areas, a day after ending a bloody, three-day sweep that killed 30 Palestinians.
Since June 28, the IOF have carried out more than 170 bombing raids against the Palestinian civilian population.
During the offensive, Israel has fired more than 1000 heavy artillery shells into the region and used more than 125 air-to-surface missiles, resulting in the death of more than 170 Palestinians. More than 600 have been wounded; at least one-quarter of them have been children.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported on July 28 that Israeli troops killed 23 Palestinians in fighting across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, including at least nine activists, three children and a disabled man.
On July 20, Israeli ground forces attacked al-Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, while the Israeli Air Force carried out air strikes, killing 15 people and wounding 52 others. On July 24, Israel carried out air strikes on Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, killing five people and wounding 14 others.
A Palestinian human rights researcher, Ahmad Betawi of the International Foundation for Human Rights, reported Wednesday that IOF killed 167 Palestinians in July.
The total number of Palestinians that Israeli forces killed in 2006 is now at 357, Betwawi said.
Thirty-one children have been killed by Israeli military actions in Gaza since 26 June 2006 according to the Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI/PS).
“We're the forgotten war,” said Palestinian chief negotiator and lawmaker Saeb Erakat.
Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens Requiring Immediate Action By President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert
The delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the middle east.
Today, U.S., British, and now Israeli military personnel are using illegal uranium munitions- America's and England's own "dirty bombs" while U.S. Army, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Defense, and British Ministry of Defense officials deny that there are any adverse health and environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions to avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material - depleted uranium.
The use of uranium weapons is absolutely unacceptable, and a crime against humanity. Consequently the citizens of the world and all governments must force cessation of uranium weapons use. I must demand that Israel now provide medical care to all DU casualties in Lebanon and clean up all DU contamination.
U.S. and British officials have arrogantly refused to comply with their own regulations, orders, and directives that require United States Department of Defense officials to provide prompt and effective medical care to "all" exposed individuals. Reference: Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties, DOD, Pentagon, 10/14/93, Medical Management of Army personnel Exposed to Depleted Uranium (DU) Headquarters, U.S. Army Medical Command 29 April 2004, and section 2-5 of U.S. Army Regulation 700-48. Israeli officials must not do so now.
They also refuse to clean up dispersed radioactive Contamination as required by Army Regulation- AR 700-48: "Management of Equipment Contaminated With Depleted Uranium or Radioactive Commodities" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., September 2002) and U.S. Army Technical Bulletin- TB 9-1300-278: "Guidelines For Safe Response To Handling, Storage, And Transportation Accidents Involving Army Tank Munitions Or Armor Which Contain Depleted Uranium" (Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C., JULY 1996). Specifically section 2-4 of United States Army Regulation-AR 700-48 dated September 16, 2002 requires that:
(1) "Military personnel "identify, segregate, isolate, secure, and label all RCE" (radiologically contaminated equipment).
(2) "Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible."
(3) "Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration, destruction in place, or abandonment" and
(4) "All equipment, to include captured or combat RCE, will be surveyed, packaged, retrograded, decontaminated and released IAW Technical Bulletin 9-1300-278, DA PAM 700-48" (Note: Maximum exposure limits are specified in Appendix F).
The previous and current use of uranium weapons, the release of radioactive components in destroyed U.S. and foreign military equipment, and releases of industrial, medical, research facility radioactive materials have resulted in unacceptable exposures. Therefore, decontamination must be completed as required by U.S. Army Regulation 700-48 and should include releases of all radioactive materials resulting from military operations.
The extent of adverse health and environmental effects of uranium weapons contamination is not limited to combat zones but includes facilities and sites where uranium weapons were manufactured or tested including Vieques; Puerto Rico; Colonie, New York; Concord, MA; Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana; and Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. Therefore medical care must be provided by the United States Department of Defense officials to all individuals affected by the manufacturing, testing, and/or use of uranium munitions. Thorough environmental remediation also must be completed without further delay.
I am amazed that fifteen years after was I asked to clean up the initial DU mess from Gulf War I and over ten years since I finished the depleted uranium project that United States Department of Defense officials and others still attempt to justify uranium munitions use while ignoring mandatory requirements. I am dismayed that Department of Defense and Department of Energy officials and representatives continue personal attacks aimed to silence or discredit those of us who are demanding that medical care be provided to all DU casualties and that environmental remediation is completed in compliance with U.S. Army Regulation 700-48. But beyond the ignored mandatory actions the willful dispersal of tons of solid radioactive and chemically toxic waste in the form of uranium munitions is illegal (http://www.traprockpeace.org/karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf) and just does not even pass the common sense test and according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, DHS, is a dirty bomb. DHS issued "dirty bomb" response guidelines, http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html , on January 3, 2006 for incidents within the United States but ignore DOD use of uranium weapons and existing DOD regulations. These guidelines specifically state that: "Characteristics of RDD and IND Incidents: A radiological incident is defined as an event or series of events, deliberate or accidental, leading to the release, or potential release, into the environment of radioactive material in sufficient quantity to warrant consideration of protective actions. Use of an RDD or IND is an act of terror that produces a radiological incident." Thus the use of uranium munitions is "an act or terror" as defined by DHS. Finally continued compliance with the infamous March 1991 Los Alamos Memorandum that was issued to ensure continued use of uranium munitions can not be justified.
In conclusion: the President of the United States- George W. Bush, the Prime Minister of Great Britain-Tony Blair, and the Prime Minister of Israel Olmert must acknowledge and accept responsibility for willful use of illegal uranium munitions- their own "dirty bombs"- resulting in adverse health and environmental effects.
President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Olmert should order:
1. medical care for all casualties,
2. thorough environmental remediation,
3. immediate cessation of retaliation against all of us who demand compliance with medical care and environmental remediation requirements,
4. and stop the already illegal the use (UN finding) of depleted uranium munitions.
References- these references are copies the actual regulations and orders and other pertinent official documents:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/twomemos.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/rokke_du_3_ques.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_dtic_wakayama_Aug2002.html
http://www.traprockpeace.org/karen_parker_du_illegality.pdf
http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
http://cryptome.org/dhs010306.txt
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Israeli Cluster Munitions Hit Civilians in Lebanon
BEIRUT, Lebanon — July 24 - Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Human Rights Watch researchers also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams on the Israel-Lebanon border.
“Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “They should never be used in populated areas.”
According to eyewitnesses and survivors of the attack interviewed by Human Rights Watch, Israel fired several artillery-fired cluster munitions at Blida around 3 p.m. on July 19. The witnesses described how the artillery shells dropped hundreds of cluster submunitions on the village. They clearly described the submunitions as smaller projectiles that emerged from their larger shells.
The cluster attack killed 60-year-old Maryam Ibrahim inside her home. At least two submunitions from the attack entered the basement that the Ali family was using as a shelter, wounding 12 persons, including seven children. Ahmed Ali, a 45-year-old taxi driver and head of the family, lost both legs from injuries caused by the cluster munitions. Five of his children were wounded: Mira, 16; Fatima, 12; ‘Ali, 10; Aya, 3; and `Ola, 1. His wife Akram Ibrahim, 35, and his mother-in-law `Ola Musa, 80, were also wounded. Four relatives, all German-Lebanese dual nationals sheltering with the family, were wounded as well: Mohammed Ibrahim, 45; his wife Fatima, 40; and their children ‘Ali, 16, and Rula, 13.
Human Rights Watch researchers photographed artillery-delivered cluster munitions among the arsenal of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) artillery teams stationed on the Israeli-Lebanese border during a research visit on July 23. The photographs show M483A1 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions, (DPICM) which are U.S.-produced and -supplied, artillery-delivered cluster munitions.
The M483A1 artillery shells deliver 88 cluster submunitions per shell, and have an unacceptably high failure rate (dud rate) of 14 percent, leaving behind a serious unexploded ordnance problem that will further endanger civilians. The commander said that the IDF’s operations manual warns soldiers that the use of such cluster munitions creates dangerous minefields due to the high dud rate. [ ]
Human Rights Watch conducted detailed analyses of the U.S. military’s use of cluster bombs in the 1999 Yugoslavia war, the 2001-2002 Afghanistan war, and the 2003 Iraq war. Human Rights Watch research established that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas in Iraq caused more civilian casualties than any other factor in the U.S.-led coalition’s conduct of major military operations in March and April 2003, killing and wounding more than 1,000 Iraqi civilians. Roughly a quarter of the 500 civilian deaths caused by NATO bombing in the 1999 Yugoslavia war were also due to cluster munitions.
“Our research in Iraq and Kosovo shows that cluster munitions cannot be used in populated areas without huge loss of civilian life,” Roth said. “Israel must stop using cluster bombs in Lebanon at once.” Human Rights Watch called upon the Israel Defense Forces to immediately cease the use of indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions in Lebanon.
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