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FROM THE FIELD

New cluster bomb casualties two years after the Lebanon war
12 Aug 2008 11:03:00 GMT
 Source: Handicap International - Belgium
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Handicap International calls on states to sign the treaty banning cluster munitions

Brussels, 12 August 2008. Between the 12 July and the 14 August 2006, Israel's armed forces dropped about four million cluster bomblets on South Lebanon, the majority during the final days of the conflict. Handicap International is still actively clearing mines and unexploded bomblets in the region in order to restore safe land to communities. At the international level, one consequence of the conflict was to stimulate a process that will lead, at the beginning of December, to the signature of the treaty banning cluster munitions. But the strength of the treaty will depend on the number of its signatories and on its actual implementation on the ground.

The exact number of victims at the time of the cluster bomb strikes remains unknown. It is thought that half a million cluster bomblets had not exploded when used. These 500,000 unexploded bomblets continue to pose a permanent threat to civilians, the main victims of cluster munitions.

More than 320 people have been killed or injured since the end of the conflict, mostly because of cluster munitions.[1] Besides these accidents, the fear of further explosions is preventing access to 970 zones deemed contaminated by UNMACC (UN Mine Action Coordination Centre); the region's inhabitants, who live by olive and tobacco farming, are still unable to access their fields.

For the past two years, three clearance teams from Handicap International, which has been operating in Lebanon since 1992, have been clearing the sites contaminated during the conflict. Clearing mines and unexploded bomblets effectively while keeping populations informed is essential. According to Karl Greenwood, supervising the mine clearance teams in South Lebanon, "the work carried out to date is encouraging. The 42 Handicap International clearance experts have decontaminated 24 risk sites, the equivalent of 120 football fields."

In February 2007, spurred by the massive use of cluster bombs in South Lebanon and by their ban in Belgium in February 2006, Norway launched an international process to ban cluster munitions. As a result, 107 states adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin on 30 May 2007. Two years after the end of hostilities in South Lebanon, Handicap International calls on all states to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 in Oslo. Handicap International is also calling on states to ratify and, above all, apply this new treaty without further delay. "The Convention on Cluster Munitions contains ground-breaking provisions for victim assistance," said Stan Brabant of Handicap International. "It is absolutely vital for the people who have been affected by these weapons that states apply these provisions now."

Interviews possible with members of the clearance projects in South Lebanon and with Stan Brabant, head of Handicap International's Policy Unit in Brussels

For further information, photos or requests for interviews, please contact: Jeroen Van Hove - press attaché - +32 (0) 2/233.01.84 - +32 (0)484.36.81.62


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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