[Peace-discuss] AI Israeli Cluster Bomb Attacks Press Release

[Scott Edwards]

FOR IMEEDIATE RELEASE 				CONTACT: Press Office
Thursday, August 31, 2006				(202) 544-0200 x 302,
						(240) 462-9076 (mobile)

Israel Must Disclose Details of Cluster Bomb Attacks and Accept Full 
Investigation, Amnesty International Declares


Amnesty International today called on Israel to immediately provide maps of 
the areas of Lebanon into which it fired cluster bombs during the recent 
conflict to enable their clearance and prevent further civilian casualties.

Publishing new accounts from the victims of unexploded cluster bombs, the 
organization also called on Israel to cooperate in a full and impartial 
investigation into their use of such munitions during the recent conflict.

The calls followed a report from the United Nations that 90 percent of 
Israeli cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict 
when a cease-fire was in sight.  The U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center 
has so far identified more than 400 bomb strike areas that are contaminated 
with as many as 100,000 unexploded bomblets.

Amnesty International delegates in Lebanon have found numerous unexploded 
cluster bombs in villages and even, in some cases, inside homes.

"The use of cluster bombs in the heart of where people live clearly violates 
the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks and is therefore a grave violation 
of international humanitarian law," said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy 
Secretary General of Amnesty International. "It is outrageous that, despite 
official requests from the United Nations, Israel has still not provided 
maps for the areas it targeted with cluster bombs. This failure is further 
endangering the lives of Lebanese civilians, particularly children."

Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area and many of them do not 
explode on impact, remaining lethal to the civilian population.

"Cluster bombs are effectively antipersonnel mines. Their widespread use in 
Lebanon by the Israeli military is already taking a heavy toll on the 
hundreds of thousands of ordinary men, women and children returning to their 
homes. The United States, which is the main supplier of arms to Israel and 
other countries, should not provide such weapons and commit to a worldwide 
moratorium on their use," said Gilmore.

A current Amnesty International mission to Lebanon has spoken to some of the 
victims of unexploded cluster bombs among the hundreds of thousands of 
civilians returning to their homes in Southern Lebanon.

Six-year-old ‘Abbas Yusef Shibli described to Amnesty International 
delegates how a cluster bomb exploded as he tried to pick it up in the 
village of Blida on August 26. Speaking from a hospital bed, Abbas said he 
was playing with three friends when he tried to pick up what looked like a 
“perfume bottle.” Abbas suffered a ruptured colon, ruptured gall bladder, 
perforated lung and torn medial nerve and has so far undergone two blood 
transfusions. His three playmates were also injured, but discharged after 
two days.

In the next room, Mahmud Yaqub, a 38-year-old shepherd, lay with his leg in 
plaster having had it shattered when he stepped on a cluster bomb. Mahmud 
said he’d lost four of his 21 goats during the Israeli attacks as they were 
unable to get to water. He was rarely able to take them outside during the 
fighting and now, since the cease-fire, cluster bombs litter the hillsides, 
their normal pasture.

At another hospital, Amnesty International visited 13-year-old Hassan 
Hussein Hamadi who remains in a coma after surgery. His family said that, on 
August 27, he and his five brothers and sisters had been playing in the 
front yard of their home in the village of Deir al-Qanun south of Tyre when 
he picked up a canister type cluster bomb that then exploded. The explosion 
blew off four fingers of his right hand, leaving only his little finger, and 
he sustained major injuries to his shoulder and abdomen.

19-year-old Hussein Qaduh, a student in accounting at the Beirut Islamic 
Technical Institute, was severely injured by a cluster bomb on August 28 in 
the southern Lebanese village of Soultaniye as he walked along a path in the 
village next to a football field.  When Amnesty International delegates 
visited the area the next day, they found it was littered with unexploded 
cluster munitions, some of them a few inches from the path where the blood 
was still visible on the ground.  Hussein underwent extensive surgery for 
hemorraging in the intestines and liver. This was stopped, but bleeding 
continued in the brain. His prognosis was described as extremely critical.

Amnesty International reiterated that Israel's use of cluster bombs 
underlined the need for an immediate and comprehensive United Nations 
investigation into this and other violations of international humanitarian 
law committed by both Israel and Hizbullah during this conflict.

For additional Amnesty International research on the actions of Israel and 
Hizbullah in the recent conflict, please visit www.amnestyusa.org.


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