Human Rights Watch condemns Israel's use of cluster bombs

Human Rights Watch has found that Israel's use of
cluster munitions in the war with Lebanon's Hezbollah
forces was illegal in consideration of international
law

Israel breached international law when it bombed
southern Lebanon with cluster weapons during its
campaign against Hezbollah in 2006, Human Rights Watch
said Sunday.

The New York-based rights group demanded an
independent inquiry to determine whether individual
Israeli commanders "bear responsibility for war
crimes."

A 131-page report, "Flooding South Lebanon: Israel's
Use of Cluster Munitions in Lebanon in July and August
2006," claimed Israel violated international
humanitarian law with hundreds of "indiscriminate and
disproportionate cluster munitions attacks on
Lebanon."

It released the report ahead of tomorrow's opening of
a 120-nation conference in Wellington on a proposed
convention to ban cluster munitions that cause
unacceptable harm to civilians.

The proposed treaty also seeks to set up a framework
aimed at assisting survivors, clearing contaminated
land of the unexploded munitions and destroying
stockpiles of the weapons.

Disarmament Minister Phil Goff said about 560
delegates from 124 countries would attend the
Wellington conference.

He said it would be a pivotal step in a process to
produce a meaningful international treaty on cluster
munitions.

The attempt to achieve a treaty, known as the Oslo
Process, was started last year by New Zealand and six
other countries.

"We were frustrated that the United Nations Convention
on Certain Conventional Weapons had failed to deliver
solutions or even make progress after five years," Mr
Goff said.

"The Oslo Process is gaining traction...it is
supported by more than half of all countries affected
by cluster munitions, more than half of those who
stockpile or produce cluster munitions, and 25 states
which are not party to the UN convention."

The aim is to ban the use of cluster munitions that
cause unacceptable harm to civilians.

"Among other issues, the conference will try to
establish which munitions should fall into this
category," Mr Goff said.

"We seek a strong outcome from the conference, with a
critical mass of countries signing a Wellington
Declaration."

At a news conference today Human Rights Watch said
Israel had rained as many as 4.6 million submunitions,
or cluster bomblets, across southern Lebanon -- mostly
in the final days of the war.

The report's lead author, Bonnie Docherty, said the
United Nations must investigate whether Israel
deliberately targeted civilians with the munitions.

"Ninety percent of the (bombing) strikes occurred in
the last three days (of the war when) Israel knew a
cease-fire was imminent," she told reporters.

"Many, many of those strikes occurred on towns and
villages across South Lebanon. Munitions left behind
by those attacks continue to kill civilians today,"
she said.

Steve Goose, director of the Arms division at Human
Rights Watch, said unexploded cluster "bomblets have
killed and maimed almost 200 people since the war
ended."

"The Lebanon story is just the latest example of
something we've have seen over and over again:
whenever cluster munitions are used, large numbers of
civilians get killed and injured," Goose said.

An Israeli report on the 2006 war in Lebanon released
last month said Israel did not violate international
law by dropping cluster bombs. But it raised questions
about the army's use of the weapons, noting a lack of
"operational discipline, oversight and control."