Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

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production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians” and have provisions for clearance, victim assistance, risk education, and stockpile destruction. 26 In 2008, governments will develop and negotiate the treaty at meetings in New Zealand and Ireland. 27 “We have given ourselves a strict timeline to conclude our work by 2008. This is ambitious but necessary to respond to the urgency of this humanitarian problem,” said Norway’s Foreign Minister Jonas Ghar Støre. 28 This initiative, which closely mirrors the Ottawa process banning antipersonnel mines, follows years of advocacy by Human Rights Watch, the Cluster Munition Coalition, which Human Rights Watch co-chairs, other NGOs, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and states. Lebanon has been a vocal participant in the “Oslo Process,” while Israel has stayed away. States are also pursuing domestic measures to address cluster munitions. Belgium became the first country to adopt a comprehensive ban on cluster munitions in February 2006, and Austria followed suit in December 2007. Norway declared a moratorium on use in June 2006 and Hungary in May 2007. Parliamentary initiatives to prohibit or restrict cluster munitions are underway in numerous countries. Many countries have in recent years decided to remove from service and/or destroy cluster munitions with high failure rates, and some have called for a prohibition on use in populated areas. International humanitarian law on the use of cluster munitions is in the process of development, but a consensus is developing that their use in populated areas is a violation, on account of the likelihood of indiscriminate or disproportionate harm to civilians both at the time of the attack and in the future because of unexploded duds. The preamble of the final declaration of the Third Review Conference of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), for example, recognizes “…the foreseeable effects of explosive remnants of war on civilian populations as a factor to be considered in applying the international humanitarian law rules on proportionality in attack and 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 “Cluster Munitions to Be Banned by 2008,” Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, February 23, 2007, http://www.regjeringen.no/en/ministries/ud/Press-Contacts/News/2007/Cluster-munitions-to-be-banned-by- 2008.html?id=454942 (accessed March 2, 2007). 13 Human Rights Watch February 2008
precautions in attack.” 29 States parties, including Israel and the United States, adopted this language on November 17, 2006. Human Rights Watch believes that the international community should move to establish predictable future effects as not only a violation of IHL but also as a basis for criminal responsibility. The tragedy that has taken place in Lebanon should serve as a catalyst to both national measures and a new international treaty on cluster munitions. Methodology This report is based on Human Rights Watch’s on-the-ground research in Lebanon and Israel, supplemented most notably with information provided by MACC SL. It also draws on more than a decade of field research and documentary research on cluster munitions by Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch researchers were in Lebanon throughout the conflict and were the first to confirm Israel’s use of cluster munitions when they documented the IDF’s attack on Blida on July 19, 2006. At the same time, Human Rights Watch researchers working in northern Israel confirmed the widespread presence of cluster munition artillery shells in the arsenals of IDF artillery teams stationed along Israel’s border with Lebanon. Immediately after the ceasefire, Human Rights Watch researchers traveled to south Lebanon, the location of the most intense cluster munition contamination. They spent six days surveying the extent of the damage from cluster attacks and conducting interviews. Researchers returned to south Lebanon in mid-September 2006 for several days and spent another week in late October 2006 documenting the ongoing aftereffects of the submunitions. Our researchers investigated more than 50 cluster munition strikes, including strikes in more than 40 towns and villages in south Lebanon. They collected physical evidence of the strikes, took photographs, visited hospitals, and interviewed dozens of civilians who had been directly affected by the cluster munition attacks, including 29 Third Review Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), “Final Document, Part II, Final Declaration,” CCW/CONF.III/11 (Part II), Geneva, November 7-17, 2006, p. 4 [hereinafter CCW Third Review Conference, “Final Declaration”]. Flooding South Lebanon 14
Page 1 and 2: Lebanon Flooding South Lebanon Isra
Page 3 and 4: Civilian Harm......................
Page 6 and 7: Acronyms BLU CBU CCW COI DPICM ICRC
Page 8 and 9: Summary The Israel Defense Forces (
Page 10 and 11: Israel’s strikes in 2006 were the
Page 12 and 13: leaving behind vast numbers of haza
Page 14 and 15: compensate for the cluster rockets
Page 16 and 17: immediately before a negotiated cea
Page 18 and 19: knowingly or recklessly indiscrimin
Page 22 and 23: numerous men, women, and children w
Page 24 and 25: To the Secretary-General of the Uni
Page 26 and 27: Cluster Munitions and International
Page 28 and 29: At least 14 states and a small numb
Page 30 and 31: • Refraining from launching attac
Page 32 and 33: This does not just mean immediate c
Page 34 and 35: Israel is a major producer and expo
Page 36 and 37: Types of Cluster Munitions and Subm
Page 38 and 39: An unexploded M77, a US-made dual p
Page 40 and 41: This CBU-58B cluster bomb casing, s
Page 42 and 43: likely that the MZD-2s found in Leb
Page 44 and 45: contaminated by submunitions. 89 Ho
Page 46 and 47: Timing and Targets: When and How Cl
Page 48 and 49: with 500-pound bombs. The increase
Page 50 and 51: Human Rights Watch field research c
Page 52 and 53: percent, and dismissed the problem
Page 54 and 55: A UNIFIL deminer holds an Israeli-m
Page 56 and 57: Civilian Harm Cluster munitions hav
Page 58 and 59: 51 Human Rights Watch February 2008
Page 60 and 61: submunition causing it to explode.
Page 62 and 63: Dr. `Abdel Nasser Farran told Human
Page 64 and 65: Agriculture Perhaps the most danger
Page 66 and 67: exploded, and a young woman was pic
Page 68 and 69: from the war. 180 Tragedy struck wh
Page 70 and 71:
injured in my legs. I still can’t
Page 72 and 73:
in operation for many years, includ
Page 74 and 75:
67 Human Rights Watch February 2008
Page 76 and 77:
69 Human Rights Watch February 2008
Page 78 and 79:
the grove of fruit trees. Though sh
Page 80 and 81:
of the fighting. Although no one is
Page 82 and 83:
oad to visit his cousin when his br
Page 84 and 85:
Four-year-old `Ali Muhammad Yaghi w
Page 86 and 87:
place.” 237 Assessing the monetar
Page 88 and 89:
especially because we needed to irr
Page 90 and 91:
conflict interrupted existing clear
Page 92 and 93:
An engine from a US-made M26 Multip
Page 94 and 95:
duds around villages. 268 With the
Page 96 and 97:
Various reasons exist as to why com
Page 98 and 99:
Lack of Israeli Assistance Perhaps
Page 100 and 101:
checkpoints. Similarly, UNIFIL has
Page 102 and 103:
Israel’s Statements on the Use of
Page 104 and 105:
This statement followed the finding
Page 106 and 107:
investigations into Israel’s appa
Page 108 and 109:
that would confirm that these weapo
Page 110 and 111:
specific to the weapons. When conce
Page 112 and 113:
disregard of that character, they g
Page 114 and 115:
employed, the way that they were us
Page 116 and 117:
are antipersonnel, area denial weap
Page 118 and 119:
emain to take care of elderly or si
Page 120 and 121:
early 2007 aimed at identifying the
Page 122 and 123:
the United States, there is little
Page 124 and 125:
Conclusion Israel’s use of cluste
Page 126 and 127:
kidnapped IDF soldiers, and so aver
Page 128 and 129:
Proportionality A further legal req
Page 130 and 131:
In practice, this requires that the
Page 132 and 133:
neutralization offers a definite mi
Page 134 and 135:
it is more brutal. If Hizbullah had
Page 136 and 137:
Another issue of humanitarian conce
Page 138 and 139:
Acknowledgements This report was wr
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