Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

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A UNIFIL deminer holds an Israeli-made M85 submunition that he has rendered safe in Beit Yahoun on October 24, 2006. Some such submunitions had self-destruct devices, but deminers and weapons experts have documented dud rates in the field of 10 percent even for these models. © 2006 Bonnie Docherty/Human Rights Watch 47 Human Rights Watch February 2008
cleared were the self-destructing types, but the precise number is not known. According to MACC SL the M85 without the self-destruct mechanism is “commonly found with a 15% failure rate on the ground.” 137 In recent years, the United States and several other countries have identified a one percent failure rate as the desirable standard for submunition procurement, but the performance of the M85 in Lebanon calls into question the feasibility and effectiveness of this potential future standard, since even a very low failure rate in test conditions gives way to a much higher failure rate in the conditions of actual combat. Israeli soldiers were well aware of the large numbers of duds their cluster strikes were producing. A soldier said that his MLRS commander gave a “pep talk” after a period of heavy fire, saying, “Just wait until Hezbollah finds the little presents we left them.” 138 Soldiers also told Human Rights Watch that IDF soldiers were taught throughout their training to ignore the manufacturer’s claim of a 5 percent submunition failure (dud) rate for the M77 submunitions contained in the M26 rocket, and to presume a 15 percent submunition failure rate instead. 139 A reserve officer told a reporter that there is an IDF regulation prohibiting the firing of cluster munitions on areas the IDF is planning to enter to avoid exposing IDF soldiers to risks of death or injury by duds. 140 137 Chris Clark, program manager, MACC SL, “Unexploded Cluster Bombs and Submunitions in South Lebanon.” 138 Human Rights Watch interview with IDF reservist (name withheld), Tel Aviv, Israel, October 2006. 139 Human Rights Watch interviews with IDF reservists (names withheld), Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Israel, October 2006. This dud rate is consistent with US testing data, which reports a 16 percent submunition failure rate. See Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, “Unexploded Ordnance Report,” table 2-3, p. 5. The US General Accounting Office reported some lots of M26 in US stockpiles to have dud rates as high as 23 percent, based on testing done to accept newly produced batches. See US General Accounting Office, “GAO/NSIAD-92-212: Operation Desert Storm: Casualties Caused by Improper Handling of Unexploded US Submunitions,” August 1993, pp. 5-6. 140 Rapoport, “A Barrage of Accusations,” Ha’aretz. Flooding South Lebanon 48
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 20 and 21: production, transfer and stockpilin
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 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 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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Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

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