Flooding South Lebanon - Human Rights Watch

Salimah Barakat, a 65-year-old tobacco farmer in Yohmor, stayed in her home during
the war to care for her disabled son and daughter. She told Human Rights Watch that
she heard cluster munitions falling throughout the night during the last four to five
days of the war, though she received no warning of an impending attack. When the
ceasefire commenced on August 14, Barakat finally emerged from hiding to begin
clearing the path to her home, trying to remove the large rocks so her blind daughter
could safely walk around the house. She remembers moving a large rock blocking
the stairs down to her home when a submunition exploded; she later learned that
she had accidentally hit an unexploded dud. The explosion sent her to the hospital
for shrapnel wounds to her chest, lower abdomen, and right arm. She has returned
to work in her tobacco field and olive groves, which as of October 2006 remained
littered with cluster submunitions. 147 During its visit, Human Rights Watch found an
M77 submunition and several ribbons in the backyard of her downtown home.
Unlike Barakat, the Hattab family left during the war, returning to their home in the
center of Habboush at 9:30 a.m. on August 14. Musa Hussein Hattab, 33, and several
family members began to clean the space adjacent to his house when Musa picked
up a submunition that exploded, killing him and his 13-year-old-nephew, Hedi
Muhammad Hattab. The blast injured four other family members, including `Ali
Hattab, 46, who remained in the hospital until late October, and his brother Ibrahim
Hattab, 38, who had three operations to repair his right leg. 148 The doctors estimated
it would be another year before Ibrahim Hattab would be able to resume work.
MACC SL reported 45 civilian casualties like these in the first week following the
ceasefire, as civilians returned home. 149 Simple efforts to rebuild and construct a
home, however, continued to threaten civilians even after late August. On September
12, with clearance efforts well underway, Raghda Idriss returned home and began
removing the rubble that fell into her olive grove next to her home on the outskirts of
Bar`achit. 150 In the course of her cleaning, she tossed a rock aside that hit a
147 Human Rights Watch interview with Salimah Barakat, farmer, Yohmor, October 26, 2006.
148 Human Rights Watch interviews with Hassan `Abbas Hattab, mukhtar, Habboush, and Ibrahim Hattab, Habboush, October
25, 2006.
149 Human Rights Watch interview with Chris Clark, program manager, MACC SL, Tyre, September 14, 2006.
150 Human Rights Watch interview with daughter of Raghda Idriss, Bar`achit, October 24, 2006.
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