[WCUSP] Fwd: New Report on Cluster Munitions use in Lebanon now available

[Odile Hugonot Haber]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susi Snyder <susi.snyder at wilpf.ch>
Date: Oct 19, 2006 8:17 AM
Subject: New Report on Cluster Munitions use in Lebanon now available
To: wilpf-news at wilpf.ch


WILPF Middle East Committee
Dear Friends,

I wanted to draw your attention to an excellent report just released by
the Cluster Munitions Coalition about the use of cluster munitions in
during the July war in Lebanon.

The full report can be found here:
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/files/Foreseeable%20harm.pdf (this
will immediately download the PDF document)

 From the report:
"Reports of the Israeli army using cluster munitions is an obvious
propaganda of Hezbollah and other organizations who do not know what is
actually going on."
Arkady Milman Ambassador of Israel to the Russian Federation, 26 July 2006

"We try to minimize their use. We only use them in designated areas that
have been closed even by Hezbollah itself."
Major General Benny Gantz Commander of Israel's ground forces, 26 July 2006

"In the last 72 hours we fired all the munitions we had, all at the same
spot, we didn't even alter the direction of the gun. Friends of mine in
the battalion told me they also fired everything in the last three days
– ordinary shells, clusters, whatever they had."
Anonymous Israeli reservist in an artillery battalion, quoted in Haaretz
daily newspaper, Israel, 8 September 2006

"What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in
cluster bombs."
Head of an IDF rocket unit posted in Lebanon during the war, quoted in
Haaretz daily newspaper, Israel, 12 September 2006

The data below is from the Cluster Munitions Coalition website:
http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/

*What are cluster munitions?*

Cluster munitions are weapons that include cargo containers and
submunitions. The cargo containers are fired, launched or dropped by
aircraft or land-based artillery. The containers open over a target area
and disperse large numbers of the submunitions that are designed to
explode when they hit the target. Most of these submunitions are
fragmentation weapons that include a shaped charge so that they are
effective against soldiers as well as armoured vehicles. The vast
majority of cluster munitions contain hundreds of submunitions that are
unguided and that cover one square kilometre with explosions and shrapnel.

Cluster munitions are also called cluster bombs or cluster weapons.
Submunitions are sometimes called bomblets.

*Who has used these weapons?*

The following countries have used cluster munitions: Eritrea, Ethiopia,
France, Israel, Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro,
Sudan, United Kingdom, United States.

*Where have they been used and where are the worst problems?*

Cluster munitions have been used in: Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia &
Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Croatia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kuwait,
Laos, Lebanon, Russia (Chechnya), Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan,
Syria, Tajikistan, Yugoslavia (including Kosovo), Vietnam.

The most contaminated areas are Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos,
Kosovo and Vietnam.

*Which countries have these weapons?*

The following countries currently stockpile cluster munitions: Algeria,
Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus,
Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China,
Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia,
Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea, North,
Korea, South, Kuwait, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, Netherlands, Nigeria,
Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia
and Montenegro, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden,
Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab
Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Yemen


--
Ms. Susi Snyder
Secretary General
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
1, rue de Varembe
Case Postale 28
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Telephone : +41 22 919 7080
Fax : +41 22 919 7081
email : susi.snyder at wilpf.ch
websites:
http://www.wilpf.ch
http://www.peacewomen.org
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org


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