UNITED NATIONS - Cluster bombs dropped by Israel on southern Lebanon in the
conflict with Hizbollah are still threatening civilians, a top U.N. official
said on Wednesday, calling Israel "completely immoral" for using the weapons in
residential areas.
Bomb experts from the
Mines Advisory Group explode a cluster bomb after finding it in the
southern Lebanese village of Sultaniyeh. UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland
said that thousands of civilians were at risk in south Lebanon from
unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Israeli forces in the last three days
of the war against Hezbollah
guerrillas.[AFP] |
U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said some of the bombs fired by
Israeli forces in the last days of the war were made in the United States and
urged Washington to talk to the Jewish state to stem the flow of the deadly
arms.
"I hope the U.S. will talk to the Israelis on that," Egeland told a news
conference. "It's an outrage that we have 100,000 unexploded bombs among where
children, women, civilians, shop keepers and farmers are now going to tread."
Egeland criticized Israel for firing nearly all of the cluster bombs during
the last three days of its month-long war with Lebanon's Hizbollah.
"What's shocking and completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster
bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict, when we knew there
would be a resolution and an end of this," Egeland said.
Cluster bombs burst into bomblets and spread out near the ground. While some
aim to destroy tanks, others are designed to kill or maim humans over a wide
area.
Those that fail to explode might resemble a soda can while others look like
dusty rocks. Each bomblet packs enough force to rip off a leg or kill a child,
and international law bans the use of such weapons in civilian areas.
Israel denies using the weapons illegally and accuses Hizbollah of firing
rockets into Israeli territory from Lebanese towns and villages.
Egeland said U.N. officials had not yet sought an explanation from Israel on
its late offensive, because the information had come only recently.
He estimated it would take a year to 15 months to clean up the bombs, which
are spread over large areas of homes, farmland and commercial centers.
During the conflict, Hizbollah guerrillas blended into civilian districts and
launched rockets into Israel, "inviting (an Israeli) response," he said.
"Every day people are maimed, wounded and killed by these ordinances," said
Egeland. But he said he did not have numbers of how many Lebanese have been
killed so far.
About 250,000 Lebanese civilians still cannot get into their homes because
they have been destroyed or are too close to unexploded shells or bombs, he
said.
Israel was planning to turn over maps of where it dropped or fired the
cluster bombs, he said, adding: "That is also taking some time." An August 11
U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at ending the fighting called on Israel
to turn over all maps it had of land mines in Lebanon.
