Britain and US accused over cluster bombs
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday May 5, 2003
The Guardian
The lives of Iraqi civilians are being endangered because
Britain and the United States are failing to provide
adequate information about their forces' use of cluster
bombs, says the New York-based monitoring group Human
Rights Watch.
The Pentagon has admitted using nearly 1,500 air-dropped
cluster bombs during the war, but has not revealed
information about ground-launched cluster munitions, which
were far more numerous.
The Los Angeles Times reported recently that the US did not
keep track of ground-launched cluster munitions.
Reuben Brigety, of Human Rights Watch, said the
Pentagon "had better start" keeping track. "This
information is very important, especially when the weapon
has been improperly used in urban areas."
Britain's Ministry of Defence says the army's artillery
fired more than 2,000 cluster munitions around Basra, while
at least 66 BL755 cluster bombs were dropped by the RAF.
Human Rights Watch said: "The United States and United
Kingdom need to come clean on what they've done with these
weapons. They are not doing all they can to protect
civilians from the deadly after-effects of their cluster
attacks."
Cluster weapons scatter bomblets over a wide area. Those
failing to explode pose a serious danger to civilians.
The MoD says the Israeli-made L20 cluster bombs fired by
the army have a failure rate of about 2% and are designed
to self-destruct if they fail to detonate. The older
weapons used by the US army and the RAF's BL755s have a far
higher failure rate. About 10% of the latter fail to
detonate.
The MoD said it was committed to clearing areas hit by
cluster bombs. The Department for International Development
has been given £4m for the task. But Human Rights Watch
says the MoD and Pentagon have yet to provide detailed
information vital to clearing teams.
In March, Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, conceded
there might be instances when using cluster bombs against
certain targets would not be legal. Speaking to Andrew
Purkis, chief executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales
Memorial Fund - which campaigns against cluster weapons and
anti-personnel mines - Mr Ingram added that on other
occasions, cluster bombs "will be the most effective weapon
to use and their use will be legal".
Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, told MPs last month that
cluster bombs were "only used strictly in accordance with
international law".
However, he added: "A decision on which type of munition to
use has to take into account all the circumstances at the
time of an attack."
Source: The Guardian(UK)
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