Lebanon/Israel: Hezbollah Hit Israel with Cluster Munitions During Conflict (punishment, recall)

[jewscout]

Lebanon/Israel: Hezbollah Hit Israel with Cluster Munitions During Conflict

First Confirmed Use of Weapon Type

(Jerusalem, October 18, 2006) – Hezbollah fired cluster munitions into civilian areas in northern Israel during the recent conflict, Human Rights Watch reported today. This is the first time that Hezbollah’s use of these controversial weapons has been confirmed.

Hezbollah’s deployment of the Chinese-made Type-81 122mm rocket is also the first confirmed use of this particular model of cluster munition anywhere in the world. Human Rights Watch documented two Type-81 cluster strikes that took place on July 25 in the Galilee village of Mghar.

“We are disturbed to discover that not only Israel but also Hezbollah used cluster munitions in their recent conflict, at a time when many countries are turning away from this kind of weapon precisely because of its impact on civilians,” said Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division. “Use of cluster munitions is never justified in civilian-populated areas because they are inaccurate and unreliable.”

While it is not known when and how Hezbollah obtained these foreign-made cluster munitions, and while Hezbollah used far fewer cluster munitions than Israel did in the recent war, the new findings raise serious concerns about the proliferation of these weapons to non-state armed groups, as well as states.

<snip>

Israeli police officials told Human Rights Watch that they documented 113 cluster rockets that were fired at Israel during the conflict, causing one death and 12 injuries in all: in Mghar one death and six injuries, in Karmiel three injuries, in Kiryat Motzkin two injuries, and in Nahariya one injury. The police said they discovered the first of these rockets on July 15 in the Upper Galilee village of Safsufa. A total of 113 Type-81 cluster munition rockets would contain 4,407 individual submunitions.

Israeli police also showed Human Rights Watch physical evidence of a submunition from a Type-81 rocket that they said landed in the town of Karmiel and matched the one Human Rights Watch researchers saw in Mhgar.

Police and army officials did not disclose to Human Rights Watch the estimated dud rate of the submunitions from the 113 cluster rockets that they said they had handled.

International humanitarian law (the laws of war) obliges warring parties to distinguish between combatants and civilians (the principle of distinction) and, when attacking legitimate military targets, to ensure that the military advantage gained in the attack outweighs any possible harm caused to civilians.

Hezbollah launched cluster attacks that were at best indiscriminate, i.e., they violated the principle of distinction by using unguided and highly inaccurate cluster munition models against populated areas. At worst, Hezbollah deliberately attacked civilian areas with these weapons.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/18/lebano14412.htm

The article also points out the wide use of Cluster Bombs by Israel as well, but that has already been well documented in the media. The fact that Hezbollah used this type of weaponry in the war is not what I find disturbing. What is disturbing is the resounding silence from the UN and the rest of the international community in regards to violations of international law by Hezbollah during this conflict.

Ample attention is being focused on Israel...I'd say I was surprised that it isn't being focused on Nasrallah and his goons...but I'm not.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by jewscout

The article also points out the wide use of Cluster Bombs by Israel as well, but that has already been well documented in the media. The fact that Hezbollah used this type of weaponry in the war is not what I find disturbing. What is disturbing is the resounding silence from the UN and the rest of the international community in regards to violations of international law by Hezbollah during this conflict.

Ample attention is being focused on Israel...I'd say I was surprised that it isn't being focused on Nasrallah and his goons...but I'm not.

I recall Hezbollah being criticised from all corners, and being accused of war crimes.

[Djamila]

There's a simple explanation for what you perceive to be a bias against Israel.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, the Israeli Defense Force is allegedly a professional army, fully accountable to the Israeli government. When the IDF uses cluster bombs, or torture, or collective punishment, or targets civilians - it is held to a different standard than Hezbollah which, as a terrorist organization, is expected to do all of these things.

If you're a beauty queen, and you go to a banquet in overalls, the response will be quite different than if you were the farmer's daughter from Arkansas.

If the IDF doesn't wish to be so strictly held to account for its actions, it should be classified as a terrorist organization and then it will receive all the same general condemnations as Hezbollah without detailing specifics everyone expects anyway.

[jewscout]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

I recall Hezbollah being criticised from all corners, and being accused of war crimes.

being accused of war crimes and actually having the UN investigate such allegations are 2 different things
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006...ebano14336.htm

[kai]

anyone who uses suicide bombers would not hesitate to use the most lethal destructive weapon at their disposal i am sure hezbollah would use anything and find justification for it , but the IDF should know better

[jewscout]

Originally Posted by Djamila

There's a simple explanation for what you perceive to be a bias against Israel.

Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, the Israeli Defense Force is allegedly a professional army, fully accountable to the Israeli government. When the IDF uses cluster bombs, or torture, or collective punishment, or targets civilians - it is held to a different standard than Hezbollah which, as a terrorist organization, is expected to do all of these things.

If you're a beauty queen, and you go to a banquet in overalls, the response will be quite different than if you were the farmer's daughter from Arkansas.

If the IDF doesn't wish to be so strictly held to account for its actions, it should be classified as a terrorist organization and then it will receive all the same general condemnations as Hezbollah without detailing specifics everyone expects anyway.

however, not holding them responsible for their actions gives a green light to other organizations to act in the same careless and vicious way.

I'm not asking for the IDF to be let off the hook for using weapons in violation of international law or that put civilians needlessly at risk, i'm asking that Hizbullah be held accountable for violating the same laws.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by jewscout

being accused of war crimes and actually having the UN investigate such allegations are 2 different things
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006...ebano14336.htm

Then I agree that there is a double standard and I cannot accept that this is right. They should be held to account.

[Djamila]

It's a terrorist organization, what do you expect? It reminds me of the legal proceedings at the International Criminal Tribunal for Serbian political and military leaders charged with war crimes in relation to the siege of Sarajevo.

They spent a great deal of their trials proving that the Serbian war machine was deliberately targetting civilians in Sarajevo. And I thought to myself - how pointless? They fired 3,000 shells at the city every day. Snipers killed thousands of civilians. The entire city was ruined and their own records included commands to "bomb them into madness", "kill as many as you can so the rest will leave", and "leave no family intact".

Talking about these people in terms of targetting civilians just seemed so stupid to me. It's like investigating a fire and trying first to prove there was a fire. It's just common sense.

And calling for Hezbollah to be investigated for these sorts of things makes me equally... "rolling eyes" emotion, whatever that is. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, no one needs to prove what it's done - it's common sense. Focus on nailing the ******** instead.

[jewscout]

ok...apparently i need to follow up my OP with this article, also from HRW, to try to illustrate my point:

When 800,000 pro-Hezbollah demonstrators gathered in downtown Beirut on Sunday, they made it clear to the world that even after its war with Israel, Hezbollah is still a formidable military and political force. As such, it has become a model for armed groups throughout the region. Both Hezbollah’s strength and popularity make it all the more important that it be held accountable for its conduct during the war. Although both the UN’s Human Rights Council and the Lebanese government have called for Israel to be held accountable for its crimes, they have not done so for Hezbollah. This failure sends Hezbollah a message that it can act with impunity while undermining the protection of civilians caught in fighting involving armed groups around the world.

<snip>

Because of Hezbollah’s secrecy, little is known about the conduct of its forces inside Lebanon and whether its own actions put Lebanese civilians at risk. Human Rights Watch’s research found that on a number of occasions Hezbollah unjustifiably endangered Lebanese civilians by storing weapons in civilian homes, firing rockets from populated areas, and allowing its fighters to operate from civilian homes. Hezbollah also used children as active combatants, another violation of the law.

Hezbollah publicly defended its attacks on Israel, insisting that many of its rockets were targeted at military objects. But this does not excuse the many other rockets indiscriminately launched into civilian areas. Hezbollah also sought to justify its attacks on Israeli civilians by claiming they were legitimate reprisals under certain interpretations of Islamic law. Such statements are disappointing, to say the least, from an organization that has that has otherwise prided itself on having forced Israel to withdraw its military forces from Lebanon in 2000 without attacking civilians. They also are short-sighted: violations of international humanitarian law happen in almost every war, so if a violation by one side excused violations by another, every war would degenerate into attacks on civilians. That’s why reprisals against civilians are never permitted under international humanitarian law. Hezbollah also denied doing anything to endanger Lebanese civilians without countering specific charges that they have fought or stored weapons in civilian areas.

In the wake of the war, the United Nations Human Rights Council, primarily at the instigation of Arab and Muslim member states, moved swiftly to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate Israel’s violations of the laws of war. But in a startling display of self-defeating bias, it refused to examine Hezbollah’s conduct. That one-sided response undermined the credibility of the UN’s strongest human rights mechanism at a time when it is most needed to compensate for Lebanon’s inability or unwillingness to undertake such an investigation on its own. As a result, no official body is investigating Hezbollah’s conduct during the hostilities or demanding that Hezbollah answer for it.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006...ebano14336.htm

the point i'm trying to get across is that in this day and age when non-state affiliated groups like Hezbollah have the power and influence they do, they should be treated in the same way as a nation-state when violating international law, instead of living in the secrecy and security of the loop-holes of such laws.