Lancet editorial blasts cluster bombs

In the wake of publishing the Johns Hopkins 2006 study of mortality in Iraq, The Lancet in an editorial this week condemns the use of cluster bombs, particularly as used by Israeli forces recently in southern Lebanon. I for one fully endorse The Lancet’s view as expressed here.

Yet another country infested with cluster bombs

After Vietnam, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, southern Lebanon has become the latest horrific example of the consequences of international inaction over cluster bombs. In a report released last week, Foreseeable harm: the use and impact of cluster munitions in Lebanon: 2006, the UK organisation Landmine Action estimates, based on field research, that on average three or four civilians have been killed or injured by submunitions from cluster bombs every day since the ceasefire in August. 35% are children, who pick up these often brightly coloured, sometimes ball-shaped objects. In addition, farmers’ harvests are impeded, and schools, roads, houses, and gardens are still littered with unexploded munitions.

The UN Mine Action Coordination Centre (UNMACC) in south Lebanon has so far disposed of over 45,000 submunitions but estimates that there are 1 million in an area of about 650 000 inhabitants. The failure rate of cluster bombs depends on when they were made and on their type. Some argue that because newer variants have lower failure rates and self-destruct mechanisms, they are a legitimate weapon in modern conflicts. So it is all the more disturbing that the failure rate in Lebanon is estimated by UNMACC to be between 15% and 40% and that self-destruct versions were found among the unexploded ordnance. Who would accept such a failure rate for any technical equipment? With cluster bombs, it essentially means that up to 40% of them function as deadly landmines. Landmine Action has aptly named its campaign to ban cluster bombs Product Recall.

The growing unease has led a group of nations to call for discussions on an international treaty to regulate or ban cluster bombs at the Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to be held in Geneva next month. The opposing nations are largely those who have also not signed the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty: the USA, China, India, Russia, and the UK. The legacy of Lebanon has shown again that hiding behind the argument of technological advance and precision is utterly inappropriate. Cluster bombs must be banned.

• The Lancet, Vol 368, No 9546, 28 October 2006