tagged w/ Israel-Lebanon War 2006
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Mr Brown told an audience of businessmen at Mansion House that he wanted "to work internationally for a ban on the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of those cluster munitions which cause unacceptable harm to civilians".
However, as he made the announcement, British officials were at the Convention on Conventional Weapons in Geneva, negotiating for the continued use of controversial Israeli-made M85 explosives.
The M85, a so-called smart-bomb that "self-destructs", has a failure record of between 1% and 2%, according to the government.
Cluster munitions are weapons that on impact disperse several hundred smaller munitions - also known as bomblets, similar to land mines - over areas the size of two or three football pitches.
The only organisation to attempt to measure the numbers injured by unexploded munitions is Handicap International, which estimates that 98% of the 13,000 recorded victims were civilians rather than military.
When Israeli forces dropped M85s during last summer's bombardment of southern Lebanon, the UN mine action coordination centre there said the failure rate was between 6% and 10%. Many parts of Lebanon remain littered with unexploded bomblets.
Steve Goose, the director of the arms division of Human Rights Watch, said: "Nobody like Brown, who wants to get rid of arms that cause unacceptable harm to civilians, would back the use of a weapon that has a 6-10% failure rate."
The British army used M85s in Basra, and Human Rights Watch fieldwork found cluster munitions aimed at military targets had killed civilians, with many failing to self-destruct at the time of attack.
Mr Brown told an audience of businessmen at Mansion House that he wanted "to... more
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ish757
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Mariana van Zeller tours the wreckage in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, Lebanon. Along with the visible destruction, Mariana also witnesses a strong sense of loyalty toward Hezbollah. Mariana van Zeller tours the wreckage in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, Lebanon.... more
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"The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli Government of killing hundreds of civilians last year by failing to discriminate between civilians and fighters in accordance with the laws of war." "The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli Government... more
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Human Rights Watch accuses Lebanese terror group of trying to 'shut it up' prior to publication of report criticizing rocket attacks on Israel during last summer's war
Both Hizbullah and the Lebanese government slammed Human Rights Watch (HRW) over the report, which states that the rocket attacks targeted Israeli civilians in violation of the laws of war during a 34-day-long conflict with Israel. Human Rights Watch accuses Lebanese terror group of trying to 'shut it up'... more
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A look at one of the environmental consequences of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict--an oil spill that has turned Lebanon's beaches black.A look at one of the environmental consequences of the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict--an... more
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