The effects on the civilian population and recent arms transfers demonstrate the urgent need for all countries to adhere to the international ban on cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch (HRW) defended on Tuesday.
“Cluster munitions are repulsive weapons that are banned worldwide because they cause immediate and long-term harm and suffering to civilians,” said Mary Wareham, HRW Arms Director and editor of the 96-page Cluster Munition Monitor 2023 report. ,” an annual publication of this New York-based human rights organization.
“It is unacceptable that civilians are still dying from cluster munition attacks 15 years after the ban on this weapon,” he said.
Cluster munitions can be fired from artillery, rocket launchers, missiles, or dropped from aircraft. They open up in the air, dispersing multiple submunitions or small bombs over a wide area. Many of these submunitions do not explode on initial impact and can then injure or kill for years like land mines until detected and destroyed.
During 2022, the last year for which casualty statistics were published, 95% of the casualties recorded by the Monitor were civilians.
Cluster munitions also killed or injured at least 987 people in 2022, with 890 cases reported in Ukraine.
Russian forces have repeatedly used cluster munitions in Ukraine since the military invasion on February 24, 2022, resulting in civilian deaths and injuries. Ukrainian forces also used cluster munitions that caused civilian casualties. Cluster munitions were also used by Myanmar’s ruling army and Syrian government forces in 2022, again with civilian casualties. None of these countries have signed or ratified the international treaty banning cluster munitions.
The “Cluster Munitions Monitor” did not record casualties from attacks with this weapon in 2021, but identified at least 149 victims in previous attacks with this type of munitions, particularly unexploded submunitions.
In 2022, there were at least 185 incidents involving cluster munition fragments in Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen. About 71% of all victims caused by this weapon are children.
Russia used stockpiled and new production cluster munitions in Ukraine in 2022 and the first half of 2023. In July 2023, the United States began the transfer to Ukraine of an unspecified quantity of its 155mm cluster munitions, in addition to submunitions of design.
At least 21 government leaders, including countries that support Ukraine’s war effort, have criticized the US government’s decision to supply this weapon.
“The biggest obstacle for countries committed to banning cluster munitions are governments that show no intention to adhere to the convention and compromise their principles by using or supplying this weapon,” Wareham said.
“Countries that have banned cluster munitions are making consistent progress across the board to destroy their stockpiles and clear contaminated areas despite daunting challenges.”
A total of 112 countries have already ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions and another 12 have signed the document, expressing their willingness to accept its content. Nigeria ratified the convention on February 28, and South Sudan adopted the same position on August 3.
The report indicates that since 2008, the signatories to the convention have destroyed around 1.5 million cluster munitions and 178.5 million submunitions, which represent 99% of the stockpile they declared, as recorded by Bulgaria, Peru and Slovakia in 2022 and in the first semester. of 2023.
The “Cluster Munition Monitor 2023” report also notes that 26 countries and three other areas are contaminated with cluster munitions debris.
“Cluster munitions are widely stigmatized on ethical, legal and humanitarian grounds,” Wareham added. “Governments that continue to insist on their use should consider their position in the face of the dire consequences caused by these weapons and join the international ban,” the report concludes.
Source: TSF
