April 8
REPORT, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: USE OF CLUSTER BOMBS IN CIVILIAN AREAS
Amnesty International is deeply concerned about the mounting toll of civilian casualties in Iraq and the reported use of cluster bombs by US forces in heavily populated areas. Despite repeated assurances from US and UK authorities that they would do everything possible to protect the Iraqi people, since 20 March hundreds of civilians have reportedly been killed. Some have been victims of cluster bombs; some have died in attacks in disputed circumstances. Amnesty International urges all the warring parties to make the safety of Iraqi civilians a top priority.
In particular, AI calls for:
an immediate moratorium on the use of cluster bombs by US/UK forces and on other inherently indiscriminate weapons;
an immediate end to unlawful tactics by Iraqi forces that endanger civilians;
prompt and impartial investigations into civilian deaths, and the use of the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to investigate incidents of alleged serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Cluster bombs and other indiscriminate weapons
The scenes at al-Hilla's hospital on 1 April showed that something terrible had happened. The bodies of the men, women and children – both dead and alive – brought to the hospital were punctured with shards of shrapnel from cluster bombs. Videotape of the victims was judged by Reuters and Associated Press editors as being too awful to show on television. Independent newspaper journalists reported that the pictures showed babies cut in half and children with their limbs blown off. Two lorry-loads of bodies, including women in flowered dresses, were seen outside the hospital.
Injured survivors told reporters how the explosives fell "like grapes" from the sky, and how bomblets bounced through the windows and doors of their homes before exploding. A doctor at al-Hilla's hospital said that almost all the patients were victims of cluster bombs.
Many of the cluster bombs reportedly dropped from the air by US forces on a civilian area of al-Hilla were of the type BLU97 A. Each canister contains 202 small bomblets
the size of a soft drink can. These cluster bombs scatter and spray over a large area about the size of two football fields. At least 5 per cent of the bomblets do not explode on impact, turning them into de facto anti-personnel mines as they continue to pose a threat to people, including civilians, who come into contact with them.
Landmine Action, a UK-based non-governmental organization, has stated that pictures from al-Hilla show unexploded BLU97 A cluster submunition, and that this is the same air-dropped weapon that caused severe humanitarian problems in Afghanistan and Kosovo.
When questioned about the attack on al-Hilla, General Brooks, speaking for the US Central Command, did not deny the use of cluster bombs. He said: "[I]n our approach to targeting and using things like cluster munitions, we always give consideration to what types of activities are likely to occur there next… I don't have any specifics about that particular attack and the explosions that would link it to cluster munitions at all."
The devastating consequences of using cluster bombs in civilian areas are utterly predictable. If, as accounts suggest, US forces dropped cluster bombs in residential areas of al-Hilla, even if they were directed at military targets, such an action could constitute a disproportionate attack. This would be a grave breach of international humanitarian law. An independent and thorough investigation must be held and those found responsible for any violations of the laws of war should be brought to justice. The US and UK authorities should order the immediate halt to further use of cluster bombs.
The rules of war prohibit the use of inherently indiscriminate weapons. These are weapons which are incapable of being used in a manner that complies with the obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants.
AI has repeatedly called on all parties to this war not to use anti-personnel landmines, cluster bombs, depleted uranium weapons, and nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Since 20 March both US and UK forces have used several types of cluster bomblets or submunitions. These are delivered by artillery, rocket and aerial bombing. US authorities have also stated that the US "retains the right to use landmines". Iraqi troops have reportedly laid anti-personnel mines, and a large store of landmines was found in a mosque in Kadir Karam in northern Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch.
US and UK military authorities have acknowledged that they have used cluster bombs in other attacks in Iraq since 20 March, although it is unclear if these were in civilian areas or if there were civilian casualties. However, the unexploded bomblets left behind on the ground by cluster shells, rockets and aerial bombs invariably pose a continuing threat to civilians, especially children.
Several reports indicate that there may have been civilian casualties as a result of the use of cluster bombs. For example, on 5 April two clusters bombs reportedly dropped by US forces on the al-Baladiyat quarter in the southwest of Baghdad left eight people wounded, residents told AFP. Small bomblets were scattered over a courtyard between several brick buildings. Most of the 50,000 residents of the quarter are Palestinian families who fled to Iraq in 1948.
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