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FROM THE FIELD

LEBANON AND GEORGIA CLUSTER BOMB VICTIMS REMEMBERED
12 Aug 2009 09:44:00 GMT
 Source: Handicap International - Belgium
Handicap International

Website: Website: http://www.handicap-international.be

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Background

•  Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia

•  Lebanon crisis

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Handicap International calls on States to strengthen victim assistance

Brussels, 12 August 2009 - Three years after the Lebanon war and one year after the war in Georgia, cluster munition survivors from Lebanon and Georgia still lack support. Today, a group of cluster munition victims from all over the world, known as the Ban Advocates, call on all States to implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions. They also call on States that have not yet done so to sign and ratify the Convention.

During their week-long conflict in August 2008 over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, both Russia and Georgia used cluster munitions that resulted in the deaths of at least 16 civilians and injured at least 54 more. During the final 72 hours of its month-long war in 2006 with Hezbollah, Israel attacked South Lebanon with over 1000 recorded cluster bomb strikes - many in populated areas - that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deadly duds and more than one hundred casualties in the first six weeks following the ceasefire alone. In Lebanon and Georgia, unexploded submunitions still continue to render tracts of farmland hazardous and pose a daily threat to local inhabitants.

These attacks reinforced the need for the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitons that has been signed by Lebanon and 97 other nations. This agreement comprehensively prohibits cluster munitions, requires clearance of contaminated areas, and requires assistance to victims of the weapon. To date, the Convention has received 15 of the 30 ratifications needed to trigger entry into force six months later.

Handicap International keeps the pressure on countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions. To do this the organisation works with the Ban Advocates, a group of individuals from different affected communities around the world (see www.banadvocates.org). "This treaty has great meaning for the whole world because we do not want to see people suffering and we don't want to see any more tears in the eyes of mothers and fathers. We need States to ratify and implement the Convention on Cluster Munitions urgently so no one has to be a victim of this horrible weapon," said Raed Mokaled, a Ban Advocate from Lebanon. Raed lost his 5-year old son to a cluster submunition in 1999. The strongest element of the Convention on Cluster Munitions may be its victim assistance provisions. "These provisions are groundbreaking and create a standard that States must keep in mind when planning the future of the treaty banning landmines," said Stan Brabant, Head of the Policy Unit from Handicap International Belgium. "A lot more work is needed to support the victims of cluster bombs, landmines and other unexploded devices and States should not accept anything weaker than what was achieved through the Convention on Cluster Munitions."

On 2 September 2009, Handicap International will release a new, groundbreaking report called "Voices from the Ground". This report will look at challenges ahead from the perspective of the victims themselves.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Topics

•  International Humanitarian Law

•  Landmines and explosives

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Emergencies

•  Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia

•  Lebanon crisis

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

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Georgia, Abkhazia, S. Ossetia - [Who works where]
Lebanon crisis - [Who works where]

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