The US may have taken token steps towards scolding Israel for using cluster bombs in Lebanon, but where are the maps of where they were dropped, asks Serene Assir in South Lebanon It was a somewhat surprising move given the historical "special relationship" between the United States and Israel and countless gratuitous acts of mutual interest protection in the Middle East. Last week, the US State Department sent a report to Congress outlining its preliminary findings on Israel's controversial use of cluster bombs in South Lebanon during the last hours of the summer 2006 war. The findings, it has been reported, suggest that Israel may have violated the Arms Export Control Act, which governs the use of weapons sold by the US, the world's biggest arms manufacturer and exporter. According to the Washington-based Arab American Institute, there are two options ahead concerning the matter of cluster bombs, should a final investigation prove Israel's use of cluster bombs illegal. Either US President George W Bush imposes sanctions on Israel, or "Congress should take legislative action to sanction Israel to uphold the integrity of the law." A full six months after the end of the summer war that killed 1,400 people, injured over 4,000 others, and completely destroyed 15,000 homes, life for the inhabitants of South Lebanon continues to be plagued with the threat posed by unexploded cluster munitions. According to 16- year-old Samar, resident of Khiam, "The outskirts of the town are covered with bombs. My brother was badly injured by a bomb when he was out working on our olive farm. Now he is much better, but he still can't walk for very long without being in a lot of pain." "As of 31 January, 841 cluster bomb sites had been located in South Lebanon," said Dalya Farran, spokeswoman for the Tyre-based UN Mine Action Coordination Centre for South Lebanon (UNMACC). "There were a total of 216 casualties, among whom 30 were fatal." Following intense lobbying on the issue of cluster bombs by local and international human rights groups, aid agencies and media workers, UNMACC was able to gather the necessary resources to train and fund sufficient de-mining teams in a bid to clean up the south and render it safe for its inhabitants to live and work in. Among the teams, Farran pointed out, is now a Swedish-trained group of women de- miners, probably the first of its kind in the Middle East. But the effectiveness of the de-mining work continues to be negatively affected by Israel's ongoing failure to deliver on a key demand stipulated by UNMACC and Amnesty International, among others; namely that Israel provide grid references indicating where it dropped cluster bombs. "We also need to know which types of cluster bombs where thrown where," said Farran, as depending on the kind of cluster bomb-bearing missile, the number of munitions it contains varies. Until Israel provides maps with that level of specificity, the de-miners' work is an agonising shot in the dark, searching area after area for signs and putting themselves -- and by default inhabitants of the area until the work is done -- at severe risk. It appears, however, that this was precisely the point of Israel's blatant contravention of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit the use of such weapons in civilian areas. That 90 per cent of the estimated total four million cluster bomblets were dropped on South Lebanon in the last 72 hours of the war, when the implementation of a UN resolution for the cessation of hostilities was imminent, only accentuates the feeling of suspicion surrounding Israel's continued failure to provide maps of their location. In the context of Israel's failure to fulfil its stated objective of eradicating Hizbullah during the summer 2006 war, culminating in the resignation of Chief-of-Staff General Dan Halutz, the massive use of cluster bombs was at least in part an act of spite. That many of the cluster bombs used were old or expired stock and therefore more unlikely to explode when dropped but rather lay dormant, waiting for civilian victims, adds insult to injury. Israel cannot claim, having occupied South Lebanon in the past for over a decade, to not understand that 70 per cent of South Lebanon's economy relies on agriculture. Who, then, were the intended targets of this last minute barrage of cluster bombs? Farmers? Children? Israel's nefarious calculations aside, so long as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- himself under fire for his disastrous venture in Lebanon -- does not hand over detailed maps to the UN not only will more lives be lost in Lebanon, but human rights groups and other concerned parties will be provided yet further ammunition to berate a state whose military pursuits have cost the lives of countless thousands, and the permanent displacement of millions, since its establishment in 1948. Back in the USA, given that the State Department has come this far, there is no going back. This could be a watershed mark in the struggle to ban altogether such indiscriminate and utterly unjustifiable munitions such as cluster bombs. Ideally, Israel would face sanctions for this, yet another, violation of international law, even while so many others have passed without punishment. On the other extreme, Olmert could at least be pressured to issue a public apology. Certainly there is no discussion about whether or not Olmert hands over specified maps charting where the cluster bombs were dropped. Already he is months late in meeting this UN-issued demand. The ball is now in the court of Washington, which is as much to say that it resides still in the court of Tel Aviv. Will Israel's fighting partner put pressure on Olmert and uphold both international law for the sake of the greater stability of international relations and common decency for the sake of lives at risk still in South Lebanon? It appears that around the issue of cluster bombs the full extent of the US-Israel alliance will be tested. Meanwhile, and until Washington manoeuvres out of this embarrassing situation, across southern Lebanon tens of thousands of bomblets lie in wait for de-miners and ordinary civilians alike.
