April
26, 2012
Cluster Bombs and use in WWII - File photo
NEW DELHI (AP) — A report from a
U.N. mine removal expert says unexploded cluster munitions have been found in
northern Sri Lanka, appearing to confirm, for the first time, that they were
used in that country’s long civil war.
The revelation is likely to increase calls for
an international investigation into possible war crimes stemming from the bloody
final months of fighting in the quarter-century civil war that ended in May
2009. The government has repeatedly denied using cluster munitions during the
final months of fighting.
Cluster munitions are packed with small
“bomblets” that scatter indiscriminately and often harm civilians. Those that
fail to detonate often kill civilians long after fighting ends.
They are banned under an international law
adopted by more than 60 nations that took effect in August 2010, after the Sri
Lankan war. Those nations that haven’t adopted the law still possess the bulk of
cluster munitions, including the U.S., which says the bombs are a valid weapon
of war when used properly. Sri Lanka, China, Russia, India and Pakistan also
have not signed the law.
The
Associated Press obtained a copy Thursday of an email written by a U.N. land
mine expert that said unexploded cluster bomblets were discovered in the
Puthukudiyiruppu area of northern Sri Lanka, where a boy was killed last month
and his sister injured as they tried to pry apart an explosive device they had
found to sell for scrap metal.
The
email was written by Allan Poston, the technical adviser for the U.N.
Development Program’s mine action group in Sri Lanka.
It
said photographs showed cluster bomblets in the area where the children had been
collecting scrap and in their house.
Tens of thousands of civilians and Tamil Tiger
rebel fighters had been trapped in a tiny area of Puthukudiyiruppu as government
forces attacked the area during the final weeks of the war.
Lakshman Hulugalla, a Sri Lankan government
spokesman on security matters, had no immediate comment. The U.N. also did not
immediately respond to an AP request for comment.
Poston’s email, dated Tuesday, said mine
clearers in Sri Lanka had not been prepared to deal with the bomblets, and are
now relying on the experience of deminers in Lebanon, where Israel used cluster
munitions in its 2006 war.
A deminer who had worked in Lebanon was asked
to clear the area and train other teams in how to handle the bomblets, according
to the email. The local mine clearing office is adopting the Lebanon standards,
and UNICEF was informed of the need to educate the local population about the
dangers of the unexploded munitions, it said.
The army’s demining unit also was informed of
the discovery, the email said.
A report last year by a U.N. panel of experts
found credible allegations of war crimes by both Sri Lankan government forces
and the rebels. The experts said there were unconfirmed reports the army had
used cluster bombs against civilians in a No Fire Zone the government had set
up.
Witnesses reported hearing large explosions
followed by multiple small explosions that would be consistent with such
munitions. The expert panel said some injuries were also consistent with cluster
munitions, and called for further investigation of the issue.
A New York-based human rights group said it
would have been disastrous to use such weapons among the hundreds of thousands
of civilians crowded into the Sri Lankan war zone.
“If there is evidence that cluster weapons
were used, it would show yet again, the government’s constant attempts at
deception and underscore our demand that there should be an independent
international investigation into all allegations of laws-of-war violations,”
said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
The UN says that tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the last few months of the Sri Lankan war in 2009.
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April 26, 2012
