U.N. Panel Says Israel Used Excessive Force in Lebanon
By JOHN O’NEIL and GREG MYRE
nytimes.com
A team of United Nations investigators has concluded that Israel engaged in “a significant pattern of excessive, indiscriminate and disproportionate force” against Lebanese civilians that amounted to “a flagrant violation” of international law during its war against Hezbollah last summer.
“Cumulatively, the deliberate and lethal attacks” by the Israeli defense forces against civilians and infrastructure “amounted to collective punishment,” the investigators, who were appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, wrote in a draft report published today.
The investigators focused specifically on Israel’s use of large numbers of cluster bombs, saying that 90 percent of them were dropped in the final three days of the month-long war.
Cluster bombs are not prohibited in warfare, but much controversy surrounds them because they disperse many small “bomblets” that explode over a wide area and may strike unintended targets. In addition, some bomblets do not explode when they hit the ground, and effectively become land mines that can be detonated unwittingly by civilians long after fighting has stopped.
“Their use was excessive, and not justified by any reason of military necessity,” the investigators wrote. They concluded that “these weapons were used deliberately to turn large areas of fertile agricultural land into ‘no go’ areas for the civilian population.”
The dropping of cluster bombs also “amounted to a de facto scattering of anti-personnel mines across wide tracts of Lebanese lands.”
On Monday, the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, ordered an inquiry to determine whether the armed forces had followed his orders when it used cluster bombs.
General Halutz visited an army base on Monday and told Army Radio, “One of the things that must be investigated is the way in which the orders were given and implemented.”
He said: “Were the orders explicit? I believe they were. Now all we need to do is to see whether we had or did not have departures from the commonly accepted rules of use.”
The general did not specify what orders he gave regarding cluster munitions, and it was not clear whether he prohibited them, or placed certain restrictions on their use. General Halutz, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz have all faced widespread criticism over the war, which many Israelis feel was mismanaged. There have been calls for General Halutz to resign, but he has said he has no plans to quit.
The military said Maj. Gen. Gershon Hacohen would head the investigation.
The Lebanese say they are still suffering numerous wounds and deaths caused by bomblets detonated by civilians since the war. So far, thousands of unexploded bomblets have been found at hundreds of sites, according to Lebanese officials and international groups searching for them.
The United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center has estimated that Israel fired as many as four million cluster submunitions, as the bomblets are known, and that up to one million may not have detonated. Israel fired many of the munitions with its Multiple Launch Rocket System, which can fire 12 rockets in a minute.
In a statement, the Israeli military said that cluster munitions used in Lebanon were directed only at “legitimate military targets” and that after the fighting ended, Israel provided maps to United Nations forces to assist in finding unexploded bomblets.
Israel has received cluster munitions from the United States for many years, and makes its own. In August the State Department began investigating whether Israel used cluster bombs in Lebanon in violation of secret agreements that restrict their use.
The report issued today by the United Nations investigators did not examine issues surrounding the 4,000 rockets Hezbollah fired into Israel during the fighting, which lasted from July 12 to Aug. 14. Israeli officials have charged that some of the rockets carried cluster munitions.
The investigators did consider Hezbollah’s actions within Lebanon, and said that there was “some evidence” that the Shiite militia used towns and villages as “shields.” But it said that this happened when most of the civilian population had left the area, and that there was no evidence of the use of “human shields.”
The report quoted figures from the Lebanese government saying that the conflict killed 1,191 people, wounded 4,409 and drove more than 900,000 — about a quarter of the country’s population from their homes. It said that the attacks on the country’s infrastructure, including attacks on agriculture and tourism, would years to rebuild, even with international help.
The investigators said Israel justified the infrastructure attacks by arguing that the sites could have been used by Hezbollah, but said that reasoning could not reasonably apply to the wide range of targets hit. They said they were “convinced that damage inflicted on some infrastructure was done for the sake of destruction.”
Elsewhere in the region, Israeli troops and tanks pushed deep into the Gaza Strip in two separate raids this morning, clashing with Palestinian gunmen in Gaza City, Reuters reported, quoting local residents and witnesses. About 30 tanks entered Zeitoun, a district of Gaza City that is known as a stronghold for militants, they said. Residents said there were no reports of casualties.
A smaller force raided Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed ground troops were operating in Gaza but gave no further details.
In an Israeli air strike on Monday night, two Hamas militants traveling in a car in Gaza City were killed, and several passers-by were wounded, Palestinian medical officials said. In the West Bank, a 17-year-old Palestinian youth who approached soldiers brandishing a gun, which turned out to be fake, was also killed, Reuters reported.
The Israeli army today said that the air strike killed Abed al-Khader Ahmed Farej Habib. He was identified as a member of the Hamas rocket production division. The army said that Mr. Habib had also been responsible for killing an Israeli soldier in 2004.
In a political development, an aide to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said the president’s Fatah movement had suspended talks with the militant faction Hamas on a national unity government. But Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, said that “talks are continuing on the highest level.”
John O’Neil reported from New York and Greg Myre from Jerusalem.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company |
