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Fatal Footprint: the Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions

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Fatal Footprint: the Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions Preliminary Report, November 2006 Handicap International Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Conclusion 65 LESSON 1: Acknowledgments 4 Data Collection, the Devil is in the Detail 65 Abbreviations and Acronyms 5 LESSON 2: Cluster Munitions Cause Disproportionate Introduction 6 Long-Term Civilian Harm 66 LESSON 3: Methodology and Research Team 8 Cluster Submunitions Casualties are Young Focus: Southeast Asia 11 Males at Work 67 LESSON 4: CAMBODIA 11 LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 14 Immediate and Comprehensive Clearance VIETNAM 18 Reduces Civilian Casualties 68 Focus: Africa 22 Tables CHAD 22 TABLE 1: Confirmed Cluster Submunitions ERITREA 23 Casualties in Affected Countries 69 ETHIOPIA 25 TABLE 2: Status of Casualty Data Collection SIERRA LEONE 26 in Cluster Submunitions Affected Countries 70 SUDAN 27 Focus: Southeast Europe 30 Selected Biography 71 ALBANIA 30 BOSNIA and HERZEGOVINA 32 CROATIA 33 KOSOVO 35 MONTENEGRO 39 SERBIA 40 Focus: Commonwealth of Independent States 42 CHECHNYA/RUSSIAN FEDERATION 42 TAJIKISTAN 43 Focus: Greater Middle East and North Africa Region 45 AFGHANISTAN 45 IRAQ 49 KUWAIT 54 LEBANON 56 SAUDI ARABIA 61 SYRIA 61 WESTERN SAHARA/MOROCCO 62 Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munition / 3 Acknowledgments his preliminary report was conducted, Action Center (CROMAC), Clear Path written and produced by Handicap International (CPI), HIB-Cambodia, Julien T International, with the financial support Temple, Reuben Nogueria-McCarthy and Edith of the Government of Norway. Karam from UNICEF, the Iraqi Health and Social Care Organization (IHSCO), John C. Brown from Handicap International (HI) would like to VVAF Iraq, Landmine Action UK (LMA UK), the express its appreciation to the many mine Landmine Resource Center staff (LMRC), the action organizations, organizations working National Demining Office (NDO) and the UN with people with disabilities, disabled people’s Mine Action Coordination Center for South organizations and the other individuals and Lebanon (MACC-SL) in Lebanon, Mines Advisory organizations that provided information, time, Group Iraq (MAG), the National Authority for resources and expertise for this study. Prosthetics and Orthotics (NAPO) and the UN HI owes special thanks to the cluster sub- Mine Action Office in Sudan (UNMAO), the munitions and other mine/ERW survivors, fami- National Demining Office in Chad (HCND), the lies and communities who shared their experi- Office of the Kosovo Protection Corps ence. Coordinator (OKPCC) EOD Management Unit, Rosy Cave at the United Nations Institute for The team values the support of the Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), Steve Goose, International Campaign to Ban Mark Hiznay and Bonnie Docherty at Human Landmines/Landmine Monitor and the Cluster Rights Watch (HRW), UN Mission in Ethiopia Munition Coalition networks. and Eritrea Mine Action Coordination Centre It would also like to thank the following (UNMEE MACC) and Zamanuddin Noori and organizations and individuals for their assis- Olivier Moeckli of the International Committee tance: Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE), of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan, as well Andrew Wells-Dang and Catholic Relief Services as several people who provided anonymous (CRS) Vietnam, Cambodia Mine UXO Victim information. Information System (CMVIS), Croatian Mine Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munition / 5 Abbreviations and Acronyms AMAE Albanian Mine Action Executive MAC-MACC Mine Action Center/Mine Action AO Aviatsionnaya Oskolochnyang Cell - Mine Action Coordination (Aviation Fragmentation) Centre ARCS Afghan Red Crescent Society MAG Mines Advisory Group BHMAC Bosnia and Herzegovina Mine MCC Mennonite Central Committee Action Center MRE Mine Risk Education BLU Bomb Live Unit NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization CBU Cluster Bomb Unit NDO National Demining Office CBR Community-Based Rehabilitation NGO Non-Governmental Organization CCW Convention on Certain NMAA National Mine Action Authority Conventional Weapons NRA National Regulatory Authority CEM Combined Effects Munition OKPCC Office of Kosovo Protection Corps CMC Cluster Munition Coalition Coordinator CMVIS Cambodia Mine UXO Victim PTAB Protivotankovaya Aviatsionnaya Information System Bomba (Anti-tank Aviation Bomb) CPI Clear Path International TMAC Tajik Mine Action Cell CROMAC Croatian Mine Action Center UN United Nations Dispenser Container or bomb from which UNDP United Nations Development submunitions are ejected Programme DPICM Dual-Purpose Improved UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund Conventional Munitions UNIDIR United Nations Institute for EOD Explosive Ordnance Disposal Disarmament Research ERW Explosive Remnants of War UNMACA UN Mine Action Center for Footprint Extent of surface area covered by a Afghanistan cluster munitions strike UNMIK United Nations Mission in Kosovo GICHD Geneva International Centre for UNOPS United Nations Office for Project Humanitarian Demining Services HI Handicap International UNMAO United Nations Mine Action Office HRW Human Rights Watch UNMEE United Nations Mission in Ethiopia ICBL International Campaign to Ban and Eritrea Landmines UXO Unexploded Ordnance ICRC International Committee of the VVAF Vietnam Veterans of America Red Cross Foundation IDP Internally Displaced Person IHSCO Iraqi Health and Social Care Organization IMSMA Information Management System for Mine Action KISR Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research LMA UK Landmine Action UK LIS Landmine Impact Survey 6 / Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions Introduction he July-August 2006 Lebanon conflict to ensure success, creating wider and overlap- drew widespread attention to the long- ping contamination. Within the footprint, sub- T term impact of cluster munitions on civil- munitions indiscriminately kill and injure mili- ian populations. Calls for a ban of this indis- tary targets and civilians. criminate weapon are becoming louder. One country – Belgium – has already taken this step, Even when accepting the low official failure adopting legislation supported by Handicap rates of optimal test conditions, large numbers International, and initiatives are underway in at of submunitions fail to explode upon impact. In least eight other countries. reality, failure rates are often significantly high- er due to soil and weather conditions, as well as As in the case of Lebanon, previous usage of incorrect delivery and frequent malfunctioning cluster munitions has sparked eloquent verbal of self-destruct and self-neutralization mecha- condemnations and has been at the forefront of nisms, as was seen in Lebanon. Consequently, intermittent international interest and activism a fatal footprint remains until all deadly debris since the first extensive utilization in South- is cleared and the actual strike is only the start- east Asia in the 1960-70s. Since then – like the ing point of the long-lasting harm the weapon items themselves – the issue of cluster muni- can cause. tions and their impact lay largely dormant until the outbreak of the Balkan and Gulf conflicts. Yet, unlike the initial blasts, the effects of unex- However, for more than 30 years, states failed ploded submunitions do seem more discrimi- to address the lasting humanitarian impact of nate; affecting many more civilians than mili- cluster munitions. tary personnel, killing and injuring children at play, families returning after war and young More than half a century has passed since the men and women in the course of their daily design and first use of cluster munitions. lives, as well as those clearing failed submuni- Ensuing decades have seen both the number of tions and peacekeepers. casualties mount, and the use of these muni- tions proliferate. Spreading through new con- Unlike many instances of production, stockpil- flicts to destroy lives, disrupt communities, and ing and combat use, the human impact during deny vulnerable populations’ access to and after the conflict have not been routinely resources needed for economic recovery, clus- recorded nor publicized. As a result, the full ter munitions simultaneously assure both a scope of the problem is largely unknown and costly and lethal legacy of war for post-conflict undervalued. generations. Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster munitions are imprecise weapons, Cluster Munitions is an unprecedented prelimi- designed to strike a greater surface area than nary effort to document the impact of cluster many other conventional weapons by dispers- munitions on the lives of people in 23 countries ing smaller yet highly lethal explosive submuni- and areas that are not internationally recog- tions. The cluster submunitions scattered on nized, which are confirmed to be affected by the surface create a ‘footprint’. The footprint of cluster munitions. Despite its preliminary char- a single cluster munitions strike is often hun- acter, this report is the first comprehensive dreds of meters wide, and more than 1,000 sub- study systematically analyzing the impact of munitions can be dispensed at a time. cluster munitions on civilian populations Oftentimes, targets are struck more than once through casualty data. It utilizes the limited Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munition / 7 information available on casualties of cluster submunitions to track the human impact from the initial cluster munitions strikes, over the short-term post-strike emergency phase, to the post-conflict period, which can
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