HUMIN, Lebanon, 23 September 2006 — The Israeli Army may be poised to end its occupation of south Lebanon following its war with Hezbollah but it leaves behind a deadly legacy which could cripple everyday life for many months to come.
Whether dangling from trees, scattered in fields or buried in rubble, cluster bombs have killed or maimed people on an almost daily basis since the Aug. 14 cease-fire, blocking a return to normality in a region heavily dependent on agriculture.
Ali Jumaa, 12, who had a thumb and index finger torn off by a blast has become an expert in spotting the cylindrical objects, which measure about 15 centimeters in length.
“There’s one at the foot of that tree and two more hanging from the branches,” he said, pointing with his undamaged hand to an olive grove near the Shiite village of Humin, close to the town of Nabatiyeh.
Israeli forces scattered 350,000 unexploded cluster bomblets on southern Lebanon in their July-August war with Hezbollah guerrillas, according to United Nations estimates.
Ali was wounded on Sept. 4 as he walked with friends at the entrance to the village, and he has since been confined to the family home together with his brothers, sisters and cousins.
The olive groves, meanwhile, have been abandoned, with this year’s harvest left to rot on the branches.
“We can say that with these bomblets, the Israeli blockade (imposed during the war) is continuing for the farmers of south Lebanon,” Agriculture Minister Tallal Sahili told AFP in an interview.
The bombs “at the entrance to villages, in the fields and valleys are affecting agricultural activity, especially the olive harvest which is a key economic resource of south Lebanon,” he said.
Since the UN-brokered cease-fire which ended the Hezbollah-Israel war, 21 people have been killed - 16 of them civilians and the others army bomb experts - and some 100 wounded by the controversial bomblets, the police and military say. Only about 17,000 of the bombs have been defused and the United Nations says clearance work could take up to 30 months.
David Shearer, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, has warned of a long-term impact on agricultural activity, which accounts for 70 percent of the revenues of southern Lebanese.
“The cluster munitions are stopping farmers from getting out to their fields and resuming their farming activities,” he told a press conference in Beirut.
Nasser Haidar, the owner of a dairy farm in Arab Salim village, tells of how he had a narrow escape when he was burning waste in an empty lot near his premises and one of the bomblets exploded.
“Fragments struck me in the stomach, leg and hand,” he said. “I don’t dare let my cows out from the enclosure now, and I’ve already sold off half of my livestock. The fighting may be over but these bombs are still spreading death and forcing us not to venture out, perhaps for years to come,” he said.
The United Nations says it has asked Israel to provide detailed maps of its cluster bomb attacks - which the Jewish state insists did not amount to illegal use of munitions - especially during the final three days when its offensive was at its fiercest.
Cluster munitions are controversial as rights groups say they cause indiscriminate civilian casualties over large areas. Many of the bombs dropped on Lebanon were also decades old and failed to explode on impact.
Chris Clark, head of a UN mine action group in southern Lebanon, said that tactical maps handed over so far by withdrawing Israeli forces were “absolutely useless” in clearance efforts.
