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Summary: First global study on cluster submunitions asualties: civilians account for 98 per cent of cluster munitions casualties. [GENEVA/BRUSSELS, 2 November 2006] – Civilians constitute 98 per cent of all recorded cluster submunitions casualties, many of them injured or killed while carrying out their normal, daily livelihood activities in places they go to every day, according to Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact of Cluster Munitions. This groundbreaking report by Cluster munitions are imprecise weapons designed to strike a large surface area. They scatter small, highly lethal submunitions, creating a ‘footprint’ within which they indiscriminately kill and injure military targets and civilians. Yet, unlike during the initial blast, the effects of unexploded submunitions remaining after the strike do seem more discriminate – almost exclusively killing civilians. “For 30 years governments have failed to address the disproportionate, long-term harm these weapons cause to civilian populations and as such the plight of these people has never been fully acknowledged,” said Mr. Angelo Simonazzi, Director General of HI. Males are most at risk, representing 84 per cent of casualties – 40 per cent of these are boys under 18. In many countries, such as Kosovo and Cambodia, boys constitute the largest group. In other cases they are a close second. “In almost all cases, these boys are hurt while helping their families make a living by tending animals, collecting wood or water, as in Afghanistan for example,” says Mr. Loren Persi, HI Researcher. The number of casualties that occur while carrying out livelihood activities shows the direct economic impact on cluster munitions-contaminated communities and countries. “In many of these countries, men are the traditional breadwinners, and since adult males and boys represent the majority of casualties the socioeconomic loss for both the immediate term and distant future cannot be underestimated,” adds Ms. Katleen Maes, Victim Assistance Coordinator at HI. The study identified 11,044 confirmed and recorded casualties due to cluster submunitions – 27 per cent of these were children. Cluster submunitions incidents involve more people at a time, are more fatal and result in more multiple injuries than mines or any other unexploded remnants of war (ERW). “In countries where mine casualties are few and ERW casualties are many, cluster munitions not only kill and injure more people than any other ERW device type, but often as much as all other device types combined,” observes Mr. Hugh Hosman, Data Management Specialist at HI. Three decades after their use, cluster submunitions continue to cause nearly half of the ERW casualties in Southeast Asia. In some parts of Iraq, cluster submunitions casualties represent between 75 and 80 per cent of casualties. “It is clear that cluster submunitions continue to destroy lives, disrupt communities and deny vulnerable populations’ access to resources needed for economic recovery,” says Ms. Habbouba Aoun, Coordinator of the Landmine Resource Centre (Lebanon). Therefore, immediate and comprehensive clearance is the only way to minimise casualties. Lebanon is a case in point, where casualty rates still average between two and three per day as people return to their communities and try to make ends meet. In Kosovo, casualty rates only decreased once clearance activities were undertaken in earnest. “The spotlight is on Lebanon now, but it must not be forgotten that the full scope of the problem is largely unknown and undervalued in most other countries. Many of these countries face serious contamination and receive little assistance to put a halt to the daily rising casualty toll,” states Ms. Maes. In all but four countries data collection can be considered complete, yet only nine per cent of casualties are recorded in these. Cluster submunitions casualties are insufficiently differentiated from other ERW. Certain groups of casualties are not reported. Conflict casualties are largely unknown and civilian casualties are vastly underreported in high-use locations, including: Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Chechnya and Iraq. Additionally, long-standing estimates in some countries, such as Vietnam and Kuwait, indicate that there could be as many as 100,000 cluster munitions casualties worldwide. In addition to this, failure rates recorded in the field seem to be consistently higher than manufacturers’ estimates, submunitions with high failure rates are used knowingly and self-destruct and neutralisation mechanisms seem to malfunction regularly. Despite intermittent international interest and eloquent verbal protests, governments and the international community “must negotiate a new treaty to prevent proliferation and to stop further use of the billions of cluster submunitions currently stockpiled, as the only way to prevent untold numbers of needless civilian casualties in future,” says Mr. Stan Brabant, Head of HI’s Policy Unit. The global stockpile is estimated at some four billion munitions, with around a quarter in US hands. Handicap International is one of a number of organisations calling for an end to the use of cluster munitions along the lines of the 1997 prohibition on anti-personnel mines. But so far Belgium is the only country to ban them. [Source: Handicap International and AlertNet] Further information
Handicap International (HI) is an unprecedented effort to document the impact of cluster munitions on the lives of people in 24 countries and areas which are confirmed to be affected by cluster munitions.