Human Rights Watch is calling for a global moratorium on the use of cluster bombs(1) until humanitarian concerns can be adequately addressed.
The conflict in Kosovo earlier this year has drawn unprecedented attention to the dangers posed to civilians by cluster bombs. On 11 May 1999, Human Rights Watch called for a halt to use of cluster bombs by NATO forces (see, HRW report, "Ticking Time Bombs: NATO's Use of Cluster Munitions in Yugoslavia"). When the submunitions contained inside cluster bombs fail to explode as intended, they become in effect antipersonnel landmines. Because of the high "dud," or failure, rate of the submunitions, and because of the large number typically dispersed over large areas, they have proven to be a serious and long-lasting threat to civilians, soldiers, peacekeepers, and even clearance experts.
Since the conflict ended, it is estimated that more than 100 civilians have been killed or injured by the cluster bomb duds dropped by U.S. and U.K. aircraft. Ten days after the KFOR multinational force deployed to Kosovo, two British soldiers were killed by cluster bomb duds while engaged in clearance operations. Some 600 cluster bomb sites have been identified across Kosovo. U.S. and U.K. cluster bomb duds have been as much a problem for civilians and clearance specialists as landmines laid by Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army.
During Operation Allied Force, the U.S. dropped about 1,100 CBU-87 cluster bombs (each containing 202 submunitions) and the U.K. dropped about 500 RBL-755 cluster bombs (each containing 147 submunitions). Using a very conservative estimate of 5% failure rate, NATO forces left behind nearly 15,000 duds, waiting, like antipersonnel mines, to take lives and limbs during peacetime.
In addition to the post-conflict casualties, Human Rights Watch believes there were nine to fourteen cluster bomb attacks resulting in civilian casualties during the conflict, causing an estimated 90-150 civilian deaths, or 15-26% of all civilian deaths, even though the 1,600 cluster bombs dropped represented just 6% of weapons expended in the air war. A NATO airstrike involving cluster bombs on an airfield in Nis on 7 May went off target, hitting a hospital complex and adjoining civilian areas. On 24 April , five boys were reported to have been killed and two injured when what was evidently a cluster bomb submunition exploded near the village of Daganovic.
Human Rights Watch has learned that in mid-May, President Clinton issued a directive prohibiting further cluster bomb use in the conflict -- indicating perhaps both a recognition of the humanitarian impact, and the lack of necessity to use the weapon to accomplish the military objectives. In doing so, the president has set a precedent for restricting cluster bomb use. Indeed, recognizing the danger to civilians, air combat commander Maj. Gen. Michael Ryan (now U.S. Air Force chief of staff) decided during Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia in 1995 to prohibit cluster bomb use.
Human Rights Watch previously documented that about 1,220 Kuwaiti and 400 Iraqi civilians were killed by an estimated 1.2 million cluster bomb duds following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, which saw the most extensive use of cluster bombs in history.
It is clear that at the present time, the use of even the most sophisticated cluster bombs poses grave and unacceptable dangers to civilian populations. There should be no further use until governments can establish either that a technical solution is possible or that new restrictions and requirements regarding use can be effective.
There should be no use of cluster bombs by any nation until:
- a definitive study is made of various ways of minimizing the impact of cluster bombs on civilian populations . This should include an examination of technical possibilities and options related to use and targeting.
- there is adequate research and analysis of past use of cluster bombs, including military usefulness, civilian impact, safety and overall effects.
- there is a serious legal review of cluster bombs and their consistency with international humanitarian law. This should include an assessment of whether they are inherently indiscriminate, prone to indiscriminate use, excessively injurious, cause unnecessary suffering, have a disproportionate impact on civilians compared to their military utility, or violate the dictates of public conscience.
On the technical side, HRW believes cluster bombs should not be used until it can be demonstrated that the failure rate of cluster bombs can be reduced to a tolerable level from a humanitarian perspective. That level should be determined by humanitarian and military experts, but should certainly be less than 1%. As part of the research effort, there needs to be:
- a realistic assessment of the failure rate of existing cluster bombs, which is often estimated anywhere from 2%-30%. There should also be an assessment if cluster bombs have a higher failure rate than other weapons that become unexploded ordnance, and if unexploded cluster bomblets are more volatile or dangerous than other UXO.
- an examination of options to improve the reliability and safety of cluster bombs, and of the factors that affect cluster bomb reliability and safety (including fuses and secondary fuses, number of bomblets, area coverage, dispersal pattern, method and circumstances of delivery, special features (like incendiary rings), characteristics of the target area, age and design).
- an assessment of the feasibility and effectiveness of putting self-destruct, self-neutralizing and/or self-deactivating mechanisms on all cluster bombs, both new production and existing stocks.
On the use side, HRW believes there needs to be:
- an identification of what constitutes a proper and effective use of cluster bombs.
- a prohibition on use in populated or urban areas.
- an assessment of the feasibility and effectiveness of various other potential restrictions on use aimed at avoiding collateral damage, including target limitations and high-altitude delivery.
- a requirement for accurate recording and mapping of cluster bomb use.
- post-use requirements such as marking, warnings to civilians, and clearance.
Human Rights Watch asks that governments address this urgent humanitarian issue both domestically and at the international level. Consideration should be given to utilizing the Convention on Conventional Weapons as a means of establishing rules, restrictions, requirements, and/or prohibitions with respect to cluster bombs and their use that would minimize the dangers to and impact on civilian populations.
1. 1 For the purposes of this memorandum, HRW is using "cluster bomb" as a short-hand, catch-all term for air- and surface-delivered dispensers containing unguided explosive submunitions.
