Cluster-bomb clearing group to reduce scale of efforts over lack of funding

By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=105177

BEIRUT: The largest international organization clearing cluster munitions in south Lebanon said Tuesday donor fatigue would soon force it to downsize its operations. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British-based humanitarian agency working in mine and unexploded ordnance clearance, will have to let go of four battle area clearance teams by the end of October unless sufficient funds are found, MAG Le­banon Program Manager Chris­tina Bennike told The Daily Star.

“It’s a substantial loss – there were 64 teams working on battle area clearance, or cluster bombs. At present there are 16,” 10 of whom work for MAG, she said. The shortfall in funding, exasperated by the global financial crisis, has also affected several other clearance operations, Bennike said, including those run by Swiss, Swedish and Danish organizations.

The cut-backs will increase the chances of civilian casualties, impede the recovery of the region’s predominantly agriculture-based economy, and delay national cluster sub-munition clearance efforts, Bennike added. “If we are not out there clearing, I have a feeling people will be out working on their land … civilians have to feed their families.” Bennike said MAG needed $5 or 6 million in donations per year to maintain its current operations in Lebanon.

Israel launched a 34-day war on Lebanon in July 2006 after Hizbullah took prisoner two army reservists. “Israel’s strikes in 2006 were the most extensive use of cluster munitions anywhere in the world since the 1991 Gulf war,” a Human Rights Watch report published in February 2008 found.

In the last 72 hours of fighting, Israel dropped over 4 million cluster bombs over south Lebanon, at a time when the United Nations Security Council had already adopted Resolution 1701 calling for the immediate cessation of hostilities. According to the UN, around 500,000 of these cluster munitions failed to explode upon impact, and to date, 273 civilians and 57 deminers have been killed or injured by cluster munitions. If not properly disposed of, cluster munitions will continue to kill and maim civilians and deminers well into the future.


 

MAG launched its activities in Lebanon after Israel’s withdrawal in 2000 and increased operations following the 2006 war. Since the end of that conflict, MAG has cleared more than 11 million square meters of land, according to Bennike. In 1997, the organization was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize for its work with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The campaign resulted in the landmark Mine Ban Treaty, an international agreement that bans anti-personnel landmines.

Israel’s extensive use of cluster bombs in Lebanon helped galvanize an international ban on cluster bombs in May 2007, when 107 countries adopted the Convention on Cluster Mu­nitions. Lebanon was among the first countries to sign the ban in December 2008.

One of the biggest tragedies about Lebanon’s slowing clearance efforts is that all munitions in the country could easily be cleared with time, Bennike said. “Lebanon is a country we can actually finish clearing. We could check Lebanon off the list and move on to another country. The only thing that’s stopping us is funding.”

Posted by The Sole of Africa at 11 August 2009, 11:05 PM
Categories: Get Involved, General
 
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