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Lebanese haunted by deadly cluster bombs
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 01 - 11 - 2006


Eleven-year-old Ramy
Shibleh was gathering pine cones outside this small southern
Lebanese town, hoping to make some money to buy toys ahead of
the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, Reuters reported.
His father, Ali Shibleh, was waiting at home for Ramy and
his brother Khodor, 13. He needed them to help him pick olives.
"Suddenly I heard an explosion," Shibleh said, choking on
tears. "I heard Khodor screaming 'Ramy!', I yelled back at him
'Son, where is Ramy?' He said, 'Father, Ramy died.' I told him
'Khodor you are joking', he said, 'No, Ramy is dead."
The brothers were heading home when the wheel of their cart
jammed against what they thought was a rock.
Ramy bent down, picked up the object and as he raised his
arm to throw it out of the way, it exploded, tearing off his
right arm and the back of his head. He died instantly.
His brother Khodor was hit by shrapnel in the hip and is
still in hospital.
Ramy's death added to a toll still rising after Israel's
monthlong war against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.
The object he picked up was a cluster bomblet -- one of hundreds
of thousands dropped by Israel on the region before an Aug. 14
ceasefire.
During the war, nearly 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly
civilians, and 157 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed. And
lives are still being lost.
Between Aug. 14 and Oct. 8, around 20 people were killed in
southern Lebanon by cluster munitions. Land mine activists said
last month that cluster bombs are still killing or injuring
three to four civilians a day, a third of them children.
The report by London-based Landmine Action said hundreds of
thousands of unexploded cluster bomblets still litter the
countryside, even though more than 45,000 have been cleared and
destroyed.
Cluster bombs burst into bomblets and spread out near the
ground. While some aim to destroy tanks, others are designed to
kill or maim humans over a wide area.
Experts have estimated an unusually high 40 percent of the
bomblets dropped on Lebanon failed to explode on impact. Around
115 people have been injured by bomblets since the war's end.
A dud may look like a soda can or a dusty rock and can be
set off by as little as a touch, packing enough force to rip off
a leg or kill a child.
Hezbollah, which fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern
Israel during the war, was accused by U.S.-based Human Rights
Watch of using cluster munitions. It has denied the charge.
Israel says cluster bombs are not illegal under
international law.
Such debate offers little succour to the Shiblehs.
"We came back three days after the war ended, to find these
bombs placed there to burn the hearts of the people, the hearts
of the mothers, and the hearts of the children's families,"
Shibleh said, weeping.
His wife relives the horror of learning of Ramy's death.
"I heard Ramy's friends by the shop and asked them did
Khodor die? They said 'no, it's Ramy'. I lost consciousness,"
Yosra Abdelal, 40, said.
The Landmine Action report identified 770 sites hit by
cluster bombs in southern Lebanon. It said it would take another
year or two to get the situation under control.
The Shibleh family say the Lebanese army failed to clear
their area properly.
"The army came and defused some shells and then said 'this
area among the pines is safe and there is nothing left'. We sent
for the army again ... Ramy and Khodor guided them to where the
bombs were but the army never came back," said Shibleh.
"Two hours after the incident, the army came and in the same
area defused 40 bomblets. Forty bomblets, and there's still more
than 40 to 50 remaining."
"We put a big, big, big responsibility on Israel but our
state, our representatives, and our presidents are also to
blame. The state is responsible because nobody came here to
check on us," he said.
The bed that Ramy used to share with his sister is neatly
made. A bright blue UNICEF backpack marked with his name lies on
top of a wardrobe. "He used to love riding bicycles and playing
football," Abdelal said, clutching a frayed yellow jersey her
son had worn the day before he died.
"He was only picking the pine nuts to buy the toys he
loved."


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