Wikileaks cable corroborates evidence of US airstrikes in Yemen | Amnesty International

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Wikileaks cable corroborates evidence of US airstrikes in Yemen | Amnesty International

"An alleged Qa’ida training camp at al-Ma’jalah, Abyan, was hit by a cruise missile on 17 December 2009. A Yemeni parliamentary inquiry found that 41 local residents, including 14 women and 21 children, and 14 alleged al-Qa’ida members were killed in the attack. In the 4 January cable, General Petraeus is recorded as saying that the attack had caused the deaths of “only” three “civilians”.

Wikileaks reveals that the air-borne attack was carried out by American planes and that Yemani authorities who claimed that their forces carried out the attacks were knowingly lying.

The attack included the use of cluster bombs, which spread munitions across a wide area and remain lethal for decades. Cluster munitions are particularly deadly with children, who are often attracted to the bright coloured bomblets which have the appearance of soft drink cans.

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Related articles

• WikiLeaks: U.S. bombs Yemen in secret (salon.com)
• Yemen cable gives al-Qaida new 'recruiting' tool (msnbc.msn.com)
• Cable seems to confirm U.S. military role in Yemen (msnbc.msn.com)

Aki Ra: DIY Landmine Clearance Hero

Having blogged on this site several times on the subject of land mines and cluster bombs, I was amazed to come across the work of Aki Ra, a former Khmer Rouge child soldier who now clears landmines by hand in his native Cambodia, armed with little more than a stick and a pen knife.

Thanks to Ben Thomson for alerting me to this incredible individual. Check out the video and read Ben's tribute here. Ra estimates that he has personally cleared about 50,000 landmines himself, and has trained over 1,000 fellow Cambodians to do the same, using low tech tools and methods.

As kingmanjim comments on YouTube, "How did Obama get the Nobel Peace Prize with this guy around?"

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Cluster Bombs - Why the World Needs the Ban

News that Sri Lanka's last functioning hospital in the country's northern war zone has been hit by cluster bombs is a grim reminder of why the world needs to implement the treaty signed in Dublin last year banning the production, transfer, stockpiling and use of cluster munitions.

Reports of the bombing of the hospital in the area of Puthukkudiyiruppu were communicated by U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss who said that despite the earlier evacuation of the hospital, 15 U.N. staff members and 81 members of their families were apparently trapped in the immediate area, which is one of the last regions of Sri Lanka to remain under control of the Tamil Tigers movement. Tamil fighters have been fighting for an independent homeland in the north of Sri Lanka for over 25 years. Casualty figures for this latest attack are currently unknown.

Disputed video footage from an alleged earlier cluster bomb attack in Sri Lanka appears to show fragments of munitions with cyrillic markings, indicating a possible Russian source to the cluster bombs allegedly owned by the Sri Lankan military.

The 2008 Dublin agreement was signed by 111 countries despite the absence at the conference of the major producers of cluster bombs - the United States, China, Russia, Israel, India and Pakistan.

Cluster bombs scatter smaller munitions across a wide area on impact, causing widespread destruction. Such weapons also cause a long-term danger to civilians, especially children, who may pick up unexploded bomblets by mistake.

The government of Sri Lanka publicaly denies using cluster munitions in its long campaign against the Tamil seperatist movement. Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.

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111 Countries Agree Cluster Bomb Ban

The Dublin Conference on Cluster Munitions has concluded with a landmark international agreement banning the production, transfer, stockpiling and use of cluster munitions, as well as providing help for the victims of such weapons and committing signatories to the clearing of areas previously bombed within 10 years. The agreement requires the destruction of existing stockpiles within 8 years.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the new agreement as "a new international standard that will enhance the protection of civilians, strengthen human rights and improve prospects for development."

The agreement is the culmination of a process of negotiation that began with the Oslo Process of February 2007 and was furthered at the Wellington Conference in February 2007. The agreement has been signed despite the absence of many major producers of cluster bombs - the United States, China, Russia, Israel, India and Pakistan.

Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin, hosting the conference, expressed the hope that the new agreement will "stigmatise" the use of cluster weapons in any further conflict, even on the part of non-signatories. A similar pattern followed the banning of land mines, which the United States initially refused to sign up to.

The decision of the British government to drop its previous objections to the agreement represented a significant moment of breakthrough in the conference - although it was obtained as a result of a vague compromise clause which allows for the possible development of future more precise weapons in the future.

Steve Goose, from Human Rights Watch, expressed the belief that as a result of the historic agreement, "Cluster munitions have been tossed on the ash heap of history." The video below provides some background to today's treaty.

Further posts on this blog on the subject of cluster munitions can be viewed here and here.

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