Unexploded munitions pose deadly threat to returning displaced (Lebanon)

[scarletwoman]

From the Daily Star: Unexploded munitions pose deadly threat to returning displaced

By Iman Azzi
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, August 18, 2006

BEIRUT: Lebanese civilians have been warned to be on the lookout for unexploded ordnance (UXO) across the country as a major campaign to clear the deadly refuse of war got under way this week. At least four people have been killed by UXOs since Monday, underscoring the danger posed by large aerial bombs, artillery shells, missiles and cluster submunitions for both displaced civilians returning to Southern Lebanon and the relief workers trying to distribute humanitarian aid.

"This war has left thousands of unexploded ordnance and cluster bombs," read Arabic-language leaflets that are being handed out by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Lebanon and along the border with Syria for refugees now returning from that country. "For your safety and the safety of your children you have to know that in all the places that have been bombarded there may be strange objects or cluster bombs of different shapes, colors and sizes."

Of the thousands of Israeli rounds fired into Lebanon, the United Nations has estimated that an average of 10 percent of such ordnance are likely to have failed to function as designed and remain in the ground or in the rubble of destroyed buildings as significant explosive hazards.

UNICEF warns that there could be 8,000 to 9,000 UXOs in South Lebanon.

"We are expecting to find thousands if not hundreds of thousands of UXOs. This is a massive humanitarian concern," Human Rights Watch (HRW) spokesman Marc Garlasco told The Daily Star from the battered Southern town of Khiam. "UXOs will affect the ability to farm in the South. Fields will be unavailable for months."

(more at link)

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[maddezmom]

1. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2462525