Fatal Footprint
The global human impact of cluster munitions
Handicap International press release
GENEVA and BRUSSELS – 2 November 2006
Civilians constitute 98% of all recorded
cluster submunitions casualties, many of them injured or killed while carrying
out their normal, daily livelihood activities in
places they
go to every day, according to Fatal Footprint: the global
human impact of cluster munitions.
This groundbreaking report by Handicap
International (HI) is an unprecedented effort to document the impact of cluster
munitions on the lives of people in 24 countries and areas which are confirmed
to be affected by cluster munitions.
Cluster munitions are imprecise weapons
designed to strike a large surface area. They scatter small, highly lethal submunitions,
creating a ‘footprint’ within which they indiscriminately kill and injure
military targets and civilians. Yet, unlike during the initial blast, the
effects of unexploded submunitions remaining after the strike do seem more
discriminate – almost exclusively killing civilians.
“For 30 years governments have failed to
address the disproportionate, long-term harm these weapons cause to civilian
populations and as such the plight of these people has never been fully
acknowledged,” said Angelo Simonazzi, director-general of HI.
Males are most at risk, representing 84% of
casualties – 40% of these are boys under 18. In many countries, such as Kosovo
and Cambodia, boys constitute the largest group. In other cases they are a
close second. “In almost all cases, these boys are hurt while helping their
families make a living by tending animals, collecting wood or water, as in
Afghanistan for example,” says Loren Persi, an HI researcher who worked on the
report.
The number of casualties that occur while
carrying out livelihood activities shows the direct economic impact on cluster
munitions-contaminated communities and countries. “In many of these countries,
men are the traditional breadwinners, and since adult males and boys represent
the majority of casualties the socioeconomic loss for both the immediate term
and distant future cannot be underestimated,” adds Katleen Maes, victim assistance
coordinator at HI, who was the lead researcher on the report.
The study
identified 11,044 confirmed and recorded casualties due to cluster submunitions
– 27% of these were children. Cluster submunitions incidents involve more people at a time, are more fatal and result in
more multiple injuries than mines or any other unexploded remnants of war
(ERW).
“In countries where mine casualties are few and ERW casualties are many,
cluster munitions not only kill and injure more people than any other ERW
device type, but often as
much as all other device types combined,” observes Hugh Hosman, a data management
specialist at HI who also worked on the report.
Three decades after their use, cluster submunitions continue to cause
nearly half of the ERW casualties in Southeast Asia. In some parts of Iraq,
cluster submunitions casualties represent between 75 and 80% of casualties. “It
is clear that cluster submunitions continue to destroy lives, disrupt
communities and deny vulnerable populations’ access to resources needed for
economic recovery,” says Habbouba Aoun, Coordinator of the Landmine Resource Centre
(Lebanon).
Therefore, immediate and comprehensive clearance is the only way to
minimize casualties. Lebanon is a case in point, where casualty rates still
average between two and three per day as people return to their communities and
try to make ends meet. In Kosovo, casualty rates only decreased once clearance activities
were undertaken in earnest.
“The spotlight is on Lebanon now, but it must not be forgotten that the
full scope of the problem is largely unknown and undervalued in most other
countries. Many of these countries face serious contamination and receive
little assistance to put a halt to the daily rising casualty toll,” states Maes.
In all but four countries data collection can be considered complete,
yet only 9% of casualties are recorded in these. Cluster submunitions
casualties are insufficiently differentiated from other ERW. Certain groups of
casualties are not reported. Conflict casualties are largely unknown and
civilian casualties are vastly underreported in high-use locations, including:
Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Chechnya and Iraq. Additionally, long-standing
estimates in some countries, such as Vietnam and Kuwait, indicate that there
could be as many as 100,000 cluster munitions casualties worldwide.
In addition to this, failure rates recorded in the field seem to be
consistently higher than manufacturers’ estimates, submunitions with high
failure rates are used knowingly and self-destruct and neutralization
mechanisms seem to malfunction regularly. Despite intermittent international
interest and eloquent verbal protests, governments and the international
community “must negotiate a new treaty to prevent proliferation and to stop
further use of the billions of cluster submunitions currently stockpiled, as
the only way to prevent untold numbers of needless civilian casualties in
future,” says Mr. Stan Brabant, Head of HI’s Policy Unit.
Fatal Footprint is
the first comprehensive study systematically analyzing the impact of cluster
munitions on civilian populations through casualty data. It utilizes
information available on casualties of cluster submunitions to track the human
impact from the initial cluster munitions strikes, over the short-term emergency
phase, to the post-conflict period, which can affect the lives of individuals,
families and communities for generations. By identifying who become casualties,
when, how and why, the research goes beyond simply assessing whether cluster
munitions are indiscriminate and excessively injurious.
For statistical purposes, the report only
uses data of casualties that have been confirmed, recorded in casualty or
injury surveillance systems and that could be individually verified and
crosschecked to avoid duplications.
Fatal Footprint: The Global Human Impact
of Cluster Munitions and related documents are available
online in various languages at: http://www.handicapinternational.be
ã2006 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is
the copyright of Khaled Diab.