WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A U.S. human rights group Monday called on the Bush administration to cut off all U.S. cluster munitions sales to Israel.
The call came before the Bush administration was "expected to report to Congress ... on a State Department investigation into the use of U.S.-made cluster munitions by Israel," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
"De-mining groups estimate that Israel used cluster munitions containing some 2.6 to 4 million sub-munitions in Lebanon, the majority of which were produced in the United States. Israel's use of cluster munitions was the most extensive anywhere in the world since the 1991 Gulf War," Human Rights Watch said.
"We've investigated cluster munitions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but we've never seen use of cluster munitions that was so extensive and dangerous to civilians," said Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch. "The issue is not whether Israel used the American cluster munitions lawfully, but what the U.S. is going to do about it."
Human Rights Watch said it also "urged the U.S. government to require that Israel make public detailed information regarding the quantities, types, and locations where U.S.-made cluster munitions were used. Efforts to clear these deadly remnants of war have been delayed by Israel's refusal to provide such information to de-mining agencies."
The Reagan administration suspended U.S. sales of cluster weapons to Israel in 1982, "after a congressional investigation found that Israel had used the weapons in populated areas during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon," HRW said.
"There's a growing international consensus about the dangers to civilians of cluster munitions," said Goose. "The U.S. government should be joining the trend, not bucking it. Banning cluster munition sales to Israel, or any other nation, would be an important first step."
