Above the Law and Below Morality:
Data on 11 Weeks of U.S. Cluster-Bombing of Afghanistan
Professor Marc W. Herold_Ph.D.,
M.B.A., B.Sc.
www.cursor.org/, February 1, 2002
"Some of the most savage weapons
of modern warfare." That's how one BBC journalist described
cluster bombs, the U.S. military's latest weapon of choice in
Afghanistan. It's also deadly and cheap.
On October 10th, 2001, U.S. B-52s and
B-1s began dropping deadly 1,000 lb. CBU-87 [$14,000 a bomb] and
the wind-corrected CBU-103 cluster [fragmentation] bombs upon
"soft targets" [vehicles and people] in Afghanistan.
Eleven weeks later, U.S.planes had dropped
1,210 cluster bombs, each containing 202 BLU-97 bomblets. The
British Halo Trust now estimates on the basis of groundwork in
the vales of Afghanistan that 20% of the bomblets failed to explode,
meaning 48,884 yellow soda-can sized, yellow-colored deadly sub-munitions
now litter the villages, paths and fields of Afghanistan.
During the Kosovo air campaign, U.S. and
allied planes dropped 1,392 cluster bombs, with a reported fail
rate of 8-12%. In the Gulf War, Allied forces dropped 62,000 air-delivered
cluster bombs. The British group, Landmine Action, says that over
13 million bomblets were used in the 1991 Gulf War and 1.2 million
explosive duds cover Iraq and Kuwait. Pentagon estimates suggest
some 285 million such sub-munitions were dropped on Cambodia,
Vietnam, and Laos.
A favorite U.S. weapon used in Afghanistan
has been the 1,000 lb CBU-87 cluster bomb with its 202 BLU-97
bomblets. The BLU-97 cluster bomblet is one of the cheapest air-delivered
weapons available, costing only ~$60 per unit. Unlike most American
mines, cluster bomblets are not designed to break down over time
as this would raise their low cost.3A single BLU-97 bomblet kills
anyone within a 50 meter radius and severely injures a person
within 100 meters. It is considered more dangerous than a conventional
land mine. Peter Le Sueur, technical adviser to the UN's Mine
Action Program Afghanistan [MAPA] describes this weapon,
"the BLU 97 had three purposes --
to destroy armoured vehicles, kill people with shrapnel fragments
and ignite fires in military targets such as munition dumps or
oil depots."
According to Le Sueur, one of its most
savage features is its six-millimetre diamond-patterned steel
jacket. "When the bomb explodes, the steel splits so you
get hundreds of high-velocity steel fragments travelling at the
speed of a rifle bullet. "They can kill or injure people
from over 100 metres (330 feet) from the point of detonation".3
On New Year's Day, 2002, the United Nations'
UNIC Director Eric Falt disclosed that U.S. planes had dropped
cluster bombs in 103 cities of Afghanistan and possibly in another
25.5 The areas around Herat, the Shomali Plain and Tora Bora were
particularly hard hit with cluster bombs. More than 600 cluster-bombs
were dropped by U.S. planes in the Shomali plain region alone
during the five weeks the U.S. planes pounded Taliban positions.6
The villages of Denar Kheil, Kalakhan
and Qarabagh were particularly hard hit, being covered by BLU-97s.
Early on November 10, 2001, CBU-87 bombs were dropped upon Denar
Kheil in the Shomali Plain. Between January 9 - 20th , a de-mining
team found 100 active BLU-97 bomblets in the village.7 It is believed
that snow, sand and mud in Afghanistan make it even more likely
that the bomblets are not exploding [hence the higher reported
dud rate].
The CBU-87, 1,000 lb. bomb was developed
by the Aerojet General Corporation in 1983 [entering service in
1986 replacing Vietnam era cluster bombs] which produced it along
with the Alliant Techsystems Inc. [Hopkins, Minnesota]. Today,
the CBU-87s are assembled in an Army factory in southern Kansas,
from parts supplied by Honeywell [Minnesota] and Aerojet [Sacramento,
California].
The 'mother bomb' carries 202 bright yellow
bomblets, each the size of a soda can (see photo). The mother
bomb explodes about 300-400 feet above earth and the 202 bomblets
are dispersed with little parachutes. They are supposed to explode
upon landing, but at least 5% do not.
The CBU-87's 'footprint' is about 400x800
meters. Each bomblet, in turn, fragments into 300 steel fragments,
making for a total of 60,600 fragments per CBU-87 bomb. One CBU-87
spreads bomblets over about three football fields. One B1-B 'Lancer'
bomber can carry 30 CBU-87 bombs.8 A B-52 carries 40 CBU-87s,
with a total hence of 8,080 BLU-97 cluster bomblets!
Cluster bombs are anti-vehicle and anti-personnel
weapons. They kill people without destroying property. They also
serve as land mines and detonate later, even years later, when
they are unearthed. The Times noted that the U.S. lobbied at a
landmine conference some years ago against classifying cluster
bombs as landmines.9 But they serve this secondary and murderous
purpose: "35,000 unexploded bomblets in Kosovo still kill
one person a week," the paper noted. They are still killing
people in Laos, 30 years after the war there ended: 30 years after
being dropped from U.S. planes, one Laotian a month dies of a
cluster bomblet.10
Nazeer Ahmad, de-miner for the Organization
for Mine Clearance and Afghan Rehabilitation [OMAR] based in Jalalabad,
says,
"We completely forgot about the Russian
bombs and mines when we saw American cluster bombs. They are horrible
things. Nobody knows how to detect them and nobody knows how to
destroy them. In Herat when Americans dropped cluster bombs, there
were little bomblets that were yellow color. Children thought
they might be food. Thirty have been killed and 25 wounded by
cluster bombs."11
Suzanne Goldenberg reports from Herat
that at least 41 persons have been killed and 46 injured by cluster
bombs in the area since the bombing ceased.12 Farnaz Fassihi reported
for the Newhouse News Service in late December how "at the
Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital in Kabul, all the beds in the children's
ward are occupied by youngsters injured by cluster bomblets."13
As Mark Baker writes, the terror began
just after midnight on October 22nd in Shaker Qala when villagers
were awakened from their sleep by the sound of aircraft . Moments
later bombs were raining down. Two hours later, eight people had
perished, dozens were wounded. Villagers scrambled from their
homes, putting the wounded on carts to take them to Herat's hospital
four kilometers away. A new danger lurked in the guise of yellow
soda cans scattered through the village's narrow lanes and adjacent
fields.
The first victim of an unexploded cluster
bomb was blown up in Shakar Qala, outside Herat:
"The UN confirmed that eight people
had been killed immediately in the attack on Shakar Qala, and
a ninth had died after picking up the parachutes attached to the
bombs."
"He went to look at the object, touched
it and it blew up," Stephanie Bunker, a spokeswoman, said.
Fourteen others were injured and 20 of the village's 45 houses
were destroyed or badly damaged.."15
The attack upon Shakar Qala reportedly
scattered 200 pieces of unexploded ordnance across the village.
On Wednesday, November 21st, twelve-year
old Mohibollah was out collecting firewood in a shabby neighborhood
on the edge of Herat. Minutes later, he was running down the street
screaming, his face splattered with blood. A stump of flesh, smashed
bones and mangled fingers dangled from his left arm. He was a
victim of the legacy of a Monday night bombing attack on October
22nd, when U.S. planes dropped cluster bombs upon the village
of Qali-e-Shater [Shakar Qala], two miles northeast of Herat.
The attack itself killed eight immediately
with a ninth dying from an unexploded bomblet the next day. The
U.S. attack also destroyed 30 of the hamlet's 45 homes. The intended
target was a Taliban base two kilometers away. A resident, Abodolahad,
recounted how eight bomblets landed on his house, peppering the
walls with shrapnel and killing his brother. But four of the bomblets
failed to explode, forcing the family out to live with neighbors.
Another recent report describes the cluster-bombing of Qala Shater
village:
"At least six of the bomblets parachuted
to earth in the narrow passageway linking the Farid family compound
to the road, bursting through a mudwall and gouging out chunks
of plaster from the main home. One family member died, two teen-aged
neighbors were killed, and two unexploded bomblets remained behind.
At first, the family waited, and then
they decided to try their luck. A friend of Ahmed Farid, 26, after
trying defusing techniques, decided to hurl a bomblet into the
courtyard of an abandoned home next door. Unfortunately, Ahmed
was crossing the courtyard. Fiery bits of shrapnel burnt a series
of almond-sized scars from right shoulder to calf, and put the
iron worker in the hospital for two days"17
Since the bombing, 12 more civilians have
died. Rains in mid-January have washed cluster bomblets downstream.
And more than a month later, the United Nations Mine Action local
staff reported completing the destruction of cluster bombs in
54 homes and a mosque in the village of Qali-e-Shater.18
On December 7th, in Sakhsalmun, a village
about four kilometers outside Herat, it was a family's visit to
a relative's home.19 The kids didn't want to stay inside listening
to grown-up talk and raced outside. Abdul Nasir, 14, and others
scrambled up the hillside next to the hamlet. They came across
the little yellow soda can with a parachute attached to it. One
boy picked it up and it went off. His body was shredded. Abdul
Nasir was comparatively lucky: his jaw was badly broken and one
of his hands sliced between his two middle fingers. In early December,
he sat in the surgical ward at the Herat Red Cross Hospital. U.S.
planes had cluster-bombed Sakhsalmun earlier, close to a former
Taliban garrison, and four civilians had been killed by U.S. bombs
which missed their target.
According to official data of the local
de-mining organizations and the regional hospital in Herat, 38
deaths and an unknown number of injured people due to cluster
bombs have been registered. However, some doctors at the Herat
regional hospital in January 2002, believe this number is much
higher. In the village of Qala Shakar near Herat city alone, 12
people died and more than 20 were injured due to cluster bombs.20
In the village of Rabat, 1/2 hour west of Herat, 10 civilians
have died since U.S. bombing ceased in early November.
More than 10 Afghans are killed or injured
each day from unexploded ordnance. And nearly one out of 10 families
has a member who has been disabled by mines or other unexploded
ordnance. The situation is magnified insofar as the location of
such unexploded munitions:
"At present, almost half of the 725
square kilometers of land identified as minefields is concentrated
in the urban areas where Afghans live, or in the small percentage
of Afghanistan's fertile land where Afghans raise crops or livestock."31
A case in point is the village of Shaker
Qala, where for many days villagers remained cloistered inside
their homes fearing to emerge because of cluster bombs scattered
through the entire village. Farmers returning to regions around
Herat and in the once fertile Shomali plain [wheat and orchards]
have been particularly vulnerable to unexploded cluster bomblets.
Widely decried by over 50 humanitarian
and medical groups across the world, the U.S. defends its use
of cluster bombs as an appropriate response to the killings at
the World Trade Center. The French Nobel-prize [1999] winning
organization, Doctors Without Borders, finds cluster bombs being
indiscriminate weapons and based upon the provisions in the Geneva
Protocol their use is thus prohibited [Additional Protocol I,
Art. 51, 4 and 5b]. The International Red Cross called for an
international ban on cluster bombs in September 2000.33
The casing of a CBU-87 bomb found in Tora
Bora had a hand-stenciled note on it, "this is gonna shine
like a diamond in a goat's ass - Gary."34
Is the United States above international
humanitarian law and below the standards of international morality?
Landmine & Cluster Bomb watch
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