Amnesty: Winograd Commission disregards Israeli war crimes
Posted by tearsforlebanon on February 1, 2008
called a report published yesterday by the Winograd Commission on
Israel’s conduct in the war with Hezbollah in July-August 2006 “deeply
flawed.”
The organization said that the report failed to investigate a
crucial aspect of the war — the government policies and military
strategies that failed to discriminate between the Lebanese civilian
population and Hezbollah combatants and between civilian property and
infrastructure and military targets.
“This was yet another missed opportunity to address the policies and
decisions behind the grave violations of international humanitarian law
– including war crimes — committed by Israeli forces,” said Malcolm
Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme.
“The indiscriminate killings of many Lebanese civilians not involved
in the hostilities and the deliberate and wanton destruction of
civilian properties and infrastructure on a massive scale were given no
more than token consideration by the commission,” said Smart.
Though not vested with the powers of an official state commission of
investigation, the Winograd Commission had the power to subpoena
witnesses and recommend the prosecution of officials it found to have
been responsible for wilful or negligent criminal conduct.
However, the Commission chose to limit its work to reviewing
military strategy and political decisions, and made no serious attempt
to investigate violations of international humanitarian law, including
war crimes, committed by Israeli forces or to recommend measures for
holding those responsible for such violations to account. It recommends
the development of mechanisms to ensure the effectiveness of fighting
within the framework of international humanitarian law standards,
immediate investigations by the army when there are concerns that
international humanitarian law was violated and better preparedness for
responding to humanitarian problems arising from military action. But
it essentially brushed aside available evidence of serious violations
of international law, claiming that interpretations of international
humanitarian law are controversial, that it did not have the capacity
to deal with the volume of data, that the alleged violations were
already being investigated by other bodies, and that such allegations
are used as propaganda against Israel — whereas it did scrutinize
military strategies and the conduct of certain operations in detail,
including in cases which were already being investigated separately.
Based on its on-the-ground research and analysis of the conduct of
hostilities in 2006, Amnesty International concluded that it was the
Lebanese civilian population — not Hezbollah combatants — who paid
the heaviest price of the Israeli army’s attacks. Of some 1,190 people
killed, the vast majority were civilians not involved in the
hostilities, among them hundreds of children. The overwhelming majority
of homes, properties and infrastructure targeted in air strikes and
artillery attacks were likewise civilian.
Other international human rights and humanitarian organizations and
United Nations (UN) bodies that examined the situation reached the same
conclusion. In its report of 10 November 2006 the UN Commission of
Inquiry concluded that: “… a significant pattern of excessive,
indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force by the IDF [Israel
Defense Forces] against Lebanese civilians and civilian objects,
failing to distinguish civilians from combatants and civilian objects
from military targets”. A separate investigation by four UN independent
experts also reported in October 2006 that “Available information
strongly indicates that, in many instances, Israel violated its legal
obligations to distinguish between military and civilian objectives; to
fully apply the principle of proportionality”.
In addition, the launching of hundreds of thousands of cluster
bombs, containing an estimated four million cluster sub-munitions
(bomblets), in the last few days of the war left a deadly legacy. This
is continuing to cause casualties among the civilian population,
humanitarian workers, and mine-clearance personnel who put their lives
on the line — literally — to clear unexploded ordnance.
“Although the Winograd Commission recommended that the army review
its policies on the use of cluster bombs to ensure that the use of
these weapons will not violate international humanitarian law and army
discipline, it did not propose any concrete measures,” said Smart.
The Israeli government’s persistent refusal to hand over the cluster
bombs strike data and the exact coordinates of the areas into which its
forces fired the cluster bombs has made this already painstaking
mine-clearance task more deadly and time consuming. To date, 40 people
(27 civilians and 13 de-mining personnel) have been killed and 243 have
been injured (200 civilians and 34 de-mining personnel) by unexploded
ordnance and the United Nation Mine Action Coordination Centre
(UN-MACC) has identified more then 900 sites contaminated by unexploded
but still lethal remnants of cluster bombs and other ordnance launched
by Israeli forces into South Lebanon.
Amnesty International called on the Israeli government to:
* Provide to the UN-MACC the cluster bombs strike data and the
exact coordinates of the areas into which its forces fired cluster
bombs.
* Establish an independent and impartial investigation into
evidence indicating that its forces committed serious violations of
international human rights and humanitarian law during the conflict,
including war crimes, and ensure that those responsible are brought to
justice.
* Revise its interpretation of the rules and principles relating to
the concepts of military objective, military advantage and
proportionality, to ensure that its interpretation is fully consistent
with international humanitarian law, and that the Israeli military
complies fully with the duty to take precautionary measures when
carrying out attacks, as well as in defence, and does not carry out
attacks as a form of collective punishment.
* Announce a moratorium on the use of all cluster weapons and, in
any event, ensure that such weapons are never again used in civilian
areas under any circumstances.
The organization also called on Hezbollah, whose forces also committed war crimes during the 2006 conflict, to:
* Renounce its unlawful policy of reprisal rocket attacks against
the civilian population of Israel and ensure that its fighters comply
fully with the need to take precautionary measures in attacks and in
defence, including the need to distinguish themselves from
non-combatants to the maximum extent possible.
* Ensure that Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two Israeli
soldiers captured by Hezbollah fighters on 12 July 2006, are treated
humanely at all times and are allowed immediate access to the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Picture: Cluster bomb victim. Amnesty International asked Israel to
provide to the UN-MACC the cluster bombs strike data and the exact
coordinates of the areas into which its forces fired cluster bombs.
More than a million cluster bombs were fired on South Lebanon during
the last days of the war , even though Israel knew the ceasefire was
around the corner
