[A-List] Iraq: speaking of WMDs...

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Unexploded cluster bombs litter Iraq

Leaked map shows danger to millions :    Kamal Ahmed

Kamal Ahmed

The shocking extent of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by US and British
planes, which litter Iraq two months after the war, was revealed in detail
for the first time this week.The first map based on military intelligence to
show the location of unexploded anti-personnel mines, cluster bombs and
anti-tank mines reveals a vast area of the country in danger from live
munitions. Experts in clearing conflict zones say that millions of Iraqis
are at risk, as well as humanitarian workers, UN personnel, civilian staff
and military officials.

The revelation raises fresh questions for President George Bush and the
British prime minister, Tony Blair, who insisted that post-conflict Iraq
would be a safer place than it was under Saddam Hussein.

The map reignites the controversy over the use of cluster bombs by the
coalition forces. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of the bombs, which each
produce hundreds of "bomblets", failed to detonate. Anti-land mine
campaigners insist that US and British troops should clear the "lethal
legacy" as an urgent priority.

"This shows an appalling level of contamination," said Richard Lloyd,
director of Landmine Action, who is in Iraq this week to assess the danger.
"It also confirms that American and British forces attacked built-up areas
in cities with cluster bombs."

The map, dated May 13, was produced by the Humanitarian Opera tions Centre
based in Kuwait, staffed by military personnel from the US, Britain and
Kuwait. It was given to selected non-governmental organisations providing
humanitarian aid to Iraq and depicts a mass of green circles, diamonds and
rectangles, each showing an "explosive location".

Land mine experts say that up to 10,000 separate cluster bombs and bomblets
could be lying in cities, farmland and on main roads.

"We will see the desperate effects of this conflict, just as we have seen in
Kosovo and Afghanistan, for years  to come," said Sarah Green of Amnesty
International. Each circle, rectangle or diamond is an example of an
unexploded anti-personnel mine, anti-tank mine, a mixture of both or what is
described on the map as a "SubMunition", otherwise known as a cluster bomb.
Some rectangles are "unknown" unexploded munitions.

The greatest concentration is seen in the centre of the map, around Baghdad
and on the main road routes between the capital and the British-controlled
regions of Basra and Umm Qasr in the southeast.

 Some of the munitions are from the 1991 Gulf war and may have been fired by
the Iraqis, but experts believe most are from the recent conflict. Aid
agencies say hundreds of civilians have been maimed by unexploded cluster
bombs. The victims are often young children.

The British armed forces minister, Adam Ingram, said last week that cluster
bombs were used in built-up areas in "specific circumstances where there is
a threat to our troops".

The Guardian Weekly 20-3-0605, page 4