Issues

Lebanon

Senate Votes on the Feinstein Amendment on the Use of Cluster Bombs

Posted on Thursday September 7, 2006

Amendment rejected by Senate by a Vote of 30-70

On September 6, the Senate rejected an amendment offered by Senators Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) calling for the protection of “civilian lives from unexploded cluster munitions” by preventing US tax dollars from being spent to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer cluster munitions. The final vote was 30 in favor, 70 opposed.

Feinstein’s amendment, debated as part of the annual Defense Appropriations bill (S. 5631), was drafted in light of overwhelming evidence that Israel used US-supplied cluster bombs in its recent campaign in Lebanon, and that unexploded cluster bombs have killed and maimed scores of Lebanese civilians since the cease-fire. (According to the Washington Post, as of August 26 cluster bombs have killed 12 Lebanese civilians and wounded 39 more, since the cease-fire took place.)

While a State Department investigation is underway to determine if Israel’s use of cluster bombs violates US law, Feinstein’s amendment was an important measure that could have helped prevent the use of these vicious weapons – and US support for their use – in the future.

AAI urges all its friends to:

1) Contact Senator Feinstein and thank her for her amendment on cluster bombs

2) Contact your senators. Thank them if they voted in favor and express your disappointment if they opposed the amendment. Find your senators phone numbers by clicking here.

The Senate vote, talking points, and Senator Feinstein’s floor speech are all included below.

Call and thank Senator Feinstein:

1. As a member of the Arab American Institute, I would like to thank you for your principled opposition to the use of cluster munitions against civilian populations;

2. Please pursue your inquiry with the State Department, including a briefing to Congress of the findings of their investigation;

3. Thank you for your thoughtful speech on the Senate floor;

4. Thank you for advocating for a fair and just American foreign policy that projects American values abroad.

If you are not a California resident, please call Sen. Feinstein’s Washington office at (202) 224-3841 and ask to speak with a staff assistant.

If you live in California, call both the Washington office and the district office closest to your home. Ask for the district representative and be sure to let them know where you live. Fresno (559) 485-7430, Los Angeles (310) 914-7300, San Diego (619)231-9712, San Francisco (415)393-0707

Call us and let us know about your calls at (202) 429-9210. If you live in:

California, Iowa, Maryland, or Michigan ask for Valerie Smith at ext. 14 or vsmith@aaiusa.org

Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, or Virginia ask for Maram Abdelhamid at ext. 13 or mabdelhamid@aaiusa.org

Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, or any other state, ask for Jason Assir at ext. 28 or jassir@aaiusa.org

Final Vote on Feinstein Amendment:

Discussion Points:

• According to the Washington Post, as of August 26 cluster bombs have killed 12 Lebanese civilians and wounded 39 more, since the cease-fire took place.

• The U.S. State Department began investigating Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in south Lebanon in late August, and is in the process of determining whether their use violated the Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

• Under AECA, the U.S. Government places conditions on the use of defense articles and defense services transferred by it to foreign recipients. Questions have surfaced as to whether Israel violated this law, particularly by extensively using cluster bombs in Lebanon. Under AECA, recipient nations are to use equipment solely for “internal security” in “legitimate self-defense.”

• According to the New York Times, the U.S. has already postponed a shipment of M-26 artillery rockets – another cluster weapon – to Israel.

• According to the United Nations, there may be as many as 100,000 unexploded cluster bombs in Lebanon – with Israel dropping 90 percent of them in the final days of the conflict.

• International organizations, such as Amnesty International, are calling on Israel to disclose details of its use of cluster bombs. This is needed both to see if Israel violated US law and, more urgently, to locate areas where cluster bombs were used to prevent further casualties among innocent Lebanese civilians and peacekeeping forces.

Amendment Text: To protect civilian lives from unexploded cluster munitions. No funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be obligated or expended to acquire, utilize, sell, or transfer any cluster munition unless the rules of engagement applicable to the cluster munition ensure that the cluster munition will not be used in or near any concentrated population of civilians, whether permanent or temporary, including inhabited parts of cities or villages, camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or camps or groups of nomads.

FEINSTEIN: I offer an amendment to the Defense appropriations bill to address a humanitarian issue that I have actually thought a great deal about over a long period of time; that is, the use of the cluster bomb. The human death toll and injury from these weapons is felt every day, going back decades. Innocent children think they are picking up a play toy in the field and suddenly their arm is blown off. I believe we need to take a look at our policies and adjust them. Specifically, our amendment would prevent any funds from being spent to purchase, use, or transfer cluster munitions until the rules of engagement have been adopted by the Department of Defense to ensure that such munitions will not be used in or near any concentration of civilians, be it permanent or temporary, such as inhabited parts of cities or villages or in camps or columns of refugees or evacuees…

Cluster munitions are large bombs, rockets, or artillery shells that contain up to hundreds of small submunitions or individual bomblets. They are intended for attacking enemy troop formations and armor, covering approximately a .6-mile radius. In other words, their swath is over one-half mile. Yet in practice they pose a real threat to the safety of civilians when used in populated areas because they leave hundreds of unexploded bombs over a very large area and they are often inaccurate. They end up in streets and cities where men and women go to work and do their shopping. They end up in groves of trees and fields where children play. They end up in homes where families live. And in some cases, up to 40 percent of cluster bombs fail to explode, posing a particular danger to civilians long after the conflict has ended…These unexploded cluster bombs become, in essence, landmines. Instead of targeting troop formations and enemy armor, unexploded bomblets target innocent civilians, seriously maiming or killing their victims. This runs counter to our values, and I believe it also runs counter to the laws of war.

Make no mistake, the impact of unexploded cluster bombs on civilian populations has been devastating. This first came to my attention in Laos, many years ago. In Laos today, there are between 9 and 27 million unexploded cluster bombs, leftovers from our bombing campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s. Approximately 11,000 people, 30 percent of them children, have been killed or injured since the war ended. In the first gulf war, 61,000 cluster bombs were used, containing 20 million bomblets. Since 1991, unexploded bomblets have killed 1,600 innocent men, women, and children and injured more than 2,500. In Afghanistan in 2001, over 1,228 cluster bombs with almost a quarter of a million bomblets were used. Between October 2001 and November 2002, that year, 127 civilians were killed, 70 percent of them under the age of 18. In Iraq in 2003, 13,000 cluster bombs with 2 million bomblets were used. Combining the first and second gulf war, the total number of unexploded bomblets in the region today is 1.2 million. How many people will die? Already, an estimated 1,220 Kuwaitis and 400 Iraqi civilians have been killed since 1991 because they innocently picked up one of these bomblets.

What gives rise in part to my amendment are recent developments in Lebanon over alleged use of cluster bombs. Throughout southern Lebanon, more than 405 cluster bomb sites containing approximately 100,000 unexploded bomblets have been discovered. Each site covers a radius of 220 yards. As Lebanese children and families return to their homes and begin to rebuild, they will be exposed to the danger of these unexploded bomblets lying in the rubble. Thirteen people, including three young children, have been killed so far, and 48 injured. One United Nations official estimates that the rate of unexploded bomblets is 40 percent. So far, more than 2,000 unexploded bomblets have been destroyed, but it will take 12 to 15 months to complete the effort.

Let me say that I join the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon, David Shearer, in calling on Israel to provide information on where the cluster bombs were used. Such information is vital to speed up the cleanup process and save lives. We have called the State Department. We have asked for information about the conditions for the sale of cluster munitions to Israel, and we have not been able to get that information. It seems to me that information should be readily available and transparent, particularly to the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

The State Department is currently looking into charges that the cluster bombs found in south Lebanon were American made – I do not know that they were – and that they were used in violation of agreements between the United States and Israel. I do not know that they were, but I think we should know, and I think we should not cloak ourselves with ignorance. I am hopeful that this inquiry will be completed as soon as possible and the findings reported to the Congress. If there are violations, there should be consequences…