2023-07-15 14:30:00
WAR – The United States will deliver cluster munitions (BASM) to Ukraine, according to national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Information confirmed by President Biden on July 7 on the set of the program “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, broadcast on CNN. This decision goes against an international convention whose agreement signed in Oslo in 2008 prohibits the use of this type of weapon during engagements. An agreement that has not been adopted by the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. According to the NGO Amnesty International, cluster bombs make “havoc among the civilian population” and remain the cause of death and disability “several decades after the end of the conflicts”.
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, announced it A week ago. The US administration has decided to deliver cluster bombs to Ukraine to support its war effort. This country, like Russia, already uses this type of armament.
From 2015, the forces of kyiv as the rebels supported by Moscow resort to these ammunition within the framework of the war of Donbass. At the time, the deputy director of the Emergencies division of the NGO Human Watch Rights (HWR) Ole Solvang, as an observer in the field, said that “the use of cluster munitions reflects total disregard for civilian populations”. According to him, “neither side should use these weapons which are generally prohibited” and that “affect very large areas and endanger civilians living nearby. Unexploded submunitions continue to pose a risk to civilians long after the attack.”
Cluster bombs, “by nature blind”
And 2023, Mary Wareham, the current Advocacy Director with the Arms division of HWR makes a similar observation: “Cluster munitions used by Russia and Ukraine are killing civilians now and will do so for many years”calling these weapons “by nature blind”.
During combat in 2022, Ukrainian forces use cluster munitions in areas under Russian control located in Izium, a city in the oblast (region) of Kharkiv. Many civilians are killed: the victims are all Ukrainians. According to the humanitarian organization Humanity and Inclusion (HI), 90% of cluster bomb victims are civilians. In 2021, 140 deaths are counted among them because of these bombs.
Not very precise and striking “in a cluster”, the rate of misfires of these oscillates according to the White House between 2.5% and 40%. A wide range, depending on the type of material, but which in all cases spreads unexploded bombs in agricultural fields or forest areas. These inevitably result in the death of civilians over time.
This is why in 2008 an international convention, held in Dublin (Ireland), proposed an agreement to end their use worldwide. Neither Russia, nor Ukraine, nor the United States agreed to sign it in Oslo (Norway) at the end of 2008. Enough to allow their large-scale use to continue.
The cluster bombs sent by the American military authorities consist of 88 “sub-bombs” per unit (rocket, shell or airborne munitions). Their launching can be carried out from howitzers (Howitzer) of which the great part of the total equipment of Ukraine was delivered by the United States: 142 were transferred at the end of 2022, model M777, equipped with a 155mm gun. Other countries from the European Union have offered a few cannons, including France, with 30 Caesarconsidered the flagship of its artillery.
Disposal of inventory in defiance of U.S. law
At the beginning of the conflict with Russia, Ukraine had more than 1,000 mobilizable howitzers, but old models, loaded with Soviet-standard ammunition. Their stocks, after having been bought around the world by the United States and then offered to Ukraine, are now running out. This equipment could not in the state effectively cover the 2500 km of front line while the war evolved in “an artillery battle”according to Marc Cancian, a military expert from the CSIS (Center for Strategic International Studies). Waiting to invest the sky, with ongoing training of F-16 pilotsthe importance of this type of armament has therefore become crucial for kyiv…
In this sense, the use of cluster bombs makes it possible to inflict more damage on the adversary, with fewer guns. Damage that is of a different nature: according to the American military authorities, one of the justifications for the use of cluster munitions by Ukraine, which is struggling to carry out its counter-offensive, is precisely their ability to reach Russian underground installations, casemates or possible weapons stocks.
According to the Pentagon, “hundreds of thousands of shells” of this type are available, notwithstanding the fact that these cluster bombs are no longer produced in the United States since 2008. These stocks will therefore be disposed of within the framework of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in defiance of American law which cannot theoretically authorize the transfer of cluster bombs with a failure rate of more than 1%. However, Pat Ryder, spokesman for the Pentagon, declared during a press conference that the latter is 2.35% for cluster munitions delivered to Ukraine.
“Error”, “controversial” decision, “war crime”
With each impact, some of them explode in an unpredictable way within a large area, others do not explode. After the end of hostilities, they require massive mine clearance and expensive environmental depollution of the impacted areas.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen recalled the painful history of his country in this area, victim of American bombardments. He warns that cluster bombs would be “the greatest danger for the Ukrainian people”persistent “for decades” and calls on the donor to refrain from granting these weapons to Ukraine.
Elements recalled differently on the Public Sénat channel by Pascal Boniface, French geopolitical scientist, founder and director of IFRIS (Institute for International and Strategic Relations), who is surprised at the lack of indignation expressed by European politicians and journalists about nature of these arms deliveries: “What we blame Westerners for is not the principles they put forward, it’s not respecting them”he said.
On the side of the American press, a tribune of the New York Times qualified error the delivery of cluster bombs from the United States. The title The Hill refers to him a decision “controversial”.
L’ONG Amnesty International considered “the Biden administration’s plan to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine” as “a step backwards, which undermines the considerable progress made by the international community in its attempts to protect civilians from these dangers during and after armed conflicts.” At the start of the war in Ukraine, Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, had been questioned on allegations that Russia used cluster bombs. She then replied that, if true, it would constitute “a war crime”.
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