Cluster Bombs Are New Danger To Mine Clearers
London Times, Stephen Farrell In Peshawar, 26 October 2001

The use of cluster bombs by the US in Afghanistan has prompted the United Nations to make plans to move 4,000 Afghan mine-clearers out of the country for retraining.

It follows the death of nine villagers who were hit on Monday night by cluster bombs in the western village of Shakar Qala, near Herat. The bombs were part of an attack on a Taleban base between about 500 yards and half a mile away.

America is coming under increasing criticism for using cluster bombs, because between 10 and 30 per cent of them often fail to explode and lie scattered over hundreds of square yards. They pose a long-term risk to civilians, especially children, because they are bright orange and resemble soft-drink cans.

Experts believe that the bombs used were US-made BLU97s. These are packed into a 10ft-long “aimable” container that explodes above ground, scattering 202 bomblets over an area of about 450 by 200 yards.

Yesterday Andrew Purkis, chief executive of the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund, criticised the use of the devices, pointing out that 35,000 unexploded bomblets in Kosovo still kill one person a week. Two Gurkha soldiers were killed while trying to clear a school near Pristina two years ago.

A mine expert confirmed yesterday that Afghan mine-clearers sent to Shakar Qala simply put sandbags around the unexploded bomblets and evacuated the entire village because they had never encountered cluster bombs before.

Another source said: “These things are very nasty because they are anti-vehicle, incendiary and have fragmentation jackets which turn into shrapnel. There is no way that you can defuse them – they have to be dealt with by special charges.”

Since the bombing started, the UN has been seeking information from the US on the new munitions that will have to be tackled by the mine-clearers working for aid agencies operating under the Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan. It now sees little alternative but to bring mine-clearers out of Afghanistan for retraining, then to send them back. “They will have to bring all 4,000 of them out through Peshawar and Quetta over the next few weeks,” a source said. “They will have to pay smugglers a lot to get them across, but this is a high priority.”

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,” Stephani Bunker, a spokeswoman, said. Fourteen others were injured and 20 of the village’s 45 houses were destroyed or badly damaged.

A US Defence Department official confirmed that warplanes had used cluster bombs on the outskirts of Herat, but could not say whether the bombs had gone astray or had been used in the attack on the nearby Taleban military compound. “They are using them. There were some used in that area,” he said.

Millions of square yards of Afghanistan are contaminated with unexploded bombs and mines, many of them laid in the fighting between the Soviet Union’s forces and the Mujahidin in the 1980s. They continue to injure between 40 and 100 people a week.

Copyright © 2001 London Times. All rights reserved.