US-Backed Ukraine Army Used Cluster Bombs Against Its Own People

[newthinking]

Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2014
by Common Dreams
US-Backed Ukraine Army Used Cluster Bombs Against Its Own People: Reports

'Firing cluster munitions into populated areas is utterly irresponsible and those who ordered such attacks should be held to account,' says rights group.
by
Jon Queally, staff writer


Remnants of a misfired Uragan cluster munition rocket lying in a field in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government near Novomykhailivka, Ukraine on October 14, 2014. (Photo: 2014 / Ole Solvang/Human Rights Watch)


The Ukraine Army, backed by both the U.S. and NATO throughout its military campaign against rebel factions in eastern regions of the country over recent months, appears to have fired cluster munitions on the city of Donetsk earlier this month, according to a Human Rights Watch investigation and independent reporting by the New York Times.

Citing the HRW report, physical evidence and its own interviews with both witnesses and victims, the Times reports:

Sites where rockets fell in the city on Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 showed clear signs that cluster munitions had been fired from the direction of army-held territory, where misfired artillery rockets still containing cluster bomblets were found by villagers in farm fields.

The two attacks wounded at least six people and killed a Swiss employee of the International Red Cross based in Donetsk.

If confirmed, the use of cluster bombs by the pro-Western government could complicate efforts to reunite the country, as residents of the east have grown increasingly bitter over the Ukrainian Army’s tactics to oust pro-Russian rebels.

“It is shocking to see a weapon that most countries have banned used so extensively in eastern Ukraine,” said Mark Hiznay, senior arms researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Ukrainian authorities should make an immediate commitment not to use cluster munitions and join the treaty to ban them.”

Human Rights Watch said it was "not possible to conclusively determine responsibility for many of the attacks," but that the available evidence points to Ukrainian government forces’ responsibility for several cluster munition attacks on Donetsk. The New York Times said it could not verify any claims that rebel forces had fired any such weapons.

Full article here: http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/21/us-backed-ukraine-army-used-cluster-bombs-against-its-own-people-reports

[The Magistrate]

1. An Extremely Poor Headline, Sir

I must confess I get tired of the 'uses X against their own people' line in circumstances where what is actually going on is civil war or open rebellion. It is not as if a government here is simply wheeling up artillery and letting fly at a town out of the clear blue sky: there is a war going on, has been for several months now, in which secessionist forces hold fairly well defined swathes of territory, and give as good as they get in terms of firepower and casualties inflicted on government forces, and whatever civilians happen to be in the battle zones on the government side of the front lines.

I do not know enough about the fine grain of the military situation in which these were employed to judge whether they were fired at legitimate military targets. I know the organization reporting considers just about any use of such weapons improper, but I do not share their standard completely. It is one thing if they are actually intended to hit a concentration of troops or weapons or transport, and quite another if they are simply fired as an area bombardment of a town or neighborhood.

I would also recommend consulting the original report: these things do quite well on their own without the gilding....

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/20/ukraine-widespread-use-cluster-munitions

[Fred Sanders]

2. The evil that is the fascist gang that overthrew a democratically elected government is being

exposed...lot of DU folks do not want to hear the truth.

[The Magistrate]

4. Ritual Noise, Sir

High grade 'DuckSpeak', in fact, uttered by trained reflex without the least trace of cognition.

[newthinking]

6. Eye of the beholder

Some would say someone who posts prolifically using a "persona" to imitate an "air of authority" might be seen to be "Ritual Noise".

"As you speak to others, so you are spoken to".

[The Magistrate]

7. Eye Of Newt, Sir, Eye Of Newt: If You Do Not Get The Recipie Right, The Chant Cannot Work

"Can't nobody here play this game?"

[TexasProgresive]

8. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way commmmees!"

I forgot the recipe.

[The Magistrate]

9. "For The Snark WAS A Boojum, You See"

[TexasProgresive]

10. I'm dead!

The snarky magisterial, magistrate WAS a Boojum, now I see.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. I would agree with this statement.

'Firing cluster munitions into populated areas is utterly irresponsible and those who ordered such attacks should be held to account,' says rights group.

Which is why, when Israel did the same thing in Gaza, I condemned it then. And I'll condemn it no matter who is doing it, or to whom they do it.

[The Magistrate]

5. Among The Countries Which Have Not Signed The 2008 Convention On Cluster Munitions, Sir

Can be found Russia, China, the United States, India, Pakistan, Ukraine, Brazil, and Turkey....