2023.09.06 17:24World eye

昨年のクラスター弾死傷者、ウクライナだけで916人

【ジュネーブAFP=時事】クラスター弾の廃絶に取り組む非政府組織(NGO)の連合体「クラスター弾連合」は5日、ウクライナで昨年1年間にクラスター弾で916人が死傷したとする最新の年次報告書を公表した。世界では2010年の統計開始以降最多となる1172人が死傷した。(画像はクラスター弾連合のデータを基に、クラスター弾による攻撃と不発弾による死傷者を示した図。黄色はウクライナ、緑色はシリア。データが不完全なため、実数はさらに多い可能性が高い)
 報告書は、ロシア軍が昨年2月にウクライナに侵攻して以降、新旧のクラスター弾を「大量に」使用しており、ウクライナ軍も「ロシアほどではないが」クラスター弾を使用していると指摘している。
 ウクライナではこの数年、クラスター弾による死傷者は確認されていなかった。昨年同国で確認された死傷者916人のうち、93.3%に相当する855人が民間人で、58人が兵士、3人が地雷除去作業員だった。
 916人のうち、890人はクラスター弾による攻撃で、26人は不発弾によって死傷した。
 クラスター弾は、航空機から投下されたり、大砲から発射されたりした後、空中から広範囲に子爆弾を散布する仕掛けになっている。多くは不発弾として地雷のように残されるため、永続的な脅威となる。
 報告書の共著者の一人、ローレン・ペルシ氏は、記録されていない死傷者も多数存在する可能性があると強調。昨年は少なくともさらに51件のクラスター弾攻撃があったが、犠牲者が記録されていないと指摘している。
 クラスター弾禁止条約(オスロ条約)には110か国以上が署名しているが、ロシアとウクライナは加盟していない。【翻訳編集AFPBBNews】
〔AFP=時事〕(2023/09/06-17:24)
2023.09.06 17:24World eye

916 killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year-- monitor


Over 900 people were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Ukraine last year amid broad Russian use of the widely-banned weapons, propelling global casualty figures to record levels, a report showed Tuesday.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, it has extensively used stocks of old cluster munitions and newly developed ones, the Cluster Munition Coalition said in an annual report, adding that Ukrainian forces also used such weapons to a lesser extent.
Ukraine had registered no cluster munition casualties for several years but recorded 916 deaths and injuries last year, nearly all of them involving civilians, it said.
The vast majority of the cluster munition rocket missile and artillery attacks in Ukraine ... have been conducted by Russian forces, said Mary Wareham, the arms advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, who participated in the report.
That is I think the major reason for the uptick in civilian casualties, she told reporters in Geneva.
- Lasting threat -
The Ukrainian casualties accounted for the vast majority of the global figure, which rose to 1,172 in 2022 -- the highest since CMC began reporting in 2010.
A full 890 of the casualties registered in Ukraine -- 294 deaths and 596 injuries -- happened during attacks using cluster munitions, the monitor said.
Cluster munitions can be dropped from planes or fired from artillery before exploding in mid-air and scattering bomblets over a wide area.
They also pose a lasting threat, as many fail to explode on impact, effectively acting as landmines that can go off years later.
Twenty-six of the casualties recorded in Ukraine last year were caused by such remnants.
The report said 855 of the known casualties in Ukraine -- 93.3 percent -- were civilians, while 58 were military and three were deminers.
Loren Persi, a co-author of the report, stressed that many casualties could have gone unrecorded, pointing to indications that there were at least another 51 cluster munition attacks in 2022 where casualties were not recorded.
- 'Appalled' -
Beyond Ukraine, cluster munition attacks were registered last year in Syria and Myanmar, with such attacks across the three countries causing 987 casualties in total.
In 2021, no casualties were attributed to cluster munition attacks anywhere in the world.
At least 185 people were meanwhile killed or wounded by cluster munition remnants across Ukraine, Syria and Myanmar and five other countries: Azerbaijan, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon and Yemen, the report said.
That compares to 149 casualties in 2021, it said, pointing out that children make up over 70 percent of all casualties from cluster munition remnants.
Russia, Ukraine, Syria and Myanmar have not joined the convention prohibiting the use, transfer, production and stockpiling of cluster bombs, which has 112 state parties and 12 other signatories.
The United States, which is also not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, meanwhile sparked widespread outcry in July with its decision to provide Kyiv the weapons.
We were appalled by the decision, Wareham said, adding that her organisation had for a year been fighting the move behind the scenes.
The last US company manufacturing cluster munitions halted production in 2016, but CMC warned the country was developing and producing replacements for cluster munitions that may still fall under the definition of cluster munitions prohibited by the convention.
We need to find out more about those particular weapon systems, Wareham said.

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