Israel still refusing to disclose cluster bomb details in Lebanon

http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0707100100141248.htm

London, July 10, IRNA

UK-Israel-Cluster Bombs:
The British government has repeated its call on Israel to pass on details of its cluster bomb attacks on Lebanon last year after revealing that it was still in defiance of the demand made at the time by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.

"I take this opportunity to repeat the UN secretary-general's call for this information to be made available immediately," Baroness Royall said during a debate on the issue in the House of Lords on Monday.

The government spokeswoman said that the British Embassy in Tel Aviv had last raised the defiance with Israeli defence forces in April, when the EU also reiterated its call for the full disclosure of all relevant information to the UN.

"However, I very much regret that Israel has yet to provide the UN with detailed data on the use of cluster munitions during last year's conflict," she told her fellow peers.

The issue was raised by Labour peer, Lord Dubs, a former junior minister, who said it was "unacceptable for any country to use weapons that harm civilian populations long after the conflict is over." But concern was also expressed whether Britain had the moral ground to make the demand, given that Serbia has still not received coordinations of cluster munitions used during the Kosovo war eight years ago by UK troops, as part of Nato forces.

"Are we really in a position to be quite so critical when, eight years after the use of such weapons in Serbia, NATO-has failed to give the same information to the Serbian authorities?" former Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons said.

Royall said that she was "ashamed" that the information had not been provided. "When this information is required specifically by the UN, it should, and must, be provided as a matter of course," she said.

No mention was made during the debate of the cluster bombs that the UK bought from Israel that were reportedly used by British troops during the Iraq war.