AP News, July 12th, 2007
Neither Israel nor Lebanon has investigated allegations of war crimes from last year's conflict between the Jewish state and Hezbollah guerillas, Amnesty International charged Thursday.
The human rights group has harshly criticized the Hezbollah militant movement for firing nearly 4,000 rockets at Israeli cities and towns, and Israel for bombing civilian areas and using cluster bombs in south Lebanon.
Amnesty said more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the 34-day war. Since then, 24 more people have been killed in south Lebanon by explosions of cluster munitions fired by Israel during the war, the group said in a statement.
"Without a full, impartial U.N.-led inquiry that includes provision for reparations to the victims, there is a real danger of history repeating itself," warned Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa program.
"The Security Council should declare and enforce an arms embargo on both Israel and Hezbollah until effective mechanisms are in place to ensure that weapons will not be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law," Smart said.
In response, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said, "The Israeli system of justice is independent, professional and transparent. Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Israeli military personal have been thoroughly investigated."
No comment was immediately available from the Lebanese government.
Amnesty urged Israel to turn over maps of areas targeted with cluster bombs in south Lebanon, and it called on Hezbollah to provide information about the two Israeli soldiers it captured a year ago in a cross-border raid, setting off the war.
