In Libya, Spanish cluster bombs, Belgian landmines…
(BRUSSELS2) European supplies seem well used during the conflict in Libya. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, the Gaddafi regime thus used 120mm MAT-120 cluster mortars produced by Spain. The fragments of MAT-120 submunitions found in Misrata by a New York Times journalist and examined by the NGO " indicate that these weapons were manufactured by the Spanish company Instalaza SA in 2007 ". Gold " each such bomb carries 21 dual-purpose, anti-personnel and anti-materiel submunitions”. When a submunition explodes, multiple fragments are propelled at high speed capable of injuring or killing people.
The opposition was also caught in the act, this time laying mines of Belgian origin. There with the BBC showed rebel fighters taking plastic anti-vehicle mines from their vehicles and placing them on the side of the main road in Ajdabiya. Mines identified by the NGO as PRB-M3 produced in Belgium in the 1970s and 1980s. This PRB-M3 mine is " extremely difficult to detect as it is almost entirely made of plastic we estimate at Human Rights Watch. And she " can be fitted with a sensitive fuze, causing it to function as an anti-personnel mine, posing a risk to civilians on foot and in vehicles ". Several tens of thousands of these mines are stored in arms depots in Benghazi seized by rebel forces after the withdrawal of government forces in February, including variants of the PRB-M3 mine equipped with an auxiliary fuse which explode if someone tries to move the mine. NB: Spain destroyed its entire stock of mortars in 2008.
NB: Libya has acceded neither to the 1997 treaty on anti-personnel mines (signed by 156 countries) nor to the 2008 Convention on cluster munitions (signed by 108 countries, ratified by 56).
Commitment of the CNT on mines
The President of the National Transitional Council (CNT), Mustafa Abdul Jalil, has pledged not to use prohibited mines, according to a press release signed on April 27 in the presence of the NGO HRW. " None of the forces under the command and control of the CNE will use anti-personnel or anti-vehicle landmines. The Board also committed to " destroy all landmines possessed by forces under its command and control " as well as " cooperate in mine clearance, risk awareness and victim assistance ". Any future Libyan government should abandon landmines and join the 1997 landmine ban treaty ».
European Union condemnation
Friday, the European Union, through the voice of Cathy Ashton, the High Representative of the EU for foreign policy condemned the use of cluster munitions against the civilian population. " I call on the armed forces of Muammar Al Gaddafi to refrain from using force against the civilian population, whether through cluster munitions or any other means. All necessary measures must be taken to ensure that civilians are protected from the effects of such munitions, including unexploded remnants of such submunitions »
