Israel-Hezbollah war violations still unpunished: HRW

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WASHINGTON, July 12 (AFP): A full year after the Israel- Hezbollah war in Lebanon, violations of the laws of war have gone uninvestigated and unpunished, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
"Both sides in this conflict violated the laws of war, but a full year later, no one has been held accountable," said a statement by Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
HRW regretted that neither Israel or the Lebanese government have investigated war crimes during the 34-day war started on July 12, 2006 and killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon and more than 160 in Israel.
It said Israel's Winograd Commission investigated shortcomings in the preparation and handling of the war but was not mandated to probe violations by Israeli soldiers, while Lebanon's internal strife has sapped "both its will and, seemingly, the capacity to investigate" Hezbollah's actions.
HRW also criticised the UN Human Rights Council, whose special commission "was compromised by a mandate limited to one party's conduct (Israel) and an inability to enforce its own recommendations."
Whitson said "the Israeli and Lebanese investigations have failed, so the international community needs to step in."
The rights group called on countries arming Israel and Hezbollah to stop sending weapons, military equipment and other assistance to areas where it is suspected they were used during the war in violation of international humanitarian law.
Israel used cluster munitions in Lebanon and Hezbollah a variety of unguided surface-to-surface rockets against towns and villages in northern Israel, HRW said. The weapons kill indiscriminately.
"Those who knowingly authorised such attacks may also have committed war crimes and should be investigated," HRW said.
Hezbollah sparked last summer's bloodshed with a cross-border raid in which it captured two Israeli soldiers who are believed to remain in its hands.
A year after the war with Israel, Lebanon has been plunged in its most dangerous crises since the 1975-1990 civil war.
At least 174 people, including 86 soldiers and at least 68 Fatah al- Islam fighters, have been killed since May 20 in battles around the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in northern Lebanon.