In a MTV3 news broadcast (1.8.06), Finnish news correspondent, Kari Lumikero, reported from Lebanon on the use of “cluster bombs” by Israel during the closing days of the war. The story was built around the danger they pose to everday civilians as well as the need for them to be cleared. What Lumikero erred in his report, was that the use of the bombs “were against the Geneva conventions”, nor mentioned that Israel has been informing both Unifil and the Lebanese army on what areas Israel had used these types of weapons, in order for them to be disposed of.
First of all, the use of cluster bombs are not illegal, neither are phosphorous weapons. Both are not prohibited under the Conventional Weapons Convention, to which Israel is a party. Cluster bombs are held by 56 states and at least 9 states have used them (among them USA, UK, Russia, Israel). Cluster bombs have been used during the War in the Gulf and during the NATO operations in Serbia and Kosovo.
One of the claims by states that use them, is that this kind of bomb causes in most of the cases, less damage than caused by normal bombs, some which weigh between 250-1000 kg. Israel has conveyed to the UNIFIL immediately after the beginning of a cease-fire, maps with the possible sites where unexploded ordinances might belocated.
Kari Lumikero was either simply ignorant of what he spoke, or knowingly passing off wrong information to his Finnish audience. I hope for it to be the former.
Then Finnish state TV YLE airs a biased documentary “Ulkolinja, 21.55 ‘Price of victory’, where Israel is attacked from both the Left and the very hard Left. Two Finnish journalists reporting from Lebanon, Rauli Virtanen and Pertti Pesonen, thought it best to not mention the following things:
1.) That Iran has been busy stock piling its weapons in Hezbollah strongholds that have been built under the noses of the UN.
2.) That Iran has been busy training Hezbollah terrorists in how to manage complicated firing systems.
3.) That Iranian weapons experts fired the C-802 missile that badly damaged an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast.
4.) No mention of Hezbollah’s use of schools, apt. buildings and civilian infrastructure.
A friend informs me that she wrote an email to Pesonen demanding why none of these points were mentioned? Incredibily, he defends his documentary by claiming for example: ” there is no hard evidence that Iran is arming Hezbollah! Such a basic fact is not unknown to these guys, anymore than the fact that the Hezbollah used its own people as human shields.
I mean, even the Syrians admit that there was a pipleine that existed in Syria, running from Iran to Lebanon. The media should admit that its no longer impartial, its time that they dropped the facade of “fair and balanced”. It would be a more honest approach than the one currently in force. KGS
