United Nations

A/62/471­S/2007/594
Distr.: General 8 October 2007 Original: English

General Assembly Security Council

General Assembly Sixty-second session Agenda item 17 The situation in the Middle East

Security Council Sixty-second year

Identical letters dated 5 October 2007 from the Permanent Representative of Lebanon to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
As already documented in the 2006 report outlining the achievements of the United Nations Mine Action Service (A/62/307), over 1 million unexploded cluster bombs were left by Israel in the aftermath of its war against Lebanon in the summer of 2006, in blatant violation of both humanitarian and international law. Those bombs have contaminated 34.2 million square metres of Lebanese territory. As a result, Lebanese civilians face death on a daily basis. By the end of the summer, more than 233 Lebanese civilians had fallen victim to Israeli cluster bombs, many of whom were children. A 6-year-old child, Ali Dakdouk, was the latest victim of those deadly bombs. Little Ali was killed yesterday, 4 October, in Sultaniyya on his way to his first day of school. Ali's first day of school fatally became his last. Israel's persistent refusal to give the United Nations the maps which indicate where it dropped the cluster bombs is an additional flagrant violation of both humanitarian and international law, since the remaining unexploded bombs represent a continuous threat to the safety and security of the Lebanese civilian population. My Government reaffirms its commitment to end the scourge of cluster bombs and shall not spare any effort to reach an international ban on those ugly weapons. Upon instructions of my Government, I kindly request that the present letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly under agenda item 17. (Signed) Nawaf Salam Ambassador Permanent Representative

07-53231 (E) 081007

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