UN human rights chief Volker Türk has condemned the pager explosions in Lebanon that killed at least 12 people and injured around 2,800.
Türk called the attacks a violation of international humanitarian law and called for an “independent, thorough and transparent investigation.”
THE CNN has learned that Israel’s military and intelligence services were behind Tuesday’s attack, but Israeli officials have not publicly commented on the case and Wednesday’s (18) walkie-talkie explosions.
Türk also did not comment on the walkie-talkie explosions on Wednesday, and his statement referred only to the pager detonations.
“The simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals, whether civilians or members of armed groups, without knowledge of who was in possession of the targeted devices, their location and their surroundings at the time of the attack, violates, to the extent applicable, international humanitarian law,” Turk said.
The UN human rights chief also said that whoever ordered and carried out the attack “must be held accountable”.
Turk’s call for an investigation into the blasts was echoed by international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said the investigation should be “swift” and “conducted with urgency”.
“Customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps — objects that are likely to attract civilians or are associated with normal daily civilian use — precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and producing the devastating scenes that continue to unfold in Lebanon today,” warned Lama Fakih, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director.
This content was originally published in Pager explosion violates “international humanitarian law”, says UN authority on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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