BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman Monday called the presence of cluster bombs in Lebanon a form of Israeli occupation, as they continue to threaten the lives of Lebanese.

Speaking at the opening of the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Sleiman addressed a UNESCO Palace crowd that included Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, as well as government representatives, survivors and anti-cluster munitions campaigners.

Cluster bombs eject smaller bomblets over a wide area, and campaigners say they pose a high risk to civilians for their range and tendency to explode post-conflict.

The U.N. has said that Israel dropped some 4 million cluster bombs in Lebanon during the July 2006 war, most during the last 48 hours of the conflict. The Lebanon Mine Action Center (LMAC), the army-headed group that supervises clearance operations, says that that 67 percent of Lebanon’s originally contaminated 55 square kilometers of land have now been cleared.

“These bombs have until today disabled or killed more than 400 victims, therefore constituting a form of occupation,” said Sleiman, “for they still threaten our citizens’ lives on a daily basis while we have not yet completely removed them and obliterated their impact.”

“It is apparent why this meeting is held in Lebanon,” Sleiman said.

“The legacy of the Israeli war machine throughout its aggression against Lebanon, especially during the month of July 2006, is no secret … It caused vast devastation and destruction, claimed hundreds of innocent lives and inflicted physical and moral suffering upon thousands of wounded and disabled,” he added.

Holding the meeting, Sleiman said, “is an expression of our united political will to confront the tragic effects of this weapon, which neither discriminates between civilians from military targets nor spares men, women, youngsters, seniors or children.”

Lebanon’s south was particularly affected by the bombs, and LMAC estimates that 90 percent of the remaining munitions are in the south, and some are now subsurface. Sleiman said that Lebanon still needs “a lot of time and impact” to recover from the war’s impacts, and called Israel’s dropping of cluster bombs on agricultural and residential land in the south the “ugliest chapters” of the war.

The convention bans the use, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions. It requires countries to clear contaminated areas and destroy supplies, as well as provide assistance to victims and affected communities.

The convention was signed in December 2008. More than 100 countries have joined, and 62 have ratified it. Lebanon has ratified the convention, and it entered into force here in May. The U.S., China and Russia are among the major powers that have not signed.

Introducing Sleiman, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour called the convention “unique and visionary,” and said “Lebanon was a pioneer [in the convention process], and had a hand in both its development and its achievement as an international treaty that bans this terrible weapon.”

Afghanistan recently became the 62nd country to ratify the convention, doing so in the days before the Beirut meeting. Steve Goose, chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), hailed the step, saying in a statement that “as a country where cluster munitions have been used, and where conflict still plagues many people’s daily lives, Afghanistan’s pledge to implement this treaty is significant news.”

During the meeting, which lasts through Friday, states parties will discuss progress in achieving the convention’s requirements, and will also attend sessions on various facets of the convention and the munitions themselves.

Some 28 states and three non-recognized areas are thought to be contaminated with the weapons, according to the CMC. The states parties met last year in Laos.