Reported use of heavy weapons may be war crime

EYEWITNESS REPORTS from Benghazi in eastern Libya state that pro-Gadafy forces are using anti-aircraft weapons and heavy machine guns against civilian protesters.

Doctors treating those injured in the attacks speak of catastrophic soft tissue injuries to the head, chest and abdomen of those shot by Gadafy’s troops. Significantly, Libyan doctors have been quoted as stating that the majority of the injuries are fatal or untreatable.

Libyan security forces are equipped with assault rifles such as Kalashnikov AK47s with standard 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition. Such ammunition, with a range of 600-800m is designed to wound or “drop” an enemy combatant on the battlefield. Multiple hits from a 7.62mm or 5.56mm round are usually required to kill a human target at standard ranges of several hundred metres.

The weapons being used against civilian protesters in Benghazi have included these standard assault rifles – described as “machine guns” in media reports – along with 12.7mm anti-aircraft fire. The use of 12.7mm heavy weapons against civilian protesters may well represent a war crime and would constitute a clear breach of the Geneva Conventions.

Such weapons – normally mounted on the turrets of armoured personnel carriers, or on coaxial mounts on helicopters – are equipped with very large armour piercing (AP) or armour piercing incendiary (API) bullets. Each bullet is designed to penetrate up to 20mm of armour plate and are designed for “hard” targets such as tanks, light fortifications or enemy aircraft.

Such weapons are not designed for use against human targets and would cause the type of catastrophic, untreatable injuries described by Libyan medics. The use of 12.7mm weapons – capable of firing 550 rounds per minute up to ranges of over a mile – against civilians in a confined urban environment is indefensible. Since such weapons are not organic to police or paramilitary units, their deployment and use could be interpreted as an instrument of terror against the civilian population. In other words, their use ought to be investigated as a war crime.

Dr Tom Clonan is The Irish Timessecurity analyst