CENTER FOR DEFENSE INFORMATION

111 Countries Agree to Cluster Munitions Treaty

1 July 2008

Nearly 10 years after the historic Ottawa Landmines Treaty banned an indiscriminate weapon causing tens of thousands of civilian casualties a year, more than 100 countries met in Dublin and agreed to ban another weapon system responsible for immeasurable human suffering. On May 30, 2008, 111 countries agreed to a treaty that bans the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions and provides survivor assistance and cluster munitions clean-up. The Convention on Cluster Munitions will be opened for signature in December 2008 and will come into force once 30 countries have ratified it.

     Cluster munitions are deployed from either the air or ground, scattering bomblets over a wide area on the ground. One of the dangers of cluster munitions is that these submunitions sometimes fail to explode, littering areas with unexploded ordnance. These dud bombs, which are still active, often cause the majority of human casualties. The Cluster Munition Coalition believes 60 percent of those injured by cluster munitions receive their injuries while going about their daily lives, and one-third of these are reportedly children.

     Cluster munitions are a global problem, which have affected countries including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Sudan. These weapons affect civilians disproportionately. The Clusters Munition Coalition has reported that cluster bombs were responsible for more deaths in Kosovo in 1999 and Iraq in 2003 than any other weapon system. According to the Coalition, at least 14 countries have used cluster munitions during conflicts, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Israel, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia (USSR), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and FR Yugoslavia. Hezbollah is the most well known nonstate group to have also used cluster munitions, but they have been used by many other nonstate groups as well.

     Although over 100 countries committed to the cluster ban, important producers and users of cluster munitions did not attend the meeting. Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan, India and the United States were not only absent from the meeting, but have publicly opposed the convention.

     The treaty prohibits the use, production and transfer of cluster munitions, as well as requires the destruction of all stockpiled cluster munitions. An estimated 76 countries stockpile billions of submunitions, which are produced by at least 34 countries in over 210 varieties. Russia and China and the United States are believed to have stockpiles containing more than a billion cluster munitions alone.

     The United States refused to participate in the Dublin meeting, but made its presence felt. Throughout the Oslo Process and the Dublin meeting, the United States lobbied its allies and pressured them not to support the convention. The United States threatened allies that joint operations could be negatively affected by such a treaty and that operations in Iraq and Afghanistan could be affected as well.

     U.S. opposition to the Convention on Cluster Munitions is rooted in four motivations. First, the U.S. position is based on the belief that a new convention will jeopardize progress in other international forums. In particular, the United States argues that Protocol V of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) already addresses all varieties of explosive remnants of war (ERW), including cluster munitions. The United States also believes that cluster munitions should not be singled out from the larger category of ERW, because they could divert attention and resources from other, more deadly ERW. In addition, the United States feels that the CCW should be the forum for any new cluster munition initiatives. However, critics of the U.S. position feel Protocol V, which commits states to clear such ERW from their territories, does not adequately address the humanitarian impacts associated with cluster munitions deployment, targeting requirements and reliability standards.

     Second, the United States maintains that cluster munitions remain an effective and necessary weapon of war. The United States argues cluster munitions may in fact cause less collateral damage. Although they haven't been deployed since 2003 in Iraq, the Pentagon strongly resists giving up cluster munitions. The United States maintains a stockpile containing an estimated 700 million to 1 billion submunitions.

     Third, the priority of U.S. policy with regard to cluster munitions is to improve their reliability, not ban them entirely. In 2001, the Department of Defense announced a new policy on submunition reliability that would reduce the failure rate on newly produced submunitions to less then 1 percent (some estimates place current dud rates as high as 15-20 percent).

     Fourth, rather than banning cluster munitions, the United States has chosen to address them by spending more money on international clean-up efforts than any other country in the world. The United States has already provided ERW clearance and stockpile destruction assistance to almost 50 different countries and spent over $1.3 billion on ERW and landmine clearance efforts since 1993. The United States has also announced plans to develop a quick reaction force to respond to the humanitarian threats posed by ERW, small arms and light weapons, landmines and man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS).

     Although the administration has been consistent in its opposition to an international treaty, Congress has taken a different path. Less than a week after the Dublin meeting concluded, Sens. Dianne Feinstein D-Calif., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Mass., introduced a joint resolution urging the United States to sign onto the Global Convention in December 2008.

     This joint resolution reinforces previous congressional efforts on cluster munitions. In 2007, Sens. Feinstein, Leahy, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., introduced the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007 (S. 594), which restricts the use and transfer of cluster munitions with higher than a 1 percent failure rate and limits the use of cluster munitions to clearly defined military targets not in the vicinity of civilians. Although stalled in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the bill sent a clear message of Congress' intent on U.S. use of cluster munitions. A similar bill (H.R. 1755) was introduced on the House side and has been referred to the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness. In addition, within the 2008 Foreign Appropriations bill was a provision (Sec. 695) limiting the sale and transfer of cluster munitions systems that have a 1 percent or lower failure rate and mandating that any country importing U.S. cluster munitions only use them against clearly defined military targets where no civilians are present. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law in December 2007, which in effect results in a one year moratorium on the sale of cluster munitions.

     Despite the lack of participation of the United States and others, treaty supporters and advocates have celebrated the convention's creation. And, similar to the Mine Ban Treaty, which lacks signatures from many of the same opponents, it is hoped that states not party to the treaty will comply with its standards. The next U.S. administration may also provide an opportunity for a shift in U.S. cluster munitions policy. One month following the treaty's December 2008 opening for signature, the incoming administration will have the chance to demonstrate a renewed U.S. stance on cluster munitions. The world will be watching.

By Rachel Stohl, Senior Analyst and Jonah Leff, Research Assistant

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