Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Montenegro signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 25 January 2010. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Montenegro has declared that its existing legislation is sufficient to implement the convention.[1] According to Article 9 of the country’s constitution, international treaties ratified by Montenegro are an “integral part of the domestic legislation, and have supremacy over domestic legislation and are directly implemented when dealing with issues differently than domestic legislation.”[2]

Montenegro submitted its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and provided its annual updated Article 7 report on 31 March 2013.[3]

Montenegro participated actively in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] Since 2008, it has continued to engage in the work of the convention. Montenegro attended the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012. It participated in the intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2013, where it made a statement on clearance and risk reduction. Montenegro also participated in a regional workshop on implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions held in Skopje, FYR Macedonia in May 2013.[5]

At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2012, Montenegro reaffirmed its commitment to the universalization and full implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6]

Montenegro has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s cluster munition use, but it voted in favor of a UNGA resolution on 15 May 2013 that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions.”[7]

Interpretive issues

Montenegro has expressed its views on a number of important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the convention. On the issue of the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts in joint military operations with states not party, Montenegro has elaborated its understanding that “the participation in the planning or conducting of operations, exercises or any other military activities by the armed forces of Montenegro, or by any of its nationals, if carried out in conjunction with armed forces of the non-State Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which engage in activities prohibited under the Convention, does not in any way imply an assistance, encouragement or inducement as referred to in subparagraph 1(c) of the Convention.”[8] Montenegro has also stated that it “does not intend to invest in the production of cluster munitions.”[9] Montenegro has not yet expressed its views on the matters of foreign stockpiling or transit of cluster munitions.

Montenegro is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Montenegro is not known to have used cluster munitions, but cluster munitions were used by NATO forces in air strikes on Serbian and Montenegrin military positions during the Kosovo conflict in 1999.

Recently, evidence emerged of Yugoslav army use of cluster munitions on Montenegrin territory in 1999. In November 2012, a long-standing court case awarded €85,000 in compensation to the Dacić family, whose son, Senad, was killed in the village of Besnik, near the Kosovo border, on 26 March 1999, a day after BL755 bombs were used in the area around Besnik and the neighboring village of Njegusi. The government had claimed the bombs were dropped by NATO aircraft, but written evidence submitted by the Ministry of the Interior Court, as well as the testimony of former police chief Šemsa Dedeić, unequivocally established that the bombs were dropped by planes of the Yugoslav Armed Forces. According to Dedeić, the pilots were supposed to drop the payloads in Kosovo, but they were ordered back and dumped the munitions before they returned.[10]

Montenegro has declared that there are no cluster munition production facilities in the country.[11]

Stockpiling and destruction

Montenegro inherited a stockpile of BL755 cluster bombs upon the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro.[12] On 5 October 2010, Montenegro completed the destruction of its entire stockpile of 353 BL755 cluster bombs containing a total of 51,891 Mk1 submunitions. The stockpile was dismantled and then destroyed over a two-year period at facilities near the town of Nikšićas as part of a technical agreement with the United States for the disposal of surplus weapons and ammunition.[13]

Montenegro has not retained any cluster munitions for training and research purposes.[14] Montenegro has said it has no intention of retaining cluster munitions.[15]

Last full update 17 December 2012, cluster munition content updated in 2013

Contamination and Impact

Montenegro became contaminated with mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), mainly unexploded ordnance (UXO), as a result of conflicts during the break up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.[1]

Mines

It was reported in the press in November 2007 that Montenegro had become the first Balkan country to be cleared of mines.[2] Its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report for 2008 stated “there are no areas under Montenegro’s jurisdiction or control in which anti-personnel mines are known or suspected to be emplaced.”[3] However, Montenegro still had to survey a mountainous area on its borders with Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to clarify if contamination on the Croatian side of the border also affects Montenegro.[4] As of July 2012, Montenegro had not formally declared completion of its Article 5 obligations.[5]

Cluster munition remnants

NATO air strikes between March and June 1999 involved the use of 22 cluster bombs of four different types: AGM-154A JSOW guided missiles, BL-755s, CBU-87/Bs and Mk-20 Rockeyes. These scattered a little over 4,000 submunitions consisting of three different types: BLU-97A/B, MK-1 and MK 118.[6]

Montenegro’s initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report affirmed that, as of 27 January 2011, “there are no contaminated areas in Montenegro.”[7] In July 2011, however, the director of the Regional Centre for Divers’ Training and Underwater Demining (RCUD) confirmed that unexploded submunitions had been found in 2007.[8] In 1999, after the air strikes, military units collected more than 1,800 submunition remnants, but Montenegro informed the intersessional meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions that it had not been conducted “fully according to humanitarian mine action standards” and that it planned to conduct a survey.[9]

Non-technical survey (NTS) conducted by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) between December 2012 and April 2013 identified 87 polygons of suspected or confirmed hazardous areas covering a total area of 1.72km² affecting five communities in three municipalities. The contamination mainly affects infrastructure and utilities, accounting for 63% of the affected land, and agriculture (30%).[10]

The most affected area was Golubovci municipality, particularly around its airport, accounting for 1.38km² of the total, followed by Tuzi and Rožaje municipalities. There are signs that submunitions may also be present in two other areas of Plav municipality, Bogajice and Murino, which could not be immediately investigated because of high levels of snow.[11]

Mine Action Program

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration established a Department for Emergency Situations and Civilian Safety in 2007. It lacks human resources and equipment, however. Because of a shortage of funds, the responsibility for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) remained with the police.[12] Police set up an EOD team that currently has three trained members who conduct demolitions.[13]

RCUD has continued its role as the national mine action center.[14] RCUD was set up in 2002 by the government, which assigned the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Public Administration to “develop [the center’s] organization and its specification.”[15] It describes itself as a “public institution and has status of a legal entity realizing independently its functions assigned by the [government].”[16]

RCUD and NPA signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2012 under which NPA agreed to fund and implement a two-phase project involving, first, the conduct of a non-technical survey and, secondly, technical survey and clearance of areas where the presence of cluster munitions is confirmed. NPA agreed to set up a database and to develop capacity for non-technical survey and quality management.[17]

Land Release

Montenegro did not report any clearance of cluster munition contaminated area in 2012.[18]

Survey in 2012

NPA started a non-technical survey in December 2012 which was completed in April 2013 and identified 87 polygons of suspected or confirmed hazardous areas covering a total area of 1.2km² affecting five communities in three municipalities (see Contamination and Impact section above).[19]

Mine clearance in 2011

No mine clearance was reported in Montenegro during 2011.[20]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Montenegro is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 April 2017. Officials stated publicly in November 2007 that Montenegro was free of mines, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not formally declared completion of its Article 5 obligations and has not said when it plans to do so.[21]

Clearance of cluster munition-contaminated areas in 2012

Montenegro did not conduct clearance of cluster munition contaminated area in 2012, although RCUD reported that in July 2012 it found and destroyed two unexploded submunitions in the course of underwater clearance of three tons of UXO in the river Zeta in Podgorica.[22]

In 2013, NPA expected to release 1.2–1.3km² through technical survey and clearance and 0.4–0.5km² through non-technical survey.[23]

Compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Montenegro is required to complete clearance of all areas affected by cluster munition remnants under its jurisdiction or control by 1 August 2020.

Montenegro said it planned to complete clearance of all contaminated areas in 2014 through agreement with NPA on implementation of its “Completion Initiative.”[24]

Battle area clearance in 2011

Montenegro did not report any onshore battle area clearance in 2011. [25]

RCUD underwater deminers conducted 14 clearance tasks in 2011 in response to information from the population, clearing an area of 30,000m² and disposing of 1,300kg of UXO, mostly hand grenades and unexploded bombs. Three teams of four deminers conducted those tasks along the Montenegrin coastline, from Ulcinj to Herceg Novi. The UXO items they found were destroyed by the police EOD department.[26]

In the first six months of 2012, RCUD underwater teams worked on clearance of 8,000m², finding and destroying a total of four tons of different UXO.[27]

Explosive ordnance disposal in 2011

The Department for Emergency Situations and Civilian Safety has reported finding and destroying a total of 6 tons of UXO during 121 EOD response tasks in 2011. Items destroyed in these operations included antivehicle mines, antipersonnel mines, unexploded submunitions, air bombs, antiship torpedoes, grenades, rockets, bullets, fuzes, and detonators.[28]

Quality management

Quality control of the underwater operations is conducted internally by RCUD staff in accordance with the SOPs developed in compliance with IMAS.[29]

Safety of demining personnel

No demining incident or accident was reported in 2011.[30]

Risk Education

No risk education was conducted during 2011.[31]

Summary action points based on findings

·         Improve the implementation of the Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016); in 2012, discrimination prevented persons with disabilities from accessing medical care and from securing employment.

Victim assistance commitments

Montenegro is responsible for landmine survivors, cluster munition victims, and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW). Montenegro has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and has victim assistance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2012, six casualties were identified in one incident with an antivehicle mine in Montenegro. In July 2012, four adults and two children were injured while traveling in a car near the city of Gusinje, close to the border with Albania. One of the adults, a woman, was Albanian.[1]

Prior to 2012, the last casualties reported in Montenegro were in 2008, when a border police officer was injured when he drove over a landmine and, in a separate incident, a child was injured by a hand grenade he found in a wall in Podgorica.[2] The Monitor identified 18 mine/ERW casualties (four killed and 14 injured) between 1999 and December 2012. This included seven children; adult casualties included a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an Albanian citizen.[3]

There have been at least eight cluster munition casualties in Montenegro. Cluster submunitions caused four civilian casualties since their use in 1999. Another four civilian casualties occurred during cluster munition strikes.[4]

Victim Assistance

The total number of survivors living in Montenegro is not known; in 2004, 260 mine/ERW survivors were recorded as living in Montenegro.[5]

There is no specific victim assistance coordination in Montenegro. The ministries of health, labor and social welfare, education and sports, science, culture, and human and minority rights all have responsibilities for protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.[6] In December 2007, Montenegro adopted the Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities in Montenegro (2008–2016) to ensure compliance with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[7] An action plan for implementing the strategy in 2012–2013 was adopted in March 2012; the Council for Protection of People with Disabilities was established in May and began recruiting new staff.[8] However, the implementation of the strategy was considered “poor” and persons with disabilities continued to encounter discrimination and face numerous obstacles to inclusion.[9]

According to the government, emergency medical care is available for all citizens of Montenegro through the national Institute for Urgent Health Care.[10] Mine/ERW survivors, including survivors of cluster submunitions, along with all victims of war, are entitled to free medical care and physical rehabilitation, including prosthetic limbs, through the national health insurance system. This law, regulating the national health insurance, recognizes the category of victims of cluster munitions. However, it does not discriminate against or among cluster munitions victims, or between cluster munitions victims and those who have suffered injuries or disabilities from other causes; differences in treatment are based only on medical, rehabilitative, psychological or socio-economic needs of victims.[11] While all persons with disabilities are entitled to free health care, it was reported that such care was not always satisfactory or accessible and, in at least one case, a person with a disability was refused care.[12]

In November 2012, the Montenegrin court system awarded €85,000 in compensation for pain and suffering to the family members of a boy who was killed by a cluster submunition in 1999.[13] The court ruled that the state of Montenegro failed in its obligation to “protect and guarantee the safety of the citizens” when it failed to “warn the citizens about the immediate danger to life and safety and to properly control the area in the given circumstances”; those circumstances included the presence of cluster munitions following from bombing.[14]

In 2012, unemployment remained a serious problem for persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors. While there was a quota system that required employers to hire persons with disabilities, employers rarely did so, opting instead to make payment into the government fund for employment and professional rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.[15] The state disability allowance was found to be insufficient to promote inclusion in the community.[16]

Little progress was identified in the implementation of the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination of People with Disabilities (2011). Discrimination persisted, and despite legislation that required all new public buildings be made accessible to persons with disabilities, access remained a concern.[17]

Montenegro ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 2 November 2009.