Cuba
Mine Ban Policy
Mine ban policy overview
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
Not a State Party |
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Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record |
Abstained on Resolution 65/48 on 8 December 2010 |
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Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings |
Cuba did not attend any international meeting during 2010 or the first half of 2011 |
Policy
The Republic of Cuba has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Its policy has not evolved in recent years.
In 2009, Cuba told States Parties that antipersonnel mines continued to be an important part of its defense strategy, and that its mines sown around Guantanamo Bay were only for territorial defense and security.[1] In 2009, Cuba expressed support for the humanitarian aspects of the Mine Ban Treaty, but said it would only be able to consider a change in policy if the United States (US) were to sign a peace agreement or non-aggression agreement with Cuba.[2] In October 2010, Cuba said that it could not renounce the use of mines for the preservation of sovereignty and territorial integrity, due to “continuous hostility and aggression by the military superpower.”[3]
Cuba did not attend the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, or intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011.
Cuba is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but has not joined Amended Protocol II on landmines. It attended the protocol’s annual conference in November 2011 as an observer. In April 2011, Cuba opposed a proposal by Germany to include “mines other than antipersonnel mines” (antivehicle mines) on the agenda of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference.[4]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Cuba declined to provide details about mine use, production, transfer, and stockpiling in response to a questionnaire submitted by the Monitor.[5] Although it is not party to CCW Amended Protocol II, Cuba has stated that it complies with its requirements.[6] Cuba has also said it carries out “a strict policy with regard to guaranteeing a responsible use of antipersonnel mines with an exclusively defensive character and for [Cuba’s] national security.”[7]
Cuba’s state-owned Union of Military Industries (Unión de las Industrias Militares) is believed, in the absence of any denial or clarification from the government, to continue to produce antipersonnel mines.[8] Since 1996, Cuba has stated on several occasions that it does not and has never exported antipersonnel mines.[9] There is no official information available on the size and composition of Cuba’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines.[10]
[1] Statement by Miguel Jiménez Aday, Counselor, Embassy of Cuba in Colombia, Second Review Conference, Mine Ban Treaty, Cartagena, 4 December 2009. Notes by the Monitor. According to the US, the minefields were laid in 1983, immediately following the US invasion of Grenada. Joint Task Force Guantanamo, “A historical look at Guantanamo Bay and the Northeast Gate,” www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil.
[2] Notes from ICBL meeting with Amb. Rodolfo Benítez Versón, Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN in New York, 15 October 2009.
[3] “Cuba comparte plenamente las legítimas preocupaciones humanitarias asociadas al uso indiscriminado e irresponsible de las minas antipersonales. … Cuba ha estado sometida durante más de 50 años a une política de continua hostilidad y aggresión por parte de la superpotencia militar. En consecuencia, a nuestro país no le resulta posible renunciar al uso de las minas para la preservación de su soberanía e integridad territorial,” Statement of Cuba, UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee, New York, 27 October 2010.
[4] Statement of Cuba, CCW Group of Governmental Experts on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 28 March–1 April 2011. Notes by Action on Armed Violence.
[5] Email from Amb. Rodolfo Benítez Versón, Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN, 11 March 2011, noted that the questionnaire had been forwarded to Havana. Cuba has declined to provide updated information to the Monitor every year since 2003.
[6] Explanation of Vote of Cuba on the [UNGA] Draft Resolution L.53 [on the Mine Ban Treaty], UN General Assembly First Committee, New York, 29 October 2009.
[7] Statement by Rebeca Hernández Toledano, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN, “Item 29: Assistance in mine action,” UNGA Fourth Committee, New York, 6 November 2007, www.cubaminrex.
[8] Jane’s Information Group lists Cuba as producing three types of antipersonnel mines (a plastic blast mine and two types of stake-mounted fragmentation mines) as well as an antivehicle mine. Jane’s Mines and Mine Clearance 2008, CD-edition (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008). According to the US Department of Defense, Cuba has produced three different types of antipersonnel mines: PMFC-1 and PMFH-1 fragmentation mines and the PMM-1 wooden box mine. US Department of Defense, ORDATA Online, ordatamines.maic.jmu.edu.
[9] Letter from Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2003. Cuban antipersonnel mines have, however, been cleared by deminers in Angola and Nicaragua.
[10] One source has reported that Cuba stockpiles the Soviet-manufactured OZM-4, POMZ-2, and POMZ-2M mines, in addition to mines manufactured domestically. Online update, Jane’s Mines and Mine Clearance, 18 November 1999.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Cuba has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Cuba has never expressed support for the convention or given any indications that it is considering acceding.
In December 2013, a government representative told a regional workshop on the Convention on Cluster Munitions that Cuba has concerns with the way in which the treaty was negotiated outside of UN auspices, asked if the convention’s definition of cluster munitions prohibits all types of cluster munitions, and said the lack of consensus during the negotiations for the “interoperability” provisions in Article 21 of the convention on “Relations with States not party to this Convention” shows the “weakness” of the final text.[1]
At the workshop, Cuba said that it still does not have “a definitive position” on accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Cuba is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and while the representative again affirmed Cuba’s position “for a total prohibition” on cluster munitions, he emphasized that a ban must be adopted through the creation of a new CCW protocol. At the CCW review conference in November 2011, efforts to conclude a new protocol on cluster munitions failed.[2]
Cuba did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated as an observer in the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 and the Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut in September 2011, but did not make any statements.
Cuba did not attend any meetings of the convention in 2012, but in December 2013 participated in a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile, where it endorsed a declaration committing to join efforts that permit the early establishment of a cluster munitions-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean.[3]
Cuba has not condemned Syria’s use of cluster munitions.
Cuba is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Cuba is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. It has a stockpile of cluster munitions of Russian origin. Jane’s Information Group lists Cuba as possessing KMG-U dispensers that deploy submunitions, and RBK-250, RBK-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[4]
At the regional meeting held in December 2013, Cuba expressed concern at what it described as an “allegation” that it possesses a stockpile of cluster munitions, asked for the source of information concerning the stockpile and how it was verified, and said that Cuba has never confirmed or denied this information or made a declaration about its stockpile on cluster munitions.[5]
Cluster Munition Monitor stands by its finding that Cuba has stockpiled cluster munitions, which has been reported since the first Monitor report on the subject was issued in 2009.
[1] Statement of Cuba, Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, Chile, 12 December 2013. Notes by the CMC.
[2] See previous statements including statement of Cuba, CCW Annual Meeting of the High Contracting Parties, Geneva, 25 November 2010. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV); statement of Cuba, CCW Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 4 November 2008. Notes by Landmine Action; statement of Cuba, CCW Annual Meeting of the High Contracting Parties, Geneva, 12 November 2009. Notes by the CMC; and statement of Cuba, CCW GGE on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 12 April 2010. Notes by AOAV.
[3] “Santiago Declaration: Toward the early establishment of a Cluster Munitions Free Zone in Latin America and the Caribbean,” presented to the Conference by Christian Guillermet, Deputy Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva, in Santiago, 13 December 2013.
[4] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 837.
[5] Statement of Cuba, Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 12 December 2013. Notes by the CMC.
Mine Action
Contamination and Impact
The Republic of Cuba’s mine contamination remains unchanged from previous years. Cuban authorities maintain minefields around the US naval base at Guantánamo in the southeast of Cuba. In 2007, Cuba said it carries out “a strict policy with regard to guaranteeing a responsible use of antipersonnel mines with an exclusively defensive character and for [Cuba’s] national security.”[1] According to an earlier statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, existing minefields are duly “marked, fenced and guarded” in accordance with CCW Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[2] According to a book published in 2008, mines laid around the naval base detonate “at least once a month,”[3] but it has not been possible to independently confirm this claim.
Mine Action Program
There is no mine action program in Cuba. Cuba has not conducted any mine clearance in its minefields around the US naval base at Guantánamo over the last 10 years.
[1] Statement by Rebeca Hernández Toledano, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Cuba to the UN, “Item 29: Assistance in mine action,” UN General Assembly, Fourth Committee, New York, 6 November 2007.
[2] Statement of the Directorate of Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 19 June 2000.
[3] “The Cuban mines detonate at least once a month, sometimes starting fires that sweep across the fence line. [Staff Sergeant Kaveh Wooley of the US Marines]…described a fire that started the previous summer and turned into a giant cook-off, with about 30 mines exploding…” Daniel P. Erikson, Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution (USA, Bloomsbury, October 2008), pp. 196–7.
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties Overview
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All known casualties by end 2013 |
11 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties (2 killed; 9 injured) |
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Casualties in 2013 |
5 (2012: 0) |
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2013 casualties by outcome |
0 killed; 5 injured (2012: 0) |
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2013 casualties by device type |
5 ERW |
In 2013, one mine incident was reported in Puerto Padre. The incident resulted in severe injuries to a 48-year-old man who was attempting to dismantle an ERW in his home and sell it for scrap. The explosion also injured two other adults and two children.[1] Between 1999 and the end of 2013, the Monitor identified a total of 11 mine casualties (two persons killed and nine injured) in Cuba.
Cuba has a free and universal healthcare system. The Cuban Association of Physically Disabled Persons (Asociación Cubana de Limitados Físico-Motores, ACLIFIM) has provided a support network for persons with physical disabilities.[2] As of March 2013, it represented some 74,000 members.[3]
[1] “Explosión de artefacto militar olvidado causa heridas graves a varias personas en Puerto Padre” (“Explosion of a forgotten military artifact injures seriously several people in Puerto Padre”), Diario de Cuba, 18 December 2013, accessed 20 December 2013.
[2] ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada: July 2006).
[3] ACLIFIM, “ACLIFIM 5th Congress: 13-14 June 2013,” March 2013.