Policy

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia) acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 9 September 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. While it has not enacted new national implementation legislation, it has reported that prohibited activities are covered by existing criminal law.[1]

FYR Macedonia attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November-December 2011 and the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012.

In 2012, FYR Macedonia submitted its 11^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, covering the period from 1 January 2011 to 20 May 2012.[2]

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

FYR Macedonia has stated that it never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[3] It completed destruction of its stockpile of 38,921 antipersonnel mines on 20 February 2003, just ahead of the deadline mandated by the treaty. On 10 July 2006, FYR Macedonia destroyed the 4,000 antipersonnel mines that it had been retaining for research and training.[4]

In May 2011, FYR Macedonian army specialists discovered a small stockpile consisting of eight containers containing a total of 1,248 PFM-1S antipersonnel mines during efforts to determine what munitions needed to be destroyed in accordance with FYR Macedonia’s obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5] On 10 May 2011, the government of FYR Macedonia adopted Decision No. 48/3 which tasked the Ministry of Defense to destroy the munitions.[6] At the request of the Ministry of Defense, the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) visited the storage site to provide technical assistance in determining the most appropriate method of destruction.[7]

At the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties on 1 December 2011, FYR Macedonia stated that all mines “could be destroyed early in 2012 and in a relatively easy manner.”[8] On 10 May 2012, Macedonian army specialists in cooperation with the GICHD completed the destruction of the 1,248 newly discovered mines during destruction activities near Skopje.[9]

FYR Macedonia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. FYR Macedonia has never submitted its annual Amended Protocol II Article 13 report for Amended Protocol II.

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 8 October 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

FYR Macedonia has cited its ratification legislation under national implementation measures in its transparency reports.[1] It has stated in accordance with the Constitution, the Convention on Cluster Munitions became “an integral part of our domestic legislation” after ratification.[2]

FYR Macedonia submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 9 September 2011 and has provided updated reports ever since, most recently on 4 April 2014.[3]

FYR Macedonia participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[4] It has continued to actively engage in the work of the convention since 2008. FYR Macedonia has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. It has attended every intersessional meeting of the convention in Geneva, including in April 2014. FYR Macedonia also participated in a regional workshop on implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions and Mine Ban Treaty held in Croatia in April 2014.[5]

FYR Macedonia has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6]

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

Interpretative issues

During the negotiations of the convention, FYR Macedonia was supportive of the inclusion of provisions on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions), but said this was not an excuse for countries to continue to use, produce, and transfer cluster munitions.[7] In 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that the provisions on interoperability were of particular importance to FYR Macedonia as a direct participant in international military operations. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FYR Macedonia will warn international military forces that it does not accept the use of cluster munitions in operations that it participates in.[8]

In 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that in the event of the deployment of foreign military forces on the territory of FYR Macedonia, the government will inform them that it will not be possible to stockpile cluster munitions in FYR Macedonia.[9] In 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the Monitor that FYR Macedonia prohibits the transit of cluster munitions across its national territory.[10]

FYR Macedonia has yet to provide its views on the prohibition on investment in cluster munition production, another important issue for the interpretation and implementation of the convention.

Use, production, and transfer

FYR Macedonia has declared that it has not produced cluster munitions.[11] FYR Macedonia has stated it has not used cluster munitions.[12]

Stockpile destruction

After initially stating that it did not stockpile cluster munitions, FYR Macedonia announced in September 2011 that a stockpile of cluster munitions had been discovered at a military storage site.[13] It reported a stockpile of 1,000 M93 120mm bombs and 40,376 submunitions of two kinds (23,000 KB-2 submunitions and 17,376 AO-2.5RT submunitions contained in BKF cartridges).[14]  

Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions required that FYR Macedonia destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2018.

FYR Macedonia destroyed the last of its stockpile of cluster munitions at a munitions disposal site in Krivolak on 25 October 2013, years in advance of the deadline.[15] A total of 988 M93 120mm bombs and 1,438 AO 2.5 PT shipping containers containing 39,980 submunitions (22,724 KB-2 and 17,256 AO-2.5 RT submunitions) were disassembled and destroyed.[16]

The stockpile was destroyed by the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) over a nine-month project beginning in February 2013 with financial support provided by the Ministry of Defence and the governments of Germany and Norway.[17] The destruction process involved delaboration (disassembly) at the Erebrino military site and physical destruction through open burning and detonation at the Krivolak training area. FYR Macedonia reported that the destruction was performed in a way “not endangering the environment and to minimize the risk of contamination.”[18] In a presentation to the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2013, FYR Macedonia described the “self-help” process using an ammunition-destruction style of stockpile destruction,  known as “SHADOW,” and offered to share its experience with other countries.[19] FYR Macedonia is not retaining any cluster munitions for training or research purposes as permitted by Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[20]