Morocco
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 |
Voted in favor of Resolution 65/48 in December 2010, as in the previous six years |
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Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings |
Attended as an observer the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in November–December 2010; provided a voluntary Article 7 report; announced that it has no stockpile of antipersonnel mines. |
Policy
The Kingdom of Morocco has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Officials have repeatedly stated that the dispute over Western Sahara is the only obstacle preventing Morocco from acceding.[1]
In its statement to the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2010, Morocco expressed its support for the humanitarian objectives of the treaty, and reiterated that it voluntarily implements the treaty’s provisions including by submitting Article 7 reports on a voluntary basis and by conducting activities such as demining, stockpile destruction, risk education, and victim assistance.[2] In a March 2011 letter to the Monitor, Morocco affirmed that it “applies de facto the Convention obligations and fully and unconditionally aligns itself with its principles and objectives, especially those of IHL [international humanitarian law].”[3] Morocco made a similar statement at the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011 and in the explanation of its positive vote in October 2010 on the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty.[4]
Morocco submitted a voluntary annual Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report dated April 2011 covering the period 30 March 2010 to 30 March 2011. It has provided four previous voluntary reports.[5]
Morocco is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It submitted its annual report required by Article 13 of the protocol. Morocco is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Use, stockpiling, production, transfer, and retention
Morocco has acknowledged the use of mines in the past, most notably at the berms (defensive earthen walls) it built from 1982 to 1987 to secure the northwest corner of Western Sahara. There have been no confirmed instances of mine use since that time.[6]
In May 2009 Morocco replied in the negative to a Monitor questionnaire inquiry about whether Morocco reserves the right to use antipersonnel mines in the future.[7] Morocco also stated that it stopped using and stockpiling antipersonnel mines in 1987 and that it has never produced antipersonnel mines.[8] In June 2011 Morocco informed States Parties that it no longer has a stockpile of antipersonnel mines.[9]
Morocco has said on several occasions that it has never exported antipersonnel mines and that it stopped importing them prior to entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty in March 1999.[10]
In June 2011 Morocco informed States Parties that it does not retain live mines, and it uses inert mines for training.[11] Previously, in May 2009, Morocco told States Parties that it still possessed antipersonnel mines that were used for training its army for participation in peacekeeping operations.[12] However, in its Article 7 report submitted in April 2009, Morocco reported that the mines used for training were “inert.”[13]
[1] Statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 June 2011; interview with Gen. Ben Elias, Royal Moroccan Army, and the two generals heading the second and third military zones, Agadir, 27 October 2008; interview with Nasser Bourita, Director, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Rabat, 29 October 2008; and Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN, “Response to Questions from the Canadian NGO Mines Action Canada,” 18 May 2009.
[2] Statement of Morocco, Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 29 November 2010.
[3] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Amb. Omar Hilale, Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN in Geneva, 28 March 2011.
[4] Statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 25 May 2009; and fax from the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN in New York, “Explanation of Vote on draft resolution A/C.1/64/L.53, 29 October 2009,” 9 November 2009. It also voted in favor of the final UNGA Resolution 64/56 on 2 December 2009.
[5] Previous reports were submitted in June 2010 for the period from April 2009 to April 2010, April 2009 for calendar year 2008, April 2008 for calendar year 2007, and August 2006 for the period from September 2005 to September 2006. Morocco has omitted Form B on stockpiled antipersonnel mines in all submissions. In May 2009 it told the Monitor that it does not include Form B because it has no stocks. Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN, “Response to Questions from the Canadian NGO Mines Action Canada,” 18 May 2009.
[6] The government of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguía el Hamra and Río de Oro (Polisario) have periodically traded accusations of new mine use, but both have denied it. See Landmine Monitor Report 2009, p. 1,023.
[7] Permanent Mission of Morocco to the UN, “Response to Questions from the Canadian NGO Mines Action Canada,” 18 May 2009.
[8] Ibid. It also said this in, statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 25 May 2009. In July 2006, Morocco told the Monitor that it stopped using antipersonnel mines at the time of the Western Sahara cease-fire in 1991, and that it no longer stockpiled antipersonnel mines, except for training purposes. Response to Monitor questionnaire by Morocco, July 2006.
[9] Statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 June 2011. Notes by the Monitor.
[10] For example, interview with the Moroccan delegation to the Eighth Meeting of States Parties, Dead Sea, 19 November 2007.
[11] Statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 20 June 2011. Notes by the Monitor.
[12] Statement of Morocco, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 25 May 2009. Morocco also said it only kept mines for training in 2006 and 2007. Response to Monitor questionnaire by Morocco, July 2006; and statement of Morocco, Addressing the Human Costs of Anti-personnel Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War, Seminar for States of the Maghreb, Tunis, Tunisia, 9–10 September 2007.
[13] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form D, April 2009.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Kingdom of Morocco has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Morocco’s position on joining the convention has not changed since March 2011, when it expressed support for the humanitarian principles of the convention, but informed the Monitor that it views the country’s accession as “a strategic objective…that will be achieved once security imperatives related to the protection of its southern provinces disappear.”[1]
In 2010, an official stated that the government was studying the Convention on Cluster Munitions and, until a final decision was reached, Morocco would continue with the same policy approach that it uses regarding the Mine Ban Treaty.[2] Moroccan officials have repeatedly stated that the dispute over Western Sahara is the only obstacle preventing Morocco from acceding to the Mine Ban Treaty. Morocco has also said that it “applies de facto” the Mine Ban Treaty’s “obligations and fully and unconditionally aligns itself with its principles and objectives.”[3] Similarly, in September 2011, Morocco emphasized that for the Convention on Cluster Munitions “de facto universality is as fundamental as de jure universality.”[4]
Morocco participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, but did not sign the convention.[5]
Morocco has engaged in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite not joining. It has participated as an observer in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Morocco has attended all intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva since 2011, including those held in April 2014.
Morocco has voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s cluster munition use, 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]
Morocco is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Morocco is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling
In March 2011, Morocco stated that it has never produced or transferred cluster munitions.[7] In September 2011, a representative of Morocco told the Monitor that it did not use, import, export, or stockpile cluster munitions during the previous year.[8]
Moroccan forces have imported and used cluster munitions in the past. Moroccan forces used artillery-fired and air-dropped cluster munitions against the Polisario Front in the disputed territory of Western Sahara during their conflict from 1975–1988. Between 1980 and 1981, the Royal Moroccan Air Force conducted attacks on Akka, Guelta Zemmour, Hausa, and Messeid using French-made cluster bombs.[9] In March 1982, the Royal Moroccan Air Force attacked the Bu-Crag area with cluster bombs supplied by the United States (US).[10]
The British NGO Action on Armed Violence (formerly Landmine Action) has reported significant contamination in Western Sahara from US-made CBU-71 cluster bombs with BLU-63 submunitions and from US-made M483A1 155mm artillery projectiles with M42 and M46 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions.[11]
There are also remnants of cluster munitions in neighboring Mauritania of the same types used by Morocco in Western Sahara. It is unclear when the cluster munition attacks took place.
The current status and composition of Morocco’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not known. Between 1970 and 1995, the US transferred to Morocco 2,994 CBU-52, 1,752 CBU-58, 748 CBU-71, and 850 Rockeye cluster bombs.[12] Combined, those cluster bombs contained nearly 2.5 million submunitions.
Morocco also possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[13]
[1] “A l’instar de sa politique vis à vis de la Convention sur les Mines antipersonnel, l’adhésion du Royaume du Maroc à la CCM constitue un objectif stratégique qui sera réalisé dès la disparition des impératifs sécuritaires liés à la protection de ses provinces du Sud.” Letter from Amb. Omar Hilale, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Morocco to the UN in Geneva, to Mary Wareham, Senior Advisor, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 28 March 2011.
[2] Interview with Amb. Fardani El-Houcine, Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Vietnam, in Vientiane, 10 November 2010.
[3] “Kingdom of Morocco’s Position in regards to the CCM: Main points,” statement attached to letter from Amb. Hilale, to Mary Wareham, HRW, 28 March 2011.
[4] “En effet, l'universalité de facto est aussi fondamentale que l'universalité de jure.” Statement of Morocco, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.
[5] For details on Morocco’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 221–223.
[6] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Morocco voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[7] “Kingdom of Morocco’s Position in regards to the CCM: Main points,” statement attached to letter from Amb. Hilale, to Mary Wareham, HRW, 28 March 2011.
[8] Interview with Amb. Hilale, in Beirut, 13 September 2011.
[9] Lt.-Col. David Dean, “The Air Force Role in Low-Intensity Conflict,” United States (US) Air Force, Air University Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education, 1986, p. 45. Undated photographs of Royal Moroccan Air Force Mirage aircraft on static display with its weaponry clearly show BLG-66 Belouga bombs.
[10] Ibid., p. 70.
[11] Landmine Action, “Explosive Ordnance Disposal and technical survey in Polisario-controlled areas of Western Sahara,” Project proposal, February 2006, p. 4; email from Simon Conway, Director, Landmine Action, 3 May 2006; and Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 134, citing email from Capt. Muhammad Aimaar Iqbal, UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, Western Sahara, 19 April 2007.
[12] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” 15 November 1995, obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.
[13] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 323; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2008, CD-edition, 3 December 2007 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
Mine Action
Contamination and Impact
The Kingdom of Morocco remains significantly affected by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), especially in territory under its control in Western Sahara, on the west side of the berm.[1] Its contamination is largely a result of the conflict between the Royal Moroccan Army (RMA) and Polisario Front forces over Western Sahara. Morocco has pledged to clear minefields it has laid as soon as the conflict is over.[2]
The exact extent of contamination is not known, though according to Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), “the areas surrounding the Berm are believed to be some of the most heavily mined in the world.”[3] In the past, Morocco declared, highly improbably, that a total of 120,000km2 of area was contaminated.[4] A separate report exists on contamination and clearance in Western Sahara east of the berm.[5]
In its most recent voluntary Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report, Morocco identified 10 areas as having been mined by the Polisario Front since 1975: Bir Anzarane, Douiek, Gerret Auchfaght, Gor Lbard, Gor Zalagat, Hagounia, Idiriya, Imlili, Itgui, and Tarf Mhkinza.[6] The area of Glibat Jadiane, which had been listed as contaminated in earlier years, is no longer included on the list of mined areas.[7]
Mine Action Program
Morocco does not have a national mine action authority or a mine action center.
Morocco initiated major demining efforts in 2007, following an increase in the number of mine accidents. The RMA conducts land release activities manually. In 2010, Morocco declared it has employed 10,000 deminers, although only 400 detectors were at their disposal at that time.[8] This raised serious questions both about the procedures being used and the accuracy of clearance figures being reported. Morocco has not adopted national mine action legislation or standards, but reported, most recently in April 2013, that “normal safety and environmental protection standards have been followed.”[9]
The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) coordinates mine action activities with both parties to the conflict. In this respect, MINURSO Mine Action Coordination Centre organized meetings in 2012 with the RMA and the Polisario Front on information sharing, demining methodologies, risk education, and victim assistance.[10]
Land Release
The UN Secretary-General reported that, between April 2013 and March 2014, the RMA “cleared” more than 259km2, destroying in the process 1,542 items of explosive ordnance, including antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, as well as unexploded ordnance (UXO).[11] Morocco reported clearing a total of 220km2 in 2012, destroying 509 antipersonnel mines, 1,678 antivehicle mines, and 3,271 items of UXO.[12]
According to voluntary Article 7 reports submitted by Morocco since 2008, the RMA cleared approximately 2,270km2 between January 2007 and December 2012.[13] At the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, Morocco claimed that 3,928km2 had been “cleared” between January 2007 and October 2013.[14] These figures must describe primarily land release by means other than physical clearance.
Support for Mine Action
No information is publicly available on Morocco’s funding of its mine action operations.
[1] The Berm refers to the defensive wall built by Morocco between 1982 and 1987 to secure the northwestern corner of Western Sahara. It is constituted of earthen walls some three meters in height. Morocco controls the area located on the west side of the Berm.
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form C, April 2013.
[3] AOAV, “Making life safer for the people of Western Sahara,” London, August 2011.
[4] Statement of Morocco, Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention, Geneva, 25 May 2009.
[6] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form C, April 2013.
[7] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form C, April 2011.
[8] Statement of Morocco, Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention, Geneva, 23 June 2010.
[9] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form F, April 2013.
[10] Report of the UN Secretary-General on Western Sahara, UN doc. S/2013/220, 8 April 2013.
[11] Report of the UN Secretary-General on Western Sahara, UN doc. S/2014/258, 10 April 2014.
[12] Mine Ban Treaty Voluntary Article 7 Report, Form F, April 2013.
[14] Statement of Morocco, Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 2 December 2013.
Casualties and Victim Assistance
Casualties
In 2013, no new mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties were identified in the Kingdom of Morocco. No casualties were identified in 2012 and three mine/ERW casualties were identified in 2011.[1] Before the casualties reported in 2011, the last mine/ERW casualties recorded in Morocco occurred in 2008.[2] Casualties that occurred in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara were recorded in 2013.[3]
The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Morocco is not known. Morocco reported a total of 2,536 mine/ERW casualties (831 persons killed; 1,705 injured) from 1975 to the end of 2012.[4] No information was provided as to whether these casualties occurred in Morocco or in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.[5]
Morocco reported having government programs to provide for the economic and social reintegration of landmine survivors.[6]
Morocco ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in April 2009.
[1] “Un mort et un blessé dans une explosion à Assa Zag” (“One dead and one injured in antivehicle mine blast in Assa Zag”), Bladi.net, 14 November 2011; and “Un américain meurt dans l’explosion d’une mine au sud du Maroc” (“One American killed in antivehicle mine explosion in south Morocco”), Bladi.net, 26 October 2011, accessed 31 March 2012.
[2] Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor analysis of casualty data provided by email from Tammy Hall, Senior Technical Advisor, UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (Mission des Nations Unies pour l'organisation d'un référendum au Sahara occidental, MINURSO) Mine Action Coordination Centre, 29 June 2009.
[4] Statement of Morocco, Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration, Geneva, 23 May 2012; and Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2012), Form I.
[5] Statement of Morocco, Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Meeting on Victim Assistance, Geneva, 23 May 2012. For more information on casualties and victim assistance in Western Sahara see the Western Sahara area profile for 2011–2012 on the Monitor website.
[6] Statement of Morocco, Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Meeting on Victim Assistance, Geneva, 24 May 2012.