Suriname
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Suriname signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 23 May 2002, becoming a State Party on 1 November 2002. Suriname imported but never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. An estimated 1,000 mines were planted during a 1986–1992 internal conflict. It has not enacted new legislation specifically to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. Suriname submitted its sixth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 30 April 2008 but has not submitted subsequent annual reports.
Suriname destroyed its stockpile of 146 antipersonnel mines on 25 February 2004, and retained 150 antipersonnel mines for training purposes. Suriname noted in its Article 7 report for 2007 that it did not have any antipersonnel mines retained.
Suriname did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in 2010 or the first half of 2011.
Suriname is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Mine clearance was completed on 4 April 2005, well in advance of Suriname’s 1 November 2012 mine clearance deadline. Suriname is affected by explosive remnants of war, primarily abandoned explosive ordnance.
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Suriname has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Suriname is believed to be actively preparing to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In April 2013, it announced that the accession process had started with the delivery of draft ratification legislation and an explanatory memorandum to the executive board of ministers for approval.[1]
Since 2009, Suriname has expressed its intention to join the convention at some point in the near future.[2] In September 2012, a government representative said that discussions on the process of joining the convention are “frequently held in Suriname” stating that representatives from the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have met to discuss the matter.[3] Suriname took part in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the convention (Vienna in December 2007), but did not participate in the Dublin negotiations or the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008. It attended a regional conference on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in September 2009.
Suriname participated as an observer in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011, but did not make any statements and did not attend any subsequent meetings held in 2012, 2013, or the first half of 2014.
At the First Committee on Disarmament and International Security of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in October 2013, Suriname delivered a statement on behalf of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in which UNASUR member states reiterated their support to the efforts of the international community to “significantly reduce the humanitarian, social and economic consequences” of cluster munitions and welcomed Bolivia’s ratification to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in April 2013.[4]
Suriname has not made a statement on Syria’s use of cluster munitions.
Suriname is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It has not joined the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In April 2013, Suriname stated that it has not produced, used, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[5]
[1] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meeting, Geneva, 16 April 2013.
[2] CMC, “Update on the Fourth Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, Chile, 14–15 September 2009,” 14 September 2009.
[3] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.
[4] Statement of UNASUR, First Committee 68th Session of the UNGA, New York, 18 October 2013.
[5] Statement of Suriname, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meeting, Geneva, 16 April 2013.