Congo, Republic of
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
In April 2014, Congo stated that the bill authorizing ratification of the convention had been considered by both houses of parliament and could be voted on during the current parliamentary session.[1] In February 2014, an official confirmed that the bill had passed its first reading in the National Assembly and was awaiting a second reading. The legislation requires Senate approval before it is signed into law by the president.[2] Congolese officials have provided regular updates on the status of ratification, which has been in progress since 2010.[3]
In September 2013, a Congolese official informed the CMC that the government will consider draft implementation legislation for the convention after ratification is completed.[4] Previously, in May 2013, a government official informed the Monitor that Congo intended to amend its existing implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty to include cluster munitions, but a decision would be taken after ratification.[5]
Congo attended several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008.[6]
Congo has continued to engage in the work of the convention since 2008. It has participated in all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties, including the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Congo attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and in April 2014. A Congolese representative attended a workshop in Geneva on the universalization of the convention for African diplomatic missions to the UN in Geneva in February 2014.
At the UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee on Disarmament and International Security in October 2013, Congo described the use of cluster munitions in Syria as a matter of “deep concern.”[7]
Congo is party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Interpretive issues
In May 2013, Congo expressed its views on several issues important for the interpretation and implementation of the convention. Congo’s National Mine Action Focal Point informed the Monitor that Congo “is not willing to assist any country with prohibited acts” under the convention, nor “to use its national territory for transit of these weapons or the stockpiling of cluster munitions and landmines belonging to a foreign army.”[8] In June 2013, the official informed the Monitor that Congo agreed with the views of a number of States Parties to the convention and of the CMC that investment in the production of cluster munitions is also prohibited by the convention.[9]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Congo has stated that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions.[10] Congo has stated on a number of occasions that it has no stockpiles of cluster munitions on its territory, including for training or research purposes.[11]
Congo reported in 2010 that it had stockpiles of Soviet cluster munitions that were supplied for use with MIG-21 aircraft.[12] In September 2011, Congo stated that following the bombing of a central arms depot in Maya-Maya during the 1997–1998 conflict, explosive weapons consisting mainly of Soviet OFAB unitary aircraft bombs, RBK-250 and RBK-500 cluster bombs, mortars, artillery shells, and C-250 rockets were dispersed over an area of more than 0.26km2, making the territory inaccessible for the local population. After the end of the conflict, the area was abandoned without being marked.[13] After an accident in May 2011, a demining unit of the Congolese Armed Forces cleared the depot site in cooperation with humanitarian demining NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG), destroying unexploded ordnance (UXO) including PTAB-2.5M and AO-1SCh submunitions.[14]
Cluster munitions were not found among unexploded ordnance resulting from a disastrous series of explosions at a munitions storage depot in Brazzaville on 4 March 2012 that killed more than 200 people and injured more than 1,500.[15] Congo has reported that measures have been taken to relocate military facilities away from civilian areas.[16]
[1] Statement of the Republic of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meeting, Geneva, 7 April 2014.
[2] Statement of the Republic of Congo, Meeting of African Diplomatic Missions in Geneva on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 24 February 2014. Summary and notes by UNDP and CMC.
[3] See, for example, statement of the Republic of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013; statement of the Republic of Congo, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV); statement of the Republic of Congo, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, 28 May 2012. Notes by the CMC; Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs meeting with Col. Saba Bernard, Advisor, Ministry of Defense, and Commander Kissambou Makanga, Attaché for International Humanitarian Law, Ministry of Defense, Brazzaville, 20 March 2012; and meeting with Cdr. Makanga, Ministry of Defense, Brazzaville, 1 April 2012.
[4] CMC meeting with Gen. Philippe Longonda, Coordonnateur des Questions Stratégiques au Ministère des Affaires étrangères et de la Coopération (Coordinator of Strategic Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation), Convention on Cluster Munitions Fourth Meeting of States Parties, Lusaka, 11 September 2013.
[5] Statement by Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, Seminar to mark the 20th Anniversary of the ICBL hosted by the Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs, Kinshasa, 19 December 2012; and interview with Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, 13 May 2013.
[6] For details on Congo’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 61–62.
[7] Statement of Amb. Raymond Serge Balé, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Congo to the UN in New York, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 14 October 2013.
[8] Interview with Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, 13 May 2013.
[9] Telephone interview with Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, 8 June 2013.
[10] Statement of the Republic of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011.
[11] In September 2011, Congo declared that it had no stockpiles of cluster munitions on its territory. In May 2013, Congo reported that it had destroyed its remaining 372 antipersonnel mines held for training and research purposes following the massive explosions in a weapons depot in Brazzaville in March 2012 and was now a country fully free of landmines and cluster munitions. Statement of the Republic of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011; statement by Col. Nkoua, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines, Seminar to mark the 20th Anniversary of the ICBL hosted by the Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs, Kinshasa, 19 December 2012; and statement of the Republic of Congo, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by AOAV.
[12] Email from Lt.-Col. André Pampile Serge Oyobe, Head of Information Division, Ministry of Defense, 13 July 2010.
[13] Statement of the Republic of Congo, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011.
[14] Ibid. Cluster munitions were also apparently part of weapons stockpiles destroyed in 2008–2010 with the assistance of United Kingdom-based humanitarian demining organization MAG. Email from Lt.-Col. Oyobe, Ministry of Defense, 13 July 2010.
[15] Cluster munitions were not found among the UXO or other stockpiled munitions in the depot. Simon Conway, “Mpila Munitions Depot Explosion, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, Field Assessment 26 March 2012 – 1 April 2012;” AOAV and MAG, “Brazzaville Response Situation Report 2,” 16 March 2012.
[16] Statement of the Republic of Congo, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by AOAV.