Greece
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Hellenic Republic (Greece) has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Greece has provided various reasons for why it is not in a position to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including its “strong belief” about the need to use cluster munitions for defense purposes, concerns about the convention’s stockpile destruction deadline and related costs, and the position of other states in the region.[1]
Greece is also party to Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and supported efforts to conclude a draft CCW protocol on cluster munitions, which ultimately failed in 2011, ending the CCW’s deliberations on cluster munitions and leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole multilateral instrument to specifically address the weapons.[2] Despite this, Greece has repeated its preference for cluster munitions to be addressed through the CCW.[3] In an April 2014 letter responding to a Monitor request for an update on Greece’s position on joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Greece stands ready to engage on cluster munitions “within the UN framework.”[4] In October 2013, Greece said it “continues to believe that the CCW remains the most appropriate forum for the discussion on a Protocol on [c]luster munitions.”[5]
Greece participated in two conferences of the Oslo Process that developed the convention text (Lima in May 2007 and Vienna in December 2007), but attended the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 only as an observer and did not sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions when it was opened for signature in December 2008.[6]
Greece has never participated in a meeting of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even as an observer. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013.
Greece 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.”[7]
Greece is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Greece has stated that it has never used cluster munitions.[8] In December 2013, a Greek defense blog reported on procurement efforts to modernize the Greek Armed Forces’ multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) that it said have been “a subject of intense debate in the General Staff which is required to select and implement a solution within a global binding environment that is required by international treaty to ban cluster munitions.”[9]
Greece has produced, imported, and stockpiled cluster munitions, but it is not clear if Greece ever exported cluster munitions.[10] In 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that “the last production of cluster munitions in Greece was in 2001.”[11]
Hellenic Defence Systems S.A. (EBO-PYRKAL), also known as EAS, has produced two versions of the GRM-49 155mm artillery projectile with 49 dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) submunitions and the 107mm high explosive/improved conventional munition (HE/ICM) GRM-20 mortar projectile containing 20 DPICM. As of July 2013, the company’s website listed both weapons as produced “in the past.”[12]
Greece has imported from the United States (US) 203mm DPICM artillery projectiles, M26 multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) rockets, and Rockeye bombs.[13] According to US export records, Greece also imported 4,008 CBU-55B cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[14] In 2011, a Greek official informed the Monitor that Greece possesses 1,286 CBU-55B cluster bombs.[15]
Greece is the sole reported customer for the Autonomous Free Flight Dispenser System (AFDS), which disperses a variety of explosive submunitions, developed in the past by General Dynamics (US) and LFK (Germany).[16] Jane’s Information Group lists Greece as also possessing BLG-66 Belouga and CBU-71 cluster bombs.[17]
Greece has imported DM-702 SMArt-155 sensor-fuzed munitions from Germany. These weapons contain two submunitions but are not considered cluster munitions under the terms of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[18]
[1] Emails from Yannis Mallikourtis, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva, 1 May 2012, and 14 June 2011; and CMC meeting with Eleftherios Kouvaritakis, First Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York, New York, 10 September 2008.
[2] On 24 June 2014, the legislation package for Greece’s ratification of CCW Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War was introduced into parliament.
[3] Letter No. 6162.3/23/AS 682 from Alexandros Alexandris, Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva to Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 26 April 2013; and email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 1 May 2012.
[4] Letter from Amb. Dimitris Chronopoulos, Director, D1 Directorate for UN & International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Mary Wareham, Advocacy Director, HRW, 29 April 2014.
[5] Statement by Amb. M. Spinellis, Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN, UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security, New York, 68th Session, 29 October 2013.
[6] For details on Greece’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. 207–208. In 2011, Wikileaks released seven United States (US) Department of State cables dated from March 2007 to November 2008 showing how the US engaged with Greece during the Oslo Process. One cable from December 2007 states, “Greece further shares USG concerns that there are provisions being considered within the Oslo Process that could have a significant impact on military cooperation between countries that adopt such requirements related to cluster munitions and those that do not.” See “Cluster munitions: Greece shares U.S. concerns,” US Department of State cable dated 12 December 2007, released by Wikileaks on 20 May 2011.
[7] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Greece voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[8] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva, 1 May 2012.
[9] The article was prepared in cooperation with the Athens-based Institute for Security and Defense Analyses. See “US-German ‘battle’ for Greek MLRS,” Defence Point, 19 December 2013.
[10] A UN explosive ordnance disposal team in Melhadega, Eritrea identified and destroyed a failed M20G dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunition of Greek origin in October 2004. UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea Mine Action Coordination Center, “Weekly Update,” Asmara, 4 October 2004, p. 4.
[11] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva, 14 June 2011.
[12] Hellenic Defence Systems S.A., “Our Products,” accessed 20 July 2013. The Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (Pyrkal) was merged into EAS in 2004.
[13] The US sent 50,000 M509 203mm projectiles to Greece in 1996 under the Excess Defense Article program. Each M509A1 contains 180 M42/M46 DPICM. US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “Excess Defense Articles.” For the M26, see US Defense Security Cooperation Agency news release, “Greece – M26A2 MLRS Extended Range Rocket Pods,” Transmittal No. 06–47, 29 September 2006. For Rockeye bombs, see Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[14] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–Y1995,” 15 November 1995, obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.
[15] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva, 14 June 2011.
[16] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), pp. 365–367.
[17] Ibid., p. 839. The Belouga was produced by France and the CBU-71 was produced by the US.
[18] Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), p. 668. Greece may also have imported DPICM artillery projectiles from Germany.