Malaysia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
Malaysia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Malaysia has acknowledged the humanitarian rationale behind the ban convention and since 2010 has been considering its position on joining.[1] Malaysia last made a statement on the matter in September 2012, when a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties that the government was “in consultation with relevant stakeholders with the view to studying the possibility of Malaysia acceding to the Convention.” This repeated a statement made to the previous Meeting of States Parties in September 2011 that described the consultations as “a continuous and on-going process.” Both the 2011 and 2012 statements concluded, “we hope Malaysia will be able to join the Convention in the near future.”[2]
Malaysia fully participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention and expressed its support for a complete prohibition on cluster munitions without exceptions. It joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text at the end of the Dublin negotiations in May 2008, but did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[3]
Malaysia has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has attended every meeting of the convention’s States Parties as an observer, except for the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Malaysia participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2014 and June 2011, but did not make any statements.
Malaysia has voted in favor of 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.”[4]
Malaysia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In September 2011, a government official said that Malaysia does not use or produce cluster munitions.[5]
It is uncertain if Malaysia has a stockpile.[6] Officials have neither confirmed nor denied the existence of a stockpile of cluster munitions.[7]
Malaysia possesses Brazilian-made ASTROS rocket launchers, but it is not known if this includes ammunition containing submunitions.[8] It is also reported to possess the Hydra-70 air-to-surface unguided rocket system, but it is not known if the ammunition types available to it include the M261 Multi-Purpose Submunition rocket.[9]
[1] Since 2010, government officials have stated that Malaysia is in the process of formulating its policy toward the convention. In May 2012, a Ministry of Defense spokesperson restated that Malaysia is in the process of formulating its policy toward the convention. Interview with Col. Shamsirudin Mohd Shariff, Principal Assistant Secretary, Policy Division, Ministry of Defense, in Geneva, 25 May 2012. In March 2010, another Ministry of Defense spokesperson told the Monitor that Malaysia was in the process of formulating its policy toward the convention. Interview with Col. Abdul Rahim Sebeli, Principal Assistant Secretary, Policy Division, Ministry of Defense, Kuala Lumpur, 12 March 2010.
[2] Statement of Malaysia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012. See also statement by Mr. Raja Reza Raja Zaib Shah, Undersecretary for Multilateral Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Head of Malaysian Delegation, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011.
[3] For details on Malaysia’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2010, see ICBL, Cluster Munition Monitor 2010 (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2010), p. 227.
[4] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Malaysia voted in support of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.
[5] CMC side meeting with delegates from Southeast Asia, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 15 September 2011. Notes by the CMC.
[6] On 18 March 2009, Human Rights Watch (HRW) wrote to the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs asking for clarification on whether or not Malaysia possessed a stockpile of cluster munitions. The letter noted that a news article in Berita Harian Online included an undated photo of a member of the Royal Malaysian Air Force with a CB-250K cluster bomb produced by Chile. The accompanying caption indicated that the soldier was offering an explanation of the weapon’s function and suggests the weapon is part of the air force’s arsenal. HRW did not receive a response. However, Malaysian officials told the Monitor in March 2010 that a reply had been sent to HRW, stating that the cluster bomb in the photo was only a mock version.
[7] Interview with Ministry of Defense officials, Kuala Lumpur, 12 March 2010. One official noted that he had previously asked a CMC campaigner why Malaysia was not on the CMC list of countries that stockpile cluster munitions.
[8] Brazil, UN Register of Conventional Arms, Submission for Calendar Year 2002, 28 April 2004. Brazil reported the transfer of 12 launch units and the Arms Transfers Database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute notes that the US$300 million deal was signed in 2007 and deliveries began in 2009; and Brazil, UN Register of Conventional Arms, Submission for Calendar Year 2009, 7 June 2010. In this report Brazil reports the transfer of one ASTROS launcher.
[9] Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).