Tajikistan

Last Updated: 23 August 2014

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Policy

The Republic of Tajikistan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In December 2013, government representatives informed the CMC that due to a change in leadership the decision-making process on the matter of Tajikistan’s accession to the convention had to start again.[1] Representatives confirmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no objections to joining the treaty.

Tajikistan has said several times that it is studying its position on accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] In its last public statement on the convention, in September 2012 Tajikistan informed States Parties that the government was still considering its position on joining.[3] In September 2011, a representative said that full consideration of the convention had been delayed by a number of internal and organizational issues involving different ministries.[4]

Tajikistan participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and endorsed both the Oslo Declaration (committing to the conclusion of an international instrument banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians) and the Wellington Declaration (committing to negotiate a convention banning cluster munitions based on the Wellington draft text). However, Tajikistan did not participate in the formal negotiations of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, even as an observer, and did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[5]

Since 2008, Tajikistan has continued to engage in the Convention on Cluster Munitions despite not joining. Tajikistan 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. Tajikistan participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011 and 2012, but did not attend intersessional meetings in 2013 or April 2014.

Tajikistan is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Tajikistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling

Tajikistan has stated several times that it does not use, produce, transfer, or stockpile cluster munitions.[6]

Cluster munitions were used in Tajikistan during its civil war in the 1990s. ShOAB-0.5 and AO-2.5RT submunitions have been found in the town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley.[7] It is not known what forces used the weapons.

In May 2011, the Ministry of Defense said that Tajik forces had never used cluster munitions.[8] A representative of Tajikistan’s Ministry of Interior said that cluster munitions were used by Uzbek forces in the 1990s in Rasht Valley as well as Ramit Valley, but Tajik forces had no capacity to use the air-delivered cluster munitions.[9]

In 2011, the Ministry of Defense informed the CMC that a check of weapons stocks had not found any stockpiled cluster munitions and an official letter confirming no stockpiles of cluster munitions was sent to the Office of the President.[10]

 



[1] Meeting with the Tajikistan delegation to the Mine Ban Treaty Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, December 2013. Notes by the CMC.

[2] Statement of Tajikistan, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 8 June 2010; and statement of Tajikistan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. In May 2011, a CMC delegation visited Tajikistan and met with a range of government officials from the Office of the President, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, and the Ministry of Interior. ICBL-CMC, Report on Advocacy Mission to Tajikistan: 23–27 May 2011.

[3] Statement of Tajikistan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012.

[4] Interview with the delegation of Tajikistan to the Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 14 September 2011. Notes by the CMC.

[5] For details on Tajikistan’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. 244–245.

[6] Statement of Tajikistan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 11 September 2012; statement of Tajikistan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 18 April 2012; statement of Tajikistan, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011; statement of Tajikistan, International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Santiago, 8 June 2010. Notes by Action on Armed Violence/Human Rights Watch; and Letter No. 10-3 (5027) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tajikistan to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand, 22 April 2008.

[7] Tajikistan Mine Action Center, “Cluster munitions in Gharm,” undated, but reporting on an April 2007 assessment.

[8] CMC meeting with Gen. Maj. Abdukakhor Sattorov, Ministry of Defense, Dushanbe, 25 May 2011.

[9] CMC meeting with Col. Mahmad Shoev Khurshed Izatullovich, Commander of Special Militia AMON (SWAT) antiterrorist unit, Ministry of Interior, Dushanbe, 26 May 2011.

[10] CMC meeting with Gen. Maj. Sattorov, Ministry of Defense, Dushanbe, 25 May 2011.