Myanmar/Burma

The Union of Myanmar[1] has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Myanmar’s only participation in the diplomatic Oslo Process in 2007 and 2008 that produced the convention was at the the South East Asia Regional Conference in Xiengkhuang, Lao PDR in October 2008. The conference was aimed at promoting signature to the convention at the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.

More recently, Myanmar participated in the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.  Representatives from both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense attended.

At that meeting, Myanmar made its first notable public statement on cluster munitions. The Foreign Affairs official said the convention “is young but the threat is real,” and stated that although Myanmar had “not yet signed” the convention, “Myanmar criticizes the use of such weapons with indiscriminate area effect and which can cause humanitarian consequences.”[2]

The official went on to say, “Myanmar is currently paying attention in the study of this Treaty and its articles bearing in mind the national interests, so that necessary inputs for decision making would be sufficient, thus paving a path for the process of considerations and consultations among the relevant government agencies before the decision for signature or ratification.”[3]

He said that due to “common objectives...it is necessary for Myanmar to continue to participate in such future conferences” on the convention, and that “Myanmar congratulates the global and regional efforts in the prevention of atrocities caused by the use of cluster munitions and Myanmar stands ready to cooperate in ways possible… The momentum of this process would not have reached this level without the role of civil society and advocacy groups, our delegation congratulates them.”[4]

Myanmar did not subsequently attend the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010.

Myanmar is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In Bali, Myanmar also stated, “We do not use cluster munitions, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, nor assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited under this Convention.”[5]