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Iraq
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Iraq signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 12 November 2009.
In June 2011, Iraqi government representatives informed the CMC that ratification was awaiting parliamentary approval amid a range of urgent issues.[1] In early November 2010, Iraq informed the CMC that ratification had been delayed following elections held in March 2010, but said ratification would be undertaken once a new government was formed.[2] The new government was established on 11 November 2010. Iraq has stated that it continues to implement the convention even though it has not yet ratified.[3]
Iraq participated in some meetings of the Oslo Process that created the convention, but attended both the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 as an observer.[4] In December 2008, Iraq pledged to sign the convention as soon as possible after completing national and constitutional processes.[5] It subsequently signed the convention at the UN in New York in November 2009, becoming the 103rd country to join.
Iraq has continued to engage in the work of the convention. It attended the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010, but didn’t make any statements. Iraq also participated in the convention’s first intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011.
The Iraqi Alliance for Disability and other civil society groups have campaigned in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[6]
Iraq is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Iraq is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. It has participated as an observer in CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in recent years, but has not made its views known on the draft chair’s text.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Iraq may have used cluster munitions in the past. According to one source, Iraq used air-dropped cluster bombs against Iranian troops in 1984 during their border war.[7]
Coalition forces used large numbers of cluster munitions in Iraq in 1991 and 2003. The United States (US), France, and the United Kingdom (UK) dropped 61,000 cluster bombs containing some 20 million submunitions on Iraq and Kuwait in 1991. The number of cluster munitions delivered by surface-launched artillery and rocket systems is not known, but an estimated 30 million or more dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions were used in the conflict.[8] During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 million to 2 million submunitions.[9]
In May 2011, Iraq stated that “There are no facilities that produce cluster munitions in Iraq.”[10] Prior to 2003, Iraq produced two types of cluster bombs: the NAAMAN-250 and NAAMAN-500.[11] It was also involved in joint development of the M87 Orkan (known in Iraq as Ababil) with Yugoslavia.[12]
Iraq imported ASTROS cluster munition rockets from Brazil.[13] Jane’s Information Group has listed it as possessing KMG-U dispensers (which deploy submunitions) and CB-470, RBK-250, RBK-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs.[14] The current status of the stockpile is not known, although in May 2011, Iraq stated “The Iraqi Army does not possess any stockpiles of cluster munitions at the present time.”[15]
In June 2011, Iraq stated that its Civil Defense team had destroyed 20,819 “cluster items” from 2009–2010, and the Ministry of Defense had destroyed 6,265 “cluster items” in 2010.[16]
Cluster munition remnants
The precise extent of cluster munition remnants in Iraq is unknown, but believed to be significant. According to a 2009 report by UNDP and UNICEF, the main highway between Kuwait and Basra was heavily targeted by cluster bomb strikes during the 1991 Gulf War.[17] Cluster munitions were also used extensively during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, particularly around Basra, Nasiriyah, and the approaches to Baghdad. In 2004, Iraq’s National Mine Action Authority identified 2,200 sites of cluster munition contamination along the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys.[18] Cluster munitions remnants are a feature of many of the clearance tasks being undertaken to open up access to oilfields and develop infrastructure, as well as for humanitarian clearance.[19]
Mines Advisory Group (MAG) has also found cluster munition remnants in the Iraqi Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Coalition forces launched cluster strikes around Dohuk in 1991 to support a Kurdish uprising against the government and left contamination that has posed a serious hazard to residents seeking to return to the area.[20] In 2010, a MAG survey of Dibis, an area northwest of Kirkuk, identified 20 previously unknown cluster strikes with contamination from unexploded BLU-97 and BLU-63 submunitions.[21]
Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas
Political uncertainties continue to hinder management of the mine action sector and formulation of a coherent national strategy.[22] As a result, comprehensive data on clearance operations does not exist. However, international and national companies, including G4S, Taaz Group, Arabian Gulf, and al-Safsafa, are undertaking commercial clearance tasks that encounter cluster munition remnants.
In the humanitarian sector, MAG deployed a mine action team to cluster munition clearance in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2010, which resulted in the clearance of 2.1km2 of land and the destruction of 1,255 unexploded submunitions.[23] In southern Iraq, Danish Demining Group (DDG), whose operations are based in Basra, cleared 8.3km2 of battle area in 2010 destroying 1,008 unexploded submunitions in the process.[24]
Iraq stated in a letter to the Monitor in May 2011 that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense has formed a committee to conduct operations throughout the country to detect and discard unexploded cluster bombs that remain from past armed conflicts.[25]
Casualties
In 2010, a deminer was killed during a clearance accident caused by a cluster submunition in Duhok, northern Iraq.[26]
By the end of 2010, there had been at least 388 cluster munition casualties during strikes (128 killed; 260 injured). Another 1,672 casualties of cluster munition remnants were reported (747 killed; 921 injured; four unknown) and unexploded submunitions caused another 935 casualties with no further details on use (411 killed; 507 injured; 17 unknown).[27] However, due to the level of contamination, it is estimated that there have been between 5,500 and 8,000 casualties from cluster munitions since 1991, including casualties that occurred during cluster munition strikes, and that children made up one quarter of these casualties.[28]
[1] Meeting with Iraqi delegation, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 29 June 2011. Notes by the CMC.
[2] Meeting with Amb. Faris Abdulkarim Zarawi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, Vientiane, 10 November 2010.
[3] Statement of Iraq, First Meeting of States Parties, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Vientiane, 9 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[4] For details on Iraq’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. 211–212.
[5] Statement of Iraq, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[6] Campaigners celebrated the convention’s 1 August 2010 entry into force with a drumming event in Baghdad that was attended by government officials and the media. CMC, “Entry into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions Report: 1 August 2010,” November 2010, p. 20.
[7] Anthony H. Cordesman and Abraham R. Wagner, Lessons of Modern War Volume II: The Iran-Iraq War (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1990), p. 210. The bombs were reportedly produced by Chile.
[8] Colin King, “Explosive Remnants of War: A Study on Submunitions and other Unexploded Ordnance,” commissioned by the ICRC, August 2000, p. 16, citing: Donald Kennedy and William Kincheloe, “Steel Rain: Submunitions,” U.S. Army Journal, January 1993.
[9] Human Rights Watch, Off Target: The Conduct of the War and Civilian Casualties in Iraq (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2003).
[10] “Steps taken by the designated Iraqi authorities with regard to Iraq’s ratification and implementation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” document provided with letter to Human Rights Watch Arms Division from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the UN in New York, 11 May 2011.
[11] Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, Issue 24, July 1996. These are copies of Chilean cluster bombs.
[12] Terry J. Gandler and Charles Q. Cutshaw, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2001–2002 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2001), p. 641.
[13] Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne, “Scandals: Not Just a Bank, You can get anything you want through B.C.C.I.—guns, planes, even nuclear-weapons technology,” Time, 2 September 1991.
[14] Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, Issue 24, July 1996, p. 840. The Iraq Ordnance Identification Guide produced for Coalition Forces also lists the Alpha submunition contained in the South African produced CB-470 as a threat present in Iraq. James Madison University Mine Action Information Center, “Iraq Ordnance Identification Guide, Dispenser, Cluster and Launcher,” January 2004, p. 6, maic.jmu.edu. The KMG-U and RBKs were likely produced in the Soviet Union.
[15] “Steps taken by the designated Iraqi authorities with regard to Iraq’s ratification and implementation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” document provided with letter to Human Rights Watch Arms Division from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the UN in New York, 11 May 2011.
[16] Presentation by Iraq, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meeting, Session on Clearance and Risk Reduction, Geneva, 28 June 2011, www.clusterconvention.org.
[17] UNICEF/UNDP, “Overview of Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War in Iraq,” June 2009, p. 10.
[18] Landmine Action, “Explosive remnants of war and mines other than anti-personnel mines,” London, March 2005, p. 86.
[19] Telephone interview with Kent Paulusson, Senior Mine Action Advisor for Iraq, UNDP, 28 July 2011.
[20] Zana Kaka, “IRAQ: Saving lives of returnees in Dohuk,” MAG, 28 May 2010, www.maginternational.org.
[21] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Mark Thompson, Country Programme Manager, MAG, 23 July 2011.
[22] Telephone interview with Kent Paulusson, UNDP, 28 July 2011.
[23] MAG response to Monitor questionnaire, received by email from Mark Thompson, MAG, 23 July 2011.
[24] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Elina Dibirova, Community Liaison/MRE Advisor, DDG Iraq, 28 July 2011.
[25] “Steps taken by the designated Iraqi authorities with regard to Iraq’s ratification and implementation on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” document provided with letter to Human Rights Watch Arms Division from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the UN in New York, 11 May 2011.
[26] Mudhafar Aziz Hamad, Mine Victim Assistance Manager, Iraqi Kurdistan Mine Action Agency (IKMAA), 14 June 2011.
[27] 2,989 to April 2007; 4 in 2008; 1 in 2009; and 1 in 2010. Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities, (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 104; Monitor analysis of casualty data provided by email from Mohammed Rasoul, KORD, 2 August 2010; Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2009), Form J, casualties for Erbil and Dohuk governorates only; and email from Mudhafar Aziz Hamad, IKMAA, 14 June 2011.
[28] HI, Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 104; and UNDP, “Cluster Munitions Maim and Kill Iraqis–Every Day,” 9 November 2010, www.iq.undp.org.
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