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

In a statement to the convention’s First Meeting of States Parties in November 2010, Vietnam’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pham Binh Minh, welcomed the humanitarian goals of the convention, but said that some of its obligations “create difficulty for implementation.” He cited two particular concerns: 1. That the convention places “responsibility for solving the cluster munition problem with victim states while the international cooperation and assistance mechanisms have not been specified,” and 2. That it will take Vietnam “decades, if not a couple of centuries” to complete clearance in affected areas while the convention requires that states “complete in ten years with an extension of not more than five years.”[1]

In October 2010, Vietnam’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York expressed the same concerns in a meeting with CMC representatives. He said Vietnam was not in a position to join the convention because, in his view, it puts the obligation to clear “exclusively” on affected countries and only “encourages” other states to support and assist. The representative said that Vietnam first wants to see how Lao PDR benefits from being a party to the convention.[2]

Vietnam has expressed its full support for the humanitarian aims of the convention on several occasions.[3] It has often expressed concern that important producers and stockpilers of cluster munitions have not joined the convention.[4]

During a May 2010 visit to Vietnam, the CMC met with senior government officials and reported that the government was studying a number of issues to address concerns relating to the convention through an interministerial policy review process led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with engagement by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs.[5] As of May 2011, this policy review was believed to be continuing, but no timetable was available for its completion.

Vietnam participated in two of the international Oslo Process diplomatic conferences to develop the convention text, but attended the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 as an observer.[6] Vietnam has continued to participate in meetings related to the convention. It attended a regional conference in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009 and an international conference in Santiago, Chile in June 2010. Vietnam sent a large high-level observer delegation to the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010 and also attended intersessional meetings in Geneva in June 2011.

At the First Meeting of States Parties, Vietnam commended the “important” effort made by the CMC to mobilize support for the convention as well as the clearance work conducted in Vietnam over the years by NGOs.[7]

Local NGOs have undertaken a number of activities in support of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8] In October 2010, a public exhibition of cluster munition photographs by John Rodsted was held at the Hanoi Cinematheque.[9]

Vietnam is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Vietnam is also not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), but it attended a CCW meeting in November 2010 as an observer and made a statement stating that it “fully supports” the CCW and would ratify “when conditions permit.”[10] Vietnam has not provided its view on the CCW deliberations to negotiate an agreement on cluster munitions.

Vietnam is not believed to have ever used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions. It is not clear if it possesses a stockpile. Some officials have said that Vietnam does not have a stockpile, but others have been less than certain.[11] Vietnam’s May 2010 position paper states that foreign reports show that Vietnam has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[12]

Cluster Munition Remnants

The US scattered a total of 413,130 tons (4.1 million kg) of submunitions over Vietnam between 1965 and 1973, striking 55 of its 64 provinces and cities, including Haiphong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, and Vinh. Vietnam’s Military Engineering Command has recorded finding 15 types of US-made submunitions.[13] Most submunition types used by the US were air delivered, but artillery-delivered submunitions were used in three provinces: Quang Binh, Quang Nam, and Thua-Thien Hue.[14] There is no reliable figure for the amount of contamination remaining, although the extent of the threat remains vast.

The Military Engineering Command has also encountered substantial amounts of cluster munitions abandoned by the US military, notably at or around old US air bases, including eight underground bunkers found in 2009, one of them covering an area of 4,000m² and containing some 25 tons of munitions.[15]

Clearance of cluster munition remnants

Vietnam does not report in detail on its clearance of cluster munition remnants. In 2010, international NGO operators reported destroying a total of 2,848 submunitions in the course of battle area clearance operations.[16]

Cluster munition casualties

In 2010, 11 casualties from unexploded submunitions were recorded in Vietnam.[17] However it is likely that more casualties occur annually as there was no national casualty data collection system in Vietnam and the information available was not comprehensive. At least 2,111 casualties from incidents involving unexploded submunitions were reported as of the end of 2010.[18] However, one estimate put the likely total of such casualties at over 34,000.[19] In addition, numerous casualties occurring from cluster munitions strikes have been reported.[20]