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Greece
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Hellenic Republic (Greece) has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
In May 2012, a government official confirmed Greece’s hesitation over joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including its continued “strong belief” in the need to use cluster munitions for defense purposes, as well as concerns about the deadline and costs of stockpile destruction, plus the fact that other states from the region are not ready to sign.[1] In 2011, officials said that Greece was not in a position to accede due to national defense and financial reasons.[2]
Greece has long expressed its preference for cluster munitions to be addressed within the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).[3] In May 2012, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that despite the “regretful failure” of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference to conclude a new protocol on cluster munitions in November 2011, Greece continues to “believe that the CCW is the only forum in a position to include the most significant producers and users of cluster munitions in future negotiations, in which the delicate balance between military utility and humanitarian concerns should be respected.”[4]
Greece participated in two conferences of the Oslo Process that developed the convention text (Lima in May 2007 and Vienna in December 2007), but participated as an observer only in both the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in December 2008 and did not sign the convention.[5]
Since 2008, Greece has not participated in any meetings related to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It was invited to, but did not attend, the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011.
Greece is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Convention on Conventional Weapons
Greece is a party to the CCW and actively supported efforts to conclude a new CCW protocol on cluster munitions in 2011.
At the outset of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in Geneva in November 2011, Greece described the chair’s draft text as a “good basis” for the proposed CCW protocol on cluster munitions, which it said would “significantly contribute to addressing the uncontested humanitarian concerns that emerge from the unregulated use of cluster munitions.”[6]
The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol, and with no proposals for further negotiations, thus concluding the CCW’s work on cluster munitions. Following the failure, Greece said that it could not join the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but that it shares humanitarian concerns and is willing to prohibit the “most deadly” cluster munitions.[7]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Greece has stated it has never used cluster munitions.[8] Greece has produced, imported, and stockpiled the weapon. It is unclear if Greece has exported cluster munitions.[9]
In June 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that “the last production of cluster munitions in Greece was in 2001.”[10]
Hellenic Defence Systems S.A. (EBO-PYRKAL), also known as EAS, has produced two versions of the GRM-49 155mm artillery projectile with 49 dual purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM) submunitions and the 107mm high explosive/improved conventional munition (HE/ICM) GRM20 mortar projectile containing 20 DPICM.[11]
Greece has imported 203mm DPICM artillery projectiles, M26 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) rockets, and Rockeye bombs from the United States (US).[12] According to US export records, Greece also imported 4,008 CBU-55B cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[13] In June 2011, a Greek official informed the Monitor that Greece possesses 1,286 CBU-55B cluster bombs.[14]
Greece is the sole reported customer for the Autonomous Free Flight Dispenser System (AFDS), which disperses a variety of explosive submunitions, developed by General Dynamics (US) and LFK (Germany).[15] Jane’s Information Group lists Greece as also possessing BLG-66 Belouga and CBU-71 cluster bombs.[16]
In addition, Greece has imported DM-702 SMArt-155 sensor-fuzed munitions from Germany. These weapons contain two submunitions, but are not considered cluster munitions under the terms of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[17]
[1] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 1 May 2012; and CMC meeting with Eleftherios Kouvaritakis, First Counsellor Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York, 10 September 2008.
[2] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 14 June 2011.
[3] CMC meeting with George Petmezakis, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva, 15 April 2010; and CMC meeting with Eleftherios Kouvaritakis, Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in New York, 10 September 2008.
[4] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 1 May 2012.
[5] For details on Greece’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 207–208. In 2011, Wikileaks released seven US Department of State cables dated from March 2007 to November 2008 showing how the US engaged with Greece during the Oslo Process. One cable from December 2007 states, “Greece further shares USG concerns that there are provisions being considered within the Oslo Process that could have a significant impact on military cooperation between countries that adopt such requirements related to cluster munitions and those that do not.” See, “Cluster munitions: Greece shares U.S. concerns,” US Department of State cable dated 12 December 2007, released by Wikileaks on 20 May 2011, http://www.cablegatesearch.net/cable.php?id=07ATHENS2347&q=cluster%20munitions.
[6] Statement of Greece, CCW Fourth Review Conference, Geneva, 14 November 2011, http://www.eas.gr/.
[7] Statement of Greece, CCW Fourth Review Conference, Geneva, 24 November 2011. Notes by AOAV and HRW.
[8] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 1 May 2012.
[9] A UN explosive ordnance disposal team in the area of Melhadega in Eritrea identified and destroyed a dud M20G DPICM grenade of Greek origin in October 2004. UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea Mine Action Coordination Center, “Weekly Update,” Asmara, 4 October 2004, p. 4.
[10] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 14 June 2011.
[11] Hellenic Defence Systems S.A., “Our Products,” www.eas.gr. The Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (Pyrkal) was merged into EAS in 2004.
[12] The US sent 50,000 M509 203mm projectiles to Greece in 1996 under the Excess Defense Article program. Each M509A1 contains 180 M42/M46 DPICM. US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, “Excess Defense Articles,” www.dsca.osd. For the M26, see US Defense Security Cooperation Agency news release, “Greece – M26A2 MLRS Extended Range Rocket Pods,” Transmittal No. 06–47, 29 September 2006. For Rockeye bombs, see Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[13] US Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970-FY1995,” November 15, 1995, obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, November 28, 1995.
[14] Email from Yannis Mallikourtis, Permanent Mission of Greece in Geneva, 14 June 2011.
[15] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), pp. 365–367.
[16] Ibid., p. 839. The Belouga was produced by France, and the CBU-71 was produced by the US.
[17] Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), p. 668. Greece may also have imported DPICM artillery projectiles from Germany.
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