Serbia

The Republic of Serbia has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even though it played an important role in the Oslo Process that produced the convention.

In September 2011, Serbian officials informed the CMC that Serbia’s accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions was being considered and said that Serbia would join “sooner than expected.”[1] In April 2012, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that no new developments were expected with respect to Serbia’s accession until at least the second half of 2012 due to elections held on 6 May 2012.[2] Previously, in February 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that accession to the convention was being considered.[3]

In August 2009, local media reported that the General Staff of the Serbian Army had made a recommendation to the National Security Council that Serbia not sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, thus stopping all further actions directed towards joining the convention. According to the media reports, Minister of Defense Dragan Šutanovac stated that the Army could not give up cluster munitions because it did not have the capacity to destroy and replace existing stockpiles.[4] Serbia played a leadership role throughout the Oslo Process, most notably by hosting a conference for states affected by cluster munitions in Belgrade in October 2007.[5] It actively participated in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text at the conclusion. However, Serbia attended the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 only as an observer, and did not at the time provide an explanation for not signing.

Serbia has engaged in some meetings of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It participated in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties in Beirut, Lebanon in September 2011 as an observer, and while it did not make any statements at the meeting, the Serbia delegation met with the CMC to discuss its views on joining the convention. Serbia did not attend intersessional meetings of the convention held in Geneva in June 2011 and April 2012.

Serbia attended a regional workshop on the implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Rakitje, Croatia in May 2012.

Civil society from Serbia, including cluster munition survivors, participated in the convention’s Second Meeting of States Parties and intersessional meetings and continue to advocate for Serbia to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.[6]

Serbia is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Serbia is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). Serbia attended the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference in Geneva in November 2011, but did not actively engage in the negotiations on the chair’s draft text of a CCW protocol on cluster munitions. The Review Conference ended without reaching agreement on the draft protocol and with no official proposals to continue negotiations in 2012, thus marking the end of the CCW’s work on cluster munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Cluster munitions were used by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) as well as ethnic militias and secessionist forces during the conflicts resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia starting in 1991. During the 1998–1999 conflict in Kosovo, aircraft from the Netherlands, United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) dropped cluster bombs in Serbia and Kosovo during the NATO air campaign.[7] During the Kosovo conflict, forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia also launched several cluster rocket attacks into border regions controlled by Albania.

In October 2007, Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić stated that Serbia was considering enacting a unilateral moratorium on the use of cluster munitions.[8] In February 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated the proposed moratorium was no longer being discussed as it falls under general discussions on joining the convention.[9]

On 6 July 2011, the Ministry of Defense stated that the “Republic of Serbia is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[10] In 2009, Serbia stated that it does not have the capacity to produce cluster munitions and has not produced cluster munitions since the dissolution of the SFRY.[11] According to standard reference works, Serbia was thought to have inherited some of those production capabilities.[12]

As of June 2012, a number of Serbian companies were advertising surface-to-surface rocket launchers, rockets, and artillery that could be used with either unitary warheads or submunitions.[13]

The Center for Weapons Testing of Serbia’s Ministry of Defense published an article describing a “very demanding testing” of Orkan rockets on 22 March 2011 at its Nikinci firing range, but it is not known if submunitions were used as Orkan rockets are capable of firing both cluster and unitary munitions.[14]

In February 2011, the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development informed the Monitor that it has no records in its database of any foreign trade involving cluster munitions in the period from 2005 to 2010.[15]

The precise size and composition of Serbia’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not known, but it is thought to be a large stockpile including air-delivered cluster bombs, ground-launched rockets, and artillery projectiles. Jane’s Information Group lists Serbia as possessing BL-755 cluster bombs.[16] Assuming Serbia’s stockpile contains cluster munitions that were produced by Yugoslavia, it may also possess 120mm M93 mortar projectiles (containing 23 KB-2 submunitions), 152mm 3-O-23 artillery projectiles (containing 63 KB-2 submunitions) and 262mm M87 Orkan surface-to-surface rockets (containing 288 KB-1 submunitions). KB submunitions are the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) type. It may also possess RAB-120 and KPT-150 cluster bombs.[17]