Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 7 September 2010. It became a State Party on 1 March 2011.

National legislative measures to implement and enforce the Convention on Cluster Munitions are being considered.[1] In September 2012, BiH described draft demining legislation as “fully complementary with the Convention on Cluster Munitions.”[2]

BiH submitted its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 20 August 2011 and an annual updated report on 4 May 2012. As of 15 July 2013, it had not submitted its annual updated report for 2012, which was due by 30 April 2013.[3]

BiH actively participated throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, making strong contributions based on its experience as a country affected by cluster munitions and declaring a national moratorium on cluster munition use prior to the conclusion of the process.[4]

BiH continued to engage in the work of the convention in 2012 and the first half of 2013. It attended the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012 and the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, where it made statements on its clearance and victim assistance efforts. BiH participated in a regional workshop on implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions held in Skopje, FYR Macedonia on 13–16 May 2013.

Together with Afghanistan, BiH served as co-coordinator on victim assistance in 2012 and 2013. At the intersessional meetings in April 2013, a cluster munition survivor on the BiH delegation helped to co-facilitate a technical workshop on victim assistance, and BiH gave further updates on its clearance and risk reduction work.[5]

BiH has not made a national statement to express its concern at Syria’s use of cluster munitions, but voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on 15 May 2013 that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of…cluster munitions.”[6]

Landmine Survivors Initiatives, the CMC’s BiH member, held an event on 1 August 2012 to commemorate the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]

Interpretive issues

In July 2011, the director of the department of conventional weapons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the ministry’s views on a number of issues important for the interpretation and implementation of the convention. On the prohibition on assistance with prohibited acts during joint military operations or “interoperability,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that, “under the same Article 21, para 3, we may engage in joint military operations with non-states Parties that might engage in activities prohibited by the Convention, however our personnel or nationals should not provide assistance with activities prohibited by the Convention.”[8]

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the “transit of cluster munitions across, or foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions on, the national territory of States Parties is prohibited by the Convention.”[9] The ministry, however, noted that it does not have “access to or information on weapon types” stockpiled in European Union Force (EUFOR) military bases “on our territory.”[10] In May 2013, a Ministry of Defense official said the Ministry has not inquired about the status of any foreign cluster munitions stored on EUFOR military bases in BiH.[11]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also stated that it considers “investment in the production of cluster munitions to be prohibited.”[12]

BiH is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Yugoslav forces and non-state armed groups used available stocks of cluster munitions during the 1992–1995 war. The various entity armies inherited cluster munitions during the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In its initial Article 7 report, BiH declared, “There are no production facilities for CM [Cluster Munitions] in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”[13]

BiH has acknowledged that it produced cluster munitions for a period of 11 years and stated in 2007 that production had ceased.[14] BiH produced KB-1 and KB-2 submunitions for the Orkan multi-barrel rocket system, artillery projectiles, and mortar bombs.[15] The production capacity included the ability to manufacture KB-series submunitions and integrate them into carrier munitions such as artillery projectiles and rockets.[16] According to Jane’s Information Group, the Ministry of Defense has produced the 262mm M-87 Orkan rocket, with each rocket containing 288 KB-1 dual-purpose submunitions.[17] Jane’s also lists BiH Armed Forces as possessing KPT-150 dispensers (which deploy submunitions) for aircraft.[18]

Stockpiling

BiH once possessed a stockpile of 445 cluster munitions and 148,059 submunitions.[19] This includes four M-93 120mm mortar projectiles containing 92 submunitions that were discovered after the 2011 completion of stockpile destruction.[20]

Cluster munitions stockpiled by BiH[21]

Destruction

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, BiH is required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2019.

At the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2012, BiH announced, that “We have fulfilled all obligations relating to Article 3” of the Convention on Cluster Munitions “by destroying all known and reported stocks of cluster munitions in 2011.”[22]

Almost all of the BiH stockpile of cluster munitions was destroyed in 2011, a total of 441 cluster munitions and 147,967 submunitions. From August to December 2011, three types of stockpiled cluster munitions and their submunitions were destroyed: 52 M-93 120mm mortar bombs, 56 M-87 262mm rockets, and 321 BL-755 bombs.[23] From 20 May to 30 June 2011, BiH destroyed 12 M-87 Orkan 262mm rockets and 74,721 KB-1 submunitions.[24]

In April 2012, BiH informed States Parties that four M-93 120mm mortar bombs containing 92 submunitions discovered after the 2011 stockpile destruction would be “destroyed accordingly.”[25] In May 2013, the Ministry of Defense informed the CMC that the destruction was approved, but the cluster munitions had not been destroyed yet.[26]

Retention

BiH has formally declared that it will not retain any cluster munitions for research or training purposes as permitted by Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Both Article 7 reports state that “Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina are not planning to keep in possession the cluster munitions that will be intended for the purpose of training and education.”[27]