Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Chile signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 16 December 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 June 2011.

Under national implementation measures, Chile has declared its 2010 ratification law and draft victim assistance legislation. It has also reported that the Ministry of National Defense is establishing a body “to centralize, coordinate and execute the operational and administrative tasks” required by the convention.[1]

Chile submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions in September 2012 and provided an updated annual report in September 2013.[2]

Chile participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and was a strong advocate for the most comprehensive convention possible.[3]

Chile has continued to engage actively in the work of the convention since 2008, hosting an international conference on the convention in Santiago in June 2010 and regional conferences in December 2013 and September 2009.

Chile has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of State Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, where made a general statement. Chile also attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014, where it made statements on universalization as well as cooperation and assistance.

Chile hosted the Santiago Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions on 12–13 December 2013, attended by representatives from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states, including non-signatories Argentina, Belize, Cuba, Saint Lucia, and the United States (US). Members of the CMC from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, and Venezuela also participated in the meeting. States attending the workshop adopted the “Santiago Declaration,” which calls for “joint action to ensure the protection of civilians through the prohibition and total eradication of cluster munitions.”[4] Elements of a regional action plan for a cluster munition-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean were also discussed at the meeting.[5]

Chile has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munition, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6] As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Chile endorsed Security Council Resolution 2155 on 27 May 2014, which expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan and called for “all parties to refrain from similar such use in the future.”[7]

Chile has not yet provided its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

During the Oslo Process, Chile was not in favor of including language on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions) in the convention.[8] In 2012, a Ministry of National Defense official informed the Monitor that the convention’s Article 21 language does not prevent Chile from conducting military training exercises with states not party, but emphasized that Chile would require that states participating in exercises not use cluster munitions in the exercises (and would communicate this requirement via a written order sent to officials involved).[9]

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

Use, production, and transfer

Chile is not known to have used cluster munitions in a conflict situation. In 2011, the Ministry of National Defense informed the Monitor that Chile stopped using cluster munitions in training exercises in 2008.[10]

During the Oslo Process in September 2007, Chile stated that it no longer produced cluster munitions and did not intend to produce the weapon in the future.[11] In the past, Industrias Cardeon SA and Los Conquistadores 1700 were reported to have produced at least eight types of air-dropped cluster bombs: CB-130 bomb, CB-250K bomb, CB-500 bomb, CB-500K bomb, CB-500K2 bomb, CB-770 bomb, WB-250F bomb, and WB-500F bomb.[12]

In the initial Article 7 report, Chile indicated that information in the section on measures taken to dismantle its cluster munition production facilities was in the process of being verified.[13] It stated that when the time the report was filed, it was not possible to present a complete accounting of “models manufactured, their total amount or destination of transfer.”[14] The updated report provided in September 2013 provides no additional information on past production or transfer of cluster munitions.

However, in 2012 Chile’s Ministry of National Defense provided the Monitor with a detailed accounting of Chile’s past transfers of cluster munitions. One document shown to the Monitor details Chilean exports of cluster munitions in the period from 1991 to 2001 to the following five countries:[15]

·         Brazil in 1999 and 2001 (various types);

·         Colombia in 1994 (55 250kg cluster bombs, four air-dropped 250kg cluster bombs, and one fin stabilizer for a CB-250kg cluster bomb) and in 1997 (132 250kg cluster bombs);

·         Turkey in 1996 (four CB-250 cluster bombs);

·         United Arab Emirates in 1998 (four “empty” [vacías] CB-500kg cluster bombs and two CB-500 cluster bombs filled with lead shot);

·         US in 1991 (one 250kg cluster bomb and one 500kg cluster bomb).

In a May 2012 document provided to the Monitor, the director-general of National Mobilization, Brigadier General Roberto Ziegele Kerber, stated that there were “no other applications or new exports authorizations for these devices” after the year 2001.[16] This data accounts for cluster munitions exported from Chile in the period after 1980, but it does not provide any information on exports in period from 1980–1991.[17]

PM-1 combined-effect submunitions delivered by bombs produced in Chile have been found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Sudan.[18] Colombia reported the destruction of its stockpile of 41 Chilean CB-250K bombs in March 2009.[19] A number of CB-250 bombs were found in the arsenal of Iraq by UN weapons inspectors, who noted that the bombs had been modified by Iraq to deliver chemical weapons in the submunitions.[20]

Stockpile destruction

In its initial Article 7 report provided in 2012, Chile declared a stockpile of 249 LARS-160 surface-launched rockets equipped with MkII cluster munition warheads containing 25,896 submunitions.[21]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chile was required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control no later than 1 June 2019.

At the convention’s Fourth Meeting on States Parties on 11 September 2013, Chile announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions and in “the spirit of cooperation that guides the convention” offered to share its experience and provide technical assistance to countries requesting support for their stockpile destruction efforts.[22]

Chile provided the Fourth Meeting on States Parties with a detailed presentation on the destruction of its stockpile that was carried out by the Army’s Fabrica y Maestranza del Ejercito (FAMAE) in Arica Parinacota in the north of the country.[23] According to the Article 7 report provided September 2013, the stockpile was destroyed between 17 June and 12 July 2013.[24] The Minister of Defense has signed a decree certifying that the inventories of the Chilean Army no longer hold cluster munitions.[25] In both the presentation and 2013 Article 7 report, Chile details the step-by-step process used to destroy the stockpile by demilitarization, including dismantling various components and destroying the submunitions by controlled detonation.

In previous years, Chile destroyed other stocks of cluster munitions. According to a Chilean Air Force document dated 23 June 2009, “the air force originally had 48 cluster munitions in stockpile in 2003 of which 42 cluster munitions were consumed for training purposes at sites in the north of Chile in 2007, two more cluster munitions were consumed in 2008, and the remaining four cluster munitions were consumed in 2009.[26]  

Retention

Chile has declared the retention of 12 CBK-250 cluster munitions and 240 inert PM-1 submunitions for research and training purposes. The reports list the locations where the munitions are stored.[27]