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Kazakhstan
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of Kazakhstan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Kazakhstan’s most recent official statement on the issue was made in an April 2013 letter that repeated a statement made in previous letters sent in August 2010, April 2011, and April 2012, that “Kazakhstan highly values the humanitarian focus of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but at this stage does not consider its possible accession to the Convention.”[1] In all its correspondence with the Monitor Kazakhstan has stated, “We proceed from the point that cluster munitions as weapons are not prohibited under international humanitarian law. Each State shall determine on the feasibility and timing of accession according to the interests of national security and their own economic potential.”[2]
Kazakhstan participated in meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer, but made no statements.[3] Kazakhstan attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2012 and April 2013, but did not make any statements. This was its first participation in a meeting of the convention since 2008. Kazakhstan did not participate in the convention’s April 2014 intersessional meetings or the Fourth Meeting of State Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013.
Kazakhstan is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Kazakhstan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. Kazakhstan has stated that it does not “produce and does not intend to produce and acquire cluster munitions in the medium term.”[4]Kazakhstan has also stated that it “cannot be a source of proliferation of cluster munitions” because it has “an effective system of export control of arms.”[5]
Kazakhstan inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union, but has not made a public declaration regarding its cluster munition stockpiles. Jane’s Information Group reports that RBK-500 cluster bombs are in service with the country’s air force.[6] It also possesses Grad 122mm and Uragan 220mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[7]
Kazakhstan ordered from Israel in 2007, and received in 2008–2009, a total of 50 Extra surface-to-surface missiles for its Lynx-type launchers.[8] According to the product information sheet available from its manufacturer, the Extra missile can have either a unitary or submunition warhead.[9] It is not known which variant Kazakhstan acquired.
[1] Letter No. 10-2/1570 from A. Tanalinov, Head, Division of International Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 2013; Letter No. 457 from Akan Rakhmetullin, Deputy Permanent Representative, Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN, 17 April 2012; Letter No. 86 from Murat Nurtileuov, Minister-Counselor, Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the UN Office in Geneva, 12 April 2012; Letter No. 10-2/1744 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2011; and Letter No. 10-2/2176 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 August 2010. Given the lack of change in the government’s position towards the convention, Cluster Munition Monitor did not send a research letter of inquiry to Kazakhstan in 2014.
[2] Letter No. 10-2/1570 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 2013; Letter No. 457 from Akan Rakhmetullin, Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN, 17 April 2012; Letter No. 86 from Murat Nurtileuov, Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the UN Office in Geneva, 12 April 2012; Letter No. 10-2/1744 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2011; and Letter No. 10-2/2176 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 August 2010.
[3] See Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 216.
[4] Letter No. 10-2/1570 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 2013; Letter No. 457 from Akan Rakhmetullin, Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN, 17 April 2012; Letter No. 86 from Murat Nurtileuov, Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the UN Office in Geneva, 12 April 2012; Letter No. 10-2/1744 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2011; and Letter No. 10-2/2176 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 August 2010.
[5] Letter No. 10-2/1570 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 15 April 2013; Letter No. 457 from Akan Rakhmetullin, Mission of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the UN, 17 April 2012; Letter No. 86 from Murat Nurtileuov, Permanent Mission of Kazakhstan to the UN Office in Geneva, 12 April 2012; Letter No. 10-2/1744 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2011; and Letter No. 10-2/2176 from A. Tanalinov, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1 August 2010.
[6] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 841.
[7] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 249.
[8] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, “Arms Transfers Database.” Recipient report for Kazakhstan for the period 1950–2011, generated on 4 May 2012.
[9] Israel Military Industries, “Product Information Sheet: Extra Extended Range Artillery,” p. 2, undated.
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