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Serbia

Last Updated: 20 January 2015

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

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.

Serbia has expressed support for the humanitarian objectives of the convention, but the Ministry of Defense has expressed a number of concerns with respect to the question of Serbia’s accession to the convention.

In a 15 August 2013 letter to Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) member Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Serbia “will continue to be engaged” on the matter because “[a]s representatives of a state whose citizens had been injured and killed by cluster munitions in the course of the armed conflict – with the tragic consequences of this use still present – this presents not just an international legal obligation for us, but also our moral duty.” The letter emphasized the convention’s importance in introducing “new international values and standards in regard of the development, production, possession, use, and stockpiling of this inhumane and dangerous weapon” but did not articulate Serbia’s views on accession.[1]

In a 19 August 2013 letter to the CMC and Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, the Ministry of Defense affirmed that cluster munitions are “a part of the weaponry and the equipment necessary for the execution of the missions and tasks” and said the army “has no replacement for this type of munition. Therefore it is not acceptable to risk a reduction of the level of operational capacity of the army, which would be an imminent consequence of the decision to accede to the convention.” The Ministry of Defense said that “long-term modernization plans” include “the acquisition of modern weapons systems and equipment which would replace cluster munitions” but said procurement “has been significantly slowed down” by “the negative effects of the financial crisis.” The letter also expressed concern that a number of countries remain outside the convention.[2] Previously in 2012, senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials informed the CMC that the ministry remains supportive of Serbia’s accession to the convention.[3] In 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative informed the CMC that Serbia’s accession to the convention was being considered and said that Serbia would join “sooner than expected.”[4]

Serbia played a leadership role throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 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, at the time, did not provide an explanation for not signing. In 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 toward joining the convention.[6]

Despite not acceding, Serbia has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011 and 2012, but did not attend the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Serbia participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2013 and April 2014, but did not make any statements. Serbia was the only non-signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions to participate in a Regional Arms Control Verification and Implementation Assistance Centre (RACVIAC) Centre for Security Cooperation workshop on the Convention on Cluster Munitions held during a mine action symposium in Zadar, Croatia on 22-26 April 2014.[7]

Civil society from Serbia, including cluster munition survivors continue to participate in the convention’s meetings and advocate for Serbia to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.

Serbia voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munitions, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[8]

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

Use

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, the United Kingdom, and the United States (US) dropped cluster bombs in Serbia and Kosovo during the NATO air campaign.[9] During the Kosovo conflict, forces of the SFRY also launched several cluster rocket attacks into border regions controlled by Albania.

In 2007, Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić stated that Serbia was considering enacting a unilateral moratorium on the use of cluster munitions.[10] In 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.[11]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2011, the Ministry of Defense stated that the “Republic of Serbia is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[12] 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.[13] According to standard reference works, Serbia was thought to have inherited some of those production capabilities.[14] A number of Serbian companies have advertised surface-to-surface rocket launchers, rockets, and artillery that could be used with either unitary warheads or submunitions.[15]

In 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.[16]

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 BL755 cluster bombs.[17] Assuming Serbia’s stockpile contains cluster munitions that were produced by the SFRY, 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.[18]

In August 2013, the Ministry of Defense stated that “the Army of Serbia has taken steps to recall from operational use a part of its cluster munitions stockpile and initiate its disposal” after “taking into consideration the ban on use, the shelf life of cluster munitions, and the limited capacity of the military industry overhaul facilities for repairs and enhancement.”[19]

(Profile last updated August 2014)

 



[1] Letter from Amb. Miomir Udovicki, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, 15 August 2013. Translation by Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia.

[2] It highlighted non-signatories “US, China, Russia, India, Israel, Turkey, Finland, Greece, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Argentina and Brazil.” Letter from Miroslav Janovic, Assistant Minister for Defense Policy, Sector for Defense Policy Department for Strategic Planning, Ministry of Defense to the CMC and Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, “Response by the Ministry of Defense in connection to the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” no. 335-7, 19 August 2013. Translation by Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia.

[3] CMC meeting with Branka Latinović, Head of Arms Control Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Zoran Vujić, Head of the Department of Security Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012.

[4] CMC meeting with Zoran Vujić, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011.

[5] For more details on Serbia’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 236–238.

[6] Minister of Defense Dragan Šutanovać reportedly stated that the Army could not give up cluster munitions because it did not have the capacity to destroy and replace existing stockpiles. “Kasetna municija nenadoknadiva” (“Cluster munitions indispensable”), B92, 27 August 2009.

[7] The workshop was attended by six governments from the Southeast Europe region; Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, as well as Spain attended also attended. RACVIAC, “Symposium on Mine Action,” 22-26 April 2014. Serbia participated in a similar RACVIAC workshop held in 2013 in Skopje, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in May 2013. See RACVIAC, “Workshop on the Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, 13–16 May 2013, Skopje, MK,” undated.

[8]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013. Serbia voted in favor of a similar resolution on 15 May 2013.

[9] Human Rights Watch, “Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign,” Vol. 12, No. 1(D), February 2000; Norwegian People's Aid, “Yellow Killers: The Impact of Cluster Munitions in Serbia and Montenegro,” 2007; and Norwegian People's Aid, “Report on the Impact of Unexploded Cluster Munitions in Serbia,” January 2009.

[10] “Cluster Bomb Conference in Belgrade,” B92 (Belgrade), 3 October 2007.

[11] Email from Zoran Vujić, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 February 2011.

[12] Letter from the Public Relations Department, Ministry of Defense, 6 July 2011.

[13] Letter No. 235/1 from Dr. Slobodan Vukcević, Permanent Mission of Serbia to the UN in Geneva, 9 February 2009.

[14] See Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 238.

[15] On its website, Engine Development and Production Serbia (EDEPRO Serbia) advertises improvements to the range of Orkan surface-to-surface rockets. On its website, Yugoimport-SDPR also advertises artillery rockets that could fire cluster munitions. An upgraded version of the OGANJ, called the LRSVM (Self-Propelled Multiple Modular Rocket Launcher, Lanser Raketa Samohodni Višecevni Modularni), capable of delivering both cluster and unitary munitions, is advertised as “current project” at the Military-Technical Institute’s website. Email from Jelena Vicentić, Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, 26 June 2012.

[16] According to the ministry, publicly available reports on the transfer of controlled goods for 2005–2008 provide sufficient evidence that there were no imports or exports of cluster munitions. While the reports for 2009 and 2010 had yet to be published, the ministry stated that it could confirm that there were no records in its database of licenses issued in 2009 or 2010 for the import or export of cluster munitions. Email from Jasmina Roskić, Director of Division for Agreements on Bilateral Promotion and Protection of Investments, Concessions, and Foreign Trade in Controlled Goods, Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, 16 February 2011. See also, “Annual Report on the Realization of Foreign Trade Transfers of Controlled Goods for 2005 and 2006,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2007; “Annual Report on the Transfers of Controlled Goods in 2007,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2009; and “Annual Report on the Transfers of Controlled Goods in 2008,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2010.

[17] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 845.

[18] For information on Yugoslav production of these weapons, see Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 291; Terry J. Gandler and Charles Q. Cutshaw, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2001–2002 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2001), p. 641; Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), pp. 598–599 and 720; and US Defense Intelligence Agency, “Improved Conventional Munitions and Selected Controlled-Fragmentation Munitions (Current and Projected) DST-1160S-020-90.”

[19] Italics added by the Monitor. Letter from Miroslav Janovic, Assistant Minister for Defense Policy, Sector for Defense Policy Department for Strategic Planning, Ministry of Defense to the CMC and Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia, “Response by the Ministry of Defense in connection to the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” no. 335-7, 19 August 2013. Translation by Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia.