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Thailand

Last Updated: 22 October 2010

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Policy

The Kingdom of Thailand has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In February 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative told Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor that an interagency review, including the Royal Thai Armed Forces, was still underway, looking at cluster munition policy and the possibility of joining the convention. He said stockpile destruction remains the major concern.[1]

Previously, in December 2008, Thailand stated that it had no intention of using cluster munitions or acquiring more of them in the future. However, because it maintained stocks of cluster munitions, it would require further time to evaluate the convention. It expressed concern about the high cost of stockpile destruction and said it was seeking ways to develop a comprehensive plan for destruction. Thailand added that it wished to see all stakeholders, including the manufacturers of cluster munitions, join the convention.[2]

Thailand has continued to show interest in the convention. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs co-organized with the ICRC a Roundtable Discussion on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bangkok on 29–30 July 2010.[3]

Thailand attended the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010, but did not make any statements. It also participated in the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009. In Bali, Thailand stressed the importance of sustained international assistance in meeting the convention’s obligations. It also spoke on victim assistance and offered to provide prosthetic training.[4]

Thailand participated in most of the Oslo Process diplomatic conferences in 2007 and 2008 to develop the convention, but chose to attend the formal negotiations in May 2008 and the signing conference in December 2008 only as an observer. During the Oslo Process, Thailand expressed support for a new convention banning cluster munitions. It described the final convention text as well balanced and welcomed its adoption.[5] 

Thailand is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, but is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

On 19 February 2010, Jesuit Refugee Service, Nonviolence International, and the ICBL’s Victim Assistance Focal Point in Thailand organized a public event to celebrate the convention’s 30th ratification. On 31 July, the CMC held a press conference in Bangkok to welcome the entry into force of the convention. A cluster munition survivor and representatives of the government of Lao PDR, the UN, and the ICRC provided an overview of what the ban will mean for Southeast Asia and the world.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Thailand is not believed to have ever used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. It possesses a stockpile of the weapons.

In February 2010, a Foreign Ministry representative told Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor that Thailand had no intention to acquire more stocks of cluster munitions.[6] The United States supplied it with 500 Rockeye and 200 CBU-71 cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[7] The status and composition of Thailand’s current stockpile is not known.

Norwegian People’s Aid has been providing the ministries of foreign affairs and defense with advice and information on efficient solutions to the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions.[8]

 



[1] Interview with Cherdkiat Atthakor, Director, Peace Security and Disarmament Division, Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, 24 February 2010.

[2] Statement of Thailand, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[3] Participants included representatives from the Ministry of Defense and other Thai government agencies, Australia, Germany, Japan, Lao PDR, the UN, the CMC, local campaigners, and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining.

[4] Statement of Thailand, Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Bali, 16 November 2009. Notes by Landmine Action. Email from Sermsiri Ingavanija, Coordinator, Ban Landmines Project, Jesuit Refugee Service, 5 April 2010.

[5] For details on Thailand’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 245–246.

[6] Interview with Cherdkiat Atthakor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, 24 February 2010. Thailand also stated this in December 2008. See, Statement of Thailand, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 4 December 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.

[7] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” obtained by Human Rights Watch in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.

[8] Email from Lee Moroney, Programme Manager, Norwegian People’s Aid, 17 August 2010.