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Egypt
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Arab Republic of Egypt has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
On 2 August 2010, Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement welcoming the convention’s entry into force and noting the government’s support for the goals of the convention. According to the statement, “Egypt did not sign the Convention till now due to a number of shortages in it, on the top of which is excluding several types of cluster munitions especially the munitions with advanced technology from the ban, and also the main countries that produce and use cluster munitions did not join the treaty, as well as the issue that the affected countries are the one that have to shoulder the main responsibility of clearing its lands of the cluster munitions.” The statement concludes by expressing the government’s hope that these so-called shortages are addressed by the First Review Conference of the Convention, which is not scheduled to take place until 2015.[1]
Egypt participated in the Oslo Process that created the convention, but engaged in the negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer only and did not attend the Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008.[2] In October 2008, Egypt expressed concern with both the “substantive content” of the convention and “the process which led to its conclusion outside the framework of the United Nations.”[3]
Egypt has participated in some meetings related to the convention since 2008. It attended an international meeting on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010. Egypt was invited to, but did not attend, the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010. Egypt participated in intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011, but did not make any statements.
Egypt is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1981, but has never ratified it or any of its protocols. Egypt has attended, but not actively engaged in CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in recent years.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Egypt has said that it has never used cluster munitions.[4] But it is a producer, importer, and stockpiler of the weapon. It is unclear if it has exported cluster munitions.[5]
The Helipolis Company for Chemical Industries produces 122mm and 130mm artillery projectiles which contain 18 and 28 M42D dual purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions, respectively.[6] The SAKR Factory for Developed Industries produces two types of 122mm surface-to-surface rockets: the SAKR-18 and SAKR-36, containing 72 and 98 M42D submunitions, respectively.[7]
Egypt has also imported a significant number of cluster munitions, primarily from the United States (US). The US provided at least 760 CBU-87 cluster bombs to Egypt as part of a foreign military sales program in the early 1990s.[8] Lockheed Martin Corporation was awarded a US$36,132,500 contract to produce 485 M26A1 Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket System rockets for Egypt in November 1991.[9] Between 1970 and 1995, the US also supplied Egypt with 1,300 Rockeye cluster bombs.[10]
Jane’s Information Group notes that KMG-U dispensers are in service for Egypt’s aircraft.[11] Additionally, Egypt possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[12]
[1] Arab Republic of Egypt, Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, “The Official Spokesman welcomes the coming into force of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, on 1st August, 2010,” 2 August, 2010, www.mfa.gov.eg.
[2] For details on Egypt’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. 197–199.
[3] Egypt’s explanation of vote, UN General Assembly, First Committee, 30 October 2008.
[4] Statement by Ehab Fawzy, Oslo Conference on Cluster Munitions, 22 February 2007. Notes by the CMC/WILPF.
[5] A number of SAKR rockets were found in the arsenal of Iraq by UN weapons inspectors possibly indicating export activity. The SAKR rockets were the “cargo variant” but had been modified by the Iraqis to deliver chemical weapons. “Sixteenth quarterly report on the activities of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in accordance with paragraph 12 of Security Council resolution 1284 (1999) S/2004/160,” Annex 1, p. 10.
[6] Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), pp. 582, 589–590.
[7] Ibid, p. 707.
[8] “Dozen + Mideast Nations Bought Weapons since Gulf War,” Aerospace Daily, 10 December 1991; and Barbara Starr, “Apache buy will keep Israeli edge,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, 1 October 1992.
[9] US Department of Defense, “US Army Aviation & Missile Command Contract Announcement: DAAH01-00-C-0044,” Press release, 9 November 2001, www.defenselink.mil.
[10] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970-FY1995,” 5 November 1995, obtained by Human Rights Watch in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.
[11] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 838.
[12] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2005–2006 (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 185; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007−2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008, (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
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