Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

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

In September 2012, Chile provided its initial Article 7 report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which was originally due by 28 November 2011.[1] The report covers the period from June 2011 to June 2012.

Chile has reported several items under national implementation measures, including the ratification legislation and draft victim assistance legislation, but it has not indicated if specific legislation will be undertaken to implement the convention. According to the report, the Ministry of National Defense is establishing a body “to centralize, coordinate and execute the operational and administrative tasks” required by the convention.[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, hosting an international conference on the convention in Santiago in June 2010 and a regional conference in September 2009. Chile plans to host another regional conference on cluster munitions in late 2013.

At the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012, Chile again expressed its desire for a Latin America and a Caribbean free of cluster munitions and also made a statement on transparency measures.[4] Chile also attended intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in April 2013, where it made several statements, including on universalization and stockpile destruction.

Chile has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s cluster munition use, but it voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on 15 May 2013 that strongly condemned “the use by the Syrian authorities of...cluster munitions.”[5]

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.[6] In April 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).[7]

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.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

In the Article 7 report section on measures taken to dismantle its cluster munition production facilities, Chile indicated that the information is in the process of being verified.[11] Furthermore, in a cover page to the Article 7 report, Chile reported that at 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.”[12]

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:[13]

·         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, two CB-500 cluster bombs, full of lead shot);

·         United States (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.[14] 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.[15]

The PM-1 combined-effect submunitions delivered by bombs produced in Chile have been found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Sudan.[16] Colombia reported the destruction of its stockpile of 41 Chilean CB-250K bombs in March 2009.[17] A number of CB-250 bombs were found in the arsenal of Iraq by UN weapons inspectors. The bombs had been modified by the Iraqis to deliver chemical weapons in submunitions.[18]

Stockpile destruction

In its initial Article 7 report, Chile provided information on the composition of its stockpile of cluster munitions: a total of 249 LARS-160 surface-launched rockets equipped with Mk II cluster munition warheads containing a total of 25,896 submunitions; the entire stockpile of which has been marked for destruction.[19]

According to a Chilean Air Force document dated 23 June 2009, “The Air Force doesn’t have any more cluster munitions in stock.”[20] The document states that 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. However, Chile’s Article 7 report indicates that 12 cluster bombs with inert submunitions are being retained for training purposes (see below).

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chile is required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 June 2019.

At the intersessional meetings in April 2013, Chile expressed hope that the stockpile destruction will be completed by the time of the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2013, or by the end of 2013 at the latest.[21]

In the Article 7 report, Chile details the step-by-step process planned to destroy the stockpile by demilitarization, including dismantling various components and destroying the submunitions by controlled detonation. The destruction will be carried out by the Army’s Fabrica y Maestranza del Ejercito (FAMAE) in Arica Parinacota in the north of the country.[22]

Retention

In its initial Article 7 report, Chile declared that it is retaining a total of 12 CBK-250 cluster munitions containing a total of 240 inert PM-1 submunitions for training and research purposes. The report lists the locations where the munitions are stored.[23]