Policy

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Sri Lanka has never made a public statement articulating its policy toward accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] In September 2013, a representative from the country’s armed forces informed the CMC that Sri Lankan military does not object to Sri Lanka joining the ban convention.[2]

Sri Lanka participated in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Vienna in December 2007).

Sri Lanka has continued to show interest in the convention since 2008, despite not joining. It participated in a regional meeting on cluster munitions in November 2009 in Bali, Indonesia. Sri Lanka participated as an observer in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011, 2012, and the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Sri Lanka attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in April 2013, but not those held in 2014.

Sri Lanka is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Sri Lankan officials have stated that its armed forces do not possess cluster munitions and have never used the weapons.[3] Sri Lanka has consistently denied claims that it used cluster munitions in 2008 and 2009 during the final phases of the operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).[4] In September 2013, a Sri Lankan army officer informed the CMC that army engineers are trained to clear unexploded ordnance from weapons used by the armed forces, but they have not been trained to clear cluster munitions as Sri Lanka does not possess these weapons and has never used them.[5]

The Sri Lankan government’s Media Center for National Security issued the following statement on its website in February 2009: “The Government wishes to clarify that the Sri Lanka army do not use these cluster bombs nor do they have facilities to use them.”[6] The Ministry of Defence and Urban Development website posted a statement saying Sri Lanka never fired cluster munitions and never brought them into the country.[7] In February 2009, a military spokesperson was quoted stating, “We don’t have the facility to fire cluster munitions. We don’t have these weapons.”[8]

A March 2011 report by a UN panel of experts on Sri Lanka noted the government’s denial of use of the weapon and said that it was unable to reach a conclusion on the credibility of the allegation of use of cluster munitions by Sri Lanka.[9]

In April 2012, the Associated Press quoted a UNDP mine action advisor as reportedly stating in an internal document that deminers had encountered submunitions in the Puthukkudiyiruppu area of northeastern Sri Lanka.[10] This led to renewed allegations about government use of cluster munitions during the conflict and a strong denial by the government of Sri Lanka.[11]  

In January 2014, The Island newspaper published what they claimed to be a United States (US) government document recommending that Sri Lanka obtain cluster munitions for use against the LTTE and quoted Sri Lankan officials who said they did not follow the recommendation.[12]