Congo, Democratic Republic of
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Signatory the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) parliament approved ratification of the convention in November 2013, but it still has not ratified. The DRC states that it has amended existing legislation to implement the convention’s provisions. The DRC has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and voted for the first UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. The DRC has elaborated its views on several important issues for the interpretation and implementation of the convention. It provided a voluntary transparency report for the convention in 2011 that found it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions, and does not possess a stockpile. Cluster munitions were used in the DRC in the past, but the party responsible for the use has never been conclusively identified.
Policy
The DRC signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 18 March 2009.
The current status of ratification is not known. In June 2015, the DRC stated that ratification legislation had been adopted and was awaiting review by the Constitutional Court.[1] The Senate adopted the ratification legislation on 28 November 2013.[2] The DRC has provided regular updates on its ratification process.[3]
In 2014, a DRC official stated that its implementation legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty had been amended to incorporate provisions on cluster munitions, but the Monitor has not been able to obtain a copy of the law.[4]
Since 2011, the DRC has provided three voluntary Article 7 transparency reports for the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most recently in June 2014.[5]
The DRC actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and strongly supported a comprehensive ban as well as the inclusion of provisions on international cooperation and assistance. Due to inadequate signing authority, the DRC was not able to sign the convention in Oslo in December 2008, but signed at the UN in New York three months later.[6]
The DRC participated in the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. It has attended all of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties as well as intersessional meetings in 2011-2015 and regional workshops on the convention.
On 7 December 2015, the DRC voted in favor of the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[7]
The DRC has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In 2012, the government’s national mine action coordinator said that the DRC agreed with the views of the CMC that the provisions of the convention forbid transit in, foreign stockpiling of, and investment in the production of cluster munitions, and also forbid the assistance with the use of cluster munitions in joint military operations with states not party.[8]
The DRC is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
The DRC has reported that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions, and does not stockpile them.[9]
It is not clear who used cluster munitions in the DRC in the past. In April 2014, the DRC stated that cluster munitions were used in armed conflict by foreign armies, both invited and not invited.[10] Cluster munition contamination includes BLU-755, BLU-63, BLU-55, ShAOB, and PM1-type submunitions.[11]
In May 2013, the DRC confirmed that an abandoned stockpile containing 1,593 ShAOB submunitions was found in Goma and destroyed in 2011. According to the initial Article 7 report, the armed forces gave the submunitions to mine action NGO Mines Advisory Group (MAG) for destruction on 9 November 2011.[12]
[1] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Coordinator, Congolese National Center for the Fight Against Mines (National du Centre Congolais de Lutte Antimines), Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 22 June 2015.
[2] See, Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Form A, June 2014; and statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Congolese National Center for the Fight Against Mines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014.
[3] In May 2013, a DRC official informed a regional meeting on the convention that the DRC’s Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior had written to the President of the Senate to urge that ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions be put on the “fast-track.” According to the official, the DRC hoped to complete the ratification in 2013. Statement of the DRC, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. Notes by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).
[4] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Congolese National Center for the Fight Against Mines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014. This was not declared in the voluntary Article 7 transparency report it submitted in June 2014. See, Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Form A, June 2014.
[5] The initial Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 report submitted on 15 May 2011 covers the period from February 2002 to 15 May 2011, while the report provided on 10 April 2012 covers calendar year 2011, and the report provided in June 2014 covers calendar years 2012 and 2013.
[6] For details on the DRC’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. 60–61.
[7] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.
[8] Meeting with Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, National Focal Point of the Struggle Against Mines (Point Focal National pour la Lutte Antimines, PFNLAM), in Brussels, 15 April 2012.
[9] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Capt. Roger Bokwango, Deputy Coordinator, PFNLAM, 30 March 2010; and statement by Nzuzi Manzembi, Director, Directorate of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 6 March 2009. Notes by the Congolese Campaign to Ban Landmines (CCIM).
[10] Statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, Congolese National Center for the Fight Against Mines, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 7 April 2014. See also statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[11] In May 2013, the DRC reported for the first time that BLU-55 type submunitions had been found and destroyed in Katanga and South Kivu provinces. It also reported for the first time that ShAOB-type submunitions were destroyed during clearance operations in Lubumbashi in 2012. It reported that in 2012, 55 submunitions of the type PM1 were destroyed in Bolomba, Équateur province, and a further nine PM1 submunitions destroyed in Lubutu, Maniema province in 2013. The official stated that BLU-755 and BLU-55 submunitions had been destroyed in Manono and Kabalo, Katanga province, and in Shabunda, South Kivu province. Statement of the DRC, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 23 May 2013. Notes by AOAV. See also, statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, Lao PDR, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC; and statement of the DRC, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 28 June 2011.
[12] Convention on Cluster Munitions voluntary Article 7 Report, Form F, 10 April 2012; statement by Sudi Alimasi Kimputu, PFNLAM, Convention on Cluster Munitions Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 18 April 2012. The DRC stated that the submunitions were left in the eastern part of the country by foreign troops invited onto its territory in recent armed conflicts. The stockpile consisted of three bombs containing 531 submunitions each. It stated that the authorization of destruction reflected the goodwill of the DRC, its respect for international law, and its obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions.