Serbia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Serbia supports the convention’s humanitarian objectives, but states that it cannot consider accession until it replaces its stocks of cluster munitions. Serbia has participated in some of the convention’s meetings, including the First Review Conference in September 2015. However, it abstained from voting on a resolution supporting the convention in December 2015.
Serbia inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions after the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), but has not disclosed information on the types or quantities stockpiled. During the conflicts that resulted from the break-up of Yugoslavia, cluster munitions were used by SFRY, ethnic militias, and secessionist forces. NATO forces used air-dropped cluster munitions in Serbia during the 1998–1999 conflict over Kosovo.
Policy
The Republic of Serbia has not yet acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, even though it played an important role in the Oslo Process that produced the convention.
Serbia has expressed support for the convention’s humanitarian objectives, but the Ministry of Defense has objected to accession, asserting in 2013 that cluster munitions are “part of the weaponry and the equipment necessary for the execution of the missions and tasks” and finding the Serbian armed forces “has no replacement for this type of munition.”[1] In April 2015, Serbia’s Minister of Defense informed the Monitor that the government will consider accession to the convention after it acquires new weapons and military equipment to replace its stockpile of cluster munitions.[2] Serbia abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 7 December 2015, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Serbia did not explain why it abstained from voting on the non-binding resolution that 140 states voted to adopt, including many non-signatories.
Serbia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made more positive comments on the convention, including in a 2013 letter that described Serbia’s perspective as a country whose citizens had been injured and killed by cluster munitions.[4]
Serbia played a leadership role throughout the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most notably by hosting a conference for states affected by cluster munitions in Belgrade in October 2007.[5] It actively participated in the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text at the conclusion. However, Serbia attended the convention’s Oslo Signing Conference in December 2008 as an observer. At the time, it did not provide an explanation for its lack of signature. The following year local media reported that all actions directed towards signing the convention stopped after the General Staff of the Serbian Army recommended to the National Security Council that Serbia not sign.[6]
Serbia participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, but did not make any statements. It attended annual Meetings of States Parties of the convention in 2011–2012 as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2013–2015. Serbia also participated in a mine action symposium in Biograd, Croatia on April 2016.[7]
Civil society representatives from Serbia and particularly cluster munition survivors, such as Branislav Kapetanovic and Slađan Vučković, continue to advocate for Serbia to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay.[8]
Serbia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2014.[9]
Serbia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use
In April 2015, the Minister of Defense said that “the Army of Serbia has taken steps and implemented activities to recall from operational use a part of cluster munitions [sic] and start with its disposal” due to several reasons, including “the ban on use, the limited shelf-life of the cluster munitions available, and the limited possibilities of the military industry in regard of repairs and [performance] enhancement” of the munitions.[10]
A 2007 comment by Serbia’s then-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vuk Jeremić, indicated the government was considering enacting a unilateral moratorium on the use of cluster munitions.[11] However in 2011, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified that the proposed moratorium is no longer being considered.[12]
Cluster munitions were used by the SFRY as well as ethnic militias and secessionist forces during the conflicts resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia starting in 1991.
During the 1998–1999 conflict in Kosovo, aircraft from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States (US) dropped cluster bombs in Serbia and Kosovo during the NATO air campaign.[13] During the Kosovo conflict, forces of the SFRY also launched several cluster munition rocket attacks into border regions controlled by Albania.
Production, transfer, and stockpiling
In 2009, Serbia stated that it does not have the capacity to produce cluster munitions and has not produced cluster munitions since the dissolution of the SFRY.[14] In 2011, the Ministry of Defense affirmed that Serbia “is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[15] According to standard reference works, Serbia was thought to have inherited some of those production capabilities.[16] A number of Serbian companies have advertised surface-to-surface rocket launchers, rockets, and artillery that could be used with either unitary warheads or submunitions.[17]
In 2011, the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development informed the Monitor that it has no records in its database of any foreign trade involving cluster munitions in the period from 2005 to 2010.[18]
The precise size and composition of Serbia’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not known, but it is thought to be substantial and comprised of air-delivered cluster bombs, ground-launched rockets, and artillery projectiles. Jane’s Information Group lists Serbia as possessing BL755 cluster bombs.[19]
Assuming Serbia’s stockpile contains cluster munitions that were produced by the SFRY, it may also possess 120mm M93 mortar projectiles (containing 23 KB-2 submunitions), 152mm 3-O-23 artillery projectiles (containing 63 KB-2 submunitions), and 262mm M87 Orkan surface-to-surface rockets (containing 288 KB-1 submunitions). KB submunitions are the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) type. It may also possess RAB-120 and KPT-150 cluster bombs.[20]
In 2013 and 2015, the Ministry of Defense stated that the Army of Serbia has taken steps to recall from operational use “part” of its cluster munitions stockpile and initiate its disposal.[21] No further information has been provided on the numbers and types of stocks destroyed or to indicate the status of the destruction process.
[1] According to a 2013 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of Defense has long-term modernization plans that include the acquisition of modern weapons systems and equipment to replace cluster munitions, but procurement had “been significantly slowed down” by “the negative effects of the financial crisis.” It found that “it is not acceptable to risk a reduction of the level of operational capacity of the army, which would be an imminent consequence of the decision to accede to the convention.” The letter expressed another concern that several significant countries remain outside the convention, highlighting Argentina, Brazil, China, Finland, Greece, India, Israel, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United States, as well as Slovakia, which subsequently acceded in July 2015. Letter No. 335-7, “Response by the Ministry of Defense in connection to the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” from Miroslav Janovic, Ministry of Defense, to the CMC and Assistance Advocacy Access–Serbia (AAAS), 19 August 2013. Translation by AAAS, a member of the CMC.
[2] Letter from Bratislav Gašić, Minister of Defense, to AAAS, 15 April 2015. Translation by AAAS.
[3] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015. It was also absent during the first round of voting on the draft resolution in UNGA First Committee on Disarmament and International Security on 4 November 2015. “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution AC.1/70/L.49/Rev.1, 4 November 2015.
[4] The letter highlighted the convention’s importance in introducing “new international values and standards in regard of the development, production, possession, use, and stockpiling of this inhumane and dangerous weapon” but did not articulate Serbia’s views on accession. Letter from Amb. Miomir Udovicki, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to AAAS, 15 August 2013. Translation by AAAS. However, in 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative informed the CMC that Serbia would join the convention “sooner than expected.” CMC meeting with Branka Latinović, Head of Arms Control Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Zoran Vujić, Head of the Department of Security Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions Third Meeting of States Parties, Oslo, 12 September 2012; and CMC meeting with Zoran Vujić, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Convention on Cluster Munitions, Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011.
[5] For more details on Serbia’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. 236–238.
[6] Minister of Defense Dragan Šutanovać reportedly stated that the army could not give up cluster munitions because it did not have the capacity to destroy and replace existing stockpiles. “Kasetna municija nenadoknadiva” (“Cluster munitions indispensable”), B92, 27 August 2009.
[7] The workshop was organized by the Regional Arms Control Verification and Implementation Assistance Centre (RACVIAC) Centre for Security Cooperation in Southeast Europe and the government of Croatia’s Office for Demining and Croatian Mine Action Centre (CROMAC).
[8] “Веровали или не Србија једина у региону „одобрава“ касетне бомбе!” (“Believe it or not Serbia only in the region to ‘approve’ cluster bombs!),” Facebookrepoter, 29 January 2015. See also, “Ein falscher Griff und man ist tot” (“A wrong move and you’re dead”), 20 Minuten (Switzerland), 5 December 2014.
[9] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 69/189, 18 December 2014. Serbia voted in favor of similar resolutions on 15 May and 18 December 2013.
[10] Letter from Bratislav Gašić, Minister of Defense, to AAAS, 15 April 2015. Translation by AAAS.
[11] “Cluster Bomb Conference in Belgrade,” B92 (Belgrade), 3 October 2007.
[12] Email from Zoran Vujić, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 February 2011.
[13] Human Rights Watch (HRW), “Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign,” Vol. 12, No. 1(D), February 2000; Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), “Yellow Killers: The Impact of Cluster Munitions in Serbia and Montenegro,” 2007; and NPA, “Report on the Impact of Unexploded Cluster Munitions in Serbia,” January 2009.
[14] Letter No. 235/1 from Dr. Slobodan Vukcević, Permanent Mission of Serbia to the UN in Geneva, 9 February 2009.
[15] Letter from the Public Relations Department, Ministry of Defense, 6 July 2011.
[16] See HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), p. 238.
[17] On its website, Engine Development and Production Serbia (EDEPRO Serbia) advertises improvements to the range of Orkan surface-to-surface rockets. Yugoimport-SDPR also advertises artillery rockets on its website that could fire cluster munitions. An upgraded version of the OGANJ, called the LRSVM (Self-Propelled Multiple Modular Rocket Launcher, Lanser Raketa Samohodni Višecevni Modularni), capable of delivering both cluster and unitary munitions, is advertised as “current project” at the Military-Technical Institute’s website. Email from Jelena Vicentić, AAAS, 26 June 2012.
[18] According to the ministry, publicly available reports on the transfer of controlled goods for 2005–2008 provide sufficient evidence that there were no imports or exports of cluster munitions. While the reports for 2009 and 2010 had yet to be published, the ministry stated that it could confirm that there were no records in its database of licenses issued in 2009 or 2010 for the import or export of cluster munitions. Email from Jasmina Roskić, Director of Division for Agreements on Bilateral Promotion and Protection of Investments, Concessions, and Foreign Trade in Controlled Goods, Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, 16 February 2011. See also, “Annual Report on the Realization of Foreign Trade Transfers of Controlled Goods for 2005 and 2006,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2007; “Annual Report on the Transfers of Controlled Goods in 2007,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2009; and “Annual Report on the Transfers of Controlled Goods in 2008,” Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, Belgrade, 2010.
[19] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 845.
[20] For information on Yugoslav production of these weapons, see Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 291; Terry J. Gandler and Charles Q. Cutshaw, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2001–2002 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2001), p. 641; Leland S. Ness and Anthony G. Williams, eds., Jane’s Ammunition Handbook 2007–2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2007), pp. 598–599 and 720; and US Defense Intelligence Agency, “Improved Conventional Munitions and Selected Controlled-Fragmentation Munitions (Current and Projected) DST-1160S-020-90,” undated.
[21] Letter from Bratislav Gašić, Minister of Defense, to AAAS, 15 April 2015; and Letter No. 335-7, “Response by the Ministry of Defense in connection to the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” from Miroslav Janovic, Ministry of Defense, to the CMC and AAAS, 19 August 2013. Translations by AAAS.