Summary: Non-signatory Sri Lanka has not articulated its position on accession to the convention, but it has participated as an observer in the convention’s annual meetings since 2011 and attended the First Review Conference in September 2015.

Sri Lanka is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. Sri Lanka states that it has never used or stockpiled cluster munitions, but, in June 2016, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs indicated a willingness to look into allegations that government forces used cluster munitions in 2008 and 2009.

Policy

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

Sri Lanka has shown interest in the convention, but has not elaborated its view on accession.[1] Sri Lanka participated as an observer in the convention’s First Review Conference in September 2015, where it made a statement expressing its support for the humanitarian objectives of the convention and informing States Parties that it has never used or stockpiled cluster munitions.[2]

On 7 December 2015, Sri Lanka voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] Sri Lanka did not explain why it supported the non-binding resolution, which 139 states voted to adopt, including many non-signatories.

Sri Lanka participated in one meeting of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions (Vienna in December 2007). It attended a regional meeting on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.

Since 2011, Sri Lanka has participated as an observer in all of the convention’s annual Meetings of States Parties. It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2013.

In March 2016, Sri Lanka announced that it intends to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.[4] It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Sri Lankan officials have stated, most recently in September 2015, that its armed forces do not possess cluster munitions and have never used the weapons.[5] In 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.[6]

Sri Lanka has consistently denied claims that it used cluster munitions in 2008 and 2009 during the final months of its military operation against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northern Vanni region.[7] However, following the publication of new evidence in June 2016, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera, expressed support for a proposal by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to create a “credible mechanism” to look into allegations. Samaraweera, who participated in the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, told a press conference that “we can respond [to the allegations] once we have gone into them thoroughly.”[8] In June 2016, The Guardian reported that three mine clearance organizations have cleared cluster munition remnants from at least six different sites in the north of the country since 2009.[9] It reported that HALO Trust cleared 42 cluster munitions—likely submunitions—from sites near Pachchilapalli, which saw fighting between government and LTTE forces at the end of the war. HALO said it reported clearance of the items, submitting the records to the government-run mine action center. The Guardian published photographs that it said depicted cluster munition remnants found in the Kilinochchi district and near Chalai, to the north of Mullaitivu. Human Rights Watch identified the munitions depicted as Soviet-made RBK-500 AO-2.5RT cluster bombs. According to The Guardian, former Mines Advisory Group workers also found cluster munition remnants near the town of Puthukuduyurippu, while the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action cleared them from Suthanthirapuram.

The Sri Lankan air force possesses aircraft capable of delivering this type of cluster munition, while the LTTE had light planes incapable of carrying them. The Indian air force possesses RBK-500 series cluster bombs and was involved in a military intervention against the LTTE in northern Sri Lanka in 1987–1990.

HALO told the Guardian that it has not concluded which side had deployed the cluster munitions or when, asserting that it “could have been any time within the last three decades.”[10]

Previously, in April 2012, the government denied further allegations that it used cluster munitions during the conflict.[11] A February 2009 media article alleged that Sri Lankan forces used cluster munitions against the LTTE, and specifically while targeting Pudukkudyirippu Hospital.[12] A UN spokesperson initially said the hospital was attacked with cluster munitions, but retracted the statement after further investigation.[13]

In response to previous allegations, the Sri Lankan government’s Media Center for National Security issued the following statement 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.”[14] A statement posted to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development website found that Sri Lanka never fired cluster munitions or brought them into the country.[15]

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.[16] In June 2016, the OHCHR requested that the government of Sri Lanka initiate an independent investigation into the alleged use of cluster munitions in the north.[17]