Zimbabwe
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Summary: Non-signatory Zimbabwe has expressed interest in joining the convention, but has not taken any steps towards accession. In December 2015, Zimbabwe and Russia voted against a UN resolution on the convention. Zimbabwe has participated as an observer in most of the convention’s meetings. Zimbabwe produced, exported, and imported cluster munitions in the past and is believed to stockpile them, but it is not clear if it ever used cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Zimbabwe has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Zimbabwe has expressed interest in joining the convention in the past and said it has conducted stakeholder consultations on the matter of accession, but it has not taken any steps towards accession.[1]
On 7 December 2015, Zimbabwe was one of just two countries to vote against a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[2] Zimbabwe has not explained why it voted against the non-binding resolution, which 139 states voted to adopt, including many non-signatories.
Zimbabwe participated in two regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and expressed its support for a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[3] It was absent from the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and Oslo signing conference in December 2008.
Zimbabwe was invited to, but did not attend the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015. It participated as an observer in the convention’s annual Meetings of States Parties in 2010–2013 and attended intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2012–2015. Zimbabwe has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Lusaka, Zambia in June 2015.[4]
Zimbabwe is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
It is unclear if Zimbabwe has ever used cluster munitions.[5]
Zimbabwe is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions since its independence, but it likely still stockpiles cluster munitions.
Jane’s Information Group has reported that the Alpha bomblet developed for the South African CB-470 cluster bomb was produced in Rhodesia and that “Zimbabwe may have quantities of the Alpha bomblet.”[6] In 2010, an official informed the CMC that Zimbabwe still possessed cluster munitions that remained from the former Rhodesia’s arsenal.[7]
Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paolo reported in 2012 on declassified Ministry of Defense documents showing that Brazil transferred 104 BLG-250K and four BLG-60K cluster bombs and various components for BLG-500K, BLG-250K, and BLG-60k cluster bombs to Zimbabwe between January 2001 and May 2002.[8]
Zimbabwe also possesses RM-70 122mm surface-to-surface rocket systems, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[9]
[1] In May 2013, a government representative told a regional meeting that Zimbabwe is “seriously considering” accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but acknowledged the process toward joining the convention has been slow. Statement of Zimbabwe, Lomé Regional Seminar on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Lomé, Togo, 22 May 2013. The representative informed the CMC that consultations are continuing, but no decision has yet been made. CMC meeting with Mucheka Chameso, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe to the UN in Geneva, in Lomé, 22 May 2013. In May 2012, a government representative said Zimbabwe was conducting “consultations with relevant stakeholders on the country’s accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions” that it hoped to soon conclude. Statement of Zimbabwe, Accra Regional Conference on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Accra, May 2012. In March 2010, Zimbabwe stated that “discussions are underway on the matter” of joining the convention. See, statement of Zimbabwe, Africa Regional Conference on the Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Pretoria, 25 March 2010. Notes by Action on Armed Violence.
[2] “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 in November 2015. “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution AC.1/70/L.49/Rev.1, 4 November 2015.
[3] For details on Zimbabwe’s policy and practice regarding cluster munitions through early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 262–263.
[4] ICRC, “Zambia: Implementing the ban on cluster munitions in southern Africa,” 17 June 2015.
[5] Zimbabwe has not made a statement regarding possible past use. One source has said Zimbabwean and/or Congolese aircraft dropped cluster bombs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1998. Tom Cooper and Pit Weinert, “Zaire/DR Congo since 1980,” Air Combat Information Group, 2 September 2003.
[6] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 440.
[7] CMC meeting with Mucheka Chameso, Permanent Mission of Zimbabwe to the UN in Geneva, Africa Regional Conference on the Universalization and Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, in Pretoria, 25–26 March 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[8] Rubens Valente, “Brasil vendeu bombas condenadas a ditador do Zimbábue,” Folha de São Paolo, 22 July 2012.
[9] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 449.