Summary: Non-signatory Cambodia has expressed its support for the convention, but has not taken any steps to join it. Cambodia has participated in most of the convention’s meetings, most recently in 2015. Cambodia is not known to have ever produced, used, or exported cluster munitions. It has not disclosed the size or precise content of its cluster munition stockpile. Cambodia’s cluster munition contamination dates from the 1960s and 1970s, when the United States (US) extensively bombed the country in air attacks. More recently, in 2011, Thailand fired cluster munitions into Cambodian territory.

Policy

The Kingdom of Cambodia has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In March 2017, a Cambodian official told the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) that the government views the convention positively and intends to accede, but cautioned the process could take time.[1] Previously, in 2013 and 2014, Cambodia stated that it was studying the convention with stakeholders and not prepared to decide on accession until those consultations concluded.[2]

In December 2016, Cambodia was absent from the vote on the first UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[3] It was also absent from the vote on the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[4]

Cambodia was an early, prominent, and influential supporter of the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and hosted the first regional forum on cluster munitions in Phnom Penh in March 2007. It advocated forcefully for the most comprehensive and immediate ban possible and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention at the conclusion of the Dublin negotiations in May 2008. Yet, despite this extensive and positive leadership role, Cambodia attended the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo on 3 December 2008 only as an observer and did not sign, stating at the time that due to “recent security developments” in the region, it needed more time to study the security implications of joining.[5]

Cambodia has cited several reasons for not joining the Convention on Cluster Munitions, most of them security-related. [6] The Ministry of Defense has raised questions including how to destroy stockpiled cluster munitions and how to replenish defense capabilities after their destruction.[7] Cambodia has also long emphasized the need for its neighboring states, particularly Thailand, to accede to the convention.[8] In 2011, Thailand fired cluster munitions into Cambodian territory, killing two men and injuring seven.[9]

Despite not joining, Cambodia has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except in 2014 and 2016, as well as the First Review Conference in September 2015, and intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015. It has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2017.[10]

Cambodia has condemned the use of cluster munitions.[11]

The Cambodia Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Bombs continues to call for the government to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[12]

Cambodia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Cambodia is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.

The US used some 80,000 air-dropped cluster munitions containing 26 million submunitions on Cambodia in the 1960s and 1970s during the Vietnam War, mostly in the east and northeast of the country.

After Thailand fired cluster munitions into Cambodian territory in June 2011, Cambodian officials informed a meeting of the convention that, “Despite being confronted and threatened by forces, so far we have refrained from employing cluster munitions in our response.”[13]

Stockpiling

The types and quantities in Cambodia’s stockpile of cluster munitions is not known. In December 2008, a Ministry of Defense official said that Cambodia has “some missile launchers that use cluster munitions that weigh more than 20 kg” and that there were also stockpiles of cluster munitions weighing 250kg left over from the 1980s that Cambodia intends to destroy.[14] Weapons with submunitions that weigh more than 20kg each are not defined as cluster munitions by the Convention on Cluster Munitions and are thus not prohibited.[15] However, it is unclear if Cambodian officials are referring to the total weight of the warhead or the individual submunitions the warhead contains.

According to standard international reference publications, Cambodia also possesses BM-21 Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[16] Cambodian officials have sought clarification from States Parties and NGOs as to whether BM-21 multi-barrel rocket launchers are banned under the convention. The launchers are capable of firing rockets with a variety of warheads, one of which is a cargo warhead containing explosive submunitions. The CMC has informed Cambodia that the rocket delivery system itself is not prohibited by the convention, and the convention would allow use of the BM-21 with unitary munitions. However, under the terms of the convention, a BM-21 rocket launcher could not be used to deliver rockets containing explosive submunitions.[17]