Morocco

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 02 August 2017

Summary: Non-signatory Morocco adopted the convention in 2008 and acknowledges the harm caused by cluster munitions, but says it cannot accede due to the dispute over Western Sahara. Morocco hasparticipated in most of the convention’s meetings, but abstained from voting on a key UN resolution on the convention in December 2016.

Morocco says it has never produced or exported cluster munitions. It has imported cluster munitions, but has not provided information on the numbers and types stockpiled. In the past, Morocco used cluster munitions against the Polisario Front. Morocco is participating in a Saudi Arabia-led coalition of states that has used cluster munitions in Yemen since March 2015.

Policy

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

Morocco acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention and claims to comply with its provisions, but says it cannot accede until the dispute over Western Sahara is resolved.[1]

In December 2016, Morocco abstained from voting on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution, which urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[2] It also abstained from the first UNGA resolution on the convention in December 2015.[3]

Morocco participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention in Dublin in May 2008, but did not sign it.[4]

Morocco has participated as an observer in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention except the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2016. It attended the convention’s First Review Conference in 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–June 2015.

Morocco has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2016.[5] It has voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in September 2016.[6]

Morocco is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Morocco is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Morocco informed the Monitor in March 2011 that it has never produced or exported cluster munitions.[7]

Morocco has not provided any information on the current types and quantities of its stockpiled cluster munitions. Between 1970 and 1995, the United States (US) transferred to Morocco 2,994 CBU-52, 1,752 CBU-58, 748 CBU-71, and 850 Rockeye cluster bombs containing a combined total of nearly 2.5 million submunitions.[8]

Morocco also acquired a total of 12 300mm PHL-03 multi-barrel rocket launchers from China in 2009–2010. This weapon is a copy of the Russian-made 300mm Smerch launcher and its rockets include types containing explosive submunitions, but it is not known what types of rockets were acquired.[9] Morocco also possesses Grad 122mm surface-to-surface rocket launchers, but it is not known if the ammunition for these weapons includes versions with submunition payloads.[10]

Use

Between 1975–1988, Moroccan forces used artillery-fired and air-dropped cluster munitions against the Polisario Front in the disputed Western Sahara. Between 1980 and 1981, the Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF) conducted attacks on Akka, Guelta Zemmour, Hausa, and Messeid using French-made cluster bombs.[11] In March 1982, the RMAF attacked the Bu-Crag area with cluster bombs supplied by the US.[12]

In 2006, British NGO Action on Armed Violence reported that Western Sahara was significantly contaminated by cluster munitions, including US-made CBU-71 cluster bombs with BLU-63 submunitions and M483A1 155mm artillery projectiles with M42 and M46 dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions.[13] Neighboring Mauritania was also affected by these same types of cluster munitions used by Morocco in Western Sahara.

Since March 2015, Morocco has participated in a Saudi Arabia-led military operation by a coalition of states against Houthi forces (Ansar Allah) in Yemen. Morocco stockpiles a type of cluster munition used by the coalition in a 6 January 2016 attack on the Yemeni capital.[14]

Morocco has not commented on that attack or any other cluster munition use in Yemen, but a statement on behalf of the “Coalition Forces Supporting Legitimacy in Yemen” published by the Saudi Press Agency in December 2016 states that:

“International law does not ban the use of cluster munitions. Some States have undertaken a commitment to refrain from using cluster munitions by becoming party to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Neither the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia nor its Coalition partners are State Parties to the 2008 Convention, and accordingly, the Coalition’s use of cluster munitions does not violate the obligations of these States under international law.”[15]



[1] In 2011, an official expressed Morocco’s support for the humanitarian principles of the convention, but informed the Monitor that accession to the convention is regarded as “a strategic objective…that will be achieved once security imperatives related to the protection of its southern provinces disappear.” “A l’instar de sa politique vis à vis de la Convention sur les Mines antipersonnel, l’adhésion du Royaume du Maroc à la CCM constitue un objectif stratégique qui sera réalisé dès la disparition des impératifs sécuritaires liés à la protection de ses provinces du Sud.” Letter from Amb. Omar Hilale, Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Morocco to the UN in Geneva, to Mary Wareham, Senior Advisor, Arms Division, Human Rights Watch (HRW), 28 March 2011.

[2]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016.

[3]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[4] For details on Morocco’s cluster munition policy and practice through early 2009, see HRW and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 221–223.

[5]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,ituation of ution 71/203, 19 December 2016. Morocco voted in favor of similar resolutions in 2013–2015.

[6] See, “Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 30 September 2016,” Human Rights Council Resolution 33/23, 6 October 2016.

[7] “Kingdom of Morocco’s Position in regards to the CCM: Main points,” statement attached to letter from Amb. Hilale, to Mary Wareham, HRW, 28 March 2011.

[8] US Defense Security Assistance Agency, Department of Defense, “Cluster Bomb Exports under FMS, FY1970–FY1995,” 15 November 1995, obtained by HRW in a Freedom of Information Act request, 28 November 1995.

[9] Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Trade Database search for Morocco, 2009–2016, 7 July 2017.

[10] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 323; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2008, CD-edition, 3 December 2007 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).

[11] Lt.-Col. David Dean, “The Air Force Role in Low-Intensity Conflict,” US Air Force, Air University Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education, 1986, p. 45. Undated photographs of RMAF Mirage aircraft on static display with its weaponry clearly show BLG-66 Belouga bombs.

[12] Ibid., p. 70.

[13] Landmine Action, “Explosive Ordnance Disposal and technical survey in Polisario-controlled areas of Western Sahara,” Project proposal, February 2006, p. 4; email from Simon Conway, Director, Landmine Action, 3 May 2006; and Handicap International (HI), Circle of Impact: The Fatal Footprint of Cluster Munitions on People and Communities (Brussels: HI, May 2007), p. 134, citing email from Capt. Muhammad Aimaar Iqbal, UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, Western Sahara, 19 April 2007.