Uzbekistan

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 25 June 2019

Summary: Non-signatory Uzbekistan has never commented on cluster munitions or its position on joining the convention. Uzbekistan has never participated in a meeting of the convention. It abstained from voting on a key United Nations (UN) resolution supporting the convention in December 2018. Uzbekistan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it has inherited a stockpile from the Soviet Union.

Policy

The Republic of Uzbekistan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Uzbekistan has never attended a meeting or made a public statement on cluster munitions.

Uzbekistan did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention.

In December 2018, Uzbekistan abstained from the vote on a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that calls on states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.” [1] It has abstained from voting on the annual UNGA resolutions promoting the convention since the first one was introduced in 2015.

Uzbekistan is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Uzbekistan is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it has a stockpile, inherited from the Soviet Union.

According to Jane’s Information Group, KMG-U dispensers are in service with Uzbekistan’s air force. [2] It also possesses Grad 122mm and Uragan 220mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads. [3]



 [1]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 73/54, 5 December 2018.

 [2] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 848.

 [3] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 280.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 December 2019

Policy

The Republic of Uzbekistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Uzbekistan has stated that landmines are necessary for national security to prevent the flow of narcotics, arms, and insurgent groups across its borders. Uzbekistan has not attend any international meetings on the Mine Ban Treaty. It has abstained or not participated in the vote on all past pro-ban UN General Assembly resolutions, including Resolution 73/61 on 5 December 2018.[1]

Uzbekistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its original Protocol II on landmines, but has not joined CCW Amended Protocol II or CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Uzbekistan is also not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Uzbekistan has stated that it does not produce antipersonnel mines.[2] It is not known to have exported the weapon. It inherited a stockpile of antipersonnel mines from the Soviet Union. The size, composition, and condition of the stockpile are not known. One Ministry of Defense official indicated the stock consisted of OZM-72, PОМZ, and PMN antipersonnel mines, while another said it contains all types of mines that were made in the Soviet Union. The mines are held by both the Ministry of Defense and the Committee on State Border Protection.[3]

Uzbekistan has used antipersonnel mines in the past, including on its borders with Afghanistan in 1998, Kyrgyzstan in 1999, and Tajikistan in 2000.



[1] “Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” UNGA Resolution 73/61, 5 December 2018.

[2] Letter to the Monitor from Amb. Shavkat Khamrakulov, Embassy of Uzbekistan to the United States, 31 July 2001. Other officials have also made this claim.

[3] Interviews with a Ministry of Defense engineering officer, May 2004; and with a Ministry of Defense official, February 2003.


Mine Action

Last updated: 18 December 2019

20-Year Summary

The Republic of Uzbekistan’s forces have laid mines along its borders at various times, including on its borders with Afghanistan in 1998, with Kyrgyzstan in 1999, and with Tajikistan in 2000. In 2010, Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) Ban Ki-moon criticized as “unacceptable” Uzbekistan’s emplacing of mines along parts of its border that have not been delineated.[1]

There is no mine action program in Uzbekistan and no clearance or survey has been reported in the last several years.

Treaty status

Mine Ban Treaty

State not party

Other conventions

  • Party to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), but not party to the Amended Protocol II on landmines.
  • Not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

 

Management and coordination

National mine action management actors

None

Operators

None

 

Impact

Extent of contamination (landmines)

Unknown

 

Addressing the impact

Land release 2014–2018 (5-year total)

None reported

 

Progress

Landmines

The extent of contamination is not known and there are no reported plans to conduct clearance.

An agreement was made with Tajikistan in 2018 on demarcation of the separate regions of the Tajik-Uzbek border. Tajikistan expected decisions to be taken in 2018 regarding clarification and identification of SHAs on the Uzbek border, and any demining operations will require agreement and cooperation between both nations.

Note: SHA = suspected hazardous area.

Contamination and Impact

Soviet troops also laid mines on the Uzbek-Afghan border. Survey on the Tajik side of the border over several years had identified a total of 57 SHAs as of December 2008 (size unknown), which were subsequently deemed to be on Uzbekistan territory. Uzbekistan had reportedly cleared 95% of the minefields along the Tajik border by the end of 2007 in demining operations conducted by Uzbek army deminers in cooperation with Tajik border troops.[2]

The first ever state visit by the president of Uzbekistan to Tajikistan took place in March 2018, and several agreements were signed between the two countries, including one on demarcation of separate regions of the Tajik-Uzbek border. Tajikistan expected decisions to be taken in 2018 regarding clarification and identification of SHAs on the Uzbek border, and any demining operations will require agreement and cooperation between both nations (see Tajikistan’s Mine Action profile for further information).[3]

In 2005, media reports cited Kyrgyz officials in Batken province as saying Kyrgyz border guards had checked previously mined areas of the border around the settlements of Ak-Turpak, Chonkara, and Otukchu, which had been cleared by Uzbek deminers, and confirmed that they were free of contamination.[4]

Mine Action Program

There is no functioning mine action program in Uzbekistan.

Land Release

There are no reports of any land release occurring in 2018 or in recent years.



[1]Ban calls Uzbekistan land mines ‘unacceptable’,” The Hindu, 6 April 2010.

[2] Email from Jonmahmad Rajabov, Director, Tajikistan Mine Action Center (TMAC), 16 February 2009; Tajikistan, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, “General situation,” 3 February 2008, p. 3; and “Uzbekistan started demining on Tajik border,” Spy.kz, 23 October 2007.

[3] Email from Muhabbat Ibrohimzoda, TMAC, 27 April 2018.