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Myanmar/Burma
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
The Republic of the Union of Myanmar[1] has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Myanmar did not attend any meetings on the Convention on Cluster Munitions or make any statements on cluster munitions in 2011 or the first half of 2012. Previously, in 2010, a government representative informed the Monitor that the legal affairs department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was reviewing the convention.[2]In 2009, a government official informed a regional conference on cluster munitions that while Myanmar has not yet joined the convention it nonetheless “criticizes the use of such weapons with indiscriminate area effect and which can cause humanitarian consequences.”[3]
Myanmar attended one regional meeting of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions (XiengKhouang, Lao PDR in October 2008) and participated in a regional conference on cluster munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009, where itmade its first and only public statement on the issue. Myanmar attended the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDRin November 2010 as an observer, but did not make any statement.
Myanmar is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In November 2009 Myanmar stated, “We do not use cluster munitions, develop, produce, otherwise acquire, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, nor assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited under this Convention.”[4]
[1]On 21 October 2010, the ruling military junta announced the change of the country’s name as well as its flag and national anthem. The military regime changed the name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, but many ethnic groups in the country and a number of states still prefer to use the name Burma.
[2]Interview with Aye ThidarMyo, Assistant Director, International Organizations and Economic Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vientiane, 10 November 2010.
[3] Statement by Ye MinnThein, Assistant Director, International Organizations Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Bali, 16 November 2009.
[4]Ibid.
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