New Defence Minister Announces the Destruction of South Africa`s Cluster Bombs

South Africa’s new Minister of Defence Charles Nqakula, in his first high profile statement since taking up his new post, announced on 3 December that South Africa is to destroy its "relatively small stockpile of outdated cluster munitions".

Published on 15 December 2008 in ISS Today

Speaking in Oslo, Norway, at the signing ceremony of an historic new international treaty – the Convention on Cluster Munitions - banning the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, Nqakula stated:

As a country that used to produce and stockpile cluster munitions that have an area wide effect, we have come to the belief that these weapons have not only become obsolete as weapons of modern warfare, but that their recent use in conflicts have shown them to cause unacceptable harm to civilians, long after the cessation of active hostilities.

Signatories of the treaty include dozens of users, producers and stockpilers and affected states including the Lao PDR, Lebanon and Afghanistan. At close of signature in Oslo, 94 countries had signed the treaty amogst them 34 African States: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comores, Republic of Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Togo, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.

Sub-Saharan Africa played a critical role in the Oslo process negotiations. A third of the African continent is affected by cluster munitions hindering humanitarian assistance, peace operations, post-conflict reconstruction and development efforts such as the Millennium Development Goals. Due to varying legal systems in African states, some were not able to sign in Oslo. In the coming months, more African states are expected to sign the treaty.

The importance of the treaty was underlined by the high level of political representation at the Oslo meeting. Among the 45 foreign, defence and other government ministers signing the treaty were French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary. Miliband, representing the world’s third largest user of the weapon in the past decade, said all states should “tell those not here in Oslo that the world has changed, that we have changed it and that a new norm has been created.” Kouchner made a rousing appeal to US President-elect Barack Obama to sign the new treaty, invoking Obama’s campaign slogan ‘yes we can’.

Four countries - Norway, Ireland, Sierra Leone and the Holy See - ratified the treaty immediately after their signature. States may sign until the treaty enters into force after 30 ratifications. The treaty then becomes binding under international law and the countdown begins for land clearance within ten years and stockpile destruction within eight.

In a surprising move, Afghanistan also signed the treaty in Oslo. The US is known to have pressured Afghanistan not to sign the treaty but Afghan campaigners, including 17-year-old cluster bomb survivor Suraj Ghulam Habib lobbied the Afghan Ambassador present in Oslo through the night to get President Mohammed Karzai to authorise signature. “We are so happy that Afghanistan has signed. On Wednesday morning I was crying with sadness because I thought my country would not sign then when I saw my Ambassador sign the treaty I was crying for joy.” Other positive developments came from the most affected country, the Lao PDR, that has offered to host the first meeting where states will decide on structures, mechanisms and workplans to turn the treaty into action.

According to UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon: ‘The conclusion [of this Convention] indicates a significant and fundamental change in the position of many governments that, until recently, regarded cluster munitions as essential to their security policies and military doctrines. The importance of this shift cannot be overemphasised’.

While countries such as the USA, Russia, China and Pakistan are known to be against the ban, civil society and many of the governments that were present in Oslo are hoping that through active stigmatisation cluster munitions will be rendered totally obsolete as a weapons of war in the very near future. As Nqakula concluded, “…let us hope that through such a stigmatisation process we will persuade those states that choose not to join us in signing this Convention, to effectively do away with all cluster munitions and thereby cause absolutely no further harm to civilians”.

GuguDube, Junior Researcher: Arms Management Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)

Note - Countries that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, on 3 and 4 December include: Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Comores, Republic of Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte D`Ivoire, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Equador, El Salvador, Fiji, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, The Holy See, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lao PDR, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar , Malawi, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Rwanda, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Uganda, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Zambia.