Belarus
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Five-Year Review: Non-signatory Belarus acknowledges the humanitarian rationale for the convention, but objects to the way it was negotiated. It has not participated in any meetings of the convention.Belarus has not produced cluster munitions, but inherited a stockpile from the Soviet Union. It is not known to have used cluster munitions.
Policy
The Republic of Belarus has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Belarus said in 2008 that it “shares the humanitarian concerns” caused by the use of cluster munitions but objects to the way in which the convention was negotiated outside UN auspices.[1]
Belarus has expressed a preference that cluster munitions should be addressed through the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), to which it is party. However, it is not known if this position will be reevaluated following the 2011 failure of the CCW to agree on the draft protocol on cluster munitions, effectively ending its deliberations on the weapons and leaving the Convention on Cluster Munitions as the sole international instrument on cluster munitions.
Belarus officials rarely comment on the Convention on Cluster Munitions. In November 2010, a government representative told the CMC the convention is “too strict” and not applicable for Belarus as it may threaten its security.[2]
Belarus did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and has not attended any meetings of the convention in the period since 2008, not even as an observer.[3]
Belarus is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
In 2010, Belarus said, “Our country is not a producer of cluster munitions.”[4] It is not known to have used or exported cluster munitions.
Belarus inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union. In 2010, Belarus said that it doesn’t have a “major” stockpile of cluster munitions, but it has not provided any information on the types or quantities.[5]
According to Jane’s Information Group, RBK-500 series cluster bombs are in service with the country’s air force.[6] Belarus also possesses Grad 122mm, Uragan 220mm, and Smerch 300mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[7]
According to a CMC member in Belarus, cluster munitions with expired shelf-life are regularly destroyed by the Ministry of Defense.[8]
[1] Statement of Belarus, UN General Assembly, First Committee Disarmament and International Security, New York, 30 October 2008. Translation provided by email from Tatiana Fedorovich, Permanent Mission of Belarus to the UN in New York, 26 November 2008.
[2] Meeting with Ivan Grinevich, Counsellor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, in Geneva, 30 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
[3] For details on Belarus’s cluster munition policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 190–191.
[4] Statement of Belarus, Convention on Conventional Weapons Group of Governmental Experts on Cluster Munitions, Geneva, 1 September 2010. Notes by Action on Armed Violence.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 836.
[7] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 89; and Colin King, ed., Jane’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal 2007–2008, CD-edition, 15 January 2008 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2008).
[8] Interview with Dr. Iouri Zagoumennov, Support Center for Associations and Foundations, Minsk, 1 April 2010.