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Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo on 3 December 2008. The status of the ratification process is unknown. Tanzania is not believed to have ever used, produced, stockpiled, or transferred cluster munitions.
Tanzania did not attend the initial Oslo Process meeting in Oslo in February 2007, but participated in two of the three subsequent international diplomatic conferences to develop the convention text in Lima and Vienna,[1] as well as the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008. It also participated in both of the African regional conferences, in Livingstone in March/April 2008 and Kampala in September 2008.
In Lima, Tanzania said it is “neither a producer nor a user of cluster munitions” and not affected by the weapon, but supports the Oslo Process in part because of its work to eradicate landmines.[2]
During the Dublin negotiations, Tanzania worked hard to achieve a strong treaty text and to defeat proposals to weaken it. It opposed a transition period before obligations take effect.[3] It opposed language on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party) and sought a comprehensive definition.[4] At the end of the negotiations, Tanzania said that while it was “convinced that we could have concluded a far stronger treaty” it was nonetheless ready to adopt the text.[5]
At the regional meeting in Kampala in September 2008, Tanzania announced that it would sign the convention. It endorsed the Kampala Action Plan, which declared that states should sign and “take all necessary measures to ratify the convention as soon as possible.”[6] Tanzania said that it hoped to be among the first 30 countries to ratify.
Upon signing the convention in Oslo, Tanzania’s Minister of Defence and National Service, Hussein Ali Mwinyi, said, “Unique opportunities such as [the Oslo Process] should…not be interpreted as threats to the conventional disarmament negotiations under the UN framework. They complement and add value to such conventional negotiations.” He also noted, “It would be meaningless and a huge disappointment to have a [new CCW] Protocol which falls short to the standards we have set in the Convention on Cluster Munitions.” [7] Tanzania is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
[1] While not at the Wellington conference in February 2008, Tanzania endorsed the Wellington Declaration as a prerequisite to full participation in the Dublin negotiations; the declaration committed states to negotiate in Dublin on the basis of the draft Wellington text.
[2] Statement of Tanzania, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2008. Notes by CMC/WILPF.
[3] Summary Record of the Committee of the Whole, Eighth Session: 23 May 2008, Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions, CCM/CW/SR/8, 18 June 2008.
[4] Dublin Diplomatic Conference, 19–30 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[5] Summary Record of the Committee of the Whole, Sixteenth Session: 28 May 2008, Dublin Diplomatic Conference, CCM/CW/SR/16, 18 June 2008; and Statement of Tanzania, Dublin Diplomatic Conference, 28 May 2008. Notes by Landmine Action.
[6] CMC, “Report on the Kampala Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” 30 September 2008; Kampala Action Plan, Kampala Conference, 30 September 2008.
[7] Statement by Hussein Ali Mwinyi, Minister of Defence and National Service, Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference, Oslo, 3 December 2008.