South Africa considers controversial cluster bombs to be legitimate weapons of war that should not be banned, but rather be regulated to prevent ‘unacceptable harm†to civilians.
South Africa and Egypt, the only two producers of cluster bombs in Africa, were also the only two countries to object to a total ban on the munitions at a continent-wide summit a few weeks ago.
The meeting was convened by the Cluster Munition Coalition in an attempt to reach a continent-wide consensus ahead of an international conference — the Oslo Process to be held on May 19 — that will negotiate new laws to ban or regulate cluster munitions.
Cluster bombs and munitions usually consist of a big bomb that releases ‘bomblets†designed to explode later in order to destroy hard-to-penetrate targets such as tanks and buildings. The main bomb is usually fired from aircrafts or long-range guns and is not very accurate.
Cluster bombs are notorious for leaving a trail of unexploded bomblets that kill or maim years later. The biggest cluster bombs can contain up to 700 bomblets, of which between 10% and 40% will fail to explode. It is estimated that there are a million unexploded bomblets in Lebanon alone, which were left after Israel attacked the country in 2006.
Rob Mtonga, who sits on the international steering committee of the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), argues that South Africa is driven by the need to protect state-owned company Denel.
This has been denied by Denel Munitions acting chief executive Hugo Ivy, who says the company has formally decided not to manufacture cluster bombs and munitions any more. The department of defence also has only negligible stockpiles of the weapons.
Director of the department of foreign affairs, Rob Wensley, says South Africa has never been in favour of a full ban, advocating a partial ban back in 2004.
‘Cluster munitions are deemed valid weapons of war, provided they are designed, constructed, maintained and used in a proper manner,†says Wensley.
South Africa argues that design is key and has pushed for the banning of only those weapons that cannot deliver a reliability rating of 98%.
‘South Africa is committed to proper use and discriminate targeting of these weapons according to the law of armed conflict,†says Wensley.
‘South Africa’s decision is one based on principle — and is not in this case based on [the] commercial interests of industry,†he said.
The use of cluster weapons is regulated by international humanitarian law, which, activist groups have argued, does not address the issue of enforcing rules on countries.
There are three broad schools of thought on cluster bombs. One group, consisting of most of Africa, Latin America, Austria and Belgium, favours a total ban.
At the other end of the spectrum are those countries such as the United States — the major producers of cluster munitions — which argue that the status quo is acceptable. South Africa is in the middle group, which only favours a partial ban.
South Africa, which says it will not force other African countries to adopt its position, is expected to argue for a partial ban at the conference scheduled to take place in Dublin next month.