Cluster munitions are delivered from aircraft or fired in rockets, missiles, and artillery projectiles. They open in the air to disperse multiple submunitions over a wide area and many fail to detonate as designed and pose a long-lasting danger, like landmines.
Since July 2023, U.S. President Joseph Biden has approved five transfers to Ukraine of U.S. cluster munitions delivered by 155mm artillery projectiles and by ballistic missiles.
Ukraine and the United States have not joined the cluster munitions treaty, which prohibits the weapons. However, 112 countries, including Germany, have ratified the treaty because of the foreseeable harm caused to civilians. At least 35 countries party to the convention regard the transit and foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions as prohibited by the convention.
When the U.S. transfers were first announced, more than two dozen world leaders expressed concern. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that as a member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Germany “opposes sending cluster munitions to Ukraine.”
That principled stand has been brought into question following a documentary by Germany media outlet ARD’s “Panorama” program, which aired July 25. A spokesperson for the U.S. Army for Europe and Africa confirmed in writing to ARD that U.S. 155mm and cluster munition artillery projectiles are stored at the U.S. Army’s ammunition storage depot in Miesau in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. From there, ARD reported, they have been shipped to Ukraine as part of U.S. military assistance, transiting across Germany and Poland in the process.
Germany’s “Status of Forces Agreement” with the U.S. stipulates how Germany hosts U.S. troops on its territory. There is little transparency surrounding the agreement, but it appears to be permissive when it comes to cluster munitions. This is because U.S. stocks of cluster munitions held on American military bases in Germany are not regarded under the agreement to be under German jurisdiction and control.
This news is dismaying given Germany’s exemplary leadership role in the convention. Germany was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on August 1, 2010. It hosted a major international conference on the destruction of cluster munitions stocks in Berlin in 2009 and completed the destruction of its cluster munition stockpile in 2015.
Germany served as president of the convention in 2017. In contrast, the United States did not participate, even as an observer, in the 2007–2008 Oslo Process that created the convention.
“President Biden should immediately halt the transfer of cluster munitions given the significant short-term and long-term humanitarian and human rights risks to civilians. Washington should take steps to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions without delay”; HRW said.