At the first anniverary of the treaty banning cluster bombs becoming binding under international law on 1st Aug, campaigners condemned Thailand’s recent use of cluster bombs against Cambodia, despite both countries recently announcing their plans to ratify the treaty.

 “Despite recent progress, cluster bombs were used this year by the Thai military in Cambodia,” say campaign advocates, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). “These incidents were met with international criticism, demonstrating that even countries that are still outside the ban are not exempt from condemnation if they use these weapons.”

In April, the CMC concluded, based on two separate on-site investigations, that Thailand used cluster munitions during the border conflict, leaving some 5,000 people living in the Cambodian border village of Sen Chey at risk of death or serious injury. Thai officials were said to confirm the use of cluster munitions in meetings with the same agency. 

In April, Sister Denise Coghlan, a CMC researcher based in Cambodia, noted that "these cluster munitions have already robbed two men of their lives. Two more have lost their arms and a further five were injured.”

Cluster munitions are weapons containing multiple, often hundreds, of small explosive ‘bomblets’, indiscriminately released over vast areas. Often, such weapons fail to explode on impact and remain a threat to lives and livelihoods for decades to come.

Thailand’s use of these weapons marks the first use of cluster munitions anywhere in the world since the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions entered into force.

Despite this, early last month, “both Thailand and Cambodia indicated their intention to join (the Treaty) in the near future," said Steve Goose, of the CMC. "This is significant and somewhat remarkable in that early this year Thailand was firing cluster munitions in Cambodia in their border dispute," he added.

 Since 2008, a total of 109 countries have become party to the Convention.

 “An impressive amount has been achieved in the cluster bomb ban treaty’s first year of life,” said Laura Cheeseman, director of the Cluster Muition Coalition (CMC).“Stockpiles are being destroyed and contaminated land is being cleared, preventing thousands more lives being lost as a result of these weapons,” she added.

More than 589,000 cluster bombs containing more than 64 million explosive submunitions have now been destroyed thanks to the Convention, with eight States Parties and at least three signatories having already completed destruction of their stockpiles.

Cambodia and Thailand are expected to meet for further discussions of the proposed ratification of the Convention, at this year's International Mine Ban Treaty Meeting in Phnom Penh this November.