Slovakia has already liquidated all stocks of cluster munitions of the Slovak Armed Forces, thus fulfilling its commitment in the area of the international humanitarian law, Slovak Defence Ministry officials announced at the meeting of the countries that joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions held in Geneva on Tuesday, Defence Ministry spokesperson Maria Precner informed.
"Since the Slovak authorities made a political decision to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions ten years ago, our commitment to this key instrument of international humanitarian law has been a priority for Slovakia," said head of the Defence Ministry's Defence Policy Section Jan Mozola. He confirmed that Slovakia has fulfilled its goal as of September 1, 2023. Thus it has zero stockpiles of cluster ammunition at the moment. Under international commitments, stocks of cluster munitions must be liquidated by the end of 2023.
The liquidation concerned several types of aerial and artillery cluster munitions, including 300,000 pieces of sub-munitions that the Slovak Armed Forces disposed of in line with the approved action plan. Through experts in the disposal of unexploded explosives they launched the process in 2013, before joining the convention. A part of the ammunition was liquidated in selected military facilities of the Slovak Armed Forces, while another part was liquidated abroad. Concerning the M26-type missiles, their disposal was moved to a specialized workplace of the international aviation and defence company NAMMO NAD in Norway due to the potential negative ecological impact.
This part of the cluster munition disposal project was implemented thanks to the financial assistance of the USA based on the Memorandum of Understanding between the Slovak Republic and the USA on assistance in the disposal of conventional weapons and was carried out through the NSPA agency (NATO Support and Procurement Agency). The use of cluster munitions has been banned by more than 120 countries because they pose a serious risk to the civilian population not only when they are fired, but also later.
(TASR)
