IRELAND FAVORS CLUSTER MUNITIONS TREATY, WILL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBLIN 000060

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/10/2017
TAGS: MOPS PARM PREL NATO EI
SUBJECT: IRELAND FAVORS CLUSTER MUNITIONS TREATY, WILL
ATTEND OSLO CONFERENCE

REF: STATE 6667

Classified By: Political/Economic Section Chief Joe Young; Reasons 1.4
(B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary: Ireland supports movement toward an
international treaty restricting the use of cluster munitions
(CM) and will participate in the February 22-23 CM conference
in Oslo, according to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs
(DFA). Ireland, however, continues to see the Convention on
Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) as the primary forum for
pursuing a CM treaty. End summary.

Irish Support for a CM Treaty
--------------


2. (SBU) Ireland strongly supports efforts to develop a
legally binding international treaty to restrict the use of
cluster munitions (CM),according to Nicholas Twist,
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Deputy Director for
Disarmament and Nonproliferation, to whom Pol/Econ Chief
delivered reftel demarche on January 23. Twist noted that,
since mid-2002, Ireland had voiced concern in Convention on
Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) fora about the
indiscriminate effects of CM and the lack of proportionality
between CM military targeting and collateral civilian damage.
He cited a statement by the Irish delegation to the November
2006 CCW Review Conference (RevCon) expressing regret that
the conference did not yield a more comprehensive mandate to
deal with "this grave humanitarian issue." The statement
also mentioned that Ireland would "continue to work within
the CCW and elsewhere to seek agreement on a legally binding
instrument on the use of cluster munitions." Twist added
that CM-focused NGOs had recently testified before the Irish
Parliament, fueling nonpartisan political support for CM
restrictions.


3. (SBU) Ireland therefore planned to participate in the
February 22-23 CM conference in Oslo. Twist said that the
DFA deputy legal advisor, an Irish Department of Defense
official, and he himself would represent the Irish Government
at the Oslo conference. Twist added that an Irish Defense
Department official and a DFA representative would also take
part in the April 18-20 experts meeting hosted by the ICRC in
Montreaux.

The Lebanon Lesson
--------------


4. (C) CM deployment during the 2006 Lebanon conflict had
heightened international attention to, and Irish concerns
about, such weapons, said Twist. He observed that Irish
troops had been involved in the original UNIFIL mission since
its inception and had joined the recently reconstituted
UNIFIL force. Irish soldiers, said Twist, had witnessed the
effects of CM bombing in Lebanon and remained vulnerable to
their potential future use, a possibility that weighed on
Irish Government leaders. Irish troops involved in securing
areas of Lebanon for reconstruction efforts, as well as
officials of Irish Aid (the DFA's overseas development
assistance arm) operating in other regions of conflict, were
also familiar with the difficulties faced by civilian
populations in returning to CM-damaged areas.

CCW Still the Primary Forum
--------------


5. (C) Ireland was not "shutting the door" on the CCW by
participating in the Oslo conference, Twist stressed.
Rather, Ireland still viewed the CCW as the primary context
for pursuing a CM treaty, and the Irish Government hoped that
the Oslo event would be catalytic for CM discussions in the
June 19-22 CCW government experts meeting on explosive
remnants of war (ERW). Twist added that Foreign Minister
Dermot Ahern favored a total CM ban, but realized that the
CCW offered the best chance for achieving an effective, if
not perfect, treaty that would garner broad international
support. Moreover, Ireland was a longstanding, enthusiastic
supporter of the UN and wished to work within UN structures,
such as the CCW, on arms control issues. Twist ventured that
the Norwegian Government had moved forward with the Oslo
conference because of exasperation with slow progress on CM
within the CCW and also because the prospects for an
action-forcing CM discussion at the June CCW experts meeting

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appeared dim.

U.S. not the Major Irish Concern
--------------


6. (C) In response to Pol/Econ Chief's points about the
reliability/accuracy of U.S. CM and strict U.S. military
targeting protocols, Twist noted that other countries, more
so than the United States, were Ireland's concern. He
remarked that older-generation CM in other countries' weapon
stocks had a high "dud" rate, effectively making them
landmines-in-waiting. The Lebanon conflict, he added, also
gave weight to Ireland's worries that other countries would
not deploy CM with U.S.-style scrupulousness. In the Irish
view, said Twist, the United States was key to debate on CM
restrictions insofar as the USG was a CM supplier and held
significant influence in international arms control matters.
FOLEY