Mizzima-Sept 10
Myanmar produced and used cluster munitions over the past year, placing it among a shrinking group of countries still manufacturing the internationally banned weapon even as global civilian casualties from cluster munitions climbed to among the highest levels on record in 2025. According to the Cluster Munition Monitor 2026, the 17th annual report from the Cluster Munition Coalition, a global coalition of nongovernmental organizations co-founded by Human Rights Watch, Myanmar produced cluster munitions during the reporting period spanning mid-2025 to mid-2026, alongside China, India, Israel, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia and South Korea. The report also documented Myanmar’s use of the weapon during the same period, alongside Iran, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine, none of which are parties to the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions. Cluster munitions killed or injured at least 1,063 people worldwide in 2025, among the highest annual totals the Monitor has recorded. Myanmar was named among nine countries where new casualties occurred during the year, alongside Afghanistan, Cambodia, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Russia, Syria and Ukraine. Civilians accounted for 87 percent of casualties where their status could be determined, the report found. Myanmar’s military was first documented producing and using a domestically made cluster munition in a 2023 Monitor briefing, which found attacks in Chin, Kayah, Kayin and Shan states dating back to the 2021 coup. Myanmar has never joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the production, use, transfer and stockpiling of the weapon and currently counts 112 states parties and 12 signatories. The findings were released ahead of the convention’s Third Review Conference, scheduled for 14 to 18 September in Vientiane, Laos. Human Rights Watch has called on the treaty’s 124 member states to use the meeting to condemn continued production, transfer and use of cluster munitions by countries that remain outside the convention. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/09/10/38417
