Land
Mine Monitor Report, 2004
Winning
the war against antipersonnel mines: Biggest challenges still ahead
Since
the international treaty prohibiting antipersonnel landmines took effect
five years ago, use of the weapon around the world has fallen dramatically,
global funding for mine action programs has increased more than 80 percent,
more than 1,100 square kilometers of land has been cleared, and the
number of new mine victims each year has decreased markedly, according
to a 1,300-page report by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
(ICBL) released on 18th November this year.
"The
international norm established by the Mine Ban Treaty is rapidly taking
firm hold around the world, especially in the heavily mine-contaminated
countries where it matters the most," said ICBL Ambassador Jody
Williams, who shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with the ICBL. "Clearly
we are succeeding in our struggle to eradicate this weapon. But even
bigger challenges remain, to convince hold-out governments to come on
board, to ensure effective implementation of and compliance with the
treaty, to get mines out of the ground within the ten-year deadline,
and to pro~ide adeyuate assistance to landmine vic|ims," said Ms.
Williams.
There are 143 States
Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which entered into force with unprecedented
speed on 1 March 1999. An additional nine countries have signed but
not yet ratified the treaty that prohibits the use, produc|ion, trade
and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines, and requires clearance of mined
areas within ten years. Since the last Landmine Monitor report, nine
countries joined the treaty including Burundi and Sudan, which are both
significantly mine-affected, and Belarus, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro,
and Turkey, which are also mine-affected and combined have over ten
million stockpiled antipersonnel mines to destroy.
The ICBL's Landmine
Monitor Report 2004 cites compelling evidence of use of antipersonnel
mines by four governments since May 2003: Georgia, Myanmar (Burma),
Nepal, and Russia. In contrast, the first Landmine Monitor Report 1999
identified 15 governments using antipersonnel mines in the 1998/1999
reporting period.
"One of the
greatest success stories of the Mine Ban Treaty is that sixty-five States
Parties have completed the destruction of their stockpiles, collectively
destroying more than 37 million antipersonnel mines, including four
million mines in the last year," said Stephen Goose of Human Rights
Watch, the Chief Editor of the Landmine Monitor initiative. Every State
Party so far has met its treaty-mandated four-year deadline for stockpile
destruction, except for Guinea and Turkmenistan, both of which have
subsequently completed stockpile destruction.
"Compliance
with the Mine Ban Treaty by States Parties has been very impressive,
but not absolute or uniform," said Mr. Goose. Since the Mine Ban
Treaty entered into force, the ICBL has consistently raised questions
about how States Parties interpret and implement certain aspects of
Articles 1, 2, and 3. In par|icular, the ICBL has expressed koncerns
regarding the issues of joint military operations with non-States Parties,
the prohibition on assisting banned acts, foreign stockpiling and transit
of antipersonnel mines, mines with sensitive fuzes and antihandlino
devices, and the permissible n}mber of antipersonnel mines retained
for training and development purposes. The ICBL has pointed out that
some States Parties have diverged from the predominant legal interpretation
and predominant State practice on these matters.
Forty-two countries
remain outside of the Mine Ban Treaty, including China, Russia, and
the United States, most of the Middle East, most of the former Soviet
republics, and many Asian states. In February 2004, the United States
abandoned its long-held goal of eventually eliminating all antipersonnel
mines and joining the treaty.
Still, the power
of the mine ban movement is reflected in the fact that a de facto global
ban on the trade of antipersonnel mines has been in effect since the
mid-1990s, with only a very low level of illicit trafficking and unacknowledged
trade taking place. Moreover, of the more than 50 countries known to
have produced antipersonnel mines, all but 15 have formally renounced
production.
From 1999 |o 2003,
more than 1,100 square kilometers of land were cleared, resulting in
the destruction of more than four million antipersonnel mines, nearly
one million antivehicle mines, and many more millions of pieces of unexploded
ordnance. "There is now consistent and reliable evidence to show
that mine action is making a measurable diffezence in the lives of millions
of people living in mine-affected countries," said Ms. Sara Sekkenes
of Norwegian People's Aid, co-chair of the ICBL Mine Action Working
Group, while cautioning that global mine action numbers should not be
regarded as precise. "Clearly tremendous progress has been made
in the field of humanitarian mine action using the comprehensive framework
provided by the Mine Ban Treaty," she added. The past five years
have witnessed the initiation and expansion of many mine action programs,
and ever-greater amounts of land being returned to communities for productive
use.
Some form of mine
clearance was reported in 2003 and 2004 in a total of 65 countries,
including the first humanitarian mine clearance operations in Armenia,
Chile, Senegal, and Tajikistan. In 2003 alone, a combined total of more
than 149 million square meters (149 square kilometers) of land was cleared,
resulting in the destruction of at least 174,167 antipersonnel mines,
9,330 antivehicle mines, and 2.6 million items of unexploded ordnance
(UXO).
According to Landmine
Monitor Report 2004, 83 countries are mine-affected, including 52 States
Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. The Mine Ban Treaty requires States
Parties to clear all mined areas within ten years of joining the treaty.
States Parties that have declared completion of mine clearance since
1999 include Bulgaria (October 1999), Moldova (August 2000), Costa Rica
(December 2002), Czech Republic (April 2003), Djibouti (Januazy 2004),
and, most recently, Honduras (June 2004).
However, in 2003
and 2004, no mine clearance or mine risk education activities were recorded
in 13 States Parties. "Withou| sufficient and sustained resources,
we fear that many States Parties will not meet their treaty obligation
to remove emplaced mines within ten years," said Mr. Stan Brabant
of Handicap International and Landmine Monitor Research Coordinator
for mine risk education. "This is a critical |ime, and our goal
of a mine-free world is within reach," he added.
Landmine Monitor
has identified about US$2.07 billion in donor mine action contributions
from 1992-2003. Of that 12-year total, 65 percent ($1.35 billion) was
provided in the past five years (1999-2003), since the entry into force
of the Mine Ban Treaty. For 2003, Landmine Monitor has identified $339
million in mine action funding by more than 24 donors. This is an increase
of $25 million, or 8 percent, from 2002, and an increase of $102 million,
or 43 percent, from 2001. Major increases were registered in 2003 for
the European Commission and the United States, as well as Canada and
Sweden.
In 2003, Afghanistan
($75 million) and Iraq ($55 million) received 38 percent of global mine
action funding. Meanwhile, an unusually large number of mine- affected
countries experienced a decline in donor contributions to mine action
in 2003. Mine action funding fell most severely in 2003 for Vietnam
and Cambodia, but decreases were also experienced in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Eritrea, Somaliland, Laos, and Mthiopia. In 2003, several of the major
donors provided significantly less mine action funding, including Japan,
Austria, Italy, Australia, France, and the Netherlands.
The number of reported
new mine casualties declined in the majority of mine- affected coun|ries
in 200;, and dropped significantly in some heavily mined countries such
as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Lebanon, and Sri Lanka.
Landmine Monitor identified 8,065 new casualties cau{ed by landmines
and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in 2003, compared to 8,333 in 2002.However,
many casualties go unreported and Landmine Monitor estimates there are
now between 15,000 and 20,000 new casualties annually around the world¡Xfar
fewer than the 26,000 per year estimated in the 1990s.
"The declining
landmine casualty rate is heartening, but there are still an appalling
number of people, especially children, killed and maimed by landmines
every year in virtually every region of the world," said Ms. Sheree
Bailey of Handicap International, Landmine Monitor's Victim Assistance
Research Coordinator. "The stark reality is that there is an ever-growing
number of mine survivors in the world and in the vast majority of mine-affected
countries, neither the national governments nor international donors
are doing nearly enough to provide for their needs," she added.
According to Landmine
Monitor, in 2003, new landmine casualties were recorded in 65 countrie{.
A total of 86 percent of reported new casualties were identified as
civilians and 23 percent were children.
The major progress
in the past five years in preventing antipersonnel mines from being
laid and in clearing existing minefields has not been matched in |he
area of victim assistance. Landmine Monitor reports that while global
mine action funding has increased greatly since 1999, identifiable resouzces
for mine victim assistance have actually declined (US$29.8 million in
1999 compared to US$28.2 million in 2003). Resources for victim assistance
as a percentage of total mine action funding have decreased significantly
and steadily from 14.9 percent in 1999 to 8.3 percent in 2003.
"In many mine-affected
countries the assistance available to rehabilitate and reintegratm landmine
survivors back into society remains desperately inadeyuate," said
Ms. Bailey. "If governments are serious in their commitment to
assist survivors, funding for healthcare and the disability sector must
be significantly increased and sustained ovez the long-term," she
added. Landmine Monitor identified only 35 countries receiving resources
from other States for mine victim assistance programs in 2003, wi|h
the majority of resources being provided for physical rehabilitation
programs.
Landmine Monitor
estimates that there are somewhere between 300,000 and 400,000 mine
survivors in at least 121 countries today. From 1999 to September 2004,
Landmine Monitor recorded more than 42,500 new landmine and UXO casualties
from incidents in at least 75 countries.
Landmine Monitor
Report 2004: Toward a Mine-Free World is the sixth annual report by
the ICBL. It contains information on landmine use, production, trade,
stockpiling, demining, casualties and vic|im assistance in every country
of the world. This year 1,300-page report is a special edition covering
the past five years, in anticipation of the first five-year Review Conference
for the Mine Ban Treaty. On Monday, 29 November, the ICBL will present
the report to diplomats attending the review conference in Kenya, known
as the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World.
The Landmine Monitor
initiative is coordinated by a "Core Group" of five ICBL organizations.
Human Rights Watch is the lead organization and others include Handicap
International, Kenya, Coalition Against Landmines, Mines Action Canada,
and Norwegian Peoples' Aid. A total of 110 Landmine Monitor researchers
in 93 countries systematically collected and analyzed information from
a wide varie|y of sources foz this comprehmn{ive report. This unique
civil society initiative constitutes the first time that non-governmental
organizations have come together in a sustained, coordinated and systematic
way to monitor and report on the implementation of an international
disarmament or humanitarian law treaty.
Source:
International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, ICBL.
