Winning the War Against Antipersonnel Mines: Biggest Challenges Still Ahead

24 Nov 2004 07:48:00 GMT

Source: NGO latest
ICBL

Landmine Monitor Report 2004
Cover Photo: Fred Clarke, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) – USA
Website:
New Report Looks at 5-Year Trends

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 today.

â~@~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,â~@~] said ICBL
Ambassador Jody Williams, who shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with
the ICBL. â~@~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 provide adequate assistance to landmine
victims,â~@~] 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, production, 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 ICBLâ~@~Ys 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.

â~@~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,â~@~] 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.

â~@~Compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty by States Parties has
been very impressive, but not absolute or uniform,â~@~] 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 particular,
the ICBL has expressed concerns 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 antihandling devices, and the permissible
number 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 to 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. â~@~There is now
consistent and reliable evidence to show that mine action is making
a measurable difference in the lives of millions of people living
in mine-affected countries,â~@~] 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. â~@~Clearly tremendous progress has been made in the field of
humanitarian mine action using the comprehensive framework provided
by the Mine Ban Treaty,â~@~] 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 (January 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. â~@~Without sufficient
and sustained resources, we fear that many States Parties will not meet
their treaty obligation to remove emplaced mines within ten years,â~@~]
said Mr. Stan Brabant of Handicap International and Landmine Monitor
Research Coordinator for mine risk education. â~@~This is a critical
time, and our goal of a mine-free world is within reach,â~@~]
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 Ethiopia. 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 countries in 2003, 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 caused 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.

â~@~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,â~@~] said Ms. Sheree Bailey of Handicap International, Landmine
Monitorâ~@~Ys Victim Assistance Research Coordinator. â~@~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,â~@~] she added.

According to Landmine Monitor, in 2003, new landmine and UXO casualties
were recorded in 65 countries. 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 the area of victim assistance. Landmine Monitor
reports that while global mine action funding has increased greatly
since 1999, identifiable resources 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.

â~@~In many mine-affected countries the assistance available to
rehabilitate and reintegrate landmine survivors back into society
remains desperately inadequate,â~@~] said Ms. Bailey. â~@~If
governments are serious in their commitment to assist survivors,
funding for healthcare and the disability sector must be significantly
increased and sustained over the long-term,â~@~] she added.Landmine
Monitor identified only 35 countries receiving resources from other
States for mine victim assistance programs in 2003, with 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
victim assistance in every country of the world. This year¡¦s
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 â~@~Core
Groupâ~@~] 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
People¡¦s Aid. A total of 110 Landmine Monitor researchers in 93
countries systematically collected and analyzed information from a wide
variety of sources for this comprehensive 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.

The full Landmine Monitor report and related documents are available
online in various languages at

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact:

BELGIUM: Ms. Annelies Vanoppen, Handicap International, +32 (2)
286-50-38, Email. annelies.vanoppen-replacewatsign-handicap.be

MOZAMBIQUE: Ms. Inger Sandberg, Norwegian People’s Aid, +47 97 97 75 91

CAMBODIA: Ms. Sheree Bailey, Landmine Monitor Victim Assistance
Research Coordinator, +855 12 693 823

NAIROBI: Ms. Sue Wixley, ICBL, Tel. + 254 (0735) 337-396, Email.
media-replacewatsign-icbl.org

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