Use of Antipersonnel Mines Declined in 2005, But Burma, Nepal and Russia Continue to Lay Mines

Human Rights Watch, WASHINGTON: Use of antipersonnel mines around the world decreased in 2005, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said today in its latest annual report on the global landmine problem. The ICBL removed Egypt and Iraq from its list of antipersonnel mine producers, and said that there was virtually no trade in antipersonnel mines across the world.  
 
The 1,053-page “Landmine Monitor Report 2005: Toward a Mine-Free World,” the seventh in an annual series, documents compliance with the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, as well as efforts to eradicate antipersonnel mines in all countries. Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the ICBL, which received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, and is one of four ICBL organizations coordinating the Landmine Monitor project.  
 
“The use of landmines around the world has decreased this year,” said Steve Goose, director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Division. “But Burma, Nepal and Russia deserve strong condemnation as the governments that continued to lay antipersonnel mines in 2005.”  
 
In 2004, those same three countries used antipersonnel mines and there was also strong evidence of use by Georgian troops, though the government denies it.  
 
Today rebel forces, rather than government troops, are the primary users of antipersonnel mines. Rebel forces were reported to have used antipersonnel mines (or mine-like improvised explosive devices) in 13 countries, compared to 16 countries in the previous Landmine Monitor report. Rebel landmine use was especially widespread in Burma, Colombia and Nepal.  
 
Four countries joined the Mine Ban Treaty in the past year, including Ethiopia (a heavily mine-affected nation that used mines as recently as 2000), Bhutan, Latvia and Vanuatu. There are a total of 147 States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty and an additional seven countries that have signed but not yet ratified the treaty. The treaty comprehensively prohibits use, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines; it requires destruction of stockpiled mines in four years and clearance of minefields in 10 years.  
 
Countries that are party to the Mine Ban Treaty have now destroyed 38.3 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines. Yesterday, on November 21, Algeria became the 71st State Party to complete stockpile destruction. Non-signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty hold an estimated 160 million antipersonnel mines in stockpile, including China (estimated 110 million mines), Russia (26.5 million mines) and the United States (10.4 million mines). Earlier this year, Russia for the first time disclosed the number of mines in its stockpile; of the 26.5 million, a total of 23.5 million are subject to destruction by 2015.  
 
Landmine Monitor has removed Egypt and Iraq from its list of antipersonnel producers, dropping the number to 13, a stark contrast to the more than 50 manufacturers in the early 1990s. For the first time, Egypt made a formal statement that it has a moratorium on production, and Iraqi officials confirmed that production facilities were destroyed in 2003 by Coalition bombing. Iraq has made a number of statements in support of banning antipersonnel mines and indicated at the U.N. General Assembly its intention to join the Mine Ban Treaty.  
 
The United States has not produced antipersonnel mines since 1997, but has been developing new mines that appear to be incompatible with the Mine Ban Treaty. The U.S. Department of Defense is due to make a production decision on one such type, Spider, in December. The Pentagon requested a total of US$1.77 billion for research on and production of new landmine systems over the next five years.  
 
The de facto global ban on the trade of antipersonnel mines held tight in 2004 and 2005. Since the mid-1990s, there has been only a very low level of illicit trafficking and unacknowledged trade taking place.  
 
International donors provided a record $399 million for mine clearance and other mine action activities in 2004, an increase of $60 million, or 18 percent, from 2003. Nearly half of the funding went to just three of the 84 mine-affected countries: Afghanistan, Iraq and Cambodia. Well over 135 square kilometers of mine-affected land (equivalent to 14,000 soccer pitches) were cleared in 2004 in 33 countries, destroying about 140,000 antipersonnel mines, 50,000 antivehicle mines, and three million items of unexploded ordnance.  
 
Around the world, the number of reported new casualties due to landmines or unexploded ordnance decreased to 6,521 in 2004, compared with 8,065 in 2003. However, due to significant underreporting in many countries, Landmine Monitor estimates that there are 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties each year. There were new mine casualties reported in 58 countries in 2004, eight fewer than the previous year.  
 
“Landmine Monitor Report 2005” contains information on landmine use, production, trade, stockpiling, demining, casualties and victim assistance in 112 countries. A total of 77 Landmine Monitor researchers in 72 countries contributed to the report. The ICBL will present the report to diplomats attending the week-long Sixth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, which formally opens in Zagreb, Croatia, on November 28.