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Laying Landmines to Rest?
IRIN Web Special on Humanitarian Mine Action
(with special focus on the 2004 Nairobi Summit of a Mine Free World)
The destruction of anti-personnel mines stockpiles: wiping out caches saves lives and prevents injury
The destruction of millions of unwanted mines is a huge logistical and financial commitment for any country.
Credit: MAG/Sean Sutton
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All over the world governments are instructing their armies to destroy their landmines - not landmines laid in the ground, but huge quantities of anti-personnel landmines stockpiled as part of their military arsenals. Millions of mines are being pulverised, dismantled, blown up, incinerated, laser-cut or melted in compliance with Article 4 of the Mine Ban Treaty of 1997.
Stockpiled anti-personnel landmines far outnumber those actually laid in the ground, but under the obligations to the treaty and with the global stigmatisation of mines, the 143 states party to the international legislation have been busy destroying their stocks. According to the agreements, governments are required to destroy their stockpiles within 4 years after their accession to the treaty.
"Quite remarkably, so far, every country that has come up to their deadline has met it, so there have been no failures at all in terms of meeting the first key deadline of stockpile destruction," Martin Barber, Chief of the United Nations Mine Action Service told IRIN. He said he considers the success of stockpile destruction to date as "a remarkable achievement". The numbers of mines involved are huge and the effort and cost of destroying the mine stocks in a relatively short period of time are equally impressive. According to the Landmines Monitor publication, which tracks and monitors the progress of the treaty, in 1999 the global stockpiles of anti-personnel mines (APM) were more than 250 million in 108 countries worldwide. Today, less than 200 million remain in stockpiles with over 50 million having been destroyed in the last five years.
Many countries are quietly dealing with the challenge by transporting the weapons to remote areas for large scale controlled explosions while others use the opportunity to bring in the press and diplomats to witness symbolic demonstrations of APM destruction, emphasising publicly their commitment to their obligations under the treaty.
Stockpiles and the global reach of the Treaty
The problem of the remaining mine stockpiles is closely linked to the "universalisation" of the treaty because most of the mines are still held by certain key countries that continue to refuse to sign up. Approximately 190 million mines are held by non-signatory countries, with an estimated 110 million in China's hands alone. Russia still stockpiles an estimated 50 million mines despite its claim in 2003 to have voluntarily destroyed over 16 million mines. The United States admits to stockpiling over 10 million mines while Pakistan and India have about 11 million between them.
Despite the failure of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in persuading these important nations to get on board, it is upbeat about the compliance record of states party to the treaty. It is confident that the Landmines Monitor figures are an accurate estimation of the current situation and that governments are providing accurate information about their stockpiles.
The role and activities of the USA are of interest because while it refuses to join the Mine Ban Treaty it is committed to humanitarian mine action and is "smartening up" its mines stocks by converting or destroying its "dumb" mines. According to the State Department, in June 1998 the United States completed destruction of over 3.3 million of its non-self-destructing, or "dumb", anti-personnel landmines, retaining only those necessary for training, research, and the defence of South Korea. "Smart" mines are more sophisticated devices with a limited lifespan, their specific characteristics allow them to self-destruct in contrast to dumb mines, which remain live. Critics of smart mines say that their high failure rate means many become de facto APM and are no different from the cruder dumb mines, which cause most of the havoc around the world today.
According to the Landmines Monitor 2003 Report, "An important milestone in the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty was reached on 1st March 2003: the four year deadline for destruction of stockpiled anti-personnel mines for all countries that were party to the treaty when it first entered into force on 1st March 1999." It said that all signatories met the deadline in 2003, which ICBL cites as an important test of the health and viability of the treaty.
In terms of teeth and official enforcement, neither the treaty, the ICBL nor any other body has the power to impose signatories' compliance of different parts of the treaty. Some writers and activists have warned that the "verification-free" nature of the treaty could allow governments to cheat or sign the treaty without an intention to comply but, to date, the ICBL claims that compliance with stockpile destruction has been a huge success.
Minefields in Sri Lanka: Destroying stockpiles is about future generations not having to face these scenes.
Credit: MAG/Sean Sutton
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Changing the international "norm"
Any form of coercion is unnecessary, said Wolfgang Petritsch, president-designate of the Nairobi Summit for a Mine Free World. He said so far countries have adhered to their treaty obligations, an indication, that APMs have been so heartily denounced.
He told IRIN that, "What is remarkable is to see the changed level of behaviour worldwide as a result of the campaign and treaty ... in relation to landmines the international behavioural norm has spread far beyond the 143-member states [party to the treaty]." This was echoed by many others interviewed by IRIN who saw the decline in production, sale, use and stockpiles of APM as clear evidence that the treaty is not only working but is voluntarily adhered to.
However, campaigners are keen that complacency does not dominate the Nairobi conference. There still remains much work to be done. One area of concern for the ICBL is the number of mines some countries are refusing to destroy and retain for training purposes. The treaty allows for signatories to retain a minimum number of mines deemed "absolutely necessary" for military training purposes but some countries appear to holding back far more than would seem reasonable. Landmines Monitor 2003 said Tajikistan retained almost 70,000 anti-personnel mines for "training" and Sweden, Brazil, Algeria and Bangladesh are also singled out as signatories that currently retain 15,000 mines or more for training purposes. The ICBL continues to publicly question the need for live mines for training and calls on signatories to evaluate why they really need to keep these mines.
While the ICBL and others point to the successful destruction of over 30 million mines by treaty signatories in the last 5 years, critics stress that six or seven times this number are still held by non-signatories. If these countries continue to refuse to sign the treaty these massive stockpiles will still be in place in 2009 - the target date for signatories to have cleared their mines. Stockpile destruction, however, has a shorter time period of four years following accession to the treaty.
The Nairobi summit in late November 2004 marks the halfway point between "entry into force" of the treaty and the 2009 deadline. The summit is expected to attract over 600 international delegates, including various heads of state and the UN Secretary-General. High on the agenda will be the "universalisation" of the Mine Ban Treaty and the issue of stockpile destruction.
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