Author(s):
Tamar Gabelnick <tamar@icbl.org> .
Thursday 26 April 2007
Intersessional Standing Committee Meetings
Update 1: 23-24 April 2007
Standing Committees: General Status of the Convention, Stockpile Destruction
General overview:
- Australia noted that it sent a letter to the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia about alleged transfers of AP mines to Somalia by 3 States Parties (SPs), but had not yet received a response
Universalization
- Australia –as MSP President, it wrote to all States not Parties to urge them to accede/ratify. It also sent a letter to Pakistan concerning the announced plans to mine the border with Afghanistan, urging them to seek alternatives. Australia is hosting a meeting in Vanuatu on universalization and implementation in the Pacific
- Canada encouraged greater involvement of SPs in universalization efforts, noting that universalization cannot be the endeavour of a handful of states but must be a collective effort. It recognized the key role of the ICBL in encouraging more states to join the treaty.
- Georgia noted that its security forces have the instruction not to use antipersonnel mines and it is Georgia’s firm determination to continue not to use them.
- Indonesia announced its recent ratification of the treaty, noting that it will now be preparing its initial Article 7 report and that it is determining the size of the stockpiles by dispatching teams from the MoD to military bases. It noted that it might need and will welcome international assistance as well as the sharing of experience and expertise for stockpile destruction.
- Mongolia said that it “denounces the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines” and supports international efforts to promote the ban. Currently the focus is on preparing and submitting a voluntary Article 7 report after the amendment, on 29 December 2006, of the state secrecy law which prevented disclosure of information related to stockpiles.
- Nepal - Defines mine use an act of criminal nature and commends efforts to eradicate its practice. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement provides a framework for looking at the issue and the management of arms and armies constitutes a major component of it. Now after the signing of the CPA the main concern is the safe removal of mines and IEDs.
- Palau –Considers that the ban on AP mines is part of international customary law and therefore that it is already bound by the convention. It pledged to accede in the near future and called on other Pacific states to do the same.
- Poland said its position was “unchanged,” and that it is taking steps towards ratifying “at the earliest opportunity”, including through setting a 10-year timeline for stockpile destruction.
- The ICBL made a statement on universalization, drawing special attention to Poland and Finland as states that should have joined long ago. We gave reports on some recent and planned universalization missions to the Middle East and Asia.
Mobilization of resources
- Canada’s mine action fund will end in one year, so it is mainstreaming within other budgets, like global peace and security fund
- The ICBL noted with concern that the end of a mine action budget line within the EU means that a number of states that have received mine action aid from them in the past may not receive it in the next funding cycle. The EC representative responded by agreeing that there was a problem now and that there will be an effort to educate parties about the changes.
Transparency
- Belgium, Chair of the Article 7 Contact Group, noted that 70% of states have turned in their reports for 2005 (comparable to previous year), and encouraged SPs to turn in their 2006 report this week (prior to the due date on 30 April), to use the simplified cover form when data has not changed, and to engage in voluntary reporting, including the new table in modified Form D and Form J
- The ICBL presented our findings on progress and shortcomings in annual reporting, including 8 missing initial reports and the need to include information on mines with sensitive fuzes and AHD, foreign stockpiles, claymore mines, ozm-72 mines, and mines discovered after official stockpile destruction programs have ended.
Article 3:
- Chile and Croatia made presentations on the numbers of those mines being retained under Article 3 and the past and planned use of these mines. Chile announced that it had destroyed almost 1,300 mines retained because it determined that they were not needed for training purposes. Croatia announced that 175 mines were planned to be destroyed in 2007 during the course of testing mine clearance equipment.
- Colombia announced that it has kept a small amount of mines and plans to destroy the rest by the end of 2007.
Stockpile Destruction
- The ICBL noted with concern Afghanistan’s inability to meet its deadline, the fact that Belarus is likely to miss deadline, and the risk that Ukraine may not be able to finish on time. We called on states to start the destruction process early to avoid last minute problems. We suggested to amend the Article 7 reporting forms to encourage more reporting on mines discovered after official stockpile destruction programs have ended and whether they are stocked, kept, transferred, or destroyed
- Angola announced that it finished its SD program at the end of December 2006, destroying all known stocks (over 81,000 mines)
- Afghanistan announced that it did not finish its SD on time. Although it had destroyed 486,226 stockpiled mines, it did not have access to 2 depots north of Kabul. But the provincial governor that was holding them finally agreed to release them for destruction, and the mines should be destroyed within 2 weeks.
- Burundi said it had 610 mines, less than declared initially. It said that although none were destroyed yet, destruction would begin in May and would finish before their deadline.
- Belarus announced that it had finished destroying non-PFM mines, but that the tender for a company to destroy its 3.4 million PFM mines fell through and would have to begin again. The EC noted that a new tender would have to be issued, meaning that the destruction could not happen before Belarus’ deadline. They encouraged other donors with less burdensome funding processes to step in and help Belarus finish on time.
- Ukraine noted that it still had 6 million mines to destroy by June 2010, which it hopes to complete on time.
- Cyprus noted that it will finish by its July 2007 deadline
- Turkey said that it has opened a demilitarization facility, which will be operating at full capacity this July. It is tasked which is tasked with destroying nearly 3M mines by 2008;
- Serbia – as of 16 May 2007, all 1.4 million stockpiled mines, including Montenegro’s stockpile, will have been destroyed
- Yemen announced that they have recently discovered 30,000 mines, which will be destroyed by the end of 2007
- Sudan announced that it would destroy the first batch of its stockpile (4,485 mines) on 30 April 2007, and that plans are in the works for the destruction of the remaining 9485 mines. Sudan plans to keep around 5,000 mines under Article 3
Thematic discussion
- The ICBL made an intervention on Claymore and OZM-72 mines, asking States Parties to ensure they can only be used in command-detonated mode and to report on these alterations or their destruction
- Bosnia noted that it is destroying around 14,000 MRUD mines
International cooperation and assistance
- The Geneva Call noted the need for technical assistance for non-state armed groups to destroy their stockpiles
Newly discovered mines
- The co-chairs presented proposed amendments to Forms B and G of Article 7 reports to encourage more reporting on mines discovered and destroyed after the end of official stockpile destruction programs.
- ICBL and Canada welcomed this proposal, and the ICBL explained again why it considered the change important
