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Friday 12 January 2007
On 11 January 2007, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) wrote to Pakistan’s President, General Pervez Musharraf, urging him to abandon immediately the proposal to lay landmines along its border with Afghanistan, announced in late December 2006.
“Using antipersonnel mines is not the answer to a country’s legitimate security problems,” said ICBL’s Executive Director Sylvie Brigot. “History has shown that the human cost of using these weapons is far greater than their military utility, as recognised by the overwhelming majority of the world’s nations.”
In the course of a joint press conference held by the Pakistani and Canadian governments in Islamabad on 9 January, authorities said they might reconsider their proposal after receiving assurances from Canada for technical assistance in monitoring and prevention of unwanted movement of people across the border.
" (...) the results of mine-laying would be to put the people of Pakistan at greater risk" (ICBL letter). Photo: Pakistan CBL
In its letter, the ICBL urged Pakistan to look for alternatives to address its security concerns without resorting to antipersonnel mines to avoid joining the ever-dwindling “club of shame” of antipersonnel mine users.
The proposal for selective fencing and mining of the 2,430 km border was announced by Pakistani officials in late December as a measure to stem cross-border militant infiltrations. The announcement sparked immediate condemnation from civil society, led by ICBL member organizations, both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghanistan, a State party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty has also rejected the proposal. Khaleeq Ahmed, a spokesman for the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said: "Fencing or mining the border is neither helpful nor practical. That's why we are against it. The border is not where the problem lies."
Pakistan acknowledged in 2002 that “problems of landmines in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) near the Afghan border still persist to some extent.” The contamination dates from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1989), when mines were scattered by Soviet and Afghan forces from helicopters and mujahideen used mines to protect their bases in the tribal areas.
"It is unbelievable," said Yeshua Moser-Puangsuwan who works for Mines Action Canada, "that the Pakistani authorities are planning to sow more mines in the very same areas where they say they still suffer from mines scattered by others."
Background information
According to media reports, in late December 2006, the Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan stated that he would task the Army to work out modalities for selective fencing and mining of the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent any militant activity from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Mr Khan said that Pakistan was not a signatory to the Mine Ban Treaty and justified his proposal by stating that “there is an extraordinary situation and we need to undertake extraordinary measures to tackle it.” He said that mining needs to be done with “great care” in areas that require monitoring and added that the local population has to be informed so that innocent people are not caught unaware. Mr Khan said that as the fencing and mines would be on the Pakistani side of the border, an agreement with the neighbouring state was not needed. The proposal was reiterated on 4 January during a visit to Kabul by Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who stated that selective fencing and mining would achieve the goal of stopping people from crossing the border and that Pakistan had every intention of going through with the plan.
During the 2001–2002 escalation of tensions with India, Pakistan laid landmines along its shared border with India. Pakistan has never formally admitted the full number of casualties caused as a result of that operation, but in a report submitted to the National Assembly in April 2004, the government admitted to 150 civilian mine casualties along the border with India. The report submitted by Pakistan as required by Article 13 of the Convention on Conventional Weapons Protocol 2 – which regulates the use of landmines, and to which Pakistan is a party – simply stated that the mines laid during the 2001-2002 escalation had been cleared with 'negligable' casualties. Mines remain at Pakistan Army checkpoints along the Line of Control separating Pakistani and Indian controlled areas of Kashmir.
*Read about the landmine problem in Pakistan in the Landmine Monitor Report 2006
