ASEAN and the Banning of Anti-personnel Landmines

(Wednesday 28 May 2003 ) ASEAN and the Banning of Anti-personnel Landmines, now in its 3^rd year of annual publication, summarizes the efforts to eradicate anti-personnel landmines from Southeast Asia.

This special regional report summarizes the data in the individual country sections of the Landmine Monitor annual report, and contains the full texts on the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Tables and charts analyze regional trends in treaty compliance, mine victim assistance and mine action. A special theme annex this year highlights engaging non-state armed groups, in the ASEAN region, in a landmine ban.

The mainland states of Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar/Burma are the most landmine effected within the region. Between them, these states produce about one injury or fatality every 2 hours. Regionally, the rate of victimization has remained the same during the past year.

Mine action funding declined within the region, although both Thailand and Vietnam saw an increase in international assistance for their mine action programs.

Despite a global trend of states continuing to join the Mine Ban Treaty, ASEAN has been politically static since the treaty was opened for signature in 1997.

3 of the 14 states who continue to produce anti-personnel landmines are in Southeast Asia: Myanmar/Burma, Singapore and Vietnam. New use of anti-personnel landmines by a government was recorded only in Myanmar.

Atleast 18 Non State Armed groups in Southeast Asia are using the anti-personnel landmine in Southeast Asia, with several more likely to be doing so. They account for about ¼ of the global total of known non-state mine users. Two NSAs in the Philippines have now renounced the use of the anti-personnel landmines.

This annual, regional, report was compiled by the Southeast Asia office of Nonviolence International, a founding member of the Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines. Financial support for the publication of the report was provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand.

Thailand will host the 5^th Meeting of States Party to the Mine Ban Treaty in Bangkok in September 2003. Copies of the report are available from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Thailand and Nonviolence International.

Contact:

Nonviolence International
104/20 Latprao Soi 124, Wangtonglang, Bangkok 10310
Phone: 02934 3289
http://nonviolenceinternational.net/seasia/