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Kazakhstan has not signed the Mine Ban Treaty. It attended the early treaty preparatory meetings in 1997, but only as an observer, and it did not endorse the pro-treaty Brussels Declaration in June 1997. At the regional conference on landmines in Turkmenistan that month, the Kazakhstan representative made no formal policy statements. It did not attend the Oslo negotiations nor the Ottawa signing conference. Kazakhstan voted for the 1996 UNGA Resolution 51/45S urging states to vigorously pursue an international agreement banning antipersonnel landmines, but was one of eighteen countries which abstained from the 1997 vote on UNGA Resolution 52/38A supporting the December treaty signing, and was one of nineteen nations which abstained from the 1998 vote on UNGA Resolution A/C.1/53/L.33 welcoming the addition of new states to the Mine Ban Treaty, urging its full realization and inviting state parties and observers to the First Meeting of State Parties in Mozambique.
Kazakhstan is not a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). At an International Committee of the Red Cross-sponsored conference on international humanitarian law in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in 1997, Kazakhstan declared its intention to ratify the CCW and its Protocols, but to date, no action has been taken.[1]
It is unknown whether Kazakhstan produced antipersonnel landmines or components in the past, but it inherited stockpiles from the Soviet Union. According to the U.N., Kazakhstan declared a comprehensive moratorium on production in December 1996 and declared a ban on the export and transfer of antipersonnel landmines in August 1997.[2] The duration of the moratorium was not specified.
The U.S. State Department in 1993 reported that an unknown number of German and Russian landmines from World War II were scattered about Kazakhstan.[3] However, Kazakhstan declared to the UN in 1995 that it was not mine affected.[4] There have been no recent reports of casualties due to uncleared mines. It is not known if or how much of the Kazakh-China border is mined. Kazakhstan is not known to have made any contributions to international mine action programs. The Kazakhstan armed forces reportedly have sophisticated mine removal and mine destruction capabilities.[5]
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[1] International Committee of the Red Cross, Annual Report 1997.
[2]United Nations, Country Report: Kazakhstan, at: www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/kazakhst.htm.
[3] U.S. Department of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines, July 1993. P. 111.
[4] United Nations, Country Report: Kazakhstan.
[5] Hidden Killers, p. 111.
