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Key developments since May 2000: The Mine Ban Treaty entered into force for Albania on 1 August 2000. In January 2001, Albania signed an agreement with the NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund for the destruction of Albania’s 1.6 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines. Dismantling started in late May 2001 and is due for completion by April 2002. Landmines claimed a total of 35 casualties in 2000, a sharp decrease from 191 the previous year.
Albania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 8 September 1998, ratified it on 29 February 2000 and became a State Party on 1 August 2000. National legislation required for implementation, including sanctions for violations, was said to be in preparation in early 2000. Albania’s first Article 7 transparency report was due by 28 January 2001, but not submitted as of mid-July 2001.
Albania attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000; its delegation included Deputy Defense Minister Marko Bello, and Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Ksenofon Krisafi. The Deputy Defense Minister delivered a statement describing the extent of mine contamination in northern Albania and measures taken to deal with it and to destroy mine stockpiles.[349]
Albania participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. In November 2000, at the UN General Assembly, Albania voted in favor of Resolution 55/33V, which calls for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Albania is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). This was stated to be under consideration in 2000, and in early 2001 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) provided technical advice to assist in adopting the necessary procedures for accession to the CCW.[350]
Production of antipersonnel mines officially ceased in 1990/1991. The status of decommissioning or conversion of former production facilities should be included in Albania’s first Article 7 report. Reportedly, the former manufacturing facility is in the process of being converted into a demilitarization facility.[352]
In May 2000, at the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Albania announced that it had already destroyed 8,400 antipersonnel mines. This information was not updated at the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction meetings in December 2000 and May 2001; no further information was available as of June 2001.
The international project for destruction of Albania’s stockpile of mines has become operational. This is the first project of the NATO Partnership for Peace Trust Fund arrangements, established in September 2000 to assist central and eastern European countries meet the obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty. The project is jointly sponsored by Canada and Albania and has a projected cost of US$790,000, contributed by Austria, Belgium, Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. On 26 January 2001, with full funding in place, the Albanian Ministry of Defense signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA), the executing agency to provide logistical support to the project. Operations started in April 2001 with deliveries of mines to the factory for destruction and dismantling started in the last week of May 2001. Completion date for the project is April 2002.
NAMSA, which is NATO’s principal logistics agency, has been involved in destruction of munitions stockpiles since 1992, previously carrying out destruction of mine stockpiles on behalf of Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. NAMSA operates on a non-profit basis, but its management costs are included in the total costs of the Albanian project. The stockpile will yield 240 tons of TNT for reprocessing into blasting explosives for non-military purposes and 1,000 tons of scrap metal, reducing the overall cost of the project.
Albania’s contribution is to provide office facilities in Tirana for the NAMSA project supervision team, and to provide military transportation of the mines from fifty-seven storage locations to the destruction facility at the ULP Mjekës factory near Elbasan in central Albania. NAMSA has advised and assisted on design and installation of specialist machinery at the destruction facility, a government-owned explosives and ammunition factory which has not previously carried out industrial-scale demilitarization. A team of NATO ammunition specialists has helped to train Albanian personnel in the handling, movement and storage of mines to international standards, as well as assisting with Albania’s other munitions problems.
In 1999-2000, the Albanian Armed Forces had established details of stockpiles under the guidance of the NATO Ammunition Storage and Disposal Implementation Team (ASDIT) and the follow-on NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Ammunition Storage Training Team (EODASTT). The total was set at 1,607,420 (with an anticipated variance of up to 10 percent), consisting of three types of mine commonly found in Commonwealth of Independent States countries: the “Mine AP Fragmentation” (930,050 items) is an Albanian version of the POMZ-2; the “Mine AP Fibre” (132,100 items) is a variant of the PMN mine; and the “Mine AP Wood/Bakelite” (545,270 items) is a variant of the PMD-6. The condition of some of the stocks varies greatly, ranging from excellent to poor; over 90 percent is more than 30 years old. The stocks are not palletized, and many are located in almost inaccessible locations.
In one location, the village of Lazarate near the border with Greece, 80 tons of antipersonnel mines were stored in tunnels sealed in 1997 to prevent looting. In April 2000, the EODASTT negotiated access to the tunnels (for the census of stocks) with the armed civilian gangs that control the area. By 7 May 2001, this storage location was reported to be under government control.[354]
There are estimated to be approximately 200,000 tons of surplus munitions and armaments in Albania, of which antipersonnel mines account for about two percent. Successful completion of the antipersonnel mine destruction project will also help to establish an Albanian demilitarization industry, which, with further investment, could deal with the country’s other surplus munitions to international environmental standards.
An estimated 600,000 antipersonnel mines were looted from stockpiles in early 1997 and remain unaccounted for.[355]
More recently, Albania’s border with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been contaminated with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). Mined areas in Albania have now been recorded and mapped by the Albanian Armed Forces and are entered into the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA). They include high-density nuisance minefields covering the entire length of the border. In September 2000, at the Second Meeting of States Parties it was claimed that, “during the military attacks, the Serbian Armed Forces contaminated 1,400 hectares, from 200 up to 400 m inside Albanian territory.... [T]he entire Albanian-Kosova border of 120 km, is affected by antipersonnel and antitank mines.”[356] The Albanian Armed Forces have identified the following mines and associated firing devices: TMA-3, TMA-5, UDOD-1, MRUD, PMA-1A, PMA-2 and PMR-1. The following submunitions have also been identified: KB-1 (Serb origin), MK118 (NATO origin), rocket M79 (Serb origin), M62 and other unidentified RLGs (Serb or KLA origin), unidentified wire-guided missiles (Serb origin), and MK83 (various types, NATO origin).[357]
The majority of mine-affected areas are in remote and extremely poor rural communities, where land is of vital economic importance, for grazing livestock, harvesting wood and grass. These activities are inherently hazardous in such mine- and UXO-contaminated areas. Many of the traditional tracks linking remote communities pass through these areas.
In 2000, the US donated US$1.1 million for demining in Albania by the US commercial clearance company, RONCO. Funding for demining was channelled, in whole or part, via the International Trust Fund (ITF), which announced on 28 November 2000 that its projects had completed clearance of 107,978 square miles [sic] of contaminated land on the Albania/Kosovo border, during which over 1,000 mines and 100 UXO were found.[358] In 2001, the US provided US$1.2 million for demining carried out by RONCO, with matching funds via the ITF adding the same amount again.[359]
In 2000, Germany donated DM260,000 (US$136,842) for demining on Albania’s northern border, carried out by the nongovernmental organization HELP.[360]
In 2001, Switzerland provided US$600,000 for mine clearance carried out the Swiss Federation for Mine Action.[361]
On 28 November 2000, a two-year agreement was signed between Albanian Mine Action Center (AMAC) and the ITF, for assistance on mine clearance and rehabilitation of mine victims. Also in 2000, the Tirana delegation of the ICRC took responsibility for making the international community aware of the mine problem in Albania, and facilitating donations and demining projects.
From September 1999 to June 2000, the UN Development Program (UNDP) covered the running costs of the Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE) office. This was covered from July 2000 to May 2001 by the Canadian Embassy (US$18,592) and from December 2000 to May 2001 by the Turkish Embassy (US$9,000). After the end of May 2001, the AMAE office had no further funding. Funding for the Mines Awareness Advisor in the AMAE office ceased in December 2000.[362]
The UNDP undertook a technical study to determine the level of support required for an effective mine action organization in Albania. A draft project proposal was produced in June 2000 but there has been no further progress on this issue.[363] This proposal was updated in April 2001 after a visit from the Deputy Head of the Mine Action Team of UNDP’s Emergency Response Division. According to the NAMSA Project Supervisor, as of mid-July the UNDP had not implemented any of their own recommendations and, despite best efforts of local staff, clear capability gaps exist in management and organizational aspects.[364]
At present there appears to be no comprehensive record of mine clearance activities, as well as no corresponding survey of mined and mine-suspected areas. In June 2000, the ICRC and the Swiss Federation for Mine Clearance carried out a joint assessment mission to determine the extent of the mine/UXO problem in the three most severely affected districts in northern Albania, where the ICRC is promoting the resumption of mine clearance activities. Through contacts with the relevant authorities in Tirana, the ICRC supported the NGO's efforts to raise funds towards the creation of mine clearance programs related to the Albanian Red Cross/ICRC mine awareness programs, so as to respond to the needs of affected communities. Funds were made available in 2001 in order to start clearance activities.[365]
In September 2000, Deputy Defense Minister and Head of AMAC Marko Bello stated that Albanian explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams had “been involved in clearing sixteen areas, 125 hectares and destroying some 2,700 cluster bombs” from the Kosovo crisis and had re-marked minefields in northern Albania.[366] There is no National Mine Action Plan, therefore the allocation of clearance priorities is fragmented, and priorities appear to be determined by the deminers themselves.[367]
During the period June-October 2000, RONCO cleared 107,978 square meters around the Qafe Prushit border crossing in Has District, destroying in the process a total of 1,034 antipersonnel mines (304 were detonated by a ground preparation machine) and ninety-six items of UXO.[368] The operation was carried out by subcontractors on behalf of the US Department of State and RONCO, using funding from the ITF.[369] These included MineClear International, which cleared 400,000 square meters of agricultural and wooded land between June and August 2000, using Armtrac 325 heavy flails; this operation detonated more than 400 mines.[370]
From September to December 2000 the German NGO HELP cleared 6,276 square meters at the Qafa Morinit border crossing in Tropoja district.[371]
In May 2001, after training 35 deminers over a six-week period, the Swiss Federation for Mine Action started a mine clearance program in the border districts of Has and Kukes in northern Albania.[372]
AMAE representatives participated in the Regional Seminar in Sarajevo, 4-8 September 2000. The seminar compared the information systems used in the region and focused on setting standards for collection and exchange information.[373] Two AMAE representatives participated in a training course on the IMSMA database system in Geneva in October 2000. A further course on implementing IMSMA was held in Tirana on 12-16 March 2001.[374]
In 2000, mine awareness activities were carried out by the Albanian Red Cross (ARC) jointly with the ICRC, and CARE International. ARC/ICRC provided mine awareness for the general public while CARE focused on teachers and schools in Has, Kukes and Tropoja Districts.[375] The mine/UXO-awareness program implemented in northern Albania by the Albanian Red Cross reached 43,996 people, including 33,142 children, in 2000. This community-based program is also closely linked to initiatives which provide assistance for mine victims. The ICRC organized transport for 18 mine/UXO victims from northern Albania to the rehabilitation center in Tirana and arranged for the center to fit amputees with prostheses.[376]
The total budget for mine awareness in 2000 was US$160,000. ICRC contributions for mine awareness programs and for capacity building in ARC from October 1999 through 2000 totaled approximately US$155,000, including salaries and equipment. The ICRC has 18 mine awareness instructors. In 2000, 1,434 presentations and meetings were held for 43,996 participants in the districts of Tropoja, Has, Kukes, Shkodra and Durres. Three mobile exhibitions traveled in three northern districts reaching almost 6,000 people. Most of them took place during the food distribution for war-affected areas by ARC and the ICRC. A theatre-play was produced by the children of Kruma and given to more than 300 children in Has District. Promotional materials with mine awareness messages were produced during January-April 2001in collaboration with AMAE.[377]
Mine awareness instructors also collected information on mine victims and contaminated villages for collation by ARC/ICRC.
In November 2000 a refreshment training for instructors took place in Tirana, with Croatian and Kosovar representatives of the ICRC, and CARE, participating. An additional nine ARC volunteers have also been trained. As UN lead-agency for mine awareness, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provided support for the incorporation of mine/UXO awareness into the school curriculum. By June 2001, CARE, ARC and the ICRC had trained more than 100 teachers and community facilitators in mine awareness, and developed a national strategy which was being tested in three schools. UNICEF has also sponsored a series of awareness activities implemented by local teachers’ associations, women’s groups and the Albanian Youth NGO.[378]
The ICRC is concerned by the considerable socio-economic problems as well as physical danger caused by mine/UXO contamination in Albania. Its mine action strategy was designed to:
A record of landmine and UXO incidents is maintained by the AMAE in Tirana. However, due to the remoteness of some mine-affected areas, and the fact that some incidents go unreported, the actual number of casualties is expected to be higher. In addition, a significant number of casualties have been recorded on the Kosovo Mine Action Coordination Center, as they were treated in Kosovo. Landmine casualty data has been collected from various sources including the Albanian Armed Forces, the Police Forces, CARE, the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the ICRC/Albanian Red Cross, and analyzed by the ICRC.[380]
The number of mine casualties has dropped dramatically in 2000. In 1999, there were 155 mine/UXO incidents, resulting in 191 casualties (18 killed and 173 injured). In 2000, there were 33 mine/UXO incidents, resulting in 35 casualties (four killed and 31 injured). [381]
Included in the total for 1999 and 2000 are 36 unconfirmed casualties (33 injured and 3 killed), thought to be refugees or KLA fighters. The majority of casualties (77 percent) were men, and the most common activity at the time of the incident (36 percent) related to farming. Of the injured, 26 percent required amputation of legs, feet, hands or fingers. In a survey of mine victims, most of those interviewed had received mine awareness training and knew that they were in a potentially mine-affected area. However, for economic reasons they knowingly entered the area, believing that there was no alternative.
State facilities provide immediate medical aid and treatment to mine victims. Albania’s Prosthesis Center received no financial support from the State in 2000, due to difficulties in the handover of financial responsibility from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for the administration of the Orthopedic Center.[382] The Orthopedic Center, located at the Military Hospital in Tirana, has been reconstructed and refurnished with funding provided by ECHO in three phases from July 1998 to January 2000, totaling approximately €475,000 (US$420,000). The Center is operated by Handicap International (HI), and works in collaboration with the ICRC.[383]
During 2000, the ICRC fitted 18 mine survivors with prostheses. The average cost of transporting one mine victim and a family member to Tirana and fitting the prosthesis was US$1,666. The Swiss Red Cross provided raw materials for the production of artificial limbs until December 2000. Since January 2001, this has been taken over by the ICRC, which has provided prostheses for 50 mine victims.[384]
In April 2001, at a course in Italy, ICRC provided training to seven members of the Orthopedic Center. The ICRC has also supported, with US$5,500, the “Shoemaker Project” proposed by the Albanian Red Cross. This project involved teaching shoemaking to mine survivors in the districts of Has, Kukes, and Tropoja. Between January and May 2001, the Albanian Red Cross, the American Red Cross and CARE distributed food parcels to 226 mine victims and their families.[385]
On 28 November 2000, a two-year agreement was signed between the Albanian Mine Action Center (AMAC) and the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victim Assistance (ITF), to collaborate on demining and mine victim assistance. Under this agreement the ITF will provide forty mine victims with prostheses up to June 2001. By February 2001, ten mine victims had visited Slovenia for prosthesis fitting, with four technicians for training. These are mine amputees who were provided with a first prosthesis by the ICRC but who now need a second, or ex-military injured during clearance of military depots in 1997-1998 (the latter are not assisted by the ICRC).[386]
There is no disability provision specific to mine victims, though mine victims are entitled to the same rights as all disabled people in Albania, which includes a monthly payment of approximately US$80 (equivalent to a monthly salary in the public sector). In addition, a one-year pension is available to people injured in the performance of their duties, such as border policeman or soldiers marking minefields. There is no statutory obligation to provide prostheses to amputees.
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[349] Statement by Marko Bello, Deputy Minister of Defense and Head of the Albanian Mine Action Committee, SMSP, Geneva, 11-15 September 2000.
[350] Email from ICRC, Mines/Arms Unit, Geneva, to Landmine Monitor (HRW), 23 July 2001. Also, report by the ICRC on a meeting with the Albanian Mine Action Executive (AMAE), Tirana, 7 May 2001.
[351] See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 699 and Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 560.
[352] Information provided by William D.G. Hunt, NAMSA Project Supervisor – Albania APM Stockpile Destruction Project, in email correspondence, 18 June 2001.
[353] Interviews with Marko Bello, Head of Albanian Mine Acton Committee, Tirana, 23 February 2001 and William D.G. Hunt, Project Supervisor, NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA), Tirana, 27 February 2001; Emails from Peter Courtney-Green, NAMSA, 23 and 24 April 2001; “Proposal of Government of Canada Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade for Anti-personnel Mine Stockpile Destruction in Albania,” NAMSA (undated); Seminar on the Destruction of the PFM-1 Mine, Budapest, 1-2 February 2001; presentation by William D.G. Hunt, NAMSA Project Supervisor, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 10 May 2001.
[354] Report by Albanian delegate, Stability Pact for South East Europe, Working Table III, Reay Group meeting, Geneva, 7 May 2001.
[355] Interviews with Ismet Miftari, Chief of Albanian EOD, Tirana, 6 April and 15 May 2000; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 562-563.
[356] Statement by Marko Bello, SMSP, Geneva, 11-15 September 2000.
[357] Summary for Year 2000, Albanian Mine Action Committee.
[358] “ITF Signed Administrative Agreement with Albania”, ITF press release, 28 November 2000, available at <www.sigov.si/itffund/news>, accessed on 12 June 2001.
[359] Interview with staff at the U.S. Embassy, Tirana, 26 April 2001.
[360] Email to the German Initiative to Ban Landmines from the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 31 March 2001; in Landmine Monitor Report 2000 a source was quoted to the effect that Germany had pledged DM1.2 million (US$630,000) for demining in Albania in 2000.
[361] Interview with Alec Van Roy, Swiss Federation for Mine Action, 7 May 2001.
[362] Interview with Arben Braha, AMAE, Tirana, 30 April 2001.
[363] AMAE Report, April 2001.
[364] Email from William D.G. Hunt, NAMSA Project Supervisor – Albania APM Stockpile Destruction Project, to Landmine Monitor (HRW), 23 July 2001.
[365] Information provided by ICRC, 11 July 2001.
[366] Statement by Marko Bello, SMSP, Geneva, 11-15 September 2000.
[367] Information provided by Adrian Wilkinson, GICHD, and William D.G. Hunt, Project Officer, NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency, 18 June 2001.
[368] AMAC report, 25 October 2000.
[369] “ITF signed Administrative Agreement with Albania”, ITF press release, 28 November 2000, available at: <www.sigov.si/itffund/news>, accessed on 12 June 2001. Future cooperation will focus on rehabilitation of Albanian mine victims in Slovenia.
[370] Emails from Johanna Ackroyd, MineClear International, 26 March and 30 March 2001.
[371] AMAC report, 25 October 2000.
[372] Interviews with Alex Van Roy, Swiss Federation for Mine Action, 20 February and 7 May 2001.
[373] AMAC meeting, Tirana, 25 October 2000.
[374] Interview with Arben Braha, AMAC, Tirana, 27 March 2001.
[375] Interview with Jonuz Kola, CARE project manager, Tirana, 7 March 2001.
[376] Email from ICRC, Mines/Arms Unit, Geneva, to Landmine Monitor (HRW), 23 July 2001.
[377] ICRC Fact Sheet, Tirana, 7 May 2001.
[378] Email from Franz Petutschnig, Emergency Officer and Mine Awareness Focal Point, UNICEF Albania, 5 June 2001.
[379] ICRC Fact Sheet, Tirana, 7 May 2001.
[380] “Detailed statistics on Mine/UXO incidents in Albania”, ICRC Factsheet, 7 February 2001.
[381] Ibid.
[382] Interview at Orthopedics Center, Tirana, 24 May 2001.
[383] Interview with Eliane Santenac, Head of Handicap International, Tirana, 26 February 2001; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 656-566.
[384] ICRC Fact Sheet, 7 May 2001.
[385] Ibid.
[386] Interview with Arben Braha, Director, AMAE, Tirana, 5 February 2001.
