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Key developments since May 2000: According to one newspaper report, Kazakhstan possesses 800,000 to one million antipersonnel mines. This is the only known public estimate of Kazakhstan’s antipersonnel mine stockpile.
Kazakhstan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Kazakhstan was one of 22 governments to abstain from voting on the November 2000 UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. Kazakhstan officials say antipersonnel mines are needed for defensive purposes, and Kazakhstan cannot afford to replace them with other weapons.[1] In the UNGA First Committee debate, a representative of Kazakhstan stated:
Kazakhstan fully supports the humanitarian orientation of the Ottawa Convention, the goal of which is the complete elimination of antipersonnel mines. Kazakhstan is continuing to make its contribution to the international efforts in this area and strictly observes the moratorium on the export of antipersonnel mines, including their re-export and transit. However, in our view, the movement for the complete prohibition of antipersonnel mines should be ongoing and step-by-step process based on the “mine protocol” of the Convention on “unhumane weapons” [referring to Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional Weapons].[2]
Kazakhstan is not a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and Landmine Monitor is unaware of any steps toward joining the CCW. However, the government has also stated that Kazakhstan bases its policies on landmine issues on the provisions of the CCW and its Amended Protocol II.[3] In response to a questionnaire about antipersonnel mines, the government said that ratifying Amended Protocol II would require financial outlays and would deprive the military of “one of the most inexpensive and effective types of defensive weapons which, at the present time, we would find impossible to replace with alternative systems.”[4]
The United Nations reported that the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared a comprehensive moratorium on antipersonnel mine production in December 1996, and declared a ban on the export of antipersonnel mines in August 1997.[5]
In April 2000, Kazakhstan reported that it does not produce antipersonnel mines, does not have industrial facilities for their production, and does not plan to construct such facilities.[6] Part of this statement was contradicted by the Chairman of the Committee for Defense Industries of the Ministry of Defense, Begbolat Baigarin, who said, “I do not foresee any technical problems either in [antipersonnel mine] stockpile destruction or in their production by Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan does not currently produce [antipersonnel mines] but our industrial facilities are technically fully prepared to fulfill such an order.”[7]
According to one newspaper report, Kazakhstan inherited from the USSR and currently possesses an estimated 800,000 to one million antipersonnel mines.[8] This is the only known public estimate of Kazakhstan’s antipersonnel mine stockpile.
There are no documented cases of recent antipersonnel mine use by Kazakh armed forces. It has been reported that Kazakhstan has laid antipersonnel mines to protect its borders, both in remote areas difficult to reach by border patrols, and in antitank minefields in border areas considered vulnerable to potential incursion.[9]
The US State Department in 1993 reported that an unknown number of German and Russian landmines from World War II were scattered about Kazakhstan.[10] However, Kazakhstan declared to the UN in 1995 that it was not mine-affected[11] and repeated the assertion in April 2000.[12] There have been no recent reports of casualties due to uncleared mines. Kazakhstan acknowledges that its long borders are mined.[13] It can be assumed that Kazakh mines are deployed along its border with China.
Kazakhstan is not known to have made any contributions to international mine action programs. Kazakhstan has army engineer units trained in mine clearance and the Kazakh Ministry of Defense has stated that the engineer units are ready and will be used if needed following resolution of conflicts in the region. [14]
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[1] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, Director of the Department of Multilateral Cooperation, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow, Russian Federation, Letter No.20/178, 19 April 2000.
[2] Statement of Ambassador Madina B. Jarbussynova, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United Nations, New York, 12 October 2000.
[3] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow, 19 April 2000; Response to Questionnaire on Antipersonnel Landmines, Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the OSCE, FSC.DEL/32/00, Vienna, 3 February 2000.
[4] Response to Questionnaire on Antipersonnel Landmines, Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the OSCE, FSC.DEL/32/00, Vienna, 3 February 2000.
[5] United Nations, Country Report: Kazakhstan, at:http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/kazakhst.htm.
[6] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow, Letter No.20/178, 19 April 2000.
[7] Adil Urmanov, “Blind Weapon,” Delovaiya Nedeliya [Business Week] (Kazakh newspaper in Russian), 12 June 1998, p. 8, available at http://dn.kz/arch/1998/23_98/mine.htm.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] US Department of State, “Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines,” July 1993, p. 111.
[11] United Nations, Country Report: Kazakhstan.
[12] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow, Letter No.20/178, 19 April 2000.
[13] Ibid.
[14] Agency of Press and Information (API), December 2000.
