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Key developments since May 2001: Algeria ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 9 October 2001, and the treaty entered into force for Algeria on 1 April 2002. An interministerial commission responsible for the landmine issue is being established.
Algeria signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 9 October 2001.[1] It entered into force for Algeria on 1 April 2002. A national interministerial commission responsible for the landmine issue, first proposed in the year 2000, is being established; a number of focal points within different ministries have been appointed to prepare the creation of the commission.[2] A Ministry of Defense official told Landmine Monitor in January 2002 that national implementation legislation would be adopted as soon as the ban treaty entered into force, but as of June no formal steps had been taken. Progress on legislation may be dependent on the establishment of the commission and subsequent landmine policy decisions.[3]
In September 2001, Algeria attended the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua, Nicaragua as an observer.[4] In November 2001, Algeria cosponsored and voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M calling for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Algeria participated in the “Regional Seminar on the Ottawa Convention in North Africa,” held in Tunis, Tunisia, from 15-16 January 2002. In a statement to the conference, Algeria said that it had proved its commitment to the fight against landmines by ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty, and indicated that the process of implementing the treaty domestically was already underway.[5] Algeria also participated in the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in January and May 2002.[6]
Algeria’s initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report is due by 27 September 2002.
Algeria is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and did not attend any CCW meetings in 2001 or 2002.
Algeria is not believed to have either produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It is thought to have imported mines from five different countries, but thus far Algeria has not provided information about the types or number of mines in its stockpile.[7]
According to Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, the Algerian Army does not use antipersonnel mines in its current internal conflict. The government maintains that insurgents continue to use homemade mines (improvised explosive devices), either to protect their retreat, or as traps for government troops.[8] The Ministry of Interior gathers information on mines laid by insurgents, but has not made this available to Landmine Monitor.[9]
Algeria has a landmine problem dating back to World War II, when Germany and Italy laid mines in the northern coastal region. Many mines are also left from the Liberation War. Most of the landmines are in the remote, mountainous areas of the northern portion of its borders with Morocco and Tunisia. According to a recent US State Department report, “Landmines block traditional areas of transit or habitation, particularly in the east.”[10] The full extent of Algeria's landmine problem has never been assessed, but the government reports an estimated 1.3 million mines, of which 913,000 are in the east, and 420,100 are in the west.[11] According to El Watan, an Algerian daily newspaper, Sid Ali Bounab in Kabylie, Addgagh Aouragh region (some 120 kilometers east from Algiers), is mine-affected.[12]
Little information on mine action activities in Algeria is available, but the government reports conducting both mine clearance and mine risk education programs.[13] The Army is carrying out mine clearance operations on the borders.[14] The National Security Police has a team of explosive ordnance disposal experts to handle landmines and UXO in urban areas.[15]
In April 2002 the Algerian Army conducted mine clearance in Sid Ali Bounab to facilitate entry into a forest to fight the Salafist Preaching and Combat Group (Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat) of Hassan Hattab.[16]
During the Army’s mine clearance operation in Sid Ali Bounab in April 2002, a mine explosion killed five Islamists and wounded five military personnel. The Salafist group is reported to have laid the mine, as its base is located there.[17]
The lack of information on landmine casualties in 2001 and 2002 is due in large part to the absence of an overall database in Algeria. The need to establish such a database is one of the priorities for forthcoming interministerial commission.[18] The Ministry of War Veterans has a database on military mine casualties, but this information was not made available to Landmine Monitor.[19]
The Ministry of War Veterans and the Ministry of Defense are responsible for providing assistance to military mine survivors, while the Ministry of National Solidarity has responsibility for civilian survivors. Mine survivors have free access to local and national structures of the Ministry of Health.[20]
Since the end of 2000, Handicap International has established a rehabilitation center in Algiers and conducted a program for persons with disabilities but none of the patients are believed to be mine survivors.[21] Social and economic measures for persons with disabilities are part of the global framework of governmental social action.[22]
In June 2001, the ICRC signed an agreement with the Algerian Ministry of Health to create a production unit at the Ben Aknoun prosthetic/orthotic center in northern Algiers.[23] The unit has the capacity to produce 150 prostheses per year with the intended beneficiaries being Sahrawi ex-combatants and victims of violence. Two technicians undertook a training course at the ICRC center in Ethiopia.
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[1] Domestic ratification took place on 17 December 2000, by virtue of Presidential Decree 2000-432, but formal deposit of the instrument of ratification with the United Nations did not occur until 9 October 2001.
[2] Letter to Landmine Monitor from Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 7 May 2002. Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 915, erroneously reported that the commission had already been created. It will be composed of members of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Interior, and probably of the Ministries of Health, War Veterans, Solidarity and Social Affairs. Statement by Mr. Abdelaziz Lahiouel, Director of International Policies Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Seminar on the Ottawa Convention in North Africa, Tunis, Tunisia, 15 January 2002.
[3] Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002; interview with Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 30 May 2002.
[4] Represented by Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi from the Ministry of Defense.
[5] Statement by Abdelaziz Lahiouel, Director, International Policies Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Seminar on the Ottawa Convention in North Africa, Tunis, Tunisia, 15 January 2002.
[6] In January, Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, and Nassima Baghli, Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, represented Algeria. Baghli attended in May.
[7] See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 871. Stockpile details will be provided officially in the Article 7 transparency report, due September 2002. Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002.
[8] Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002; Letter to Landmine Monitor from Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 7 May 2002.
[9] Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002.
[10] US Department of State, “To Walk the Earth in Safety,” November 2001, p. A-55.
[11] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 997; “Algeria,” Journal of Mine Action, 7 May 2002. http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/5.3/profiles/algeria.htm.
[12] “Cinq islamistes tués dans une opération militaire en Kabylie” (Five Islamists killed in a military operation in Kabylie), El Watan (Algerian daily newspaper), 16 April 2002.
[13] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 997; “Algeria,” Journal of Mine Action, 7 May 2002; Letter to Landmine Monitor from Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 7 May 2002.
[14] Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002. For more detail on the clearance operations see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 916.
[15] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 916; “Algeria,” Journal of Mine Action, 7 May 2002.
[16] “Cinq islamistes tués dans une opération militaire en Kabylie” (Five Muslims killed in a military operation in Kabylie), El Watan (Algerian daily newspaper), 16 April 2002.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Statement by Abdelaziz Lahiouel, Director of International Policies Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Seminar on Ottawa Convention in North Africa, Tunis, 15 January 2002.
[19] Interview with Lt. Col. Hacene Gherabi, Ministry of Defense, Geneva, 30 January 2002.
[20] Interview with Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 30 May 2002.
[21] Phone interview with Nicolas Brun, Program Director, Handicap International, 14 May 2002.
[22] Letter to Landmine Monitor from Nassima Baghli, Counselor, Permanent Mission of Algeria to the UN in Geneva, 7 May 2002.
[23] ICRC (Geneva), Special Report, Mine Action 2001, July 2002, p. 37.
