Fifteen of the forty countries in the Asia/Pacific region are States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Malaysia, Maldives, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, the Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Thailand.
No State Party enacted domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty during the reporting period, but the Philippines has legislation pending. All States Parties, except Bangladesh, Maldives, Nauru, and Solomon Islands have submitted their initial Article 7 transparency reports and all have also submitted required annual updates except Fiji.
Five countries have signed but not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty: Brunei, Cook Islands, Indonesia, Marshall Islands and Vanuatu. In January 2002, an official from the Cook Islands said that ratification legislation has been drafted. Indonesia has also progressed toward ratification.
Twenty states remain outside the Mine Ban Treaty, and no country from the region acceded to or ratified the Mine Ban Treaty in this reporting period. Non-signatories include major antipersonnel mine users, producers, and stockpilers, such as Burma (Myanmar), China, India, and Pakistan, and some highly mine-affected countries such Afghanistan, Burma, Laos, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Some developments, however, are encouraging. The cabinet of the new transitional government of Afghanistan approved accession to the treaty on 29 July 2002, while the government of the newly established state of East Timor has announced its intention to accede to the treaty as a matter of priority.
Twenty-three states from the region voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 56/24M in November 2001, calling for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. This group included eight non-signatories: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Tonga. There were seven Asia/Pacific countries among the 19 that abstained from voting: Burma, China, India, FS Micronesia, Pakistan, South Korea and Vietnam. Other countries from the region were either absent or unable to vote.
Nine countries of the region attended the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua, Nicaragua in September 2001, including non-signatory Laos. Thailand was named by the meeting as the co-chair of the Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention. Thailand has offered to host the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in 2003, and from 13 to 15 May 2002, it hosted a meeting on “Landmines in Southeast Asia,” to engage ASEAN countries on landmines.
India and Pakistan have laid large numbers of antipersonnel mines along their common 1,800-mile border since December 2001, in what appears to be one of the biggest mine-laying operations anywhere in the world in recent years. In addition, it appears that in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, five armed non-state groups have been using landmines, and that in other Indian states at least six other armed non-state groups have used mines and/or Improvised Explosive Devices during the reporting period.
Governments and rebel groups have continued to use antipersonnel mines in five other conflicts. Government forces in Burma continued to lay landmines inside the country and along its borders with Thailand as part of a new plan to “fence the country.” Three rebel groups not previously identified as mine users were discovered using landmines in Burma in 2002, bringing the total number of rebel groups using mines to thirteen. In Nepal, Landmine Monitor recorded an increase in the use of homemade mines by the Maoist rebels, and there continue to be serious indicators that government forces, both the police and the army, are using antipersonnel mines. In the Philippines, at least two rebels groups continued to use antipersonnel mines: the New People’s Army and Abu Sayyaf.
In Sri Lanka, there have been no reports of new use of antipersonnel mines by either government or rebel forces since cease-fires in December 2001. In the fighting following 11 September 2001, there were reports of limited use of mines and booby-traps by the Northern Alliance, Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, but coalition forces, including the U.S., did not use antipersonnel mines.
Eight of the 14 current producers globally are from the Asia/Pacific region: Burma, China, India, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam. Pakistan acknowledged that it has started producing both new detectable hand-emplaced antipersonnel mines and new remotely-delivered mines with self-destruct and self-deactivating mechanisms. India has indicated that it is doing the same. China reported that it has ceased the production of antipersonnel mines without a self-destruct capability. South Korea has stated that it has not produced any antipersonnel mines, including Claymore mines, after the year 2000. Singapore confirmed that it continues to manufacture antipersonnel mines. Rebels groups and non-state actors are believed to produce homemade antipersonnel mines in Burma, India, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka.
All of the producers have a moratorium on export in place or have stated that they no longer export antipersonnel mines, except for Burma (Myanmar) and North Korea. However, in April 2002, the state-owned Pakistan Ordnance Factories allegedly offered two types of antipersonnel mines for sale in the United Kingdom to a television journalist who posed as a representative of a private company seeking to purchase a variety of weapons. In Thailand, two army officers were arrested while allegedly trying to smuggle weapons including antipersonnel mines.
Some of the biggest stockpiles globally are in the Asia/Pacific region: China (110 million), Pakistan (6 million), India (4-5 million) and the Republic of Korea (2 million). Other countries holding stockpiles include Afghanistan, Burma, North Korea, Laos, Mongolia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as signatories Indonesia and Brunei, and States Parties Bangladesh, Japan, and Thailand. Bangladesh has not disclosed the number of mines in stockpile. Indonesia revealed that its stockpile numbers 16,000 antipersonnel mines. Armed non-state actors are believed to maintain stockpiles of antipersonnel mines in Afghanistan, Burma, India, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Japan had destroyed 605,040 antipersonnel mines by the end of February 2002. In Thailand the total number of antipersonnel mines destroyed as of July 2002 was 266,245. Although Cambodia has declared completion of stockpile destruction, officials continue to find, collect and destroy mines from various locations; it destroyed 3,405 antipersonnel mines on 14 January 2002.
Malaysia hosted a Regional Seminar on Stockpile Destruction of Anti-Personnel Mines and Other Munitions from 8–9 August 2001 in which 21 countries participated, including eight non-State Parties. Australia has served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction since September 2001.
In the region, sixteen countries are mine- and UXO-affected, as well as Taiwan. Afghanistan is one of the most severely mine/UXO-affected countries in the world, with an estimated 737 million square meters of contaminated land. Post-11 September 2001 military operations created additional threats to the population, especially unexploded U.S. cluster bomblets and ammunition scattered from storage depots hit by air strikes, as well as newly laid mines and booby-traps.
In Sri Lanka, uncleared mines threaten the safety of thousands of displaced people returning home following the cessation of hostilities. Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary has estimated that there are some 700,000 mines in the ground.
The mine/UXO problem in Nepal appears to have worsened as the internal conflict intensified in 2001 and the first half of 2002. Seventy-one out of 75 districts reported the presence of mines or UXO, compared to 37 last year.
In India, the mine-laying that started in December 2001 has prevented villagers from tending their crops and livestock. A similar problem affects villagers on the Pakistan side of the border. Residents of Pakistan’s Federally Administrated Tribal Areas continue to face the presence of landmines laid during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Cambodia remains one of the world’s most affected countries. A Landmine Impact Survey completed in April 2002 reveals that the number of areas contaminated by mines and UXO is about 30% higher than estimated at the beginning of the 1990s. About 46% of Cambodian villages have mine/UXO-affected areas. The total suspected contaminated area is 4,466 million square meters.
In Laos, over 25 percent of villages are affected by the presence of uncleared UXO contamination. A LIS completed in May 2001 identified 934 mine-contaminated areas located within 27 provinces of Thailand. In Vietnam, the government has estimated that 16,478 million square meters of land remains contaminated by landmine and UXO, nearly thirty years since the end of the conflict. Nine out of fourteen states and divisions in Burma are mine-affected, with a heavy concentration in eastern Burma; no systematic marking of mined areas is done within Burma.
The major mine action donors from this region are Australia and Japan. Australia provided A$12 million (US$6.4 million) in mine action funding for its financial year 2001-2002, a similar level to last year. Japanese mine action funding fell about 40 percent in 2001, to 741 million Japanese Yen (US$6.98 million). In 2001, New Zealand contributed NZ$2.3 (US$.95 million) to mine action, up from NZ$1.8 million in 2000. South Korea donated $150,000 in 2001.
A funding shortfall for the mine action program in Afghanistan prior to 11 September 2001 had threatened again to curtail mine action operations, as it did in 2000. Mine action operations were suspended after 11 September 2001. The total of $14.1 million in mine action funding for 2001 represented the smallest amount since 1992. However, since October 2001, about $64 million has been pledged to mine action in Afghanistan.
In 2001, seventeen donors reported contributions to mine action in Cambodia totaling more than $21 million. In 2001 and 2002 a number of donors resumed funding of the Cambodian Mine Action Center, demonstrating renewed confidence after past crises. According to UXO LAO, mine action funding for Laos in 2001 amounted to an estimated $7.5 million.
According to reports from donors, more than $25 million has been provided or pledged for mine action in Vietnam in recent years. This includes the $11.2 million donated in March 2002 by the Japanese government to the Ministry of Defense for mine clearance equipment to be used in infrastructure development projects, such as the Ho Chi Minh highway. In 2001, some $5.7 million was provided, including $3.5 million from the United States.
Thailand received more than $2.2 million from five donors in 2001 for mine action. In Sri Lanka, most mine action activities had halted in 2000 due to the escalation of fighting, and in 2001 only a small amount of funding was provided to mine risk education activities. However, in the wake of the cease-fire signed in February 2002, more than $1.7 million has been pledged to mine action in Sri Lanka.
In 2001, mine action organizations in Afghanistan cleared 15.6 million square meters of mined land and another 81 million square meters of former battle areas, destroying a total of 230,077 antipersonnel mines in the process. Mine clearance in Afghanistan halted briefly after 11 September 2001, and the mine action infrastructure suffered greatly during the subsequent military conflict. But by March 2002, mine action operations had returned to earlier levels, and have since expanded beyond 2001 levels.
In 2001, a total of 21.8 million square meters of land was cleared in Cambodia, including 29,358 antipersonnel mines. In Laos, a total of 8.74 million square meters of land was cleared in 2001, including 82,724 explosive remnants of war. About 3.8 million square meters of land was cleared in Vietnam from 1999-2001, not including mine clearance by the Vietnamese Army. The Thailand Mine Action Center reported that since the start of clearance operations in July 2000, 4.4 million square meters of land had been cleared as of June 2002. In Sri Lanka, the cease-fire may enable significant mine action activities to get underway; mine clearance operations are currently conducted by the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE.
Urgent needs for more mine risk education programs were reported in Burma, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Significant MRE programs continued in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, while smaller scale activities were conducted in Bangladesh, India, South Korea, and Nepal. In 2001, 729,318 civilians received mine risk education throughout Afghanistan, including refugees returning from Iran and Pakistan.
In Burma, a three-day mine information workshop, including MRE, took place in Rangoon in February 2002. In Cambodia, the CambodianMine Action Center launched a community-based mine/UXO risk reduction pilot project in October 2001. UXO LAO community awareness teams visited 766 villages in 2001, reaching approximately 182,000 persons, including 75,000 children, throughout Laos. In Thailand, the Thailand Mine Action Center and three NGOs conducted MRE activities reaching more than 77,000 persons.
Mine casualties were recorded in 13 of the 16 mine-affected counties in the Asia/Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, South Korea, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
In Afghanistan, the ICRC reported 1,368 mine casualties, up from 1,114 casualties in 2000. The Nepal Campaign to Ban Landmines registered 424 casualties from IEDs in 2001, a 57 percent increase from the year 2000. In India, there were at least 332 new mine casualties reported in 2001, and another 180 mine casualties reported between 1 January and 17 June 2002. In Sri Lanka, data collected from various sources indicates more than 300 new mine casualties in 2001. In Pakistan, 92 casualties were registered, up from 62 in 2000.
In 2001, casualties continued to decrease in Cambodia where 813 casualties were recorded, down from 847 in the year 2000. In Laos, UXO LAO recorded 122 casualties, up from 103 in the year 2000.
In Afghanistan, according to the World Health Organization, 65 percent of Afghans do not have access to health facilities. Only 60 out of 330 districts have rehabilitation or socioeconomic reintegration facilities for persons with disabilities, and even in those districts the needs are only partially met. In Sri Lanka, an NGO called Hope for Children introduced a mobile artificial limb manufacturing and fitting vehicle to provide assistance in remote areas.
In Burma (Myanmar), the ICRC reported that in 2001 the country ranked third out of their 14 prosthetic/orthotic programs worldwide for the highest number of mine survivors receiving prostheses, after Afghanistan and Angola. In Laos, the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare formally approved the constitution of the Lao Disabled People’s Association, after five years. In Vietnam, the Community-Based Rehabilitation program expanded from forty to 45 provinces.
From 6-8 November 2001, the South East Asia Regional Conference on Victim Assistance was held in Bangkok. The Conference was aimed to raise awareness of the needs of mine survivors and to assist countries in the region in the development of national plans of action.
