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The Gambia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, and ratification was approved by Parliament on 2 November 1999. In early March 2002, an official from the Office of the President said the instrument of ratification had been sent to the United Nations.[1] However, it still has not been formally deposited with the UN Secretary-General in New York.
No national implementation legislation is being formulated.[2] According to the same official, this is because of a lack of human resources, but added, “we are aware that this is a critical issue and we are going to address it very shortly.”[3]
The Gambia did not attend the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua, Nicaragua, in September 2001 for financial reasons.[4] It did not participate in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in January or May 2002. It also was absent during the vote on the UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.
The Gambia attended the “Conference on Arms and International Humanitarian Law: the CCW and the Ottawa Convention” in Abuja, Nigeria, organized by the ICRC in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 10 and 11 October 2001.
The Permanent Secretary of Defense confirmed that The Gambia has never produced, transferred, or used mines, and has no stockpile.[5]
He added that, although there are recent Senegalese refugee movements from the Casamance region into The Gambia, no mine incident has been reported on the Gambian territory. However, mines are considered as a potential threat.[6] Of the eight victims killed in a mine explosion in the Casamance region in March 2002, one was a Gambian.[7]
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[1] Telephone interview with Essa Khan, Permanent Secretary of Defense, Office of the President, Banjul, 15 March 2002. Khan made the same assertion to Landmine Monitor in an interview on 15 January 2001, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 219.
[2] Telephone interview with Essa Khan, Office of the President, 15 March 2002.
[3] Telephone interview with Essa Khan, Office of the President, 2 April 2002.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Telephone interview with Essa Khan, Office of the President, 2 April 2002; also, interview with Essa Khan, 15 January 2001; interview with Habib Jarra, Gambian representative to the Bamako Seminar on Landmines, Mali, 16 February 2001.
[6] Telephone interview with Essa Khan, Office of the President, 2 April 2002.
[7] “Eight Killed in Landmine Explosion,” The Independent, 15 March 2002.
