| <REPUBLIC OF KOREA | KYRGYZSTAN> |
Key developments since May 2001: Ministry of Defense sources told Landmine Monitor that Kuwait does not use landmines. Officials stated that the 45,845 antipersonnel mines Kuwait removed from the ground following the Gulf War and then stored for a period, have now been destroyed. Demining and quality assurance surveys of previously cleared land continue.
Kuwait has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Kuwait attended the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2001, but did not participate in intersessional Standing Committee meetings in January or May 2002. Kuwait was absent from the vote on the annual pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution in November 2001, as it has been for similar resolutions since 1999.
Although Kuwait is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, its Geneva-based representatives attended the treaty’s second review conference and third annual meeting of States Parties of Amended Protocol II, both in December 2001.
On 31 July 2001, the Ministry of Information arranged a seminar on the environmental impact of the 1990-1991 Gulf War attended by more than 100 participants from local and regional organizations and NGOs. A presentation on the types and hazards of mines and the legal framework of using mines was delivered during the seminar and many questions were raised about the Mine Ban Treaty and the main obstacles hindering Kuwait from joining the treaty.[1]
Ministry of Defense sources told Landmine Monitor that Kuwait does not use or produce landmines, and has not in the past.[2] The Ministry of Defense would not confirm if Kuwait has imported antipersonnel mines in the past, or if it currently maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines. However, officials clarified information contained in Landmine Monitor Report 2001: the 45,845 antipersonnel mines Kuwait removed from the ground following the Gulf War and then stored, at least until 1997, have since been destroyed.[3]
The Ministry of Defense also declined to comment on Landmine Monitor’s information that the United States likely stores 8,896 antipersonnel mines on the territory of Kuwait.[4]
Areas of Kuwait are still contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) of different types as a legacy of the 1990-1991 conflict. In several areas, especially the southern parts of the country, antipersonnel and antitank mines lie underneath a blanket of shifting sands. From 1991 to February 2002, 1,646,962 landmines were cleared in Kuwait, including 1,078,991 antipersonnel mines and 567,971 antitank mines. Most demining activities in 2001 and 2002 were focused in the strategic minefields crossing the southern part of the country, which has a length of more than 150 kilometers. Some 200 army deminers work in this area.
Between 20 February 2001 to 20 February 2002, 25 antipersonnel mines and 11 antitank mines were cleared from different areas of the desert of Kuwait including oil fields, military camps and air bases, agricultural areas, and other facilities. The mines were destroyed in the field.[5] The Defense Ministry is responsible for survey, assessment, and quality assurance of landmines and UXO. The Ministry of Defense receives from 15-20 notices a day from public and governmental bodies (for each notice a number of UXO and mines are cleared). The Ministry of Interior deals with mines and UXO only on an emergency basis.
In 2001, quality assurance (QA) of cleared areas was conducted for 73.81 square kilometers of land. QA surveys were conducted in Al-Salmi (extreme southwestern part of Kuwait), Al-Wafrah (southeastern part), operational areas of the oil fields (southeast, northeast, north and west), Bubyan Island and Ras as Sabiyah (northeast), and other airbases and military camps. A minefield 17.8 kilometers long was surveyed along Al-Salmi road, which connects Kuwait with Saudi Arabia.[6]
The public education activities described in previous Landmine Monitor reports continued. A 99-page Arabic booklet, “The Crime of Landmines in Kuwait,” on the problem of landmines in Kuwait was issued in July 2001, which also included information on the Mine Ban Treaty. An Arabic language version of the Landmine Monitor country report for Kuwait was also produced. Both publications were widely distributed to local and regional governmental organizations and NGOs.[7]
In March 2002, Kuwait reported that it would provide Lebanon with technical support for demining operations in South Lebanon. A military delegation from Kuwait visited Lebanon for this purpose and met with the Lebanese Minister of Defense. A program of technical assistance is expected to begin soon. [8]
In 2001, there were at least three reported mine/UXO incidents in which one person was killed and another three injured. On 3 February 2001, one person was killed in the Wafra area in the southeast of Kuwait. Other casualties occurred on 23 February 2001 when one person was injured by a mine in the Kabd area, southwest of Kuwait city, and on 17 November 2001 when two people were injured in an explosion at an ammunition storage site in the Um Al rus area west of Kuwait city.[9]
As of March 2002, one mine incident had been reported for the year: in January, a mine exploded during a demining training exercise inside a military camp, injuring five military personnel. One of the soldiers had a leg amputated.[10]
A military official told Landmine Monitor researchers that there are one or two mine/UXO incidents per month in Kuwait. The UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) also assists and records mine and UXO casualties occurring in the demilitarized zone between Iraq and Kuwait, but most of the incidents involve Iraqi civilians.
Previous editions of Landmine Monitor have reported a total mine casualty figure of 1,533 people between 1991 and January 2001, according to the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR).[11] However, in February 2002, KISR published a new report on the injuries to civilians in Kuwait that was prepared by a panel of nine physicians from the Ministry of Health. The findings of this report indicate that mine injuries accounted for 1,026 (43%) of the 2,386 war injuries and 85 (20%) of the 421 deaths. UXO accounted for 175 (7%) injured and 119 (28%) killed.[12]
These numbers do not include the 1,800 injuries suffered by Iraqi military and civilians. Iraqi casualties were cared for by the Kuwaiti health services and other facilities.[13]
There were no changes in the health care system for mine survivors described in previous Landmine Monitor reports.[14] In 2002, an NGO called the Kuwaiti Society for Landmine Victim Assistance was seeking approval from the Ministry of Social Affairs to officially form; its goal would be to register mine casualties and to assist mine survivors.[15]
| <REPUBLIC OF KOREA | KYRGYZSTAN> |
[1] Prof. Raafat Misak, Keynote Speaker, 31 July 2001.
[2] Information provided by Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense, 10 April 2002.
[3] Ibid. No details were provided about when or how the mines were destroyed. For information on the collection of the 48,845 mines, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 939-940, citing Ministry of Defense information.
[4] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 940.
[5] Extracted from the monthly reports (February 2001-February 2002) of the Engineering Force of the Kuwaiti Army.
[6] Ibid.
[7] The publications were written and distributed by the Center for Research and Studies.
[8] Al Qabas (newspaper), 6 March 2002.
[9] Information provided by Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense, 7 April 2002.
[10] Ibid.
[11] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 1017-1018, citing information from the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.
[12] Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, “War Injuries,” 2001.
[13] For example, in the autumn of 1991, 157 patients injured by mine explosions were cared for by a Norwegian military medical unit attached to the United Nations mission.
[14] For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 1018.
[15] Al Watan (newspaper), 22 March 2002.
