| <TUNISIA | UGANDA > |
Key developments since May 2001: Turkmenistan submitted its initial Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report in November 2001. It reported the destruction of more than 400,000 antipersonnel mines since 1997, and a remaining stockpile of 761,782 mines. It requested a seven-year extension of its deadline for stockpile destruction, but such an extension is not permitted under the Mine Ban Treaty. Turkmenistan subsequently indicated it intended to meet the deadline of 1 March 2003.
Turkmenistan signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 19 January 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Turkmenistan has not yet passed national legislation or other measures implementing the treaty, as required by Article 9.
Turkmenistan submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, dated 1 October 2001, to the United Nations on 14 November 2001.[1] The report was due by 27 August 1999. Turkmenistan chose not to use the standard reporting forms, but instead submitted one page of text and two detailed tables on its stockpile. Much of the information required by Article 7 is not included in the report.
The government has not participated in any of the meetings of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, including the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001, in Managua, Nicaragua. Turkmenistan has also not attended any of the intersessional Standing Committee meetings, nor any of the regional meetings on landmines held over the past few years.
In November 2001, Turkmenistan cosponsored and voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M in support of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had in previous years. Turkmenistan is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
According to Turkmenistan, “There are no mined areas on the territory of Turkmenistan.”[2] There are no reports of landmine casualties. Turkmenistan has stated that it does not produce antipersonnel landmines.[3] It is not believed to have produced or exported landmines in the past. There have been no reports of use by Turkmenistan in the reporting period.
Turkmenistan has reported that of an initial stockpile of 1.17 million antipersonnel mines in December 1997, a total of 761,782 antipersonnel mines remained as of 1 October 2001 (see table below).[4] The landmines were likely inherited from the Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991. All mines are stored in the arsenals of the armed forces.[5]
In the Article 7 Report, Turkmenistan reported the destruction of 412,601 landmines from 1997-2001.[6] Turkmenistan destroys all mines by explosion.[7] The country has already successfully eliminated its stocks of the following mines: POMZ-2M, POMZ-2, PDM-6M, KPOM-2, and PMN-3.[8] Turkmenistan has destroyed more OZM-72 mines than any other of its antipersonnel mines (130,754), but still possesses more of this type (490,091) than any other.[9]
It is noteworthy that Turkmenistan reports destroying more than 66,000 PFM-1 and PFM-1S mines, which are contained in KFS-1 and KFS-1S carriers. There has been much discussion in the international community about the difficulties of destroying PFM mines, particularly the safety risks posed by their specific construction and toxic gases resulting from their explosion.
Turkmenistan’s deadline for stockpile destruction under Mine Ban Treaty Article 4 is 1 March 2003. In its Article 7 Report, however, Turkmenistan requested that its deadline be extended for seven years: “[I]t will take approximately eight years to destroy all of the stocks of antipersonnel mines. Therefore, Turkmenistan is requesting an extension of the time allowed for the destruction of the whole arsenal of antipersonnel mines to the year 2010.”[11]
While the Mine Ban Treaty has a provision allowing for an extension of the deadline for destruction of antipersonnel mines in the ground, there is no possibility for an extension of the deadline for destruction of antipersonnel mines held in stockpiles. The co-chairs of the Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Australia and Croatia, have communicated with Turkmenistan regarding this matter.[12] In a letter to the co-chairs, Turkmenistan stated that it now plans to meet its deadline, and that it only has about 250,000 antipersonnel mines left to destroy.[13] This would mean Turkmenistan destroyed some 500,000 mines from October 2001 to May 2002.
The shelf life of all of Turkmenistan’s antipersonnel mines appears to have expired. Turkmenistan’s Article 7 Report includes a table with the production date and shelf life for each mine type in stock. The time elapsed since expiration ranges from 1-25 years, the oldest being the MON-100 and MON-200 type mines. Turkmenistan has destroyed fewer MON-100 and MON-200s than any other type of mine.[14] It would appear that Turkmenistan does not intend to retain any mines for training or development purposes.
| <TUNISIA | UGANDA > |
[1] Article 7 Report, dated 1 October 2001, submitted on 14 November 2001. The report was submitted in Russian. Landmine Monitor utilized a translation provided by the Government of Canada.
[2] Article 7 Report, dated 1 October 2001, submitted on 14 November 2001.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid. This figure contradicts a statement made by a Turkmen government official in 1999, who claimed that Turkmenistan had “a small stockpile of landmines.” Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 744.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] The co-chairs informed Landmine Monitor of this during the Standing Committee meetings in May 2002.
[13] Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, “Update on Implementation of Article 4,” 30 May 2002, endnote 46; available at:
http://www.gichd.ch/pdf/mbc/SC_may02/speeches_sd/Co_Chairs_Article_4_update.pdf.
[14] Article 7 Report, Table 1, dated 1 October, submitted on 14 November 2001.
