| <TUVALU | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > |
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. It has not articulated its position on the treaty or the mine issue in the past year. In 2000, the UAE stated that it “confirms its support for the international effort to ban antipersonnel landmines.”[1] It did not attend any Mine Ban Treaty meetings in the reporting period, but did vote in support of UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M on the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had done on similar pro-ban resolutions in previous years. The UAE is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and did not attend any CCW meetings in 2001 or 2002.
The UAE has stated that it is not a landmine producer or exporter.[2] The UAE remains one of just a handful of countries for which Landmine Monitor does not have a clear indication whether antipersonnel mines are stockpiled.
The UAE is not mine-affected. It has contributed to international mine action programs in Egypt, Kosovo and elsewhere.[3] In March 2001, UAE announced its intention to donate up to $50 million to help redevelop South Lebanon, including demining activities. The project, “Operation Emirates Solidarity,” is a two-phase project that commenced on 25 October 2001, when a memorandum of understanding between UAE and Lebanon was signed by UAE’s Minister of Defense and Chief of Staff Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Lebanon’s Minister of Defense, Khalil Hrawi (see the Lebanon report for details on the implementation of this program).[4]
| <TUVALU | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA > |
[1] Letter from the UAE Foreign Ministry (translated by the UAE Embassy, Washington DC), to Landmine Monitor (HRW), 5 October 2000.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 1044, for more details.
[4] Cilina Nasser, “De-miming bid launched with help from U.A.E: $50 millions donation speeds up clearing operation in Lebanon,” Daily Star (Beirut English language daily newspaper), 26 October 2001.
