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Key developments since May 2001: Uzbekistan continued laying mines on its border with Tajikistan at least until June 2001. Uzbekistan declared demining by Kyrgyzstan in disputed border areas illegal. Subsequently, Uzbek and Kyrgyz authorities agreed that new mine laying in certain regions would not be allowed. In 2001, there were at least 28 new landmine casualties in Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. It was absent during the vote in November 2001 on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 56/24M supporting the Mine Ban Treaty, and previously abstained from voting on the corresponding resolutions in 2000 and 1999. Uzbekistan did not attend, as an observer, the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2001, nor did it attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in January or May 2002.
Uzbekistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its original Protocol II on mines, but has not ratified CCW Amended Protocol II.
Uzbekistan has in recent years laid landmines on its borders with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan. There have been no confirmed instances of landmine use by Uzbekistan since June 2001, although a media report in March 2002 included a claim “by a government source” that Uzbekistan would “continue mining its borders.”[1] Uzbekistan has justified use of antipersonnel mines on its borders as a defense against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) rebel group and to prevent drug traffickers and weapons traders from entering Uzbek territory.[2]
There has been criticism of Uzbekistan for its use of antipersonnel mines. In 2001, the head of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Mission in Tajikistan publicly criticized Uzbekistan for laying mines in border areas, but following a strong reaction by Uzbekistan, the decision was taken to address the issue at the OSCE headquarters in Vienna.[3] The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) raised the issue of the use of mines with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in early 2001, and while the government took note of concerns, the minister stressed Uzbekistan’s need to defend its borders.[4] In June 2001 during a visit to Uzbekistan, the head of the United States Central Command, General Tommy Franks, reportedly indirectly admonished Uzbekistan for its use of mines, arguing that a State has the right to defense, but has to try to decrease the risk to civil society of military operations.[5]
Uzbekistan is reported to have used landmines in close proximity to, and, in some cases, within civilian areas. An assessment mission conducted on behalf of UNICEF in mid-2001 identified Uzbek-laid antipersonnel mines in unharvested crop land near the Tajik village of Tavokblok. The report of the mission, carried out by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), states that laying mines in unharvested fields “does not respect the principles of international humanitarian law.”[6] A farmer was reportedly killed by a mine in his own wheat field.
Uzbekistan’s borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan remain in dispute; consequently, the location of the Uzbek landmines is also contested. Tajikistan claims that Uzbek antipersonnel mines have been laid up to 500 meters inside Tajik territory.[7] An official in Kyrgyzstan’s Batken administration says Uzbekistan placed its mines 200-500 meters inside Kyrgyz territory.[8]
Uzbekistan’s entire 130-mile border with Afghanistan is reportedly mined and protected by a 380-volt electric fence, according to journalists and residents who live near the border.[9]
Uzbekistan began to mine its border areas with Tajikistan, a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, in 2000 and continued mining until at least the end of June 2001.[10] One report has alleged that Uzbek border guards “rearranged” a number of mines along the border with Tajikistan in early 2002.[11]
According to one press report, between 70 and 100 percent of the Tajik-Uzbek border is mined.[12] Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Defense claims that all minefields are marked clearly and that it has informed the Tajik government of their location.[13] However, the GICHD mission concluded that Uzbekistan has so far only sporadically marked minefields laid by its armed forces.[14] The US State Department has reported that Uzbek mine-laying along the border with Tajikistan “included some populated areas and is not demarcated clearly in most places.”[15]
Uzbek border guards reportedly began mining Kyrgyz border areas some time in 1999.[16] Uzbek minefields are emplaced around the overwhelmingly Tajik enclave of Sokh in the southern Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, around the Shakhi-Mardan enclave, and along the Uzbek-Kyrgyz border areas in the Farghona valley.
The presence of two types of mines has been established so far: the PMN blast mine and the OZM-72 bounding fragmentation antipersonnel mine.[17] In addition, the Kyrgyz Army has claimed that in a number of instances, Uzbeks laid mines on top of other mines, thus acting as an anti-lift device to prevent demining.[18]
The Uzbek Ministry of Defense claims, as in the case of Tajikistan, that minefields are clearly marked and that it told Kyrgyzstan of their locations.[19] Kyrgyzstan asserts Uzbekistan did not inform it of the mine-laying, did not post signs to ensure visibility of the mines, and did not, as of January 2002, provide them with maps of the mined areas.[20] The GICHD mission on behalf of UNICEF noted that “only limited efforts have been made [by Uzbekistan] to mark the mined areas,” and that a Kyrgyz demining team reports only to have seen marking signs in a couple of places.[21]
The Kyrgyz Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs said that by January 2002, Kyrgyzstan had sent seven notes of protest “demanding that demining take place [by Uzbekistan] and that maps of minefields be granted.”[22] The Press Secretary of the Uzbek Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Uzbekistan responded as follows: “The mined areas are erected against possible incursions by armed rebel groups and against threats to the territorial integrity of the Republic of Uzbekistan.”[23]
In a 31 July 2001 letter to Landmine Monitor, Uzbekistan’s Ambassador to the United States stated that Uzbekistan ”neither produces nor does it intend to produce landmines...nor does it transfer landmines.”[24] A stockpile of antipersonnel mines, size and composition unknown, was inherited upon the dissolution of the USSR. Uzbekistan is using former Soviet Union OZM-72 bounding fragmentation antipersonnel mines and PMN blast mines along its borders, and there are reports of use of POMZ fragmentation mines as well.[25]
According to media reports in 2002, Uzbek officials have no plans to clear mines laid along its borders with Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan.[26] There have been some reports of limited clearance by the Uzbek Army.[27]
Kyrgyzstan began demining border areas with Uzbekistan in June 2001, and cleared a total of 32 hectares (320,000 square meters) of border territory.[28] Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Defense subsequently claimed that the Kyrgyz mine clearance operations were illegal, arguing the land cleared was Uzbek territory. Two high-ranking military commanders from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan met in an attempt to resolve the dispute. They agreed that any additional mining of the Chon-Kara and Batken regions of the Kyrgyz Republic would not be allowed, and that mine clearing shall only occur after the agreement of the two commanders.[29]
(See Landmine Monitor country reports on Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan for information on their mine clearance activities on the Uzbek border.)
Uzbekistan is not believed to have any formal mine risk education programs. In 2001, Uzbek border guards reportedly had villagers from Vadigan sign statements that they would avoid the mountains and look out for mine warning signs.[30]
An association of Afghan war veterans, the Union of International Warriors, has conducted mine risk education for 120 children in summer camps in the Bostarlik region. The director of the veterans association said that children were ignorant of the threat and were a priority target group.[31] The Union of International Warriors says it uses “professional deminers with pedagogical skills,” and the training lasts approximately three to four days. Children are taught to recognize mines using films, and are given practical training in what to do in case they encounter a mine. According to the GICHD, the program appears to include instruction on marking mines, which, according to international guidelines, should never be taught to children, and on retracing footsteps, which in most circumstances is not appropriate.[32]
There are no publicly available official statistics on landmine casualties in Uzbekistan, making an accurate assessment of new casualties impossible. However, data from various sources give an indication of the magnitude of the problem. In 2001, according to the US Department of State, at least twenty civilians were killed by landmines in Uzbekistan.[33] According to the head of the Union of International Warriors, there were 28 new mine casualties, six of whom were children, in 2001.[34] Of these casualties, it is not known how many people were killed in the incidents. In July 2001, the chief of a border guard’s outpost stated that there were sometimes “daily” casualties among the civilian population.[35] In March 2002, it was reported that unofficial sources put the number of mine casualties in Uzbekistan at several dozen.[36] Livestock and other animals have also been killed by landmines.[37] The majority of Uzbek mine casualties occur along border areas with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
In April 2001, three young men were killed by a landmine while searching for a lost cow.[38] Since July 2001, four Uzbek soldiers were reportedly killed and another 14 injured in landmine incidents in the Uzbek-Tajik border area, however, the President’s office denied any knowledge of these incidents.[39]
Landmine Monitor has not received any information on landmine casualties along Uzbekistan’s mined border with Afghanistan.
Little is known about health care facilities in Uzbekistan, but it is not believed to offer special assistance to mine survivors or their families. There is a national prosthetics center, which is reportedly not functioning efficiently, and a Korean organization, New Hope, which is fitting prostheses free of charge. The Union of International Warriors is said to be considering sending amputees to Moscow for artificial limb-fitting.[40]
| <UNITED STATES OF AMERICA | VIETNAM > |
[1] Malik Mansur, “Uzbekistan: Calls for End to Mine Policy Rejected,” Institute For War and Peace Reporting, Tashkent, 22 March 2002, accessed at:
www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca/rca_200203_109_5_eng.txt on 1 July 2002.
[2] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 916.
[3] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia, A Report for UNICEF,” Geneva International Centre For Humanitarian Demining, 12 September 2001, p. 18.
[4] Ibid., p. 32.
[5] Suhov Fedor, “Uzbek mines blow up Middle Asia. Tashkent can provoke a bloody conflict,” Tajikistan Daily Digest, 21 June 2001, accessed at: www.eurasianet.org/resource/tajikistan/hypermail/200106/0037.html on 1 July 2002.
[6] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 18.
[7] Ibid., p. 17.
[8] Boris Golovanov, “Frontier situation,” Vechernii Bishkek (Evening Bishkek), 21 February 2002.
[9] McElroy, Damien, “Tashkent urged to allow UN aid across bridge,” Daily Telegraph, 12 November 2001, accessed at: tides2000.mitre.org/Tides-Testbed/devdata/daily-telegraph/raw/20011112/11.33.10-26693 on 1 July 2002.
[10] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 915-919.
[11] Malik Mansur, “Uzbekistan: Calls for End to Mine Policy Rejected,” Institute For War and Peace Reporting, Tashkent, 22 March 2002.
[12] Nezavisimaia Gazeta, (NGA No. 186), 5 October 2001, p. 5.
[13] US Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—Tajikistan,” March 2002.
[14] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 20.
[15] US Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—Tajikistan,” March 2002.
[16] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 919.
[17] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 8.
[18] Ibid.
[19] US Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—Uzbekistan,” March 2002.
[20] Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 919-920; Nezavisimaia Gazeta, (NGA No. 005), 18 January 2002, p. 5.
[21] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia, A Report for UNICEF,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 10.
[22] Nezavisimaia Gazeta, (NGA No. 005), 18 January 2002, p. 5.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Letter from Ambassador Shavkat Khamrakulov, Ambassador of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the United States of America, to Mary Wareham, Coordinator of Landmine Monitor, 31 July 2001.
[25] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia, A Report for UNICEF,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, pp. 17-18.
[26] See, for example, Malik Mansur, “Uzbekistan,” Institute For War and Peace Reporting, 22 March 2002.
[27] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 21.
[28] Interview with Colonel Daniar Izbasarov, Head of the Engineers Unit, Ministry of Defense, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 9 February 2002.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Galima Bukharbaeva, “Uzbek Mines Killing Their Own,” Institute For War And Peace Reporting, Tashkent, 19 July 2001, accessed at: www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca/rca_200107_61_1_eng.txt on 1 July 2002.
[31] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 31.
[32] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 31.
[33] U.S. Department of State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001: Uzbekistan,” March 2002.
[34] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 30.
[35] Galima Bukharbaeva, “Uzbek Mines Killing Their Own,” Institute For War And Peace Reporting, Tashkent, 19 July 2001, accessed at www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/rca/rca_200107_61_1_eng.txt (1 July 2002).
[36] Malik Mansur, “Uzbekistan,” Institute For War and Peace Reporting, 22 March 2002.
[37] Galima Bukharbaeva, “Uzbek Mines Killing Their Own,” Institute For War And Peace Reporting, 19 July 2001.
[38] “Beat up your own people so that others will be afraid? Uzbek villagers die in the time of peace because of landmines,” PRIMA news agency, 2 July 2001.
[39] Galima Bukharbaeva, “Uzbek Mines Killing Their Own,” Institute For War And Peace Reporting, 19 July 2001.
[40] “Mine Awareness and Advocacy Mission to Central Asia,” GICHD, 12 September 2001, p. 31.
