Key developments since May 2005: Bhutan acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 18 August 2005 and the treaty entered into force on 1 February 2006.
The Kingdom of Bhutan acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 18 August 2005. The treaty entered into force for Bhutan on 1 February 2006. The country’s initial Article 7 transparency report was due on 31 July 2006. Bhutan has stated several times that has not produced, imported, exported, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines, and that it is not mine-affected.[1]
Bhutan’s positive position toward the treaty solidified after its first participation in a Mine Ban Treaty-related meeting, the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand. At that time, its representative told Landmine Monitor there were no problems with accession, it was “only a matter of priorities.”[2] On 24 July 2005, at its 83rd session, the National Assembly approved Bhutan’s accession to the Mine Ban Treaty.[3]
Bhutan attended the Mine Ban Treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2005, the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in Zagreb, Croatia in November-December 2005, and the intersessional meetings in May 2006. Bhutan has voted in support of every annual UN General Assembly resolution calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty since 1997, including UNGA Resolution 60/80 on 8 December 2005.
The Royal Bhutan Army receives training from India, which is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not known if this training has included mine-laying and mine clearance techniques, or whether Indian forces stockpile mines in Bhutan to support training activities.
There have been no reports of use of mines in Bhutan since December 2003.[4] During that month, armed opposition groups from the northeast Indian state of Assam, including the United Liberation Front of Assam, National Democratic Front of Bodoland and Kamtapur Liberation Organization, reportedly used antipersonnel mines against Royal Bhutan Army forces attempting to oust them from bases in Bhutan.
Landmine Monitor has not received any reports of subsequent clearance of landmines, nor of landmine casualties before, during or after the military operations in which the mines were reportedly deployed. Bhutan has eight known mine survivors from an incident in July 2001, in India’s Assam state, three kilometers from the India-Bhutan border.[5]
[1] This was first stated in a Landmine Monitor interview with Sangye Rinchhen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Bangkok, 19 September 2003. Also, in a letter to Stephen Goose, Landmine Monitor Ban Policy Coordinator, Human Rights Watch, from Amb. Daw Penjo, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the UN in New York, 17 August 2005.
[2] Interview with Sangye Rinchhen, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok, 19 September 2003.
[3] Letter to Stephen Goose, Human Rights Watch, from Amb. Daw Penjo, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the UN in New York, 17 August 2005.
[4] See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 934. Landmine Monitor has reported in the past that several Indian rebel groups inside Bhutan allegedly possess landmines and/or improvised explosive devices, and there was one previous report in 1999 of use of mines by Indian rebels inside Bhutan.
[5] For more information, see Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 934.