Bhutan

State Party since	1 February 2006
Treaty implementing legislation	None
Initial Article 7 report submitted on	29 May 2007
Use, production, transfer in 2006-2007	None
Article 4 (stockpile destruction)	Deadline: 1 February 2010
Article 3 (mines retained)	Initially: 4,491
Contamination	None reported
Estimated mine/ERW survivors	8
Key developments since May 2006	Bhutan submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report. For the first time Bhutan revealed it has a stockpile of 4,491 antipersonnel mines, all of which it will retain for training. Bhutan also acknowledged for the first time its past use of antipersonnel mines, as well as difficulties in demining.

Mine Ban Policy

The Kingdom of Bhutan acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 18 August 2005. The treaty entered into force on 1 February 2006. Bhutan has reported that the treaty is “self-enacting” under domestic law.^[1] It has not taken any new national measures to implement the treaty.

Bhutan submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report on 29 May 2007. The report was due on 31 July 2006. The reporting period is not stated.

Bhutan did not attend either the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2006 or the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in April 2007, both in Geneva. It did attend the May 2006 Standing Committee meetings.

Bhutan is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Stockpile and Use

Bhutan previously stated several times that it had not produced, imported, exported, stockpiled or used antipersonnel mines.^[2] Bhutan’s Article 7 report confirms that it does not have any production facilities for antipersonnel mines.^[3] However, Bhutan’s report reveals for the first time that Bhutan in the past acquired and used antipersonnel mines, and still has a stockpile of the weapon.

Bhutan stated that it has a total of 4,491 antipersonnel mines, including 1,740 NM M-14 mines and 2,751 M-16 mines, all of which it will retain for training purposes.^[4] Bhutan does not provide any of the technical characteristics of the mines, as called for in Article 7, but the designations are typical of Indian-manufactured mines; Bhutan receives military training from India. Bhutan also does not indicate if it has destroyed any stockpiled antipersonnel mines in the past.

Bhutan did not provide any details of its training program or the intended purposes and actual uses of the retained mines.^[5] This would appear to be a very large number of retained mines for a small armed force that does not engage in mine clearance domestically or internationally on an ongoing basis.

Bhutan acknowledged that it used antipersonnel mines to contain insurgents from India with camps on Bhutanese territory. It reported that it laid mines on the track to a camp of Indian insurgents in Gobarkunda, and on five tracks leading to camps of Indian insurgents in Nganglam Sub-District on the Bhutanese side of the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary.^[6]

Bhutan does not indicate when it used the antipersonnel mines. In December 2003 Indian insurgents reportedly used antipersonnel mines against Royal Bhutan Army forces who were attempting to oust them from bases in Bhutan.^[7]

Landmine Problem, Mine Action and Casualties

Bhutan stated that the mines it laid were later removed with difficulty and loss of life. It reported the following: “The mines in the two areas [Gobarkunda and Nganglam] were marked very precisely on maps for future de-mining. However, the heavy monsoon rains have dislodged the mines as these two areas are on steep mountain slopes and thick undergrowth have made it very difficult to even check the mines. The Royal Bhutan Army lost two soldiers when a patrol was sent to check the mines in one of the areas. While trying to locate the mined track, some of the mines exploded and two soldiers were killed on the spot. The effects of the heavy rainfall and the thick undergrowth made it very difficult to remove the mines planted around the Forest Range Office in the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary during the height of Indian insurgent presence on the Bhutan side of the wildlife sanctuary even though these mines were laid on flat ground. The removal of these mines could be completed only after three separate attempts were made. The de-mining programme in the two remote and thickly forested hilly areas in the wildlife sanctuary was found to be extremely dangerous and difficult.”^[8]

Bhutan told Landmine Monitor in both 2003 and 2005 that it is not mine-affected.^[9]

Bhutan has eight known mine survivors from an incident in July 2001, in India’s Assam state, three kilometers from the India-Bhutan border.^[10]

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