Belarus Stockpile Destruction Event and Treaty Implementation Workshop

Types of mines exploded at public event on 22 May 2006

On 22 May, the Belarus government hosted a public destruction of antipersonnel landmines in front several representatives of the international community at a Defense Ministry range near the town of Borisov. This event marked the beginning of a project to destroy Belarus’ stockpiles of non-PFM antipersonnel mines – over 300,000 mines –managed by the NATO Management and Supply Agency (NAMSA). This project is funded by Lithuania and Canada through the NATO Partnership for Peace Program. Belarus’ stockpile of almost 3.4 million PFM mines, which cannot be destroyed by open detonation because of their chemical explosives – will be destroyed through a project funded by the European Commission (EC) that is set to begin in January 2007.

Major General Sergey Luchina, representing the Belarus Ministry of Defense (MoD), introduced the event and then invited the UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus, the ICBL Treaty Implementation Director, a representative from the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a representative of the Belarus Youth Campaign to Ban Landmines to press on the ignition buttons to explode boxes of POM-2, PMN, and PMN-2 mines.

Maj. Gen. Luchina and UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus after mine destruction event

On 23 and 24 May, the Belarus Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) hosted the Third International Ottawa Convention Implementation Workshop, organized by the SCAF/ Belarus Campaign to Ban Landmines and the UNDP. The conference was funded by the Canadian government. The Belarus government was well-represented, including officials from the MFA, MoD, Ministry of the Interior, and Ministry of Justice. Representatives of the ICBL, UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, OSCE, EC, were also present, as well as officials from Lithuania, Ukraine, and Japan. One of the goals of the conference was to discuss regional cooperation and universalization, so other participants included representatives from Poland, Russia, China, and the United States.

The ICBL made remarks in the opening ceremony that highlighted the cooperation between civil society and governments that led to the creation of the Mine Ban Treaty and convinced many reluctant states to accede, including Belarus. The ICBL also gave a presentation on the implementation mechanisms of the treaty.

During the conference, the Belarus MFA and MoD reiterated their view that Belarus does not have obligations under Article 5 because it does not have specific mined areas. It bases this assessment on a 2000 UNMAS report, which stated that the problem in Belarus was limited to mostly unexploded ordnance (UXO). The ICBL has asked Belarus to reevaluate this position given the large amounts of antipersonnel mines that are cleared every year by the MoD and Ministry of the Interior.

Stockpile destruction was also a major topic of discussion during the workshop. The Belarus government, EC, and NAMSA representatives updated participants on the status of the stockpile destruction programs in Belarus, and Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Russian officials also discussed their programs. Belarus’ program to destroy its large PFM stock is scheduled to end begin in January 2007, and Ukraine’s PFM destruction program, also financed by the EC, began in February 2006. Russia said that it was pursuing the destruction of its PFM mine stock because the mines had exceeded their shelf life and the chemicals contained within them may begin to leak. The representative of the Russian MoD noted that given the instability of these mines, they would have to find a solution that minimized travel time to a destruction site.

Participants also shared experiences in warning civilians of the risk of mines, especially in areas that have not been surveyed nor marked. In Belarus and Russia, the Mine Risk Education (MRE) programs were centered on educating children about the threat of mines and UXO by including the subject in school curriculums. There were no reports on MRE for adults, though “black digging” – or digging up mines or UXO and selling the explosives on the black market - is a problem among adults as well as older children. A representative of the Belarus Prosthetic Rehabilitation Center spoke about a program they have to train landmine survivors and other disabled persons in computer skills and other professions where this a need for more skilled persons, noting that some of the training was done through distance learning.

Participants commented that the workshop was useful for exchanging ideas among countries in the region experiencing similar challenges and recommended holding similar conferences again