Landmine Campaign Releases Unique, Ground-Breaking Report: Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World
(Maputo, Mozambique: 3 May 1999) At the opening of the First Meeting of States Parties to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) presented to government delegates and the public the first report of its Landmine Monitor initiative: a 1,100 page book, titled Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World. The report is the most comprehensive book to date on the global landmine situation, containing information on every country in the world with respect to mine use, production, trade, stockpiling, humanitarian demining and mine survivor assistance. A 49-page Executive Summary is also available.
Landmine Monitor is an unprecedented initiative by the ICBL to monitor implementation of and compliance with the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, and more generally to assess the efforts of the international community to resolve the landmines crisis. Its reports are timed for release to the annual meetings of states parties to the ban treaty. It is the first time that non-governmental organizations are coming together in a coordinated, systematic and sustained way to monitor a humanitarian law or disarmament treaty, and to regularly document progress and problems.
Key findings of the Landmine Monitor Report 1999 include:
- In addition to the well-publicized and ongoing use of antipersonnel mines by treaty signatory Angola, it appears that two governments, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, used mines in 1998 after signing the ban treaty.
- In the period from the December 1997 treaty signing to March 1999, it appears likely that there was new use of antipersonnel mines by governments and/or rebels in thirteen conflicts. In addition to the three treaty signatories, other governments planting mines included Burma, Israel, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. Frequent, but unconfirmed, allegations have been made of new use in this period by the governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, and Sudan.
- Although the latest round of escalated fighting in Yugoslavia and Kosovo began after the Landmine Monitor Report went to print, there have been numerous credible reports of extensive mine laying by Yugoslav forces in the past month. Yugoslavia was one of the world=s biggest producers and exporters of antipersonnel mines.
- Global production of antipersonnel mines appears to have decreased greatly in recent years as the number of countries producing AP mines has dropped dramatically from fifty-four to sixteen. Eight of the twelve biggest producers and exporters of mines over the past thirty years have signed the treaty and stopped production.
- Of the sixteen remaining producers,China is likely the biggest manufacturer today. Several have not made AP mines in recent years, including the United States and Singapore, but they reserve the right to resume production at any time. Russia in 1998 banned the production of AblastSPAMFLTER@SPATMFLTER mines, the most common type of mine.
- Landmine Monitor research did not uncover any evidence of new production by treaty signatories. Albania and Colombia were for the first time identified as producers, but both have stopped AP mine manufacture.
- There is no evidence of significant export of antipersonnel mines by any country, signatory or non-signatory. Landmine Monitor identified thirty-four past exporters, but all, with the exception of Iraq, have at least made a formal statement that they are no longer exporting. There are no major mine exporters today, and most of the major exporters of the past have signed the treaty.
- The Landmine Monitor Report 1999 contains the first systematic estimate of global AP mine stockpiles: more than 250 million antipersonnel mines are stockpiled in at least 108 countries. The most common previous estimate was 100 million. China is estimated to have 110 million AP mines, Russia some 60-70 million, and Belarus possibly tens of millions.
- However, stockpiled mines are also being destroyed in significant numbers. More than thirty countries have destroyed more than 12 million AP mines. Twelve countries have completely destroyed their mine arsenals thus far.
- Landmine Monitor has identified approximately $640 million in mine action spending by seventeen major donors from 1993-1998. While not a complete total, it contrasts sharply with the U.S. government=s A2010" initiative that calls for $1 billion per year in global mine funding. However, the spending trend is in the right direction, with 11 major donors reporting $100 million in mine action funding in 1997 and $169 million in 1998. The vast majority of mine action funding has gone to Afghanistan, Mozambique, Cambodia, Bosnia and Angola.
Landmine Monitor’s eighty researchers in more than 100 countries collected information in very short period and further conclusions will be drawn from the data collected. Landmine Monitor is largely based on in-country research, collected by in-country researchers, utilizing the ICBL’s network of 1,300 non-governmental organizations working in over 80 countries, but also drawing on other elements of civil society to help monitor and report, including journalists, academics and research institutions. The book also includes appendices with reports from major actors in the mine ban movement, such as key governments, UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The ICBL received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to eradicate antipersonnel mines and its Landmine Monitor initiative is coordinated by a “Core Group” of five organizations already very active in the ICBL: Human Rights Watch, Handicap International, Kenya Coalition Against Mines, Mines Action Canada, and Norwegian People's Aid.
For more information contact the ICBL at the NGO Secretariat, +258-1-499-765
- Mary Wareham, mobile: +27-82-858-5098
- Liz Bernstein, mobile: +258-(0)82-309-195
