GENEVA 24-25 November 2008 Ninth Meeting of State Parties eyes mine ban treaty deadline 

The 9th Meeting of the State Parties to the Anti-Personnel Mine-Ban Treaty will try to hurry laggards among the 156 signatories to fulfil their commitments before a 2009 deadline, and also will be turning up the heat on countries that didn't sign it. The 39 holdouts include three of the five permanent members on the United Nations Security Council. One of them is the United States, and the new occupant of the US White House after 20 Jan can expect pressure from ban supporters.

The deadline is the 10th anniversary of the day it entered into force, 1 Mar 1999. Sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Convention, the Treaty is officially titled: the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. It covers mine use, production and trade, to victim assistance, mine clearance and stockpile destruction.

The argument used by Washington for staying outside the Treaty -- that the military capabilities provided by landmines remain necessary for the United States to protect its armed forces and ensure the success of their mission -- is used in so many words by other holdout states. These include regional powers such as India, Iran, Israel, Egypt and Pakistan.

The deadly weapons can't tell the difference between the boot of a soldier and the foot of a child, and they go on killing for decades after they were planted. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines describes 2008 as critical in the struggle to free the world from them. According to ICBL, progress has been slower than expected and in some cases unacceptable.

States Parties have 10 years to clear all their mined areas. The first deadlines – for 20 mine-affected states – will occur in 2009. States can ask for an extension of the deadline for up to 10 years, and the November meeting will consider these requests.

More than three-quarters of the states with 2009 deadlines appear set to miss them, according to ICBL. They include: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Jordan, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Peru, Senegal, Thailand, United Kingdom (Falklands), Venezuela, Yemen and Zimbabwe. Many of these states are likely to request long extensions of their deadlines.

ICBL says some heavily affected countries still have incredibly high estimates of contaminated areas, and the inability to pinpoint affected areas hinders the effective deployment of clearance assets. The organization describes the amount of land cleared in countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad and Thailand as "unacceptably low."

Another part of the commitment is destroying stockpiles of landmines. As of 1 April, 83 States Parties had finished destroying their stockpiles. Another 60 states declared no stockpiles; five states have not yet reported on stockpiles but are not believed to have any; and seven states still have stocks to destroy.

Landmine Monitor estimates that there are more than 250 million antipersonnel mines in the arsenals of 105 nations, with the biggest estimated to be China (110 million), Russia (60-70 million), Belarus (10-15 million), United States (11 million), Ukraine (10 million), Pakistan (6 million), and India (4-5 million). May/08

RELATED READING:

ICBL
http://www.icbl.org/

Landmine Monitor
http://www.icbl.org/lm/