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Landmine Monitor fact sheet Feb 2003

Prepared by Norwegian People's Aid
For the February 2003 Meeting of the Intersessional Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Mine Action Technologies of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty

Destruction of Anti-Personnel Mines in Mined Areas and Status of Mine Action Programs in Mine Affected State Parties (Article 5)

The ICBL Mine Action Working Group (MAWG) has at various times raised the issue of Article 5 reporting and the inadequate information on status and progress made in relation to clearance of mined areas and status of mine action programs. Hence, as a result of this concern the MAWG calls for standardization and greater detail in Article 7 reports when reporting on Article 5. The reporting should include information on total funding for mine action by donors and recipients, data on impact and size of suspected mine infested areas, and a clear definition and registration of area cleared or otherwise discharged of suspicion. MAWG continues to call for the development of strategic mine action plans with defined priorities and priority setting methodologies by national authorities and other mine action actors. Furthermore, the timeframe for strategic plans should be consistent with the 10-year deadline in the Mine Ban Treaty.

  • Some 33 of the total number of 44 mine affected State Parties have submitted their Article 7 reports1.

  • Algeria, Eritrea, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Niger, and Sierra Leone are late submitting their reports, and four have yet to reach their respective due date - Afghanistan, Angola, Cyprus and the D. Republic of Congo.

  • Among the submitted Article 7 reports from mine affected State Parties, four have not reported on the mined areas in the country: Bangladesh, El Salvador, Hungary, and the Philippines.

  • Seven of the 33 reporting mine affected State Parties lack information regarding the status of clearance programs: Bangladesh, Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hungary, the Philippines, and Uganda.

  • Examples of Article 5 reports completed in accordance with format and requested information and where all relevant data can be found are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Mozambique, Nicaragua and Yemen. However, there remains a general lack of reporting on the size, i.e. square meters, of cleared land. Reporting continues to be referred to in numbers of cleared mines.

The following information is retrieved from reports as found on the Art. 7 web page2. In some cases, submitted annexes cannot be accessed on the web, thus some of the information below may not reflect full reporting. As of 3 February 2003 the following mine affected State Parties have reported on Article 5 in their transparency report:

Mine Affected State Party
Article 7
(no. of report submitted)
Form C
(report on location of mined areas)
Form F
(report on status
of MA programs)
Form C
(report on MA clearance)
Mine Clearance deadlines
Afghanistan
due Aug. 2003
-
-
-
2012
Angola
due June 2003
-
-
-
2012
Albania
1
yes
yes
yes
2010
Algeria
due Sep. 2002
-
-
-
2011
Bangladesh
1
no
no
no
2011
Bosnia i Herzegovina
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Cambodia
3
yes
yes
yes
2010
Chad
2
yes
yes
yes
2009
Chile
1
yes
yes
yes
2011
Colombia
1
yes
yes
no
2011
Republic of Congo
1
yes
no, stockpiles only
no, stockpiles
2011
Congo, DR of
due April 2003
-
-
-
2012
Croatia
4
yes
yes
yes
2009
Cyprus
due Dec. 2003
2012
Djibouti
1
yes
yes
yes
2009
Ecuador
4
yes
yes
yes
2009
El Salvador
2
no
no
no
2009
Eritrea
due July 2002
-
-
-
2011
Guatemala
2
yes
no
no
2009
Guinea Bissau
1
yes
yes
yes
2011
Honduras
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Hungary
4
no
no
no
2009
Jordan
4
yes
yes
yes
2009
Liberia
due Nov. 2000
-
-
-
2010
Macedonia FYR of
2
yes
yes (clearance
reported in Form C)
no
2009
Malawi
due Aug. 1999
-
-
-
2009
Mauritania
2
yes
yes
no
2011
Mozambique
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Namibia
due Aug. 1999
2009
Nicaragua
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Niger
due Feb. 2000
-
-
-
2009
Peru
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Philippines
4
no
no
no
2010
Rwanda
1
yes
yes
no
2010
Senegal
3
yes
yes
yes
2009
Sierra Leone
due Mar. 2002
-
-
-
2011
Swaziland
1
yes
yes
no
2009
Tajikistan
1
yes
yes
yes
2010
Thailand
4
yes
yes
yes
2009
Tunisia
1
yes
yes
no
2010
Uganda
1
yes
no
no
2009
Yemen
4
yes
yes
yes
2009
Zambia
1
yes
yes
no
2011
Zimbabwe
2
yes
yes
yes
2009

1 According to postings on http://disarmament.un.org/MineBan.nsf as of 3 February 2003
2 The information can be found at http://disarmament.un.org/MineBan.nsf