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Belarus
deposited Its Instrument of Accession to the Convention on the Prohibition
of Anti-Personnel Mine on the Problem of Anti-Personal Landmines
On 3 September 2003, Belarus deposited its
Instrument of Accession to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their
Destruction.
The Convention was opened for signature in
December 1997. It entered into force on 1 March 1999 after 40 accession
instruments had been deposited. As on 5 September 2003, 148 states had
signed the Convention while 136 states had deposited their accession
instruments.
The Republic of Belarus was severely affected by
indiscriminate use of landmines during two world wars. Belarus fully shares
all mine-related humanitarian concerns of international community. Belarus
still suffers the consequences of World War II: a lot of unexploded
ordnance, including anti-personnel landmines, still kill and maim civilian
population.
Belarusian public opinion and Belarusian
Government view successful implementation of the Convention on the
Prohibition of Anti-personnel mines as one of important conditions for
strengthening international security.
Belarus does not produce anti-personnel mines.
Belarusian state does not use APLMs for protecting its borders or for any
other purposes.
The Engineering Forces of the Armed Forces of
Belarus have started the elimination of anti-personnel landmines. In 2002,
more than 22 000 APLMs were destroyed. More than 100,000 landmines had
already been destroyed in 2003 before Belarus joined the Ottawa Convention.
In 1995 the Republic of Belarus signed a
moratorium on the export of anti-personnel landmines that now enjoys a
de-facto international recognition. It has later been extended by Belarus
through the end of 2007.
The Republic of Belarus faces a severe problem
of eliminating a huge stockpile of more than 4 million anti-personnel
landmines left in the country after the break-up of the Soviet Union. These
APLMs have to be destroyed under the Ottawa Convention.
In March 2000, the Republic of Belarus organized
an international regional workshop in Minsk on landmine problem in Belarus.
In 2000 the Republic of Belarus invited the UN Assessment mission to define
the scope and nature of the landmine problem in Belarus. Workshop
participants as well as members of the UN mission came to a conclusion that
the Republic of Belarus would require international assistance to deal with
the APLM-related problems. (The report of the UN Assessment mission is
available on the Internet at:
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/mine/belarus.pdf
(Acrobat Reader)).
The Ministry of Defence of the Republic of
Belarus has in its possession the following types of anti-personnel
landmines.
| |
Type |
Quantity |
|
1 |
PMN |
54 096 |
|
2 |
PMN-2 |
272 735 |
|
3 |
POM-2 |
70 680 |
|
4 |
PFM-1 and -1S |
3 625 152 |
| |
Total |
4 022 663 |
The first three types of landmines can be
destroyed by open burning or open detonation. However, these destruction
techniques cannot be applied to the PFM-1/1S mines because of ecological
concerns. In fact, the destruction of stockpiled PFM-1/1S mines is still the
subject of a number of technical questions, to which the international
community as a whole needs to find answers. All of the 3.6 million PFM-1/1S
mines should be destroyed as a priority. In the course of the Budapest
International Seminar held in February 2001 it was proved that the mines’
liquid explosive contents continue to react with the weapon’s hermetic
seals, leading to the detonator. Failure of these seals will allow the
liquid explosive to come into contact with the detonator resulting in
detonation. It is technically impossible at present to inspect the PFM-1
landmines in detail to try and identify the current state of the seals.
Regardless, even if such a technical capacity did exist, the design of this
type of APLMs is such that this inspection process would be prohibitively
hazardous.
Under these circumstances, Belarus needs
international assistance to deal with its stockpiles. In order to avoid
anticipated damage to the environment with the release of toxic products
resulting from detonation and combustion, specialised destruction techniques
– which Belarus currently does not have – need to be utilised. |
