http://landminesinafrica.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/demining-extensions-granted-to-eritrea-and-the-republic-of-congo/
Landmines in Africa
Until every step is safe.
Demining Extensions Granted to Eritrea and the Republic of Congo
Posted: December 8, 2011 | Author: landminesinafrica | Filed under:
Uncategorized | Tags: 11MSP, demining, Eritrea, landmines, Mine Ban Treaty,
Republic of Congo |Leave a comment »
On December 2, the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban
Treaty approved Article 5 extension requests to Eritrea and the Republic of
Congo, giving both countries additional time to complete their
Treaty-mandated demining obligations. Eritrea’s request was an interim one,
seeking additional time (until February 1, 2015) to fully assess the extent
of anti-personnel landmine contamination in the country and develop a
comprehensive plan to eliminate that contamination through demining. The
Republic of Congo’s request was for two years and would cover demining of
suspected areas; however, Congo’s original Article 5 deadline was November
1, 2011 and the extension was not approved until December 2. Therefore
Congo was in violation of the Mine Ban Treaty for the entire month of
November 2011, the first violation of the Treaty’s Article 5 obligations by
any state.
Eritrea
I discussed Eritrea’s extension request in an earlier post (Landmines in
Africa), but it’s worth describing in full again. Eritrea’s anti-personnel
landmine contamination was first documented in a 2002-2004 Landmine Impact
Survey (LIS) conducted by UNDP with the support of the Survey Action
Center. More than 900 suspected hazardous areas were identified by the LIS,
areas which need to be re-surveyed by technical and non-technical means to
confirm the presence or absence of anti-personnel mines. Eritrea’s
extension request assumed that a great many of the suspected hazardous
areas identified by the LIS are in fact contaminated by other explosive
remnants of war (not anti-personnel mines) or not contaminated at all. The
extension request therefore sought the time needed to obtain a precise
picture of the anti-personnel landmine contamination, and then before the
end of the extension period, Eritrea would submit a comprehensive plan for
demining all mined areas. Thus, the approved extension request represents
an interim request.
During the initial extension period, Eritrea will engage in manual demining
activities of already identified minefields and some of the minefields that
are confirmed during the survey process. The cost of survey and demining in
the extension period is $8.5 million for all activities throughout the
period, of which Eritrea will provide $4.8 million and the international
community has been asked to provide the balance. This leads to the main
concern about Eritrea’s extension request: the fact that international
operators have been absent from Eritrea since 2005 (AP Mine Ban Convention
Implementation Support Unit, pdf).
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in their commentary on
the extension request refers to the expulsion of mine action operators from
Eritrea after 2005 (the AP Mine Ban Convention Implementation Support Unit
[ISU] was more politic and merely referred to the “absence” of
international mine action operators). ICBL considers the expulsion of
international mine action operators – granted, many of whom are members of
the ICBL – as an area of concern for Eritrea in its ability to obtain the
needed funds from the international community to complete the interim
extension period, as well as the fact that mine action standards and best
practices have changed since 2005 when Eritrea last had the opportunity to
learn from external actors. Specifically, ICBL questions Eritrea’s land
release methodology since land release is a relatively new technique, not
one that Eritrea has ever demonstrated facility with (ICBL).
In approving the extension request, the Meeting of States Parties
encouraged Eritrea to seek out the assistance of international mine action
operators to build the technical capacity of the Eritrean Demining
Authority. The States Parties also encourage Eritrea to develop its
fundraising plan as soon as possible to secure the needed funds from the
international community to cover the extension period and to set up the
funding for the next extension period (AP Mine Ban Convention
Implementation Support Unit, pdf).
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Received on Thu Dec 08 2011 - 22:43:31 EST