Earth Issue

Landmines Treaty under review There is a chance that the nations of the world will ban landmines, wholly or partially, this year. Maryann Keady writes about these developments.

September sees a United Nations review of the international laws governing the use of landmines. Many observers view the 1980 Weapons Convention as flawed and ineffective in protecting civilians. With 100 million landmines to be found in 64 countries, and over 10,000 people killed by mines each year, such claims seem justified.

One major problem is that only 46 countries are parties to the Convention, allowing nations who have not ratified the treaty to flout its provisions. Unless all international states ratify the Convention, its provisions will remain largely ineffective. Without universal acceptance it will be virtually impossible to control the proliferation and use of landmines, especially in Asia and Africa where injuries are highest. Landmines will continue to affect civilians, the land and the economy.

Moreover the existing law applies only to international armed conflicts, while 90 per cent of modern conflicts are internal. Witness the former Yugoslavia, where over 50,000 mines have been sown. Clearly there is need for an 'extension of applicability' so that the Convention covers such armed conflicts. This provision could prove crucial in preventing the destruction of a nation by its own people. Unfortunately developing countries are reluctant to embrace a ban on landmines. They fear that outside intervention might destabilise their governments, and that wealthy nations would increase their own arsenals while effecting a ban on landmines, the cheap weapons of the Third World. Hence there is a need for universal rules comparable to the Chemical Weapons Convention prohibiting manufacture, possession and transfer across all nations.

The international community has an opportunity to review the existing laws, pinpoint their inadequacies and set in place an international ban on trade, export, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmines.

The vague wording of Protocol II has long been identified as the main reason for the Convention's ineffectiveness. In Article 3, the general restrictions on the use of landmines are based on a distinction between military and civilian objects. This distinction is left vague. Civilian objects are "all objects which are not military objects", while a military object is that "which... makes an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralisation... offers a definite military advantage". On this reckoning anything at all may become a military objective. Elsewhere the feeble wording surrounding "feasible precautions" designed to protect civilians signals a document unwilling to stand by its convictions.

Developing countries fear that outside intervention might destabilise their governments, and that wealthy nations would increase their own arsenals while effecting a ban on landmines, the cheap weapons of the Third World.

In Article 7, which deals with the marking and recording of minefields, there is no definition of a "pre-planned minefield", the only ones that must be recorded. In any case parties need only endeavour to record them. Similarly the Article concerning international co-operation to remove mines declares only that states shall "endeavour" to reach agreement. Providing "information and assistance" is hardly a stringent imposition on armies producing and sowing large tracts of land with mines. The September 1995 review is an opportunity to address the ineffectiveness of these laws. Another is unlikely for several years. The international community has an opportunity to review the existing laws, pinpoint their inadequacies and set in place an international ban on trade, export, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel landmines. Precedents for such a ban are to be found in the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention.

International humanitarian law requires a set of measures to:

ban the production and stockpiling of mines, especially of non- detectable and non-self-destructing kinds;

adopt effective implementation mechanisms;

require the recording of minefields;

extend the Convention to include internal armed conflicts; and

place mine-clearing obligations on regimes that lay mines.

For those living with the effects of a weapon that kills every 15 minutes, no ban will come soon enough.

Above material is from the Uniya Newsletter: used with permission.

The Cardoner, © Copyright 1995 by Jack Otto.