Team:Edinburgh/mapxmluk



United Kingdom <![CDATA[The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 31 July 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Ratification was combined with national implementation legislation—the Landmines Act 1998—which, after some delay and at NGO urging, was passed in time to fulfill the UK’s pledge to be one of the first 40 countries to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty. The UK sees universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty as the best means of combating the production, use, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines. In 2003, British officials asked all States not party to the treaty what plans they had to ratify or accede to the treaty. In 2004, at the Universalization Contact Group’s suggestion, UK efforts have been targeted to those countries which have shown an interest in joining the treaty, using regional events (such as those in Austria, Lithuania and Japan) to encourage non-members to join. In December 2003, the UK voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 58/53, which calls for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. The UK has voted for similar pro-ban UN General Assembly resolutions each year since 1996. Joint Military Operations and “Assist” Ratification was accompanied by a formal declaration, repeated in Article 5 of the national legislation, which seeks to protect British troops from prosecution for the “mere participation in the planning or execution of operations, exercises or other military activity,” where non-States Parties use antipersonnel mines. UK campaigners have expressed concern that this language is so broad that it effectively only prohibits the actual laying of mines by UK troops, in what would appear to be a contravention of the treaty’s prohibition on assisting banned acts. The UK has offered many explanations and clarifications in recent years. In February 2004, the Ministry of Defence confirmed the UK’s position. UK forces may not participate actively in the use or in any physical activity specific to the laying of antipersonnel mines, nor gain benefit from their use, and may not request their use in support of UK forces. Antivehicle Mines with Sensitive Fuzes and Antihandling Devices The British position, restated at the Fifth Meeting of States Parties in September 2003, is that antivehicle mines with antihandling devices are not covered by Article 2 of the Mine Ban Treaty, and should be considered in the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) process. At the Standing Committee meetings in May 2003, the UK delegation said that this position is based on legal examination of the treaty text and the treaty negotiations in Oslo in 1997. The UK accepts that “humanitarian risks [are] presented by some antivehicle mines,” and argues these risks should be addressed instead of disputing which treaty covers antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes and antihandling devices. The UK was previously a major producer and exporter of antipersonnel mines, with at least four major manufacturers producing five types of antipersonnel mine. The UK was described in 1993 as one of the “top 10” exporters of antipersonnel mines and a primary source of advanced mine technology. British antipersonnel mines have been found in many mine-affected countries, including Afghanistan, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique and Somalia, and were also exported to other countries. Mines were also imported from Canada, France, and the US. Mine Action Funding and Assistance In the UK’s fiscal year 2003–2004, the Department for International Development (DfID) provided mine action funding of ?13,734,582 ($22,443,680); this was a reduction from ?14,124,712 in 2002–2003. The total for 2002–2003 revises a previous DfID estimate of ?10.7 million which was quoted in the Landmine Monitor Report 2003 DfID provided the following itemization of funding in 2003–2004 for five countries and five organizations: Countries: •	Afghanistan: ?2 million ($3,268,200) to the UNMAS for demining •	Angola: ?117,650 ($192,252) to HALO for road verification •	Cambodia: ?271,250 ($443,250) to the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) •	Iraq: ?5,219,900 ($8,529,839) - ?4,357,378 to UNMAS for demining, ?781,639 to MAG for demining in southern Iraq, and ?80,883 to MAG for MRE “preparedness” •	North Caucasus: ?60,000 ($98,046) to UNICEF for MRE and victim assistance •	Sudan: ?1 million ($1,634,100) to UNMAS Organizations: •	HALO Trust: ?32,402 ($52,948) for unspecified “other” •	UNMAS: ?2 million ($3,268,200) for core support •	UNICEF: ?650,000 ($1,062,165) for core support •	UNDP: ?600,000 ($980,460) for core support •	Implementation Support Unit: ?16,660 ($27,224) for the sponsorship program Research and Development In November 2003, DfID reported a total of ?1.5 million ($2,451,150) for various R&D projects in 2003–2004. Two R&D projects are currently funded. Minetech is a dual sensor mine detector, for which planned expenditure in 2004–2005 was ?750,000 ($1,225,575). The second project is a low cost mine incinerator, involving the commercial company Disarmco, for which 2004–2005 expenditure was estimated at ?250,000 ($408,525). From 1999 to 2003, the UK allocated approximately ?6.2 million ($9.63 million), 1999-2000: ?500,000 ($0.8 million), 2000-2001: ?1 million ($1.43 million), 2001-2002: ?1.3 million ($1.9 million), 2002-2003: ?1.6 million ($2.6 million), 2003-2004: ?1.8 million ($2.9 million). The funds were used for mine-related R&D, including military as well as humanitarian demining, and contributions to the GICHD and ITEP, included within DfID’s category of Research and Knowledge. The Defense Evaluation and Research Agency, the Ministry of Defence, and the Mine Information and Technology Centre, established in 1997, have carried out mine-related R&D in the UK. Nongovernmental Mine Action Funding and Assistance Two British NGOs have been at the forefront of global humanitarian mine action for over the past decade. The HALO Trust, established in 1988 and headquartered in Scotland, employed over 5,000 local and 50 expatriate staff in nine countries in 2003: Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Georgia, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, Mozambique, Somaliland and Sri Lanka. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG), established in 1992 and headquartered in Manchester, employed 1,902 local and 56 expatriate staff in 11 countries in 2003: Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Chad, DR Congo, Iraq, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Sudan, and Viet Nam). In 2003, Landmine Action started mine clearance in Sudan. NGOs carrying out mine risk education include Cambodia Trust (Cambodia, Sri Lanka), the Heather Mills Health Trust, Landmine Action (Sudan), and the Mines Awareness Trust (Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, and Uganda). British NGOs supporting survivor assistance programs in mine-affected countries include Cambodia Trust (Cambodia, Sri Lanka), Handicap International UK, the Heather Mills Health Trust, Hope for Children (Sri Lanka), Jaipur Limb Campaign (Angola), Mercy Corps Scotland (Pakistan), Mines Awareness Trust (Uganda), POWER International (Laos, Mozambique), Response International (Pakistan), Soroptimist International UK, and War Child. The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was obliged by legal action to freeze its funding of mine action in July 2003. This resulted in postponement of new applications, but replacement funding from other donors was found to maintain support of projects in mine-affected areas. The Fund has also sustained its campaigning role on explosive remnants of war and cluster munitions. It sponsored a review of mine action, Mine Action After Diana: Progress in the Struggle Against Landmines, published in July 2004 jointly with Landmine Action. The Diana Fund reports total funding in 2002–2004 of ?2,547,540 ($3,827,679 at 2002 exchange rate) over three years for mine action. Recipients included Children of the Andes, HALO Trust, Mines Advisory Group, Response International, Mercy Corps Scotland and Hope for Children, with projects in countries including Abkhazia, Angola, Colombia, Laos, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Diana Fund was set up in January 1999. It has donated the equivalent of nearly $8 million to mine action since then (1999: $1.7 million, 2000: $1.7 million, 2001: $0.8 million, 2002: $3.8 million). Landmine Problem The only mine-affected area under the UK’s “jurisdiction or control,” in the terms of the Mine Ban Treaty, is the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). The treaty deadline for clearance of this mine-affected area is 1 March 2009. The Falklands were mined by British and Argentine forces during the war of 1982. Landmine/UXO Casualties From 1999 to March 2004, three British nationals were killed and another twelve injured by mines and UXO. All cases occurred outside the UK. In 2003, in Iraq, two British soldiers were killed and one injured by landmines or UXO and a British civilian was also injured, according to media reports. On 31 March, a soldier was killed during explosive ordnance disposal, and on 30 April a soldier was killed by a mine. Also in April, a BBC producer was injured and his Iranian cameraman was killed by a mine. In November, a British soldier was injured when a landmine exploded in the southern city of Basra. On 23 March 2004, four British soldiers were injured when a landmine exploded under their vehicle while on patrol in Iraq. According to the Ministry of Defence, injuries and fatalities among British peacekeepers and military forces due to landmines are not compiled separately from other casualties, but the Ministry was not aware of any serious injuries or fatalities from the end of war in Iraq to February 2004, nor from January 2002 to February 2003. In 2002, two British civilians were injured, one in July 2002 while clearing mines for BACTEC International in southern Lebanon, and the second in November 2002 in Sri Lanka. In 2001, one British soldier was killed and two were injured by mines/UXO in Kosovo, and one was injured in Afghanistan. One civilian deminer was injured in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Landmine Monitor is not aware of any mine/UXO casualties among British forces and British nationals in 1999–2000.

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