Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlbulgaria



Bulgaria <![CDATA[Bulgaria signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 4 September 1998, and the treaty took effect on 1 March 1999. Implementation legislation was enacted in 2001.

Bulgaria participated in the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2002, where its representative referred to the country’s agreement with Turkey to demine their common border. Bulgaria attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in February and May 2003. On 22 November 2002, Bulgaria voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 57/74, which calls for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Bulgaria stopped export of antipersonnel mines in 1996 and production was halted in 1998. It completed destruction of its 885,872 stockpiled antipersonnel mines on 20 December 2000.

As of 31 March 2003, Bulgaria was retaining 3,693 antipersonnel mines under Mine Ban Treaty Article 3. In February 2003, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor that the Army has “not used any of the retained antipersonnel mines for the education or training of personnel.” Previously, from 1 March 2001 to 31 March 2002, Bulgaria expended 327 antipersonnel mines to train army engineers; this apparently included all training stocks of the PFM-1C. Bulgaria initially declared that it would retain 10,446 mines, but later reduced this number to 4,000.

An NGO named the Bulgarian Group for Demining was established in May 2002. It brings together professionals from the Bulgarian Army Reserve and police who have experience with mine/UXO clearance. In May 2003 the group issued a brochure aimed at people living near the border with Greece, informing them how to recognize mines and who to inform if one is found. ]]> <![CDATA[]]>