Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlsurinam



Surinam <![CDATA[Suriname signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified on 23 May 2002, and the treaty entered into force for the country on 1 November 2002. The ratification came two weeks after a seminar was held in the capital of Paramaribo on the Mine Ban Treaty.

Suriname is not believed to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines. The Ministry of Defense has acknowledged that it maintains a stockpile of 296 antipersonnel mines imported from Libya.

The Army has removed almost all of the estimated 1,000 antipersonnel mines it laid during the country’s internal conflict from 1986 to 1992. Rebel forces used homemade mines during the conflict, but reportedly removed all of them.

According to the Minister of Defense, some thirteen antipersonnel mines emplaced by the Army on 26 February 1987 in an area estimated at 40 square meters remain in place at Stolkertsijver, about fifty kilometers east of Paramaribo, because dense vegetation has made clearance too difficult. Five warning signs placed around the area in early 1991, after mine clearance activities that started mid-1988 ceased, are still intact. The Ministry of Defense arranged for local veterans to monitor the area and alert the Ministry to any unusual activity or trespassing. The Ministry of Defense is preparing to erect barbed wire and new signs.

At least two landmine casualties, both government soldiers, have been recorded in Suriname. On 16 October 1989, a government soldier lost his right leg below the knee to an antipersonnel mine planted by the National Army near the city of Albina in the Marowijne district. The Ministry of Defense provided the soldier with an artificial limb, rehabilitation and psychological treatment, and a bicycle, and he has remained in his job. A second soldier received minor injuries from a booby-trap planted by rebel forces. ]]> <![CDATA[]]>