Indian civil society disarmament campaigners led by Control Arms Foundation of India and International Campaign to Ban Landmines members strongly urges government of India to lead the world towards peace by signing the Mine Ban Treaty and ratify the recently concluded Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Mentionable that the historic disarmament Mine Ban Treaty completes nine years of entry into force on Sunday (March 1, 2009). New Delhi has not signed the treaty till date. India’s antipersonnel stockpile is estimated to be between four and five million, which is the fifth largest stockpile in the world.
“Even after ten years of the entry into force of the treaty, many regions in the world continue to be mine affected. Cheap and easy to make, it was said that producing one antipersonnel mine cost Rs 50, yet once in ground it can cost more than Rs 50,000 to find and destroy. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 new casualties are caused each year due to landmines. This means 1,500 new casualties are caused each month, and more than 40 new casualties a day,” said Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General of Control Arms Foundation of India.
Till now, 156 states have signed the Mine Ban Treaty. India is among the small group of 39 countries which have not signed the treaty. Nine of the 13 mine producers are in Asia namely Myanmar, China, India, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore and Vietnam. At the same time some armed non-state actors or armed groups also produce home-made landmines such as improvised explosive devices. India has often claimed that it has never exported or imported antipersonnel mines. However, five Mine Ban Treaty States Parties have reported Indian-made mines in their stockpiles: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mauritius, Sudan, and Tanzania. India states that no transfer of landmines to these countries took place.
“According to the Chairman of the Lok Sabha Standing Committee on Defence, the Army de-mining forces suffered 1,776 casualties due to mines, unexploded remnants of war and IEDs between December 2001 and April 2005. According to the Landmine Monitor Report 2008, out of the 170 casualties identified in 2007, 89 were civilian casualties and 81 military,” added Ms Nepram.
Landmines and IED casualties dropped worldwide but it has increased in India and interestingly many of the casualties were military. Most deaths have been reported in Jammu & Kashmir along the LOC border, Manipur and Chattisgarh. The use of mines by non-state armed groups is also on the rise.
India’s last major use of anti-personnel mines took place between December 2001 and July 2002 when the Indian army deployed approximately two million mines along the border with Pakistan.
Dr. Anuradha Chenoy, Professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University argues that landmines has killed and maimed thousands in India and many more in all of South Asia. India argues that it has a very long border and many unresolved border issues that cannot be protected without landmines. But more civilians and Indian military than enemy forces are killed and maimed by landmines including children and women.
At the United Nations in 2007, India abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 62/41 calling for universalisation of the Mine Ban Treaty. In explaining its abstention, India stated, that only the availability of military effective alternative technologies that can perform, cost-effectively, the legitimate defensive role of anti- personnel landmines especially along the land borders would enable India to facilitate the goal of the complete elimination of anti-personnel mines.
“Ten years of Ottawa Convention represent an era or hope and expectations. Antipersonnel landmines ban is a ‘model for change’ in disarmament diplomacy for the 21st century world. This treaty has since inspired several other initiatives in conventional disarmament where civil society, non-governmental organizations, and policy networks have clearly come to take the lead and pressed negotiations in terms of humanitarian laws,” concluded Dr. Swaran Singh, also a Professor at JNU.
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