Working Group 1b: Destroying Stockpiled Mines

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Article 4 of the Convention addresses the destruction of stockpiled anti-personnel mines:

Except as provided for in Article 3, each State Party undertakes to destroy or ensure the destruction of all stockpiled anti-personnel mines it owns or possesses, or that are under its jurisdiction or control, as soon as possible but not later than four years after the entry into force of this Convention for that State Party.

Before the Ottawa Convention came about, the America's region had 10 mine producers and over one and a quarter million mines in stockpiles. That excludes those mine held by the United States and Cuba. Today we have two producers. It is believed that the United States has not produced mines in recent years but retains the right to do so. Cuba is believed to be continuing to produce. Neither are exporting anti-personnel mines and the United States has legislation that prohibits export.

Our region currently has some 207 thousand AP mines held by Argentina, Chile, and Columbia. Of these countries both Argentina and Chile will have completed their destruction by the end of this year, leaving only 20,000 in stocks. Once all State Parties have finished their destruction, the region will hold some 41,000 mines under the terms of Article 3 of the Convention.

By December, Argentina and Chile will have completed their destruction leaving only Colombia with a deadline of 1 March 2005. We know that they are working hard on their plan for destruction and would hope that at least by the review conference in December 2004 we will have no stockpiles.

Current plans remain unchanged with some 41,000 mines being retained. Article three is quite straight forward. States have the right to retain some mines, the amount of them left at their discretion, for development of and training in mine detection, mine clearance or destruction techniques. The number shall be the minimum required for these purposes. Many states in our region, including Canada, retain mines for this purpose.

Concluded working points for this working group were:

• Reduction of the quantities of mines retained and the addition of a section to Article 7 Reports for States to clearly indicate the purpose for which they are being utilized
• Creation of a database of technical experts from the region in order to assist other regions
• Sharing of lessons learned by countries that have completed the destruction of their stockpiles with countries who are embarking on the destruction of their own stockpiled mines