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Uzbekistan

Last Updated: 24 October 2011

Mine Ban Policy

Mine ban policy overview

Mine Ban Treaty status

Not a State Party

Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record

Abstained on Resolution 65/48 in December 2010 as it did on similar General Assembly resolutions in previous years

Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings

Has never attended a Mine Ban Treaty meeting, including the Tenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November–December 2010 or the intersessional meetings in June 2011

Policy

The Republic of Uzbekistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Uzbekistan has stated that mines are necessary for national security to prevent the flow of narcotics, arms, and insurgent groups across its borders.  Uzbekistan did not attend any international meeting on the Mine Ban Treaty during 2010 or the first half of 2011.

Uzbekistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its original Protocol II on landmines, but has not joined CCW Amended Protocol II or CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Uzbekistan has stated that it does not produce antipersonnel mines.[1] It is not known to have exported the weapon. It inherited a stockpile of antipersonnel mines from the Soviet Union. The size, composition, and condition of the stockpile are not known. One Ministry of Defense official indicated the stock consisted of OZM-72, PОМZ, and PMN antipersonnel mines, while another said it contains all types of mines that were made in the Soviet Union. The mines are held by both the Ministry of Defense and the Committee on State Border Protection.[2]

Uzbekistan has used antipersonnel mines in the past, including on its borders with Afghanistan in 1998, Kyrgyzstan in 1999, and Tajikistan in 2000.

 


[1] Letter to the Monitor from Amb. Shavkat Khamrakulov, Embassy of Uzbekistan to the United States, 31 July 2001. Other officials have also made this claim.

[2] Interviews with a Ministry of Defense engineering officer, May 2004, and a Ministry of Defense official, February 2003.

Last Updated: 12 August 2014

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

The Republic of Uzbekistan has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Uzbekistan did not participate in the Oslo Process that created the convention. It has never attended a meeting on cluster munitions or made a public statement on cluster munitions.

Uzbekistan is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Uzbekistan is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions. It inherited a stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union. Jane’s Information Group reports that KMG-U dispensers are in service with the state’s air force.[1] Uzbekistan also possesses Grad 122mm and Uragan 220mm surface-to-surface rockets, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[2]

 


[1] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK: Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 848.

[2] International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2011 (London: Routledge, 2011), p. 280.

Last Updated: 24 August 2014

Mine Action

Contamination and Impact

Armed forces in the Republic of Uzbekistan have laid mines along its international borders at various times, including on its borders with Afghanistan in 1998, with Kyrgyzstan in 1999, and with Tajikistan in 2000. In 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized as “unacceptable” Uzbekistan’s placing of landmines along parts of its border that have not been delineated.[1]

Soviet troops also laid mines on the Uzbek-Afghan border. Survey on the Tajik side of the border over several years had identified a total of 57 suspect hazardous areas (size unknown) as of December 2008, which were subsequently deemed to be on Uzbekistan territory (see Tajikistan report). Uzbekistan had reportedly cleared 95% of the minefields along the Tajik border by the end of 2007 in demining operations conducted by Uzbek army deminers in cooperation with Tajik border troops.[2]

In 2005, media reports cited Kyrgyz officials in Batken province as saying Kyrgyz border guards had checked previously mined areas of the border around the settlements of Ak-Turpak, Chonkara, and Otukchu, which had been cleared by Uzbek deminers, and confirmed that they were free of contamination.[3] According to the most recent information available (2005), Uzbekistan has no plans to clear mines laid on its 150km border with Afghanistan.

Mine Action Program

There is no functioning mine action program in Uzbekistan.

 


[2] Email from Jonmahmad Rajabov, Director, Tajikistan Mine Action Center, 16 February 2009; Tajikistan Article 7 Report, “General situation,” 3 February 2008, p. 3; and “Uzbekistan started demining on Tajik border,” Spy.kz, 23 October 2007.