Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Kingdom of Thailand signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 27 November 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 May 1999. Thailand has not enacted domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. As it has reported since 2002, Thailand is still in the process of passing an executive measure, the Office of the Prime Minister Regulations Governing the Implementation of the Convention.[1]

Thailand submitted its twelfth Article 7 transparency report on 30 April 2010, covering calendar year 2009.[2]

Thailand attended the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena, Colombia in November–December 2009, where it ended its term as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration. It was named as co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention. Thailand spoke during the high-level segment, and also made interventions on victim assistance, mine clearance, cooperation and assistance, universalization, and Cambodia’s mine clearance deadline extension request.

At the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2010, in addition to its co-rapporteur role, Thailand made statements on its mine clearance efforts, international cooperation and assistance, and the evaluation of the treaty’s Implementation Support Unit.

Thailand is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Thailand states that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Thailand formerly imported antipersonnel mines from China, Italy, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia. It completed destruction of 337,725 stockpiled antipersonnel mines on 24 April 2003.

In its Article 7 report submitted in 2010, Thailand reported that at the end of 2009, it retained 3,626 antipersonnel mines for training purposes, a reduction of 12 from the previous year. It reported that 12 mines retained by the National Police Department (five M14 and seven M16) were destroyed during training. At the end of 2009, the Royal Thai Army retained 3,000 mines, the Royal Thai Air Force retained 581 mines, and the National Police Department retained 45 mines.[3] The total of 3,000 mines under the control of the army has not changed since 2001.

In June 2010, Thailand said that since the number of mines retained is high compared to the number used each year, it would review its retention and destruction plans.[4]

Thailand has never reported in any detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of mines kept for training—a step agreed by States Parties at the Review Conferences in 2004 and 2009.

During 2009, the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) held a meeting with the military services and asked them to reassess the number of mines retained and urged them to destroy mines if there was no plan to use them for training.[5]

The Royal Thai Army, Navy, Air Force, and National Police Department initially retained a total of 4,970 antipersonnel mines for training. The number of retained mines did not change from 2001 to 2004. In 2005–2006, Thailand reduced the number of mines retained by 257.[6] In 2007, it reduced the number by another 1,063 mines. It appears that 63 of the mines retained by the National Police Department were consumed during training activities, and all of the 1,000 mines retained by the navy were simply destroyed, presumably because they were no longer deemed necessary.[7]  In 2008, Thailand destroyed another 12 mines, leaving a total of 3,638.[8]

While Thailand has not undertaken physical modifications of its Claymore mine stockpile to ensure use only in command-detonated mode, officials have stated that all units have received orders that Claymore mines are to be used only in command-detonated mode.[9]

Use

The insurgency in southern Thailand has seen extensive use of command-detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). There have apparently also been isolated instances of use of homemade landmines or victim-activated IEDs. In May 2009, a Ranger reportedly stepped on landmine while investigating an explosion in Yaha district, Yala province.[10] In August 2009, a woman lost her leg after reportedly stepping on a landmine in a rubber plantation.[11] In October 2009, in Raman district, Yala province, an official reportedly stepped on a landmine while investigating a shooting.[12]

Although anti-government mobs used explosive devices in Bangkok and Chiang Mai during clashes with security personnel in April 2010, none were reported to involve mines or mine-like victim-activated devices.[13]

In February 2010, three Thai soldiers were injured in two separate incidents from what were reported as newly laid mines on the Thai-Myanmar border in Mae Sot district, Tak province. The mines were reportedly laid by smugglers, believed to be connected to an insurgent group in Myanmar, to protect smuggling routes. The Royal Thai Army was sent to the area to conduct clearance.[14]

Thai-Cambodia Border Incidents

In October 2008, two Thai soldiers stepped on antipersonnel mines while on patrol in disputed territory between Thailand and Cambodia, near the World Heritage Site of Preah Vihear. Thai authorities maintained that the area was previously clear of landmines and that the mines had been newly placed by Cambodian forces. Cambodia denied the charges and stated that the Thai soldiers had entered Cambodian territory in an area known to contain antipersonnel mines and were injured by mines laid during previous armed conflicts.^[15]

In April 2009, another Thai soldier was reportedly wounded by an antipersonnel mine at the same location during further armed conflict between the two countries.[16] In September 2009, Commander in Chief of the Royal Thai Army, General Anupong Paochinda, stated that Cambodian troops were laying fresh landmines along the disputed areas and close to routes where Thai soldiers make regular patrols.[17] The statement elicited a strong rebuttal from the Cambodian ambassador in Bangkok.[18]

Cambodia and Thailand have never reached a resolution of this matter, and other States Parties have apparently not pursued a resolution of this serious compliance concern.

In February 2010, a Thai civilian who had been arrested a year earlier pled guilty to laying landmines on Cambodian soil and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The Thai government denied any involvement in this matter.[19]

Policy

The Kingdom of Thailand has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In February 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative told Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor that an interagency review, including the Royal Thai Armed Forces, was still underway, looking at cluster munition policy and the possibility of joining the convention. He said stockpile destruction remains the major concern.[1]

Previously, in December 2008, Thailand stated that it had no intention of using cluster munitions or acquiring more of them in the future. However, because it maintained stocks of cluster munitions, it would require further time to evaluate the convention. It expressed concern about the high cost of stockpile destruction and said it was seeking ways to develop a comprehensive plan for destruction. Thailand added that it wished to see all stakeholders, including the manufacturers of cluster munitions, join the convention.[2]

Thailand has continued to show interest in the convention. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs co-organized with the ICRC a Roundtable Discussion on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bangkok on 29–30 July 2010.[3]

Thailand attended the International Conference on the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Santiago, Chile in June 2010, but did not make any statements. It also participated in the Regional Conference on the Promotion and Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009. In Bali, Thailand stressed the importance of sustained international assistance in meeting the convention’s obligations. It also spoke on victim assistance and offered to provide prosthetic training.[4]

Thailand participated in most of the Oslo Process diplomatic conferences in 2007 and 2008 to develop the convention, but chose to attend the formal negotiations in May 2008 and the signing conference in December 2008 only as an observer. During the Oslo Process, Thailand expressed support for a new convention banning cluster munitions. It described the final convention text as well balanced and welcomed its adoption.[5] 

Thailand is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, but is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

On 19 February 2010, Jesuit Refugee Service, Nonviolence International, and the ICBL’s Victim Assistance Focal Point in Thailand organized a public event to celebrate the convention’s 30^th ratification. On 31 July, the CMC held a press conference in Bangkok to welcome the entry into force of the convention. A cluster munition survivor and representatives of the government of Lao PDR, the UN, and the ICRC provided an overview of what the ban will mean for Southeast Asia and the world.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Thailand is not believed to have ever used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. It possesses a stockpile of the weapons.

In February 2010, a Foreign Ministry representative told Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor that Thailand had no intention to acquire more stocks of cluster munitions.[6] The United States supplied it with 500 Rockeye and 200 CBU-71 cluster bombs at some point between 1970 and 1995.[7] The status and composition of Thailand’s current stockpile is not known.

Norwegian People’s Aid has been providing the ministries of foreign affairs and defense with advice and information on efficient solutions to the destruction of its stockpile of cluster munitions.[8]

Contamination and Impact

Thailand is affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) and UXO, the result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Malaysia.

Mines

The precise extent of mined areas is not known. A 2001 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 530 communities in 27 of 76 provinces and more than 500,000 people as mine/ERW-affected. The LIS estimated the total area of mine/ERW contamination at 2,557 km².[1] Thailand’s revised Article 5 deadline extension request claimed it had released 1,354.75km², leaving a total of 1,202.25km² of suspected area to be tackled, including an estimated 528.2km² of “real minefield” requiring manual clearance.[2]

In December 2009, at the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, Thailand claimed some 500km² remained to be cleared.[3] In 2010, however, the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) was in the process of revising official estimates of contamination as a result of a data audit. Revised estimates expected by December 2010 were likely to increase the total amount of suspect land remaining.[4]

Thailand’s 700km-long border with Cambodia, used as a base by Cambodian non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in the 1980s and 1990s, is believed to be the worst affected, accounting for three-quarters of the LIS estimate of contamination and 51 of 69 high-impacted communities.[5] More than half of the mine incidents in Thailand have occurred on this border.[6] On the border with Myanmar, the LIS identified 139 affected communities and 240 contaminated areas.[7] Periodic spillover into Thailand of fighting between Myanmar government forces and Burmese NSAGs has deterred efforts to survey or clear affected areas on the border.[8]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

The Cambodian border is also contaminated by unexploded artillery and mortar shells fired by Vietnamese and Cambodian government forces and caches of abandoned mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, and ammunition left by Cambodian guerrilla groups.[9] There is not believed to be any problem with cluster munition remnants.

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), set up in 2000, has responsibility for overseeing humanitarian mine action. NMAC’s mandate expired in January 2005 but was renewed in November 2006 after a military coup d’état. However, the committee has not met since 2008.[10] Plans to arrange a meeting of NMAC in March 2010 could not be fulfilled because of political developments.[11]

TMAC was established in 1999 under the Armed Forces Supreme Command to coordinate and implement humanitarian mine action, including survey, clearance, risk education (RE), and victim assistance. In 2009–2010 TMAC underwent a major turnover of personnel, including appointments for the positions of director general, deputy director general, head of policy and planning, database manager, and head of quality assurance.[12]

TMAC has pressed for a change in its status to a civilian organization since 2005, prompted by the slow progress of demining and the armed forces’ limited budget for its operations. The NMAC agreed in principle to change TMAC’s status in February 2007 but as of May 2010 had not decided on a new structure. A proposal that TMAC becomes a foundation but remains under the Armed Forces is still pending. The February 2007 meeting also decided to set up five sub-committees for victim assistance, coordination with foreign organizations, demining, RE, and monitoring and evaluation. Each sub-committee met at least once in 2008 and 2009.[13]

UNDP provides capacity-building support to TMAC under an agreement approved by the cabinet in January 2009 which has four main components:[14]

·         Enhanced strategic planning, information management, and coordination;

·         Accelerated clearance and land release through better prioritization;

·         Improved livelihoods support for vulnerable groups in affected areas; and

·         Enhanced partnerships for mine action.

In 2009, the project included a baseline review of all mine action activities in Thailand and development of a process to identify local clearance priorities in order to strengthen strategic planning. A draft National Strategic Plan was drawn up at the end of 2009 with the help of an international consultant hired by UNDP and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and a workshop to discuss the draft was held in December 2009 with the participation of government departments and NGOs involved in mine action. The draft plan set eight goals for strengthening data management, establishing clear priorities for clearance, promoting the cooperation and effectiveness of demining operators, building TMAC’s capacity, raising public awareness of mine risks, meeting survivor needs, fulfilling Thailand’s Mine Ban Treaty obligations and mobilizing sufficient resources for the sector.[15] After further review, TMAC expected to send the plan to the NMAC for approval by the Prime Minister in August 2010.[16]

NPA also provided support to TMAC under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed in 2008 for the period from November 2008 to October 2009 and a second MOU signed in January 2010 for support in 2010 and 2011. Even though NPA is not at present operational, the organization plans to field land release teams in 2011.[17]

In 2009, NPA conducted assessments of information management, land release, and the capacity for using mine detection dogs for technical survey. As a result, NPA provided a technical advisor (co-supported by UNDP) to assist TMAC and other stakeholders in developing the national strategic plan for mine action referred to above.[18]

In 2010, NPA prioritized drafting national standards, including a standard for land release, and reorganizing information management using NPA’s global operating system, Techbase. Before the end of 2010 NPA planned to complete reviewing and consolidating historical clearance data, providing a basis for estimating what land had been cleared or released and what remained to be tackled through survey and clearance.[19]

Land Release

Thailand continued to make more progress in cancelling former suspect land through non-technical survey than from release through clearance. TMAC’s operations remained constrained by the limited financial resources made available to it by the Armed Forces Supreme Command or the government.[20] TMAC worked with NPA to develop standards and standing operating procedures for land release that were consistent with international best practice and the International Mine Action Standards.[21]

Five-year summary of land cancellation and release[22]

Survey in 2009

Mekong Organization for Mankind (MOM) completed field work on a two-year Integrated Area Reduction Survey project in April 2009. The project covered a total of 219.5km² in seven provinces bordering Cambodia[23] and resulted in reducing the suspected hazardous area by 123.7 km².[24] The project covered four main activities: locating minefields; posting warning signs around suspected hazardous areas; informing communities about the location of minefields; and “spot” demining. MOM deployed some 40 staff in the field for the project and received US$1.28 million from Japan through the Japan-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Integrated Fund.[25]

Mine clearance in 2009

TMAC manually cleared 2.55km² in 2009, 70% more than in the previous year, but fell far short of targets set out in Thailand’s Article 5 extension request submitted in 2009, which called for demining of 43km² in 2009.[26] Clearance operations concentrated on the Thai-Cambodian border but one mine action team cleared land on the border with Myanmar for the first time on behalf of a project sponsored by the Thai Royal Family in Mae Hong Son province, completing the task in September 2009.[27]

TMAC’s new director general, who took up office in March 2010, expected the four Humanitarian Mine Action Units (HMAUs) to clear 2.3km² in 2010 (500,000m² by each of three HMAUs and 800,000m² by the fourth). The HMAUs operated with a total of 52 deminers. TMAC hoped to expand the number to 80 or 90 by the end of 2010, subject to funding becoming available. TMAC expected that 12 mine detection dogs acquired in 2009 would be available for operations in October 2010.[28]

In 2008, the government pledged THB1.4 billion ($40.6 million) for mine action in fiscal 2009 (October 2008 to September 2009) to enable it to fulfill the commitments in Thailand’s Article 5 extension request but, following a change of government, TMAC did not receive this funding and operated with about THB50 million ($1.45 million).[29] As a result, TMAC also did not expand human resources as envisaged in the Article 5 request and in 2009 it operated four HMAUs with a total of 219 field personnel.[30] TMAC also had 18 mine/explosive detection dogs[31] but as these dogs were old, UNDP in 2010 funded the purchase of 12 new dogs.[32]

Thailand also had three local demining NGOs in 2009, the General Chatichai Choonhavan Foundation (GCCF), with 40 deminers;[33] MOM (42 field staff); and Peace Road Organization (PRO), set up in 2006 (32 deminers). Only MOM received funding for demining in 2009, conducting spot clearance as part of an Integrated Area Reduction Survey project assigned by TMAC.[34] GCCF and the PRO jointly cleared a 30,000m² site in Sakaoe province in April 2010.[35] As of August 2010, MOM had not received any clearance projects but it continued to submit proposals for clearance work.[36] MOM’s project manager left and established a new organization in March 2010, the Thailand Civilian Demining Association.[37]

Mine clearance in 2009[38]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the nine-and-a-half year extension request granted in 2009), Thailand is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 November 2018.[39] Thailand’s extension request said it would increase the area demined to 43km² in 2009 and to achieve this target TMAC envisaged increasing its human resource capacity to 800 deminers by the end of April 2009.[40] TMAC, however, has not had access to the finance or human resources it needed to fulfill the objectives set out in its extension request and demining has continued at a slow rate (see Mine clearance in 2009 section above).

At the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty, Thailand said demining progress had been “gradual” because of “many remaining national challenges facing Thailand, especially the effects of the global financial crisis.” Thailand said it remained committed to fulfilling its workplan.[41] In the past decade, demining organizations have cleared approximately 11km² of mined areas.[42]

For Thailand to achieve its Article 5 extension request targets, TMAC’s outgoing director general believed demining NGOs would need to expand and play a more critical role in mine action as it was easier for them to attract financial support from abroad than for TMAC, an organization affiliated with the military.[43]

Other Risk Reduction Measures

RE was carried out in 2009 by TMAC’s HMAUs. The Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees (COERR) provided training to 2,384 children from 16 schools in Sa Kaoe and Surin provinces under a project that ended in September 2009. It started another RE program in February 2010 targeting 15 villages in five districts of Sa Kaoe province. The program was due to run until January 2011.[44]

Handicap International (HI) did not implement RE in 2009 but it started a small project in 2010 to provide RE to children from Myanmar who cross the border to attend boarding schools in camps in Thailand. In 2010, HI planned to provide RE for children in camps in Tak province on the border with Myanmar, including 200 schoolchildren in Mae La camp, 100 in Umpiem camp, and 100 in Nupo camp.[45]

TMAC and the Ministry of Education’s Basic Education Commission organized RE workshops for 200 school directors and teachers hosted by the four HMAUs throughout August 2010. The workshops aimed to raise teachers’ and school directors’ awareness of risks and how to protect against them so that the lessons could be passed on to their students.[46]

Casualties

 Casualties in 2009

In 2009, Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor identified 18 mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) casualties in Thailand. All casualties were injured; 13 were adult men, two were women, and another three casualties were children (two girls and one boy). Four casualties were military personnel and one a police officer. Most mine/ERW casualties occurred in incidents on the Thai-Cambodia border (12).[1] The 2009 total represented a decrease from the 26 mine/ERW casualties identified in 2008.[2] However as in past years, reporting was not comprehensive and thus trends can not be considered conclusive. The Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) reported 13 of the casualties in 2009 and 18 for 2009.

The most comprehensive casualty data collection for Thailand, including casualties both killed and injured, remains the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS), which identified at least 3,468 casualties to May 2001 (1,497 people killed and 1,971 injured).[3] From June 1998 to the end of 2009, Landmine Monitor recorded 573 casualties in Thailand: 26 killed, 187 injured, and 360 of unknown status.[4]

Victim Assistance

The total number of mine/ERW survivors in Thailand at the end of 2009 was estimated to be about 1,270.[5]

A retrospective survivor survey completed in early 2009 included assessment of survivor needs as well as the availability of existing services and structures together with general recommendations for improving the provision of victim assistance.[6] In a follow-up to the survey with UNDP support, in late 2009, 80 landmine survivors in Sa Kaeo province participated in focus-group discussions on assistance and produced recommendations on providing sustainable support for the future.[7] Thailand reported that local actors in mine-affected areas did not effectively share information on persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors.[8]

Victim assistance coordination[9]

The National Sub-Committee on Victim Assistance met once in 2009. The Sub-Committee discussed next steps in victim assistance under the Mine Ban Treaty in the lead-up to the Second Review Conference. In addition, there were two meetings of a working group of the Sub-Committee which coordinated an emergency rescue training drill and the follow-up on its outcomes.[10]

Thailand strongly connected its work on victim assistance with the implementation of its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.[11] Thailand provided updates on victim assistance activities in its Article 7 reporting and statements at international meetings. Thailand also included an expert from the Ministry of Public Health on its delegations at Mine Ban Treaty meetings.

There no reports that mine/ERW survivors or their representative organizations were included in coordination or implementation of services in 2009.

Service accessibility and effectiveness in 2009[12]

Some improvement in the quality of victim assistance was reported in Thailand in 2009. However, gaps remained in assistance in remote communities where mine/ERW survivors faced difficulties in accessing services.[13]

The Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand, under the Ministry of Public Health, conducted a landmine victim assistance emergency training in Chanthaburi province in August 2009. Training included a rehearsal of emergency plans in the case of a mine incident and information on emergency telephone services and the roles of other agencies in providing assistance to survivors.[14]

The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security increased the capacity of its national community-based rehabilitation program by training new volunteers, reviewing implementation in the field, developing new community and provincial plans, and enhancing the capacity of the program management teams through training.[15]

Continuing a trend over the past six years, government resources for mobility devices and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities were increasingly channelled through the NHSO. In 2009, the NHSO provided more services than the Sirindhorn Medical Rehabilitation Center. The role of the Sirindhorn center decreased significantly.[16]

No significant improvement in the availability of employment or economic inclusion activities was reported. Less than 30% of survivors had received vocational training, however, such training was seen as incompatible with the agricultural occupations held by many survivors and other economic opportunities were needed.[17]

Significant progress was made in improving access to the social welfare system for people with disabilities in 2009. Thailand launched the plan to register all persons with disabilities in November 2009, which resulted in more persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, being eligible to receive monthly disability pensions and benefits, including free medical care and rehabilitation.[18] 

Thailand has legislation protecting the rights of persons with disabilities and its constitution prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and provides for access to services. The constitution also requires newly constructed buildings to have facilities for persons with disabilities, but this was not consistently enforced.[19]

Thailand ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 29 July 2008.