Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In April 2011, an official from the Pakistan Foreign Office stated that “Pakistan endorses the efforts of European countries in protecting the civilians from the menace of landmines, however, our strategic location and Indian context would not allow us to support the landmine ban treaty.”[1]

Pakistan has previously stated that “Pakistan remains committed to pursue the objectives of a universal and non-discriminatory ban on anti-personnel mines in a manner which takes into account the legitimate defence requirements of States. Given our security compulsions and the need to guard our long borders, not protected by any natural obstacle, the use of landmines forms an important part of our self-defence strategy. As such, it is not possible for Pakistan to agree to the demands for the complete prohibition of anti-personnel landmines till such time that viable alternatives are available.”[2] On the issue of antivehicle mines, Pakistan declared that “AVMs are legitimate defensive weapons and existing provisions of the CCW [Convention on Conventional Weapons] and International Humanitarian Law can address the problems related to their irresponsible use.”[3]

Pakistan has previously stated that CCW Amended Protocol II had the capacity—if fully implemented—to minimize human suffering caused by mines, and that the protocol maintained “a delicate balance” between humanitarian concerns and security imperatives.[4]

Pakistan did not attend any meetings on the mine ban in 2011 or the first half of 2012.

On 2 December 201, Pakistan abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 66/29 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. It has abstained on all previous annual UNGA resolutions in support of the treaty. 

Pakistan is party to the CCW and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Pakistan submitted a CCW Protocol II Article 13 report in October 2010 covering the period from September 2009 to September 2010, and another one in April 2011 covering the period from September 2010 to December 2010. In November 2010, Pakistan stated that it “is in full compliance with all the requirements of the Amended Protocol II” and that it “has successfully incorporated at appropriate levels all the technical requirements, as mandated by the technical annex of Amended Protocol II.”[5]

Use

Pakistan states that it has not laid mines since the 2001–2002 escalation on the Pakistan-India border.[6] The last confirmed use of antipersonnel mines by Pakistan took place between December 2001 and mid-2002, during an escalation of tensions with India when it laid very large numbers of mines along their shared border.[7] Pakistan also maintains permanent minefields along certain portions of the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan states that antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines and improvised explosive devices have been used throughout the country, and attributes the use to “terrorists”.[8] The Monitor has registered a large number of casualties in Balochistan, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly the North-West Frontier Province), where the Pakistan army and security forces have been engaged in armed conflict with Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and Baloch insurgents. Many of the mines appear to be recently laid as either as a result of conflict between anti-government armed groups or as a result of inter-tribal conflicts. The Monitor has previously reported that there is a perception among local populations that Pakistani forces are laying some mines to defend some military bases and outposts in these conflict areas, however no one could provide the Monitor with specific details and the Monitor has not been able to substantiate the allegations.[9]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing antipersonnel mines.[10] Since January 1997, Pakistan Ordnance Factories has produced detectable versions of hand-laid blast mines in order to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[11] In 2007, Pakistan reported that it “has also planned incorporation of self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanism in its future production” in order to meet Amended Protocol II requirements.[12] The protocol requires that all remotely-delivered mines have self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms. Pakistan reported in 2002 that it was developing a remotely-delivered antipersonnel mine system, but has provided no further details.[13] In 2007, Pakistan also stated that it had “met the deadlines to improve the specifications on detectability of mines” to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[14]

Pakistan’s Statutory Regulatory Order No. 123 (1) of 25 February 1999 makes the export of antipersonnel mines illegal.[15]The law penalizes importation of mines, but no data is available regarding whether anyone has been arrested or charged under this law. Pakistan states that it has not exported mines “since early 1992.”[16] Recent Article 13 reports state simply that “no manufacturing or trade of landmines is allowed in the Private sectors.”[17]  In the past, the country was a major exporter of mines. Pakistani-made mines have been found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sri Lanka.

There is no official information available on the size of Pakistan’s antipersonnel mine stockpile. The Monitor has estimated that Pakistan stockpiles at least six million antipersonnel mines, the fifth largest stockpile in the world.[18] Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate.

Destruction

During 2011, Pakistan destroyed 153 antipersonnel mines of US and Pakistani design. At least 41 of the destroyed mines were reported to have been confiscated. In what circumstances the other mines were destroyed is not clear.[19] In previous years, Pakistan reported the destruction of “a large number of outdated mines every year,” but had not previously provided information about the quantity or types of mines destroyed.[20]In 2010, Pakistan reported that a total of 43,248 antipersonnel mines (30,615 Mine AP ND P2 Series; 7,014 Mine AP ND P4 Series; 2,884 Mine AP M14; and 2,735 miscellaneous antipersonnel mines) were destroyed between 2000 and 2009.[21] Pakistan reiterated that the mines emplaced along the “Eastern Border have been completely cleared/removed/destroyed” but has not specified when this took place.[22]

Contamination and Impact

Pakistan remains affected by landmines and other ordnance from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–1989) and three wars with India, but more recent and continuing conflicts areas bordering Afghanistan have added ERW contamination, including mines, items of unexploded explosive ordnance (UXO), and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Mines

Pakistan asserts that it “faces no problem of uncleared mines.” In supporting this statement, it acknowledges that the army laid mines on its eastern border with India during an escalation of tensions in 2001−2002 but says those mines were all cleared and the army has not laid any more since then. However, the report goes on to record 2,098 IED attacks in 2011 “including” antipersonnel mines and antivehicle mines. It said 1,200 of these had detonated, causing casualties. It also reported continued mine clearance by army engineers.[1]

Pakistan’s 2007 Amended Protocol II Article 13 report acknowledged that mines were encountered on the border with Afghanistan “but these are mines left by the former Soviet troops.”[2] During their occupation of Afghanistan, troops of the former Soviet Union scattered mines along the border from helicopters, some of them landing in Pakistani territory. In addition, the mujahideen used mines to protect their bases in the tribal areas.[3]

More recent conflict between the government and non-state armed groups in tribal areas reportedly resulted in new mine use. The Taliban reportedly used mines in the Swat Valley in 2009 to block government troops. Reports from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) bordering Afghanistan indicate continued use of landmines in 2010 as an offensive weapon in tribal and sectarian conflicts.[4]

Despite government claims that it had cleared the mines it laid on the Indo-Pakistan border in 2001–2002 and that “minefields laid along the Line of Control are properly fenced and clearly marked,”[5] inhabitants of Pakistani-administered Kashmir report consistently that some areas along the Line of Control are still contaminated and have not been properly fenced by the militaries of either India or Pakistan.[6] Inhabitants of Garhi Sher Khan in Poonch district, for example, informed the Monitor that villages on both sides of the Line of Control were contaminated by mines and ERW, and that rainfall caused mines to drift onto the Pakistani side of the border from higher areas on the Indian side.[7]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

The transparency report Pakistan submitted in March 2011 under Article 10 of CCW Protocol V said there were no explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Pakistan.[8] Its latest Article 13 Report, however, claimed “terrorists” had used IEDs to attack the government and civilians, mounting 4,570 attacks between 2000 and the end of 2010 and causing 3,665 casualties in 2010 alone, including 992 people killed.[9]

NGOs operating in northwestern districts report an ERW threat to communities from UXO, including mortars, artillery shells, hand-grenades, IEDs, and rocket-propelled grenades.[10] It is not known whether contamination includes cluster munition remnants.

Mine Action Program

Pakistan has no formal civilian mine action program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor in April 2011 that it planned to establish a mine action facility to provide information, mine/ERW risk education (RE), and victim assistance services to the conflict-affected population. However, the ministry said that, due to lack of resources, the program could not be started yet.[11] The ministry had previously disclosed plans to establish a Training Center for Demining and Awareness in 2007 to act as a mine action center for operations in Pakistan and overseas, but that initiative has also not progressed.[12]

An Inter Services Public Relations representative told the Monitor that Pakistani military engineering units are responsible for mine clearance in contaminated conflict zones.[13] The Frontier Constabulary (FC) also says it conducts mine clearance in contaminated areas of Balochistan, FATA, and other conflict zones in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The army provided clearance training and mine detectors to the FC.[14]

Mine clearance in 2011

The army and FC do not release details of their demining activities. In its latest Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, Pakistan said its army destroyed 153 antipersonnel mines during 2011, identifying mine types but providing no details concerning their locations.[15]

Risk Education

Pakistan has no formal risk education (RE) program. Since 2009, UNICEF has supported the Pakistani NGO Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) and other organizations in developing and implementing RE activities, focusing particularly on internally displaced people in conflict-affected areas in the northwest. In 2010−2011, UNICEF co-chaired a MRE (Mine Risk Education) Working Group. After an initial training jointly conducted by UNICEF and Handicap International, NGOs received technical assistance through a coordination mechanism that meets monthly. The project has included the development of RE materials.[16]

Mines Advisory Group, working in partnership with SPADO, delivered RE in 2011 to people affected by conflict in South Waziristan and in the Orakzai and Kurram agencies. MAG worked through two field offices in central Khyber Pakhtunkwa (Kohat) and in southern Khyber Pakhtunkwa (DI Khan). It delivered direct RE training to community focal points; these focal points in turn facilitated access to schools, madrassas, community centers, and homes. However, the program ended in January 2012 due to lack of donor funding.[17]

The Swiss Foundation for Demining (FSD) also conducted community-based RE operating in four districts of Buner, Dir, Shangla, and Swat;[18] from December 2010, in partnership with the Peshawar-based NGO BEST, it expanded the geographic scope of its operations to include the FATA agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand, as well as the displaced populations from Bajaur and Khyber in Peshawar’s Polzai camp.[19] FSD’s project also terminated at the start of 2012 when ECHO funding stopped.[20]

Casualties Overview

In 2011, the Monitor identified 569 casualties from antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and other explosive remnants of war (ERW) in Pakistan.[1] There were 332 civilian casualties including 213 men, 20 women, and 99 children (75 boys and 24 girls). The remaining 237 casualties were security forces; at over 40% of the total, this was similar to the 46% reported in 2010 and a significant increase from 2009 when security forces made up 25% of all reported casualties. The ongoing violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK, formerly North-West Frontier Province) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) continued to be seen as the cause of high numbers of casualties.[2]

The 2011 casualty total represented a significant increase from the 394 mine/ERW casualties indentified in 2010. Given the considerable variation in available annual casualty data, it is not possible to be certain of the extent to which changes in recorded casualties are indicative of actual trends versus shifts in media coverage and use of terminology.[3]

The vast majority of casualties in 2010 (542) occurred in FATA (288), Balochistan (166), and KPK (88). The number of casualties in these areas increased significantly in 2011 compared to 2010 (368); the greatest rise was in Balochistan, which had 64 casualties in 2010.

Pakistan had 293 reported casualties from antivehicle mines in 2011. This number was higher than the previous peak of 249 antivehicle-mine casualties recorded for 2006; at that time, “Antivehicle mines posed the greatest threat to both civilians and military personnel,” the Monitor reported. The 2011 total was more than three times the 91 antivehicle casualties identified in 2010. Reporting of victim-activated IED incidents was down from 2010, when victim-activated IEDs caused more than half of all casualties, a percentage that had been increasing since at least 2007.[4]

The total number of casualties in Pakistan is not known, and there has been no official data collection mechanism. In 2011 reporting, the government reiterated that there were no mine or ERW casualties in Pakistan, as it had in previous years.[5] However, between 1999 and 2011, the Monitor identified at least 3,353 casualties (1,233 killed, 2,025 injured, 95 unknown) from victim-activated explosive items, including landmines and ERW, through media monitoring, field visits, and information provided by service providers.[6] It is likely that the total number of casualties is much higher. Pakistan reported on 1,200 “IED attacks” causing casualties in 2011, “including” antipersonnel mines and antivehicle mines.[7]

Victim Assistance

The Monitor has identified 2,025 mine/ERW survivors in Pakistan since 1999.

Victim assistance since 1999[8]

Pakistan has not had specific programs or a strategic plan to address the needs of mine/ERW/IED survivors. While Pakistan has asserted that mine/ERW/IED survivors “are properly looked after,” most survivors live in poor, conflict-affected regions with limited access to services. Pakistan has legislation which protects the equality of persons with disabilities but enforcement is lacking.

Victim assistance in 2011

In 2011, continuing military and security operations (particularly in KPK and the FATA) as well as other armed violence (which also occurred in Balochistan) impeded civilian survivors’ access to essential services, particularly emergency medical care. Physical rehabilitation services improved and increased.

Assessing victim assistance needs

National NGOs, including Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) and Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO), collected information on casualties and survivors as part of their broader program activities.

Response International maintained a database of casualties and undertook a two-year casualty survey linked with risk education (RE) activities in Swat Valley covering half the resident population (approximated 500,000 people). The survey finished in November 2011.[9]

It was reported that a government plan for enhancing physical rehabilitation services and vocational training being developed in 2012 would begin with data collection on the needs of people injured in conflict in the FATA and the KPK province.[10]

Victim assistance coordination

Pakistan continued to report that the Military Operations Directorate of the Pakistan Army was the focal point for victim assistance, but did not indicate if this was for both civilian and military survivors.[11] Several ministries were involved in disability issues, including the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education.[12] As of the end of 2011, Pakistan had no victim assistance plan; its National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2002-2025 remained in place. After dissolution of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education in April 2011, its affiliated departments, including the National Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled and the National Trust for the Disabled, were handed over to the Capital Administration and Development Division of Medical Science (PIMS) in Islamabad.[13]

Pakistan reported that a “deliberate procedure/programme is in place” for the victims of IEDs. This was reported to be individual rehabilitation programs including emergency and ongoing medical care and physical rehabilitation at army medical units and hospitals, as well as economic reintegration through monetary compensation and employment. It was not reported if civilians could access these services.[14]

Pakistan provided contact information on victim assistance coordination in its Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Protocol V Article 10 report and did not update information on victim assistance available in its CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report.[15]

Survivor participation and inclusion

No information was available about mine/ERW survivors being included in government coordination, implementation, or monitoring of disability plans.

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[16]

Ongoing violence throughout 2011, mostly in northern Pakistan, and higher annual casualties from mines/ERW and other weapons increased the demand for victim assistance. ICRC reported that access was severely hampered due to violence and insecurity, or due to related government restrictions and security measures which limited the ICRC’s ability to provide assistance to the civilian population. Insecurity, displacement and natural disaster prevented many civilians, including those in Balochistan, KP and FATA, from reaching services.[17] In addition, many people with disabilities were reportedly unaware of services available at government hospitals and orthotic workshops.[18]

The ICRC contributed to the medical care of 124 survivors of mines or ERW in 2011, with more than 8,700 weapon-wounded patients treated in its hospital in Peshawar or through support to other hospitals. A visiting ICRC reconstructive surgeon treated patients disfigured by weapon wounds.[19] The Pakistani government had a medical support plan that detailed the emergency medical evacuation of casualties from mines/IEDs and ERW to army medical units and field hospitals in the affected areas.[20] Pakistan reported that these services were “adequate.”[21] Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) found that low standards of equipment and hygiene in hospitals in affected areas negatively impacted the quality of services.[22] Despite the security situation, in 2011 MSF continued to provide emergency and surgical care at a new emergency medical department in Hangu district of KPK, which opened in 2010.[23] In 2011, MSF provided emergency medical care including surgery to thousands of patients in hospitals in Dargai and Timurgara in KPK and in Hangu very near the Afghan border. MSF also provided emergency care in the district hospital of Chaman, Balochistan province, a town on the border with Afghanistan where Afghans affected by conflict often seek medical assistance.[24]

In 2011, there were almost 40% more mine/ERW survivors receiving prosthetics (720 of 2,005 total beneficiaries) in ICRC-supported rehabilitation centers as compared to 2010 (517 of 1,386 total beneficiaries). In 2010, there had been a 90% increase in the number of mine/ERW survivors receiving prosthetics compared to the number in 2009. The ICRC attributed the increase to enhanced support to physical rehabilitation centers and improvements in the referral system and staff skills combined with a greater public trust in the services.[25] Rehabilitation services for military survivors of mines/IEDs and ERW were available through army hospitals. Complicated cases were referred to the Armed Forces Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (AFIRM).[26]

Few psychological support and economic inclusion programs were available in Pakistan.

The ICRC continued providing small grants and business training through the Muzaffarabad Physical Rehabilitation Center. Discussions regarding the handover of the running of the Muzaffarabad center to the Ministry of Health continued in 2011.[27]

According to the Pakistani government, IED survivors were provided with monetary compensation, employment, and commercial or agricultural property. No figures were provided on the number of survivors who received this assistance, or if any were civilian.[28]

The government declared the federal capital and provincial capitals as “disabled-friendly cities.” Special education centers were established in main cities. Employment quotas for persons with disabilities lacked adequate enforcement mechanisms. Organizations that refused to hire persons with disabilities could choose to pay a fine to a disability assistance fund. The National Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled provided job placement and loan facilities as well as subsistence funding. However, most individuals with disabilities were supported by their families.[29] The law provides for equality of the rights of persons with disabilities, but not all provisions were implemented in practice.[30]

The ICRC promoted equal access to all assisted centers through several activities such as increasing the number of women professionals and providing healthcare and dormitory areas for women.[31]

Pakistan ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 5 July 2011.

Support for Mine Action

Pakistan is affected by mines and other ordnance from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–1989) and three wars with India. Areas bordering Afghanistan, however, are affected by a variety of contamination from more recent and continuing conflict, including not only mines, but also unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).[1]

In 2011, the European Commission (EC) provided Handicap International with €247,955 (US$345,426) for risk education (RE).[2] Since 2009, the EC has contributed €3,214,230 (US$4,364,350) to RE projects in Pakistan. All international contributions toward mine action in Pakistan since 2009 went towards RE.

Summary of international contributions in 2009–2011[3]