Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Kyrgyz Republic has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In an April 2010 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it supports the idea of a full ban on antipersonnel mines and advocates for the successful implementation of the treaty.[1] However, as in the past, Kyrgyzstan indicated it cannot yet join because it does not have necessary alternatives for border defense and because it lacks both financial and technical resources to implement the treaty.[2]

Kyrgyzstan voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) 66/29 calling for universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty on 2 December 2011. Prior to December 2010, Kyrgyzstan had abstained on similar UNGA resolutions.

Kyrgyzstan is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

In April 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Kyrgyzstan has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[3] Kyrgyzstan has not enacted legislation to regulate export and manufacture of antipersonnel mines “due to the absence of technical means on the territory of our country.”[4]

Kyrgyzstan inherited a stockpile of mines from the Soviet Union.[5] In April 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially confirmed for the first time that the Ministry of Defense possesses a stock of PMN and OZM-72 antipersonnel mines—which it described as expired—and the State Border Guard Service possesses “a small amount” of antipersonnel mines, which are “kept for guarding the more vulnerable sectors of the state border with difficult access in high mountains.”[6]

Kyrgyzstan said that it does not have the financial resources to destroy its expired mines or to purchase alternatives. It estimates the cost of destroying its expired stockpiles of PMN and OZM-72 antipersonnel mines at approximately US$600,000. It linked stockpile destruction to acquisition of new types of mines (apparently command-detonated), which it said might cost $1.5 million.[7]

Kyrgyzstan has acknowledged previously that it used antipersonnel mines in 1999 and 2000 to prevent infiltration across its borders.[8] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in May 2010 that in 1999–2000 the military “used a certain amount of antipersonnel landmines,” but stated that reports and maps of the mined areas were produced and that after the end of the military operation, the mines were removed and destroyed.[9] In June 2011, a government official confirmed that “We do not have any minefields on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.”[10]

Policy

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

Kyrgyzstan last commented on the matter in April 2010, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor that adherence to the convention was “under consideration.”[1]

Kyrgyzstan participated in the Oslo Process that led to the creation of the convention and joined in the consensus adoption of the convention text in Dublin in May 2008, but did not attend the Convention on Cluster Munitions Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008.[2]

Despite the lack of accession, Kyrgyzstan has engaged in the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2012. It participated as an observer in the convention’s Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo in September 2012 and the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka in September 2013, but did not make any statements at the meetings. Kyrgyzstan attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva in April 2013, but not those held in April 2014.

Kyrgyzstan is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty or the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

In 2010, Kyrgyzstan informed the Monitor that it has never used, produced, transferred, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[3]

Contamination and Impact

The Kyrgyz Republic is contaminated by mines, although the precise locations and extent of the residual threat are not known. According to the Minister of Defense, contamination in the southern Batken province bordering Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the result of mine use by Uzbekistan’s military between 1999 and 2000, was cleared by Uzbek forces in 2005.[1] It was reported, however, that rainfall and landslides had caused some mines to shift.[2]

In 2003, Kyrgyz authorities estimated that Uzbek forces had also laid mines around the Uzbek enclaves of Sokh and Shakhimardan located within Kyrgyzstan. Press reports have suggested that Uzbek troops partially cleared territory around the Sokh enclave in 2004–05 and that they had completely cleared mines around the Shakhimardan enclave in 2004.[3]

Kyrgyzstan has admitted using antipersonnel mines in 1999 and 2000 to prevent infiltration across its borders, but has claimed that all the mines were subsequently removed and destroyed.[4]

Mine Action Program

Kyrgyzstan has no functioning mine action program.