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Tunisia
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
Tunisia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified on 9 July 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 January 2000. In 2011, Tunisia listed ten laws that it considers implementation measures for the Mine Ban Treaty.[1]
Tunisia attended the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, but did not attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2011.
In 2011, Tunisia submitted its 11th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, covering the period from April 2010 to April 2011.[2]
Tunisia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines as well as Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It has never submitted an annual report as required under Article 13 for Amended Protocol II.
Production, Transfer, Stockpile Destruction, and Retention
Tunisia has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines, but imported them in the past.[3] Tunisia completed the destruction of 18,259 stockpiled antipersonnel mines in September 2003.[4]
In its initial declaration in July 2000, Tunisia reported retaining 5,000 antipersonnel mines (4,000 PMA-3 and 1,000 PROM-1) for purposes permitted under Article 3 of the Mine Ban Treaty.[5] In 2009 and 2010, Tunisia reported consuming 20 antipersonnel mines for training and reported a total of 4,980 mines retained for training.[6] In its Article 7 report submitted in 2011, Tunisia reported that it retains 4,910 mines for training, and that 70 mines were used for training purposes during the April 2010 to April 2011 reporting period.[7] It is unclear whether this takes into account the five mines reportedly destroyed from April 2007 to April 2008.[8]
Tunisia has not specified the type of mines destroyed, nor has it reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of retained mines, as agreed by States Parties in 2004.
[1] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report 2008 (for the period April 2010 to April 2011), Form A. The most salient actions include Law No. 2003-1266 dated 09-06-2003; Law No. 2005-47 dated 27-06-2005; and Law No. 2006-464 dated 15-02-2006.
[2] Previous reports were submitted in 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007 (all undated), as well as on 24 April 2006, 29 April 2005, 5 May 2004, 8 September 2003, 7 May 2003, 4 October 2002, and 9 July 2000.
[3] See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 577.
[4] See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 821.
[5] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, 9 July 2000.
[6] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period April 2008 to April 2009), Form D; and Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period April 2009 to April 2010), Form D.
[7] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for the period April 2010 to April 2011), Form D.
[8] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, 2008 (for the period April 2007 to April 2008). In 2008, the number remaining may have be 4,975, as in its previous Article 7 report (for the period from April 2007 to April 2008), Tunisia for the first time officially reported that it had consumed five mines for training purposes, leaving 4,995 mines. During an interview on 21 November 2007 during the Eighth Meeting of States Parties at the Dead Sea, Maj. Beji Salah of the Ministry of Defense told the Monitor that mines had been consumed during 2007. In 2005, a Tunisian official told the Monitor that some retained mines were used to train troops that cleared mines on the border with Libya. Interview with Col. Salem Ridiefi, Ministry of Defense, in Zagreb, 30 November 2005.
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