Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The Republic of India has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In October 2011, India reiterated its long-held position by stating, “We support the approach enshrined in Amended Protocol II of the CCW [Convention on Conventional Weapons] which addresses the legitimate defence requirements of states with long borders. However, we are fully committed to the eventual elimination of anti-personnel landmines.”[1]

On 2 December 2011, India abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 66/29 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has on similar annual resolutions since 1997. India offered the same explanation as the previous year, stating it “supports the vision of a world free of the threat of anti-personnel mines” and that the “availability of militarily effective alternative technologies that can perform, cost-effectively, the legitimate defensive role of anti-personnel landmines will considerably facilitate the goal of the complete elimination of anti-personnel mines.”[2]

India sent an observer to the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November–December 2011,[3] where it stated that it supported the approach of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), not the Mine Ban Treaty.[4] India did not attend the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2012.

India is party to the CCW and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It submitted its annual Article 13 report for Amended Protocol II.[5]

In January 2012, Control Arms Foundation of India organized a workshop for journalists and media professionals for investigating and reporting accurately on explosive weapons at the Indian Press Club in Delhi.

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

India is one of the few countries still producing antipersonnel mines. India states that all production is authorized and controlled by government agencies.[6] During 2010 and into 2011, the Indian Ordnance Factory Board produced M14 and M16 antipersonnel mines. The quantities produced are not known.[7] Officials did not respond to a request for updated information on production in 2011 and 2012

In 2007–2008, India produced at least five types of mines, including two types of antipersonnel mines (AP NM-14 and AP NM-16) and two types of antivehicle mines (AT ND 1A and AT ND 4D), as well as the APER 1B mine (a type unknown to the Monitor).[8]

India has repeatedly stated that it has had a formal export moratorium of unlimited duration in place since May 1996. It has stated that it favors an outright ban on transfer of antipersonnel mines even to States Parties of CCW Amended Protocol II.[9] Five Mine Ban Treaty States Parties have reported Indian-made mines in their stockpiles: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mauritius, Sudan, and Tanzania. India has previously denied that any transfer of mines to these countries took place.[10]

In 1999, the Monitor estimated that India stockpiled between four and five million antipersonnel mines, one of the world’s largest stockpiles.[11] India has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate. In March 2008, Brigadier Vijay Sharma, former deputy director of the Directorate of Military Operations, stated that India does not possess mines that can detonate in the presence of mine detectors and does not possess—nor is it designing—any mine with antihandling characteristics.[12] An address by a military commander to army sappers (engineers) reported by the press in September 2010 stated, “After India became a signatory to a UN convention on landmine, we are compulsorily putting a steel rod measuring a few inches in each mine so that it can be detected during demining operations.”[13]

Use

Government

In September 2010, an Indian Army officer stated that India “had not laid any landmine since the Operation Parakram,” which took place in 2001-2002.[14] Previously, in April 2010, in response to a Right to Information Act (RTI) request, India stated that the army had not laid any mines during 2008 or 2009.[15] Officials did not respond to an updated request regarding any use in 2011 or 2012.

Indian officials have also previously stated on many occasions that “[t]here is no minefield or mined area in any part of India’s interiors,” but have acknowledged that “minefields are laid, if required, along the border areas as part of military operations.”[16] However, injuries from mines planted near military bases within Jammu and Kashmir state have been reported.[17]

Previously, some Indian Army officials have said that infiltration of Kashmiri militants across the Line of Control (LoC) between Pakistani- and Indian-administered sections of Kashmir is the main rationale for mines laid along the LoC, as well as the international border.[18]

The Monitor has previously reported mine use in counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir.[19] Civilians continued to be killed and injured by mines in Kashmir in 2011 and early 2012 (see Casualties section). India’s last major use of antipersonnel mines took place between December 2001 and July 2002, when the Indian Army deployed an estimated two million mines along its northern and western border with Pakistan in Operation Parakram.[20] This was probably the most extensive use of antipersonnel mines anywhere in the world since the Mine Ban Treaty was negotiated and first signed in 1997.

Non-state armed groups

During 2011 and the first half of 2012, no use of antipersonnel mines by non-state armed groups (NSAG) is known to have occurred in India. There have been reports of use of improvised explosive devices (IED), that appear to be command-detonated, and one unconfirmed report of use of pressure mines.

In May 2011, in response to an RTI request on mine use by NSAG, a Ministry of Home Affairs official, referring to the NSAG Naxal, wrote, “The naxal Affected area are prone to IEDs planted by naxal operation.” He further noted that detection and disposal of IEDs is carried out by the state police/ Central Armed Police Forces allotted to the affected states. Army units have not been tasked to deal with naxal related problem.”[21]

Previously, in an April 2010 response to an RTI request on mine use by NSAG, an Indian Army official stated that NSAGs had used IEDs against the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir state and that government forces had recovered mines.[22] No further details about the types of devices and circumstances of their recovery were specified.  

In 2011 and the first half of 2012, the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, continued to use command-detonated IEDs (which are not considered antipersonnel mines or prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty).[23] These were frequently reported as “landmines” in the media and specialized reports on the conflict. However, in April 2011 “pressure mines” capable of detonating with as little as 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) were reportedly used by a Naxal group.[24] Indian authorities regularly are reported recovering material from armed groups for making explosive weapons.[25] Maoist cadres have deployed large numbers of command-detonated roadside bombs, some of which have destroyed civilian vehicles.[26]

No NSAG declared a ban on mine use during the reporting period.[27]