Contamination and Impact

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

Mines

The precise extent of mined areas is not known. A 2001 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 530 communities in 27 of Thailand’s 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, submitted in 2008, claimed it had released 1,355km² of this area, leaving a total of 1,202km² of suspected hazardous area (SHA) to be released, including an estimated 528.2km² of “real minefield” requiring manual clearance.[2] In May 2012 at the Mine Ban Treaty intersessionnal Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) said clearance and survey had “resulted in a reduction in Thailand’s total contaminated area to 542.6 km².”[3]

Thailand’s 700km-long border with Cambodia, used as a base by Cambodian non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in the 1980s and 1990s, is the worst affected, accounting for three-quarters of the LIS estimate of contamination and 51 of its 69 high-impacted communities.[4] More than half of the mine incidents in Thailand have occurred on this border.[5] On the border with Myanmar, the LIS identified 139 affected communities and 240 contaminated areas,[6] but the periodic spillover of fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic minority forces has deterred efforts to survey or clear affected areas on the border.[7]

Mine incidents on the Thai-Cambodia border in 2011 contributed to tensions between Bangkok and Phnom Penh over border demarcation. Thai army patrols suffered eight casualties, including one fatality, in six incidents in Sisaket province.[8] Thai troops suffered two more casualties in May 2012, prompting Thailand to “emphasize the imperative task of close cooperation between bordering Landmine Convention States Parties.”[9]

In the meantime, Thailand said “unfinished demarcations with neighboring countries may post a delay in its mine clearance progress.”[10]

Cluster munition remnants

Survey by Thai Civilian Deminers Association (TDA) in 2010 identified contamination by US Mk-118 submunitions dating back to the Vietnam War and covering an estimated 315,000m² in Fakta district of northern Uttaradit province. The contamination, located in a remote area of forest and mountains, was cleared in 2011.[11]

Other explosive remnants of war

Thailand is also contaminated by other ERW, including unexploded artillery and mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), recoilless rifle ammunition, and hand-grenades.[12] The extent is not known. Much of it is along the border with Cambodia border that was affected by cross-border shelling by Vietnamese and Cambodian government forces and where Cambodian guerrilla groups abandoned caches of mortars, RPGs, and ammunition.[13]

Thailand has faced an upsurge in explosive violence in southern, mainly Muslim provinces since 2004, including in the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).[14] In 2011, media reports reviewed by the Landmine Monitor recorded 25 casualties from the detonation of 11 victim-activated IEDs.[15]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), set up in 2000, has responsibility for overseeing the national mine action program but has not met since 2008. TMAC reported plans to arrange a meeting of NMAC in 2011 and 2012,[16] but former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, in office since December 2008, did not chair a meeting before his government fell in a general election in July 2011.[17] Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatara, who assumed office on 5 August 2011, had not convened a meeting as of April 2012.[18]

TMAC was established in 1999 under the Armed Forces Supreme Command to coordinate, monitor, and conduct mine/UXO survey, mine clearance, mine/ERW risk education, and victim assistance throughout Thailand. TMAC is also responsible for establishing a program to meet Thailand’s obligations as a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.[19] However, TMAC has had to contend with limited funding and the regular rotation of military personnel at all levels.[20] In October 2011, TMAC’s Director General, Lieutenant-General Attanop Sirisak, left after one year in office to take up a new appointment and was replaced by Lieutenant-General Chatree Changrien. UNDP, reporting in 2011 on its support for TMAC, observed that “TMAC’s current status as an ad hoc unit within the Royal Thai Armed Forces greatly hampers its functioning as staff rotates annually and capacity development efforts cannot gain traction.”[21]

TMAC pressed for a change in its status to a civilian organization in 2005, prompted by the slow progress of demining and the armed forces’ limited budget for its operations. The NMAC agreed in principle to TMAC becoming a foundation in February 2007 but proposed to keep it under the Armed Forces. A final decision is still pending.

NMAC also decided in February 2007 to set up five sub-committees for victim assistance, coordination with foreign organizations, demining, risk education, and monitoring and evaluation. The Demining and Monitoring and Evaluation sub-committees met once in 2011.[22]

TMAC’s priorities in 2011–2012 included an overhaul and update of its approach to land release through technical survey and non-technical survey in order to increase its productivity and try to meet its extended Article 5 clearance deadline.[23]

NPA, providing support to TMAC since October 2008, started a land release pilot project in early 2011 working with a 10-man survey team undertaking technical and non-technical survey on the border with Cambodia in partnership with the Thai Civilian Deminers Association (TDA). In March 2012, NPA recruited one more survey team bringing the total number of the staff to 20 people (see Land Release section below).[24]

NPA also continued support of TMAC for information management in 2011–2012, developing procedures and standards for reporting clearance, and providing a technician to help consolidate clearance data. Efforts to clarify what land has been cleared and the extent of remaining contamination, however, have been hampered by a very large number of missing reports – 128 – as of early July 2012.[25] After more than two years of support by NPA, TMAC finally approved Thailand’s first National Mine Action Standards in June 2012.[26]

APOPO, a Belgian NGO, also started conducting non-technical and technical survey in 2011 working in cooperation with Peace Road Organisation (PRO) in two provinces, Trat and Chanthaburi, both bordering Cambodia. Working with a 25-strong team, APOPO completed a non-technical and “limited technical” survey of confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) in Trat in April 2012.[27]

Thailand engaged in discussions with Cambodia in 2011–2012 on possible joint demining of parts of their common border following an 18 July 2011 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that both countries should withdraw troops from a provisional demilitarized zone and refrain from any armed activity directed at that zone.[28] A Joint Working group (JWG) set up to implement the ICJ ruling met for the first time in Bangkok on 5 April 2012 and agreed “to task Thailand Mine Action Center and Cambodia Mine Action Center to demine required areas as will be agreed upon by both sides in the provisional demilitarized zone.”[29] A second JWG meeting on 27–28 June 2012 agreed to carry out mine clearance in the disputed area surrounding the Preah Vihear temple and to withdraw troops once demining is completed. It also agreed that a Joint Thai-Cambodian Demining Working group comprising representatives of both countries’ mine action centers would meet in July 2012.[30]

Land Release

Thailand released a total of 4.3km² of mined and battle area in 2011, which included 2.41km² of mine clearance and 0.83km² of battle area. TMAC also cleared 0.32km² of land contaminated by cluster munitions and released 0.74km² through survey.[31] In 2010, TMAC had reported a 60% rise in its budget and said it expected land release to accelerate in 2011,[32] but results for the year were one-third less than 2010.

TMAC, operating with four Humanitarian Mine Action Units (HMAUs), again expected land release to rise in 2012. In May 2012, the TMAC Director General told the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva that Thailand had released around 4.7km² in the six months since the Eleventh Meeting of State Parties, of which 0.6km² was a result of manual clearance and the remaining 4.1km² was mainly due to non-technical survey.[33]

NPA in partnership with Thai Civilian Deminers Association (TDA)[34] deployed one team to conduct non-technical and technical survey in Surin province on the Cambodian border in May 2011 and added another 10-strong team in March 2012.[35] APOPO recruited and trained 25 staff in 2011 and started work conducting non-technical and technical survey in Trat and Chanthaburi provinces.[36]

Five-year summary of clearance

Survey in 2011

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and APOPO conducted survey in 2011 focusing on provinces along the Thai-Cambodian border. Land release techniques are hugely reducing the amount of land that requires full clearance. For example, NPA conducted technical survey on a 522,019m² CHA in Surin province releasing 511,034m² and leaving 10,715m² to be cleared by TMAC’s HMAU 3.[37] NPA surveyed a 733,000m² CHA between September 2011 and April 2012 releasing a total of 721,284 m², leaving 11,716m² to be cleared by HMAU 3.[38] In May 2012, NPA started another task in Surin covering an area of 1.2km² and by June 2012 had released 0.45km².[39]

NPA also surveyed and conducted battle area clearance (BAC) over an area affected by cross-border clashes in April–May 2011, finding seven unexploded rockets that were cleared by HMAU 3.[40]

APOPO, working in partnership with PRO and collaborating closely with TMAC’s HMAU 2, conducted non-technical survey in Trat Province starting in June 2011, covering 49.5km² by the end of 2011 and 22.4km² in the first four months of 2012. APOPO reported that out of the LIS total suspected area of 71.86km², the survey identified CHAs covering 37.66km² or 52%. It also identified 22.88km² (32%) as suspect hazardous area (SHA) but with “no real evidence” of mines, cancelled 6.31km² (9%), and classified another 5km (7%) as “area with restrictions” – land which it said it recommended “to be cancelled, based on the information from the local population.” APOPO reported that it found 564 mines (507 antipersonnel mines, 14 antivehicle mines, and 43 IEDs), as well as 938 items of ERW.[41] As of June 2012, TMAC had not entered the survey results in its database and was discussing the survey results with APOPO.

Mine clearance in 2011

Manual clearance by TMAC’s four HMAUs in 2011 rose from 1.99km² in 2010 to 2.41km² in 2011, an increase of 21% but still less than 5% of the clearance foreseen for the year in Thailand’s Article 5 deadline extension request. Most clearance took place in provinces bordering Cambodia, notably Chanthaburi, Sakaeo, Sisaket, Trat, and Ubonratchathani. A small amount of clearance also took place in Nan province bordering Laos, but none along the border with Myanmar.[42] Thailand’s latest Article 7 report claims mined area clearance in 2011 of 2.72km², but this included 0.32km² of land contaminated by cluster munition remnants.[43]

Mined area clearance in 2011[44]

* UXO = unexploded ordnance other than unexploded submunitions

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 granted in 2008), 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.[45] As set out in the table below, however, Thailand has already fallen hugely behind – more than 120km² – the targets set out in its Article 5 extension request.

 Article 5 Extension Request: Clearance Targets and Achievements

TMAC released a total of 3.46km² of mined area in 2011, representing less than 6% of the extension request clearance target for the year and less than 1% of the 545.9km² that Thailand identified as mine contaminated at the end of 2011.[46]

TMAC has made progress in the past year adopting standards and procedures for non-technical and technical survey and data management (see Mine Action Program above), and expects this will accelerate land release and increase the productivity of manual clearance operations that were often applied in the past to land with no contamination. TMAC’s Director General is reported as saying the organization aimed to release more than 10km² in 2012[47] and still plans to meet its extended Article 5 clearance deadline.[48]

Lack of attention to mine action on the part of political leaders is one of the biggest constraints on progress, resulting in a lack of funds for TMAC or the sector. UNDP observed in 2011 that TMAC’s priority is to bring the issue up to NMAC, chaired by the Prime Minister, for advocacy at the policy level on the vulnerability of mine-affected people and the need to have all mines cleared by 2018.[49] No prime minister has convened a meeting of NMAC since 2007.

Thailand has warned that “the unfinished demarcations with neighboring countries may post a delay in our mine clearance progress.” Thailand has not allowed deployment of Indonesian observers to the disputed border areas, as agreed within the framework of mediation by the Association of South East Asian Nations in May 2011.[50] A Thai-Cambodian Joint Working Group for the Implementation of the ICJ Order met on 5 April 2012, in which Thailand and Cambodia agreed to task TMAC and the Cambodian Mine Action Center to demine required areas in the provisional demilitarized zone.[51]

Clearance of cluster munition contaminated areas in 2011

TMAC’s HMAU4 cleared a 315,500m² area of Pooh Nong Sam Yai, Uttaradit province, contaminated by cluster munition remnants, the only such area known to exist.

TDA had received notice of an agreement by the Japan ASEAN-Integrated Fund (JAIF) to finance clearance of this area. After HMAU4 cleared the submunitions, TDA started discussions with TMAC on another clearance task it could submit to JAIF as an alternative use for the funds approved.[52]

Cluster munition clearance in 2011

Battle area clearance in 2011

In 2011, NPA surveyed an 829,250m² area of a border district of Surin province, finding seven BM 21 rockets later destroyed by HMAU3.[53] Army EOD technicians cleared and destroyed 176 unexploded rockets in Sisaket province during cross-border fighting in February 2011[54] and more than 100 rockets (BM 21s) in Kabcherng district of Surin province after further clashes in April-May 2011.[55]

Battle area clearance in 2011[56]

Quality management

TMAC conducted quality management in 2011–2012 consisting of quality assurance, additional technical survey and quality control. Quality assurance included monitoring operations with site visits or analysis of clearance data and reports. Additional technical survey conducted in areas already released by previous technical survey to increase local confidence and to assure safety. Quality control is conducted after manual clearance.[57]

Thailand’s National Mine Action Standards (NMAS), officially introduced in June 2012, has chapters on Quality Management. Before the standards were inaugurated, TMAC followed only standing operating procedures.[58]

Safety of demining personnel

TMAC had three demining accidents in 2011, causing 11 casualties, including four deaths; an increase from the two incidents experienced in 2010 which caused four injuries. TMAC suffered the worst accident it has ever recorded in December 2011 when four deminers were killed in the process of clearing antivehicle mines in Sakeo district on the Thai-Cambodian border. The deminers were demining three mines stacked on top of each other and had removed the first two when the third detonated.[59]

Two HMAU 2 deminers were injured by an RPG blast in Chanthaburi province in February 2011. Five HMAU 2 deminers were injured in June 2011, also in Chanthaburi. The device was not identified.[60]

Risk Education

TMAC’s four HMAUs continued conducting risk education (RE), working in 80 villages and 151 schools in 2011. During clashes along the Thai-Cambodian border in April–May 2011, TMAC conducted RE sessions in 10 shelters for people displaced by the fighting.[61] HMAU 1 implemented a new initiative, setting up and posting billboards indicating dangerous areas in the communities.[62] HMAU 2 initiated a revised RE program, the “9 minute flag-raising,” briefing school children after the daily 8am flag-raising ceremony performed by all schools.[63]

COERR received funding from Kindermissionswerk of Germany to implement a one-year project, “Mine Risk Education for Children in High Risk Areas of Minefield,” starting in July 2011. COERR conducted training in eight schools in 2011 and two schools in 2012, reaching 1,426 school children and teachers in Surin and Burirum provinces.[64]

Handicap International (HI) continued RE in three displaced people camps on the Thai-Myanmar border (Maela, Nupo, and Umpiem camps in Tak province) for students at high risk of mine injuries. HI told Landmine Monitor it planned to expand RE activities to two more camps in October 2012 and to all nine camps in 2013.[65]