Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of Yemen signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 1 September 1998. It entered into force on 1 March 1999. National implementation legislation was enacted on 20 April 2005.[1] Yemen submitted its 14^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in 2012, covering the period 30 March 2011 to 30 March 2012.

Yemen attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011, where it made statements on mine clearance and victim assistance. Yemen participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings held in Geneva in June 2011, but did not attend those held in May 2012.

Yemen is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Yemen has stated that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It destroyed the last of its known stockpile of 74,000 to 78,000 antipersonnel mines in April 2002.[2] An additional 30,000 mines were found in November 2006 and destroyed in December 2007.[3]

In 2012, Yemen reported that it has retained 3,760 antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes.[4] Yemen has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines as agreed by States Parties in 2004.[5]

Use

New information in 2012 revealed that antipersonnel mines were used, possibly by government forces, in the capital city of Sana’a, resulting in casualties in January and March 2012. Additionally, non-state armed groups (NSAGs) are using antipersonnel mines in other locations.

At some point since May 2011, antipersonnel mines were laid inside the building compound of the Ministry of Industry and Trade on Jomhorriya Street in the Hassaba neighborhood of Sana’a. This situation came to public attention after one civilian was injured by an antipersonnel mine at the site in March 2012.[6] Armed clashes, the so-called “Hassaba war,” between members of the al-Ahmar tribal militia and government forces began in the area in May 2011.

Further information was provided to Human Rights Watch (HRW) by guards from the government’s Central Security forces present at the site in March 2012. The guards said they knew of two other explosions at the compound and that one of the explosions caused casualties among military personnel in January 2012.[7] The guards also stated that men who identified themselves as members of the government’s elite Republican Guard claimed responsibility for laying mines inside the compound (though the date was unspecified) during the process of transferring control of the compound to the Central Security forces. HRW does not have any further information to corroborate this latter claim.

Deminers from the Army Engineering Corps were seen in a video recording obtained by HRW removing at least 25 antipersonnel mines from the compound on 7 March 2012, including one mine type not encountered before in Yemen, either in stock or laid.[8]

It cannot be conclusively determined which forces used the mines at the compound. Before the conflict, government employees used the ministry building daily. On 23 May 2011, al-Ahmar tribal militia entered the building around midday, causing employees working there to flee, according to local shopkeepers and residents. Al-Ahmar fighters occupied the building for approximately ten days during fighting with government forces, several residents and merchants told HRW. Cadets of the Supreme Military College subsequently occupied the premises. Around 16 October 2011, neighborhood residents said, troops from the Republican Guard assumed control of the recaptured building. In January 2012, Central Security officers began guarding the building compound, they told HRW.[9]

As of October 2012, Yemen had not responded to several requests from the ICBL[10] and HRW[11] for an explanation or clarification of the use of antipersonnel mines (possibly by its own armed forces or security forces) in Sana’a (which is in territory under its jurisdiction and control). Given the gravity of the allegations and the potential that an activity prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty may have occurred, Yemen must clarify the situation to Mine Ban Treaty States Parties. Yemen should immediately investigate whether military or security forces under government control used antipersonnel mines at the Ministry of Industry and Trade building complex in Sana’a city.

Use by non-state armed groups

In 2012, there were credible reports of use of antipersonnel mines by NSAGs in Sa’ada governorate and Abyan governorate.

Since June 2004, the government of Yemen has been fighting rebel forces led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi in the mountainous northern Sa’daa governorate, which has seen occasional reports and allegations of the use of antipersonnel mines by both sides.[12] After a 2010 ceasefire opened access to the region, it became apparent that the Houthi rebel forces had used mostly, if not exclusively, so-called home-made antipersonnel mines, otherwise known as victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In a February 2010 United States (US) diplomatic cable made public in August 2011, a senior Yemeni government representative expressed concern that the Houthi rebels were retaining mines after they were cleared, rather than turning the devices over to the army for destruction.[13]

In March 2012, Yemen's Ministry of Defense reported new landmine casualties in Hajja governorate, which neighbors Sa’ada governorate and where Houthi rebels have been fighting local Sunni tribes backed by the government.[14] According to a local representative, Houthi rebels planted approximately 3,000 landmines in Kushar and Ahm in Hajja governorate.[15] A representative of the Houthi rebels told media that landmines were used by the Houthi, but described the number of mines reported as “exaggerated.”[16]

In its 2012 Article 7 report, Yemen listed Abyan governorate as newly mine-affected “because of the war that started between the Yemeni army and Al Qaeda groups.”[17] According to media reports in June 2012, the governor's office in Zinjibar (the capital of Abyan governorate) said that engineering teams have removed some landmines from around the city and the nearby city of Jaar. Government forces regained control of both cities in May 2012, a year after they were occupied by Ansar Al-Sharia, an armed organization linked to al Qaeda.[18] Photographs of weapons recovered by deminers from Ansar al-Sharia positions after the withdrawal, which HRW examined in October 2012, included antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, explosive booby-traps, and IEDs.[19]