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Kyrgyzstan
Mine Ban Policy
Mine ban policy overview
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
Not a State Party |
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Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record |
Abstained on Resolution 64/56 in December 2009, as in previous years |
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Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings |
Did not attend as an observer the Second Review Conference in November–December 2009 |
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Key Developments |
Kyrgyzstan provided its first official communication on mine ban policy, use, production, trade, and stockpiling in several years |
Policy
The Kyrgyz Republic has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In an April 2010 letter to Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it supports the idea of a full ban on antipersonnel landmines and advocates for the successful implementation of the treaty.[1] But, as in the past, Kyrgyzstan indicated it cannot yet join because it does not have necessary alternatives for border defense, and it lacks financial and technical resources to implement the treaty.[2]
Kyrgyzstan attended the regional Mine Ban Treaty workshop in Dushanbe, Tajikistan in July 2009, where its delegate expressed hopes of Kyrgyzstan joining in the future.[3]
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, but also noted that there is no official policy or special legislation banning manufacture or trade of antipersonnel mines.[4]
Kyrgyzstan inherited a stockpile of mines from the Soviet Union.[5] In April 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time officially confirmed that the Ministry of Defense possesses a stock 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 also for the first time quantified 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]
[1] Letter 011-14/809 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 2010. This is the first formal communication on landmines from the government of Kyrgyzstan since 2006.
[2] See, for example, Statement of Kyrgyzstan, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Geneva, 8 May 2006. Kyrgyzstan told States Parties that it supports the goal of a mine-free world and welcomes the decreasing use of antipersonnel mines around the world. It said that a step-by-step approach—beginning with mine clearance, then stockpile destruction—could prepare the basis for Kyrgyzstan to accede.
[3] ICBL, “ICBL Campaigners Advocate for a Mine-Free Central Asia,” undated, www.icbl.org.
[4] Letter 011-14/809 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 2010.
[5] Statement by Talantbek Kushchubekov, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, First Review Conference, Nairobi, 3 December 2004.
[6] Letter 011-14/809 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 2010. A military source requesting anonymity told Landmine Monitor in May 2005 that the Ministry of Defense has tens of thousands of PMN and OZM-72 antipersonnel mines and the State Border Guard Service has 1,000 to 2,000 antipersonnel mines, and that most if not all of these mines had expired.
[7] Letter 011-14/809 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 2010.
[8] Statement of Kyrgyzstan, Standing Committee on the General Status and Operation of the Convention, Geneva, 8 May 2006.
[9] Letter 011-14/809 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 April 2010.
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