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Uganda
Mine Ban Policy
Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
State Party |
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National implementation measures |
Legislation reported under development since 2004 |
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Transparency reporting |
Covering the period April 2009–April 2010 |
Policy
The Republic of Uganda signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 25 February 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 August 1999. National implementation legislation has reportedly been under development since 2004, but had still not been enacted as of July 2010.[1]
In 2010, Uganda submitted an undated Article 7 transparency report covering the period from April 2009 to April 2010. Uganda has provided seven previous reports.[2]
Uganda participated in the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena, Colombia in November–December 2009, represented by the Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees. At the Summit, Uganda was named co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration, a role it will fulfill for the next year before becoming the co-chair.
Uganda also participated in the Third Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines held 9–11 September 2009 in Pretoria, South Africa, where it made a presentation on victim assistance. It also attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings held June 2010 in Geneva, where it gave statements on mine clearance, victim assistance, and cooperation and assistance.
Uganda is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its original Protocol II on landmines, but not Amended Protocol II or Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
Production, transfer, use, stockpiling, and retention
Uganda produced antipersonnel mines until 1995 when the state-run facility was decommissioned. Uganda has stated that it has never exported antipersonnel mines.[3] In 2000 and 2001, there were serious and credible allegations indicating the strong possibility of Ugandan use of antipersonnel mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), particularly in the June 2000 battle for Kisangani. The government denied any use, but pledged to investigate; the results were never made known.[4]
The government consistently accused Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels of using antipersonnel mines in Uganda until 2004, and regularly reported the seizure or recovery of stockpiled antipersonnel mines from the LRA until 2005.
In July 2003, Uganda completed destruction of its stockpile of 6,383 antipersonnel mines. This figure was considerably higher than Uganda initially indicated would be destroyed, apparently because of additional mines captured from rebel forces and a decrease in the number of mines kept for training purposes.[5]
Uganda has discovered or seized and destroyed additional antipersonnel mines in recent years.[6] In its Article 7 report submitted in 2009, Uganda reported destroying 120 Type 72 mines, but it did not note where the mines came from or who had possession of them before their destruction.[7]
In its Article 7 report submitted in 2010, no additional antipersonnel mines were reported destroyed but the same mines noted in the 2009 report are included together with this description: “These items had not however been stockpiled, they had been abandoned by non state actors, this is the same information presented in the last year’s report.” [8]
In every transparency report since 2004, Uganda has reported retaining 1,764 Type 72 antipersonnel mines for training purposes.[9] Uganda has never reported in any detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, a measure agreed by States Parties at the review conferences held in 2004 and 2009.
[1] The draft law is titled “1997 Mine Ban Implementation Bill 2002.” In May 2002, Uganda reported the act was before parliament. In May 2004, officials told Landmine Monitor that a revised draft was due to be presented to the cabinet for approval before going to parliament. In May 2005, Uganda reported, “An implementation act is ready to be presented before Parliament.” In December 2005, Uganda reported that national implementation legislation was “ready for parliamentary debate.” In May 2007, an official told Landmine Monitor that the bill still had to be approved by the cabinet before being sent to parliament. No further update has been provided.
[2] Uganda submitted undated reports covering the periods from 2 April 2008 to 2 April 2009, 2 April 2007 to 1 April 2008, and from 1 May 2006 to 1 April 2007. Previous reports were submitted on 5 December 2005, 11 May 2005, 24 July 2003, and 24 May 2002. The initial report was due in January 2000. Uganda did not submit annual reports in 2004 or 2006.
[3] In January 2005, a UN report said that landmines had been supplied from a Uganda People’s Defence Force camp to a rebel group in the DRC in violation of a UN embargo. The report did not specify if the mines were antipersonnel or antivehicle. Uganda strongly denied the allegation as “patently false and inflammatory.” See Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 596.
[4] See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, pp. 834–835.
[5] Article 7 Report, Form G, 5 December 2005. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2006, p. 746.
[6] See Landmine Monitor Report 2008, p. 711, for details on destruction in 2007.
[7] Article 7 Report (for the period 2 April 2008 to 2 April 2009), Form G.
[8] Article 7 Report (for the period April 2009 to April 2010), Form G.
[9] Ibid, Form D. At the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2006, Uganda said it was retaining 1,798 mines of seven types for training purposes, but reported the destruction of 202 mines in training during the previous year. Statement of Uganda, Seventh Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 19 September 2006. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2007, p. 700.
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