Mine ban policy overview

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 16^th Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report in April 2014, covering the period 31 March 2013 to 31 March 2014.

Yemen has participated in all of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Review Conference, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, as well as every Meeting of States Parties, such as the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in December 2013. It has participated in many of the treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014.

Yemen is not a party to the 2008 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 found in November 2006 were destroyed in December 2007.[3]

In 2014, Yemen again reported that it has retained 3,760 antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes, the same number declared retained since 2008.[4] Yemen still has not reported on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines as agreed by States Parties in 2004.[5]

Some of the types of mines used by government forces in 2011 were the same types that have been retained.

Use

In November 2013, the prime minister’s office issued a statement that admitted a “violation” of the Mine Ban Treaty occurred in 2011 during the popular uprising that led to the ousting of then-President Ali Abduallah Saleh.[6]

In early 2013, credible information emerged alleging government use of antipersonnel mines at a location north of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a in 2011. According to witness testimony and evidence gathered by human rights organizations and media, mines including PMN and PMD-6 antipersonnel mines were laid around the camps of the government’s Republican Guards at Bani Jarmooz in late 2011.[7]

In April 2014, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that the landmines laid at Bani Jarmooz had killed at least two civilians and wounded 20 others since late 2011, including at least one dead and six wounded in the year since April 2013.[8] The casualties all occurred in the vicinity of military camps that the 63rd and 81st Brigades of the Republican Guard established at Bani Jarmooz around 26 July 2011, and which remained in place as of September 2014. During an April 2013 visit, HRW did not observe any fencing or warning signs.

At the treaty’s intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2013, 15 states as well as the President of the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties and the ICBL called for a thorough investigation, expressed concern at the civilian casualties, and urged rapid mine clearance as well as calling for an investigation that would report back to States Parties.[9]

In a statement on the matter at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2013, Yemen said it had “lost control on the ground” during the 2011 political crises and committed to be “serious and transparent on that issue.” It said the Prime Minster had directed that an inter-agency investigation committee be established to look into the incident and determine who was responsible, and to apply criminal sanctions in accordance with the 2005 implementation law. Yemen reported that the “Minister for Defense had given the order to implement this investigation, to account for those who participated in that action, and to clear the mines.” It stated that the engineering corps and the general reserve forces had commenced clearance operations at Bani Jarmooz.[10]

In the final report of the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties, States Parties expressed concern at the “breach” of the Mine Ban Treaty at Bani Jarmooz and welcomed Yemen’s commitment to provide to them, through the president, a final report by 31 December 2014 on the investigation, including information on (a) the status and outcomes of Yemen’s investigation; (b) the identification of those responsible for deploying antipersonnel mines, and subsequent measures taken; (c) information on the source of the antipersonnel mines and how those mines were obtained, particularly given that Yemen had long ago reported the destruction of all stockpiles; (d) the destruction of any additional stocks discovered and the clearance of the mined areas in question; and (e) action to prevent and suppress any possible future prohibited activities undertaken by persons or on territory under its jurisdiction or control.

HRW has raised the need for clearance of Bani Jarmooz’s minefields with Yemeni government representatives on multiple occasions, including meetings with President Abd Rabu Mansur Hadi and other high-ranking officials and political party leaders in Sana’a in January 2014.[11]

Yemen provided an interim report on 29 March 2014 that indicated plans had been made for clearance, marking, risk education, and victim assistance.[12] In April 2014, a HRW investigation confirmed no evidence of any mine clearance, nor any marking or fencing of mine-affected areas, and few if any risk education and victim assistance activities.

At the April 2014 intersessional Standing Committee meetings, Australia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the ICRC, and the ICBL expressing concern at the apparent violation of the treaty and welcomed Yemen interim report and continued investigation.

At the Treaty’s Third Review Conference in June 2014, Yemen stated that the Military Prosecutor’s Office has begun an investigation to identify those responsible for the mine use at Bani Jarmooz.[13]

As of October 2014 the area of Bani Jarmooz was no longer under government control and had been seized by Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthi rebellion).[14]

Previously, as Landmine Monitor has documented, antipersonnel mines were laid at a government building in Sana’a at some point between early 2011 and March 2012, when a child was injured by an antipersonnel mine at the site.[15] In May 2013, Yemen said it had investigated the incident, but did not find any landmines.[16]

Use by non-state armed groups

In 2013, there were credible reports of use of antipersonnel mines by non-state armed groups in the mountainous northern governorates of Sada’a and Haijjah where the government of Yemen and local government-backed Sunni tribes have been in conflict with Ansar Allah rebel forces (led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi) after new fighting erupted in 2012. There have been occasional reports and allegations of antipersonnel mine use by both sides since 2004.[17]

Yemen’s 2014 Article 7 report stated that the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC) faced a “new challenge” in Sada’a governorate from “new kinds of mines made manually by insurgences [sic] and planted in Sada’a, some of them demined by the insurgences [sic] and they missed others…lot of mine accidents happened and many of people [sic] killed and injured.”[18] In September 2013, a representative of the district of Al-Asha bordering Saad’a governorate told media that Houthi rebels were planting landmines “in the mountainous areas under their control.”[19]

After a 2010 ceasefire opened access to the region, it subsequently became apparent that the Houthi rebel forces had used mostly, if not exclusively, victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs).[20]

In its 2012 Article 7 report, Yemen listed Abyan governorate in the south of the country as newly mine-affected “because of the war that started between the Yemeni army and Al Qaeda groups.”[21]

In June 2012, engineering teams removed landmines from around the cities of Zinjibar and Jaar in Abyan governorate after government forces regained their control from Ansar al-Sharia, an armed organization linked to al Qaeda.[22] Photographs of weapons recovered by deminers from Ansar al-Sharia positions after their withdrawal, which HRW examined in October 2012, show antipersonnel mines as well as IEDs.[23] Ansar al-Sharia continues to exist as a military threat but is not reported to have used more antipersonnel mines in 2013 or the first half of 2014.