Pakistan

Ten-Year Summary

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan’s mine ban policy has changed little in the past decade: it has repeatedly stated that antipersonnel mines are a necessary part of its self-defense strategy. Pakistan has abstained from voting on every pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996. It made extensive use of antipersonnel mines from December 2001 to mid-2002, during an escalation of tensions with India. In December 2006, Pakistan stated its intention to mine some sections of its border with Afghanistan, but did not after widespread international criticism. The country remains one of the few mine producers, manufacturing both detectable hand-emplaced antipersonnel mines and remotely-delivered mines. Pakistan’s ban on the export of antipersonnel mines has been in place since 1999. Non-state armed groups have used antipersonnel mines in the North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, and Balochistan.

Pakistan is affected by both mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) close to its border with Afghanistan, along its border with India, and possibly also in the Swat Valley as a result of combat between the army and members of non-state armed groups. The army retains the primary responsibility for demining.

Landmine Monitor recorded at least 1,969 casualties from mines, ERW, and victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) between 1999 and 2008 (728 killed, 1,146 injured, and 95 unknown). Mine/ERW risk education (RE) was conducted in Pakistan from 2000 to 2006 by a number of NGOs, mainly for at-risk communities and Afghan refugees. By 2008, however, no NGOs were active in RE. The army was reported to have conducted some RE activities, but no evidence was found of this. While Pakistan asserted that mine/ERW/IED survivors “are properly looked after,”^[1] most survivors live in poor, conflict-affected regions with limited access to services. Pakistani law protects the equality of persons with disabilities and provides employment quotas but enforcement is lacking.

Mine Ban Policy

Pakistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In April 2009, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official confirmed that Pakistan’s views have not changed.^[2] It has consistently maintained that: “Pakistan remains committed to pursue the objectives of a universal and non-discriminatory ban on anti-personnel mines in a manner which takes into account the legitimate defence requirements of States. Given our security compulsions and the need to guard our long borders, not protected by any natural obstacle, the use of landmines forms an important part of our self-defence strategy. As such, it is not possible for Pakistan to agree to the demands for the complete prohibition of anti-personnel landmines till such time that viable alternatives are available.”^[3]

Pakistan attended as an observer the Ninth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November 2008, but did not make any statements. It has not attended any intersessional Standing Committee meetings since 2002.

On 2 December 2008, Pakistan abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 63/42 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. It abstained on all previous annual UNGA resolutions in support of the treaty.

Pakistan is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. Pakistan submitted its annual report required by Article 13 in September 2008. Pakistan became a party to CCW Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War in February 2009.

As of 1 July 2009, Pakistan had not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions.^[4]

Pakistan NGOs Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) and Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) distributed 500 copies of the Urdu translation of the Pakistan chapter of Landmine Monitor Report 2008. SPADO organized a poster competition held at the University of Peshawar on the national impact of landmines and cluster bombs.^[5]

Use

The last confirmed use of antipersonnel mines by Pakistan took place between December 2001 and mid-2002, when it laid very large numbers of mines during an escalation of tensions with India.^[6] In December 2006, Pakistan stated its intention “to fence and mine some selective sections” of its border with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border militant activity, but did not do so after widespread international criticism.^[7]

In addition, Pakistan maintains permanent minefields along certain portions of the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. There were reports of new use of mines by Pakistani troops in Kashmir during the Kargil crisis in mid-1999.^[8]

Interviews conducted by Landmine Monitor in 2009 in Balochistan, the Frontier Region of Kohat, North and South Waziristan, and Bajaur, Kurram, Mohmand, and Orakzai agencies revealed a general perception that Pakistani security forces use antipersonnel mines to protect military installations. But local populations could not offer specific details, and Landmine Monitor was not able to substantiate the allegations.^[9] According to a January 2009 news article, a person was killed when he stepped on an antipersonnel mine within the boundaries of a police station in Bannu Tehsil, North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).^[10]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing antipersonnel mines.^[11] Since January 1997, Pakistan Ordnance Factories has produced detectable versions of hand-emplaced blast mines in order to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.^[12] In 2007, Pakistan reported that it “has also planned incorporation of self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanism in its future production” in order to meet Amended Protocol II requirements.^[13] The protocol requires that all remotely-delivered mines have self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms. Pakistan reported in 2002 that it was developing a remotely-delivered antipersonnel mine system, but has provided no further details.^[14]

Pakistan’s Statutory Regulatory Order No. 123 (1) of 25 February 1999 makes the export of antipersonnel mines illegal.^[15] The law penalizes importation of mines, but no data is available regarding whether people have been arrested or charged under this law. Pakistan states that it has not exported mines “since early 1992.”^[16] In the past, the country was a major exporter of landmines. Pakistani-made mines have been found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.

There is no official information available on the size of Pakistan’s antipersonnel mine stockpile. Landmine Monitor has estimated that Pakistan stockpiles at least six million antipersonnel mines, the fifth largest stockpile in the world.^[17] Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate. In previous years, Pakistan reported that it destroyed “a large number of outdated mines every year.” However, no information about the quantity or types of mines destroyed has been made available for 2008.^[18] In 2007, Pakistan stated that it had “met the deadlines to improve the specifications on detectability of mines” to be compliant with Amended Protocol II.^[19]

Non-state armed groups

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have sporadically used antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and IEDs in attacks on Pakistani security forces and civil administration, and in sectarian, inter-tribal, and inter-family conflicts.^[20] Use of mines has been recorded in some districts of the NWFP, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), including North and South Waziristan and the Frontier Regions of Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Kohat, and Tank, and in Balochistan province.

North-West Frontier Province

Increased armed conflict took place in Upper Dir, Lower Dir, and Swat districts of the NWFP in 2008 and 2009 between government troops and Taliban groups. During its offensive in the Swat Valley, Taliban groups were reported to have used antipersonnel landmines.^[21] According to Human Rights Watch, in mid-May 2009, the Taliban laid mines in eight locations in Mingora and in four places in nearby Sharifabad after they had seized those areas.^[22] The Pakistani army media officer in Mingora told the ICBL that the army has encountered victim-activated IEDs and factory-made antipersonnel and antivehicle mines in the Swat Valley, which it attributes to the Pakistani Taliban and “foreign elements.” ^[23]

Federally Administered Tribal Areas

With increased fighting in several parts of FATA in 2008 and 2009, there have been reports of antipersonnel mine, antivehicle mine, and IED incidents in Bajaur and Mohmand agencies.^[24] Prominent members of different agencies in FATA confirmed on the condition of anonymity that militants continued to use antipersonnel mines.^[25] Despite an earlier ban on the sale of mines in FATA, the collapse of state authority in some areas meant that mines were available in local markets. Tribes and sub-clans living along the Durand Line in Waziristan are believed to have kept stockpiles of mines since the time of Afghan-Soviet conflict.^[26]

Balochistan

The Balochistan Liberation Army, Balochistan Republic Army, Balochistan Liberation United Front, and Taliban groups used antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and/or IEDs in 2008 and 2009, mostly targeted at the Pakistani army and Frontier Corps, but civilians have also been killed and injured.^[27] In August 2008, a man died after stepping on an antipersonnel mine in Dera Bugti district;^[28] another man was injured in September 2008 after stepping on an antipersonnel mine in Nasirabad district.^[29] In April 2009, three children were killed by an antipersonnel mine in Jaffarabad district (See Casualties section below).^[30] In October 2008, it was reported that the Frontier Corps had seized antipersonnel mines, among other weapons, in Balochistan.^[31]

Kashmir

Many political and armed organizations opposing the Indian government reside in Pakistani- administered Kashmir, but they do not carry out armed activities in Pakistan. In October 2007, the United Jihad Council issued a statement in which it pledged not to use antipersonnel mines.^[32]

Scope of the Problem

Contamination

Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Pakistan has repeatedly affirmed that it “faces no problem of un-cleared mines; hence no casualties were caused accidentally.”^[33] It has also stated “mines have never caused humanitarian concerns in Pakistan, despite having fought three wars with India and… [a] military standoff during 2001–2002.”^[34]

However, evidence that Pakistan is affected by both mines and ERW includes mine/ERW casualties recorded during 2008 and 2009. Moreover, Pakistan’s Article 13 report published in 2007 reports that “in the area adjoining Pakistan-Afghanistan border, sometimes mines are encountered, but these are mines left by the former Soviet troops.”^[35] It also states, “Existing perimeter marking signs have been painted and marked according to [Amended Protocol] AP-II standards,” acknowledging that some mined areas remain.^[36]

No estimate exists of the extent of contamination but growing conflict between the government and militants in 2009 has reportedly resulted in new use. Human Rights Watch cited residents of Mingora town in the Swat Valley as saying the Taliban had placed mines in the town as the army embarked on its offensive to drive them out of the area in May 2009.^[37]

Pakistan has declared that mines it laid on the Indo-Pakistan border during the 2001–2002 stand-off with India “have been completely cleared.”^[38] It has also claimed that “minefields laid along the Line of Control (LoC) are properly fenced and clearly marked to impose requisite caution on civilians living in the surrounding areas.”^[39] However, inhabitants of Pakistani-administered Kashmir report consistently that some areas along the LoC are still contaminated and have not been properly fenced by the militaries of either India or Pakistan.^[40] Inhabitants of Garhi Sher Khan in Poonch district, for example, informed Landmine Monitor that villages on both sides of the LoC were contaminated by mines and ERW, and that rainfall caused mines to drift onto the Pakistani side of the border from higher areas on the Indian side.^[41]

The government has acknowledged that a mine problem does exist from mines left by Soviet troops on the Pakistan-Afghan border.^[42] Contamination dates from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–1989), when mines were scattered by Soviet and Afghan forces from helicopters, and the mujahideen used mines to protect their bases in the tribal areas.^[43] In North and South Waziristan, local inhabitants told Landmine Monitor during field research in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that NSAGs, including the Taliban and tribal armed elements, continued to use former mujahideen bases, and that the area around these camps was contaminated with mines emplaced by the NSAGs as well as by mines dating back to the Afghan-Soviet war. Inhabitants of the two tribal areas said mine incidents were still occurring, but did not provide specific casualty data.^[44]

Casualties

In 2008, there were at least 341 mine, ERW, and victim-activated IED casualties (145 killed and 196 injured) in Pakistan. Most of the casualties were civilian (190) and 151 were security forces. The overwhelming majority of the casualties were men (302), 13 were boys, and seven were women: for 19 casualties, age and gender were unknown. Antivehicle mines were the main cause of casualties (145, including 69 civilians), followed by antipersonnel mines (67, including 50 civilian casualties), other mines (44, including 39 civilians), and ERW (18, all but one civilian). For the remainder, the device causing the casualties was unknown.^[45] Due to increased conflict the casualty rate in 2008 is an increase from the 271 recorded casualties in 2007, but remained lower than 2006 (488).^[46]

Casualties continued to occur in 2009 with at least 67 mine/ERW/victim-activated IED casualties (38 killed and 29 injured) as of 31 May. All were caused by mines, including five antipersonnel mine casualties. Fifty-one casualties were civilian (including four children) and 16 were military.^[47]

The total number of mine/ERW/victim-activated IED casualties in Pakistan is unknown. Landmine Monitor recorded at least 1,969 casualties between 1999 and 2008 (728 killed, 1,146 injured, and 95 unknown).^[48] Between 1980 and 2002, the Pakistan Campaign to Ban Landmines identified 1,038 landmine/ERW casualties (377 killed, 566 injured, and 95 unknown).^[49]

Landmine Monitor visited several refugee camps in April 2008 and April 2009 and identified at least 60 survivors out of some 24,000–30,000 refugees in Raro, Amboor, and Manakpaiyan I, II, and III refugee camps. Most survivors were injured when crossing the LoC.^[50] In 2007, a Response International (RI) household survey in Pakistani-administered Kashmir identified at least 234 survivors in Abbaspur and Hajira in Rawalakot district close to the LoC.^[51]

In its Sixth Five Year Plan, the government estimated that persons with disabilities comprised approximately 2.5% of the total population.^[52]

Risk profile

In recent years, people have been at increased risk of mines, ERW, and victim-activated IEDs due to exacerbated conflict and mine use in tribal disputes. Although the army is sometimes targeted, civilians are most at risk, particularly while traveling.^[53] In Kotli and Bhimber, RI found that found that people near the LoC in Kashmir are most at risk from antipersonnel mines, especially after periods of heavy rainfall when mines tend to drift. Most at risk are men and boys engaged in cutting wood, grazing animals, or farming. ^[54]

Program Management and Coordination

Mine action

Pakistan has no formal civilian mine action program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs disclosed plans in 2007 to establish a Training Center for Demining and Awareness to act as a mine action center for operations in Pakistan and overseas, and to provide RE in affected areas of Pakistan. However, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told Landmine Monitor in April 2009 that the ministry had made no progress with this initiative.^[55]

Victim assistance

Pakistan does not have programs or a strategic framework specifically addressing the needs of mine/ERW/IED survivors. The National Council for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons formulates disability policy and also provides “some job placement and loan facilities as well as some subsistence funding.”^[56] The Ministry of Women’s Development, Social Welfare and Special Education and the National Institution of the Handicapped, within the Ministry of Health, coordinate and provide services.^[57]

The 2002 National Policy for Persons with Disabilities established objectives and strategies for the full integration of persons with disabilities by 2025.^[58] In 2006, a five-year action plan was developed to implement the policy.^[59] In 2008, the government announced the creation of a “National Task Force on welfare, education, training and rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities,” chaired by the Secretary Ministry of Social Welfare and Special Education.^[60] In May 2009, Landmine Monitor was unable to confirm specific outputs of the task force.

Data collection and management

There is no comprehensive casualty data collection mechanism in Pakistan. Hospital records do not differentiate between mine/ERW survivors and other amputees. Many incidents go unreported by the media, as they generally occur in remote, conflict-affected regions. Landmine Monitor obtains much of its casualty data from SPADO and CAMP, which monitor the media and obtain casualty information through their field operations. They developed a unified monitoring system in 2008, but a SPADO representative told Landmine Monitor that many casualties go unreported.^[61]

Demining and Battle Area Clearance

Mine and battle area clearance is carried out by engineer units of the armed forces.^[62] The army was reported to have conducted demining operations in the area of Chamalang in Balochistan in 2009, clearing antivehicle mines and other unspecified mines.^[63] In 2007, the army cleared 200 mines from the Chamalang coalfield in Loralai district after a dispute over its ownership between the Marri and Luni tribes led to the laying of mines. The clearance operation was reportedly completed without any deminer casualties.^[64]

Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Constabulary and army engineers are said to have also undertaken demining operations in FATA.^[65] However, the FATA security apparatus does not have the technical capacity or equipment to undertake demining operations and are unable to provide security for mine clearance.^[66]

Risk Education

Pakistan has no strategic framework for mine/ERW RE, nor are any organizations providing RE for civilians in contaminated areas. As noted above, there was no evidence of any progress in plans to create a government Training Center for Demining and Awareness.^[67] In its latest CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, Pakistan stated that its RE situation was “unchanged” since it reported in 2007 that its army engineers were educating people in the “border belt regarding the hazards posed by mines.”^[68] However, in field research and interviews with aid workers, activists, and journalists, Landmine Monitor was unable to identify any measures put in place by local authorities in border areas to protect civilians from mines.^[69]

In 2008, RI conducted needs assessments in Kotli and Bhimber districts, which showed an “acute” need for RE.^[70] But it was unable to secure funding, and thus did not provide any RE in 2008. ^[71]

RE started in Pakistan in 2000 with one NGO in Bajaur agency (FATA). The number of organizations and geographical coverage increased in 2001 and RE was delivered in Afghan refugee camps, as well as to local communities. In 2006, RE activities reduced considerably, and by 2007 RI was the only NGO implementing an RE program and it worked to leave a residual capacity and train community-based organizations.^[72]

Victim Assistance

The estimated number of survivors is unknown, but at least 1,146. There are no specific victim assistance (VA) programs in Pakistan and survivors receive the same services as other persons with disabilities.

In its latest CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, Pakistan asserted that survivors “are properly looked after” with compensation, rehabilitation, and a disability allowance.^[73] Since most survivors live in poor, conflict-affected regions, they have limited access to services. Landmine Monitor field research in March 2009 confirmed a continuing lack of the necessary emergency and continuing medical care services in the mine-affected areas of Balochistan, FATA, and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. Seriously injured survivors continued to be referred to hospitals in major cities. Healthcare in the conflict regions deteriorated further in 2008, as NGOs continued to pull out, due to the security threat.^[74]

Military hospitals in the conflict areas reportedly provided better medical care to mine/ERW/IED casualties than civilian hospitals. However, these hospitals were largely closed to civilians, even though some Kashmiri migrants injured by landmines while crossing the Kashmiri LoC were reportedly treated.^[75]

According to the ICRC, “political turmoil continued to hamper access to services in most regions where the ICRC provides assistance for physical rehabilitation services.”^[76] It added that, “the network of centres providing physical rehabilitation services remained inadequate to meet existing needs.”^[77]

In 2008, the Pakistani government launched the Benazir Income Support Fund, a social security fund to assist poor and vulnerable people.^[78] The fund will reportedly provide Rs1,000 (US$14) a month for persons with disabilities and Rs2,000 ($28) a month for those with severe disabilities.^[79]

Pakistani law protects the equality of persons with disabilities and provides an employment quota, reserving 2% of jobs for them in the public and private sectors. Employers that do not adhere to the quota are supposed to pay a fine to a disability assistance fund, but there was a “lack of adequate enforcement mechanisms.”^[80]

The National Council for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled provided job placement and financial assistance. It also ran the Pakistan Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, which provided “rehabilitation, vocational training, and some medical support to persons with disabilities.”^[81]

Pakistan signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 25 September 2008, but it had not yet ratified the convention or its Optional Protocol as of 1 July 2009.

Victim assistance activities

In 2008, the ICRC continued to provide support through training, mentoring, and funding for physical rehabilitation projects. Altogether, 5,277 patients attended the ICRC-funded centers and 758 prostheses (39% for mine survivors), 1,078 orthoses (8% for mine survivors), 118 wheelchairs, and 309 pairs of crutches were provided. ^[82] The ICRC also provided 104 grants to persons with physical disabilities in the Muzaffarabad district, who were registered at the Muzaffarabad Physical Rehabilitation Center. The aim of this project was to reintegrate persons with disabilities “into mainstream society by improving their socio-economic conditions.”^[83]

In 2008, the Pakistan Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Sciences (PIPOS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ICRC to provide free rehabilitation services to persons with disabilities, including landmine survivors, in FATA and the NWFP.^[84] The ICRC provided formal prosthetic and orthotic training to three PIPOS staff in 2008.^[85]

CAMP operated a Disability Resource Center in Mansehra, offering referral and a national advocacy campaign in cooperation with the UK-based NGO Leonard Cheshire Disability. In 2008, it provided assistance to 110 people, including three survivors from Bajaur agency.^[86] CAMP also started a Primary Trauma Care Course in collaboration with local authorities in FATA. The training aimed to provide basic trauma care skills to health workers in remote areas. As of December 2008, 100 health workers had participated in the course and seven District Headquarters Hospitals were assisted with mobile Primary Trauma Kits. The center is also authorized to issue disability certifications facilitating access to services available for persons with disabilities. It issued 62 such certificates during 2008.^[87]

Hayat Shaheed Teaching Hospital in Peshawar reported that it had provided 11 prostheses to mine survivors from different parts of FATA on a “no loss, no profit” basis. Financial support for these survivors was provided by the Ministry of Religion’s Zakat fund for humanitarian assistance.^[88]

In 2008, the Human Development Promotion Group, which has provided prosthetics to some 80 mine/ERW survivors since 2003, announced a new project to assist a further 15 survivors, with support from First Hands Foundation of the United States.^[89] While RI provided assistance to survivors in the past,^[90] it did not do so in 2008.

Other organizations providing services to survivors (and other persons with disabilities) were Helping Hand for Relief and Development,^[91] the Lady Reading Hospital,^[92] Sarhad Society for Rehabilitation of the Disabled, the Hayatabad Medical Complex, and the Habib Physiotherapy Complex, which also continued to run its physiotherapy degree program.^[93]