Egypt has not signed
the Mine Ban Treaty. Egypt participated in the Ottawa Process as an observer. It
attended the October 1996 Ottawa meeting which launched the Ottawa Process, and
the Vienna, Bonn and Brussels meetings, but did not sign the Brussels
Declaration. It attended the Oslo negotiations as an observer, where it made its
views known on key parts of the ban treaty text.
Egypt voted in favor of the 1996 UN General Assembly Resolution urging
states to pursue vigorously an international agreement banning antipersonnel
mines (passed 156-0, with 10 abstentions), but it was one of just eighteen
countries which abstained from voting on the 1997 UNGA Resolution inviting all
states to sign the Mine Ban Treaty; and one of nineteen countries which
abstained from voting on the 1998 UNGA resolution welcoming new signatories to
the treaty and urging its full implementation.
At the Brussels meeting, Egypt proposed some amendments to the draft treaty
text, most of which were not accepted. It proposed that the time period allotted
to stockpile destruction be extended “to a more feasible period of 5-10
years.” It argued that destruction of emplaced mines “take into
account the cost of such operations and the resources available for mine
clearance efforts at the national and international level.” Egypt was also
concerned that “all major parties” including “producers,
exporters, and affected countries” take part in the negotiations as their
participation is viewed as “instrumental in the achievement of universal
adherence and effective implementation” of the ban
treaty.[1]
Egypt’s reasons for not signing the ban treaty have been stated in
various international fora. Arguments put forward by Egypt include that the
treaty does not take into account “the legitimate security and defense
concerns of states, particularly those with extensive territorial borders”
which need landmines to protect against terrorist attacks and drug
traffickers.[2] In addition,
Egypt continues to voice concern at “a lack of financial and technical
incentives” in the treaty to help the country deal with its landmine
problem.[3] The government and
military also express frustration that responsibility for clearance is not
assigned in the treaty to those who lay the mines. Egyptian representatives have
called this a “moral” issue. Millions of mines were laid in Egypt
by German, Italian and British forces during World War II. Mines have also been
used in the east in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 by Egyptian and Israeli forces. As
noted above, Egypt publicly voices its need to use mines to defend its borders
from terrorists and smugglers. In a February 1999 trip to Egypt by
representatives of the ICBL, all these arguments were brought up
repeatedly.[4]
It must be noted, however, that when Egypt voices its concern about the mines
of the “Western Desert,” it generally neglects to mention that,
according to its own estimates, many millions of mines are also found in the
“Eastern Desert,” laid by Egyptian and Israeli forces in their
various conflicts.[5] Nor does
it mention its production of APMs, and its own transfers of mines to countries
which have experienced armed conflict.
Egypt signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons on 10 April 1981, but has
not ratified. Egypt is a member of the Conference on Disarmament, and has used
this forum to push for responsibility of states involved in the deployment of
mines in the territories of other states, and for national defense and security
concerns.[6] In January 1999,
Egypt said that it “welcomes the positive contribution of NGOs in the
field of disarmament, and has repeatedly called for a more active NGO
participation, most notably at the Conference on
Disarmament.”[7]
Production
Egypt is the sole remaining known producer of APMs
on the continent of Africa. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Egypt
produces at least ten types of antitank mines and eight types of antipersonnel
mines.[8] Antipersonnel mines
include:
- the PP-MI-Sk stake mine, a copy of the Czech PP-MI-SK;
- two different types of T/79 scatterable or hand emplaced, plastic blast
mines, both copies of the Italian TS-50;
- the MF 270 bounding fragmentation stake mine, a copy of the Soviet POMZ-2;
- the MF 45 bounding fragmentation mine;
- the “HAMDY”directional fragmentation mine, similar to the U.S.
Claymore;
- a wooden box “Shu” mine;
- the T/78 blast “Shu” mine.
Egypt has produced mines in at least three facilities, all of them run by the
Ministry of War Production as part of its 10-plant Egyptian Military Factories
(EMF) group.[9] One of these
firms, the Heliopolis Company for Chemical Industries (EMF Factory 81) has
exported a small plastic antipersonnel mine, the T/78 “Shu” mine, to
a number of Middle Eastern countries. It is not known if EMF’s other
mine-producing facilities--the Kaha company for Chemical Industries (Factory
270) and the Maasara Company for Engineering Industries (Factory 45)--also have
exported mines.[10]
The Heliopolis factory produced Italian TS 50 antipersonnel landmines
(Egyptian designation T/79 or T/7931) in conjunction with the Italian mine
producer, Tecnovar. Vito Alfieri Fontana, the owner of Tecnovar, stated that
1,242,000 TS 50 mines were assembled in Egypt between 1979-1993. He provided the
following figures:
Egypt has exported mines exported to at least
seven countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Nicaragua, Rwanda
and Somalia.[12] As reported
herein in the country report on Italy:
On 17 September 1996, a member of the UN International Commission of Inquiry
on Rwanda found TS 50 AP mines in a stock of weapons confiscated from armed Hutu
groups. After communications between the UN Secretary General and the Italian
authorities, Italy’s Representative to the UN confirmed that Tecnovar
Italiana “manufactured the plastic parts of the yellow TS 50 type APMs in
the period from 1980 to 1993, when the company stopped producing such
items.” He also revealed that “the Tecnovar company did not supply
TS-50 type APMs to Zaire, Kenya or the United Republic of
Tanzania”[13] while noting
that the company had supplied plastic parts for TS 50 mines to Brazil, Egypt,
Spain and the United States. According to the owner of Tecnovar, the landmines
found in Rwanda were part of the weapons supply that Egypt delivered to Kigali
in 1992. This included 200,000 T-79
APMs.[14]
Egypt announced at an Organization of African Unity conference in May 1997
that it no longer exported antipersonnel mines but subsequent efforts to get
this statement confirmed in writing have not produced a response to
date.[15]
Stockpiling
Egypt is believed to have a stockpile of
antipersonnel mines but no details are available.
Use
As noted, mines were used by German, Italian and
British forces during World War II in the Western Desert. Mines have also been
used in the east by Egyptian and Israeli forces during their conflicts. Today,
Egypt publicly voices its need to use mines to defend its borders and to protect
against terrorists and smugglers.
Landmine Problem
Egypt is one of the most mine-affected countries
in the world. The government claims “an estimated 22.7 million land-mines
lie buried beneath Egypt’s soil - a figure that calculates to
approximately one mine for every 3
citizens.”[16] A Ministry
of Defense publication notes that 288,000 hectares of Egyptian territory are
contaminated.[17]
In 1993, the U.S. Department of State listed a drastically lower number of
“over 6,000 mines of WWII vintage” in the “El Alamein area,
with unknown quantities along the area bordering Libya” and additional
mines from various wars with Israel “remain in parts of Sinai.”
More recently, the State Department has avoided putting a number on
Egypt’s problem.[18]
Most of Egypt’s uncleared mines are left over from World War II,
particularly in the area of the El Alamein battlefield and in the Western
Desert. In September 1942, at El Alamein, in anticipation of an Allied advance,
German General Edwin Rommel ordered the creation of a “Devil’s
garden?a minefield so long and so deep that it was considered virtually
impenetrable.”[19] Mike
Croll states that 500,000 mines were laid at El Alamein in “two major
fields running north-south across the whole front with a total depth of about
five miles.”[20] Others
argue that the British Army led by Field Marshal Montgomery buried most of the
“18 million landmines in
El-Alamein.”[21] The
Egyptian government consistently states that 17 million mines were laid at El
Alamein.[22]
Areas near the Egypt/Libya border, along the Red Sea coast of the Eastern
Desert and areas of the Sinai peninsula are also mined from the 1948, 1956, 1967
and 1973 conflicts. (Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982.) The
landmines found in Egypt range from German, U.S. and British mines of World War
II vintage to modern British, U.S., Russian and Israeli
types.[23]
In March 1999, the United Nations reportedly proposed sending a team to
assess the landmines problem in Egypt, and was “waiting for a green
light” from the Egyptian Prime
Minister.”[24]
Mine Action Funding
Egypt has been aggressive in seeking international
financial support to clear its mines. According to the Vice-Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Disarmament, despite asking the international community many times
for help, “no serious effort has been made to help us, except perhaps from
a very small number of countries which one can count on the fingers of one
hand.”[25] Egypt seeks
US$200 million in funding for mine
clearance.[26] The United
Nations reports that Egypt has requested that Western countries responsible for
the El Alamein battle contribute US$142 million for mine clearance and the
government would pay an additional US$50
million.[27]
Germany has provided Egypt’s mine clearance efforts with metal
detectors and protective clothing while the United Kingdom has given $145,189 in
mine clearance funding and equipment. The United States Humanitarian Demining
Program has allocated $1.5
million.[28] Italy has provided
demining training.
The British Ministry of Defense has apparently also, from the early 1980s,
provided the authorities in Egypt with copies of surviving maps of known
minefields and supporting information on the types of mines laid and the
techniques used by the Commonwealth forces during the war. It is unknown how
many minefields had surviving maps. There have been three visits to Egypt by
Royal Ordnance Disposal officers (in 1981,1984 and 1994). The RAF also conducted
reconnaissance flights over the area in 1984. The Ministry of Defense is
currently preparing a new version of the map and data package that “makes
use of advances in technology where
possible.”[29]
An “informal donor’s group” is working with the United
Nations Development Program in Egypt to encourage more transparency and
involvement in Egypt. Western governments indicated an interest in funding
clearance, in the context of a national plan which would involve all relevant
ministries and not just the Ministry of Defense. Since Egypt claims that the
development of tourism, for example, along the coast of the Western Desert as
well as the petroleum industry there is hampered by mine contamination, donor
governments argue that the appropriate ministries should be involved in the
development of such a
plan.[30]
Mine Clearance
The Egyptian Army has been involved in demining
efforts since the end of World War Two. Egypt has four military national
demining battalions of 480 troops; “millions of dollars each year”
are budgeted for mine
clearance.[31]
To date, 120,000 hectares of land have been cleared, removing a total of 12
million landmines.[32] One
problem has been a lack of information on the locations of mined areas pointing
to a need for a comprehensive survey of the problem. Rain, wind and shifting
sands have moved the mines from their original locations or caused them to sink
deeper than one meter into the earth. There is also a problem in that antitank
mines planted during World War Two become increasingly sensitive as they degrade
over time, making them prone to function like an antipersonnel mine.
Mine Awareness
The Egyptian Army sees a need for an awareness
campaign, including better minefield marking and radio and television
advertising, to alert people, including foreign tourists, to the dangers of
uncleared landmines.[33] When
representatives of the ICBL were taken to El Alamein by the Ministry of Defense,
they did not see any minefield markings at
all.[34]
Non-governmental mine awareness efforts to date include those of the Landmine
Struggle Center, established in December
1997.[35] There is also a
fledgling Egyptian Campaign to Ban Landmines, established in September 1998 and
comprised of twenty non-governmental organizations.
Landmine Casualties
According to the Egyptian Army in February of
1999, landmines have claimed 8,313 casualties in Egypt, of which 696 were
killed.[36] An undated
publication by the Ministry of Defense gave a total figure of 8,301 mine
victims. Of that number it reported that military casualties numbered 3,284,
including 272 killed, and the civilian total was “estimated to be around
5,017 out of which 418 were killed and 4599
injured.”[37] Landmine
casualties are cared for by the state which provides first aid, medical
treatment and artificial limbs plus there is some compensation for families of
military mine victims.[38] One
medical center has started to examine the psychological needs of landmine
survivors.
[1]Egypt Statement to the
Brussels Conference in Handicap International and International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, Conference Report: Brussels International Conference for the Total
Ban on Anti-Personnel Landmines, 24-27 June 1997, p. 28.
[2]Ibid; Mohammad Monieb,
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Disarmament, Egypt, Letter to Mohammad
Monieb, Secretary-General, Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, 28 December
1998, reprinted in “Cairo Explains Landmines Policy,” African
Topics, Issue 22, January-March 1998, p. 16.
[3]Aly Sirry, Counseiller,
Embassy of Egypt to Tunisia, verbal statement to plenary recorded by Mary
Wareham, HRW, Inter-Magreb Seminar on Anti-Personnel Landmines, Tunis, Tunisia,
25 January 1999.
[4]Jody Williams and Liz
Bernstein of the ICBL visited Egypt on 13-14 February 1999, where meetings were
set up under the auspices of the Canadian Embassy in Egypt. Meetings were held
with representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Defense, among
others. In a trip to El Alamein in the Western Desert, hosted by the MoD, it was
pointed out that the main reason that Egypt refused to sign the Treaty was that
no responsibility was assigned in the Treaty and that the former WW II allies
should be responsible for the mine clearance. This sentiment was again echoed
in a meeting hosted by Geneva-based NGOs from the ICBL at the United Nations on
2 March 1999 for representatives of UN Missions and others, where the Egyptian
representatives strongly and repeatedly argued this point.
[5]During a public exchange
at the United Nations in Geneva on 2 March 1999, an Egyptian representative
acknowledged to the ICBL’s Jody Williams that Egyptian forces had used
mines extensively in the Sinai.
[6]Egypt Statement to the
Brussels Conference in Handicap International and International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, Conference Report: Brussels International Conference for the Total
Ban on Anti-Personnel Landmines, 24-27 June 1997, p. 28.
[7]“Statement by the
Observer from Egypt,” Inter-Magreb Seminar on Anti-Personnel Landmines,
Tunis, 25-26 January 1999.
[8]U.S. Department of
Defense, “Mine Facts” CD Rom; see also, Eddie Banks,
Antipersonnel Landmines: Recognizing and Disarming (London: Brasseys,
1997), pp. 96-101, which also lists a M396 plastic “schu” blast
mine.
[9]This information is drawn
from Jane’s Military Vehicles and Logistics, 1992-93; Forecast
International, Ordnance and Munitions Forecast - Landmines
(International), 1993; and Nazir Hussain, Defense Production in the Muslim
World (Karachi: Royal Bok Company, 1989).
[11]Alberto Chiara, “Io
non sono un trafficante,” Famiglia Cristiana, n. 47, 27 November
1996. (See Landmine Monitor report on Italy.)
[12]Egypt has been identified
as an exporter of AP mines in several U.S. Government documents including: U.S.
Department of State, SUBJECT: landmine export moratorium demarche, Outgoing
Telegram, 7 December 1993; U.S. Department of the Army, Foreign Science and
Technology Center, Letter to Human Rights Watch, 1 November 1993.
[13]Letter dated 22 January
1998 from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security
Council, Annex: Addendum to the third report of the International Commission of
Inquiry (Rwanda), United Nations, S/1998/63.
[14]Frank Smyth, Soldi,
Sangue e politica Internazionale, Internazionale, n. 27, 14 May 1994,
synthesis of The Arms Project of Human Rights Watch, “Arming Rwanda: The
Arms Trade and Human Rights Abuses in the Rwandan War.”
[15]“Africa’s
Last Antipersonnel Landmine Producer,” African Topics, Issue 22,
January-March 1998, p. 15.
[16]Egypt Statement to the
Brussels Conference, p. 28.
[17]Arab Republic of Egypt,
Ministry of Defense, “The Iron Killers: Mines Tragedy in Egypt (A.E.R.),
undated, p. 2.
[18]U.S. Department of State,
Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines, 1994, p. 20;
U.S. Department of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis,
1998, p. A-4.
[19]Mike Croll, The
History of Landmines (London: Leo Cooper, 1998), p. 61.
[23]U.S. Department of State,
Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines, 1993, p.
84.
[24]Elizabeth Bryant,
“UN Proposes Landmine Team for Egypt,” Houston Chronicle, 19
March 1999.
[25]“Cairo Explains
Landmines Policy,” African Topics, January-March 1998, p. 16.
[26]Notes taken by Mary
Wareham, HRW, of Egyptian Army presentation, in “The Situation from a
Military Point of View Panel,” Regional Conference on the Menace of
Landmines in the Arab Countries, Beirut, Lebanon, 11 February 1999.
[27]United Nations,
“Country Report: Egypt,” UN Landmine Database,
www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/egypt.htm, p. 2.
[28]“Mine Action
Bilateral Support,” prepared for the Mine Action Support Group Meeting,
New York, 4th edition, 16 November 1998.
[29]Hansard, 17 December
1998, cols. 655-656. See Landmine Monitor country report on the United
Kingdom.
[30]Informal discussion with
various Western governments and ICBL representatives, Cairo, 14 February
1999.
[32]Notes taken by Mary
Wareham at Beirut Conference, 11 February 1999. The Ministry of Defense
publication, “The Iron Killers,” states that 103,000 hectares have
been cleared of 11 million mines.
[33]Notes taken by Mary
Wareham, at Beirut Conference, 11 February 1999.
[34]Observation by Jody
Williams after a trip to El Alamein hosted by the Egyptian MoD on 14 February
1999.
[35]"Landmines Struggle
Center (Egypt),” booklet, undated.
[36]Notes taken by Mary
Wareham at Beirut Conference, 11 February 1999.
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