LM Report 1999

Report   Executive Summary   Translated Country Reports   Print

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Mine Ban Policy

Papua New Guinea has not signed the Mine Ban Treaty despite many indications that it would do so. Papua New Guinea voted for the 1996 and 1997 pro-ban landmines resolutions of the UN General Assembly, endorsed the pro-treaty Brussels Declaration in June 1997 and was a full participant to the Oslo negotiations in September 1997. But it did not come to the Ottawa treaty signing conference in December 1997, and was absent from the vote on the November 1998 UNGA resolution endorsing the ban treaty.

In a letter dated 3 November 1998, the Secretary of Papua New Guinea’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Peter S. Tsiamalili, said that "Papua New Guinea will sign the said Convention as soon as the newly appointed Permanent Head Representative of the Papua New Guinea Permanent Mission to the UN in New York arrives to assume his new role as PNG Ambassador to the United Nations,” a statement repeated by the Head of Legal and Treaties Branch and the Deputy Secretary of Papua New Guinea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Grace Dom.^[1]

Ambassador Peter Dickson Donigi arrived in New York to take up the posting in November 1998. Papua New Guinea’s Acting Director of International Organisations Division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sakias Tomea, told Landmine Monitor in March 1999 that the Instrument of Authority giving the ambassador “full power” to sign the treaty was sent to New York in November 1998 “but must have got lost” and a second Instrument of Authority sent earlier this year “may have got lost too.”^[2] Papua New Guinea’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Jimi Ovia, responded to requests for information from the New York side by saying “there is nothing I can tell you, it is part of the government process itself, we act when given instructions."^[3]

The lack of signature seems to be due to bureaucratic confusion rather than opposition to the treaty as no government representative is on record in opposition. The Chief of Staff of Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force, Colonel Takendu, has said, “We fully support the Ottawa Convention.”^[4]

Production, Trade, Stockpiling, Use

According to military officials, including Chief of Staff Colonel Takendu, Papua New Guinea has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It has imported, stockpiled, and used only command-detonated Claymore mines.^[5] Papua New Guinea imported Claymore antipersonnel mines twenty years ago from the Australian Government.^[6] The Claymore mines are now held by Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force at the Engineer Battalion base at Lae and are used for training.^[7]

For the past ten years Papua New Guinea has engaged in a conflict with an armed insurgency on Bougainville Island known as the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA). Forty thousand Bougainville islanders were displaced from their homes and up to 20,000 people were killed until a ceasefire was reached in April 1998. Claymore antipersonnel landmines were used by the PNG Defence Forces in the conflict, but not widely. Many diplomatic, humanitarian and military sources believe that there are currently no landmines in Bougainville.^[8]

The Army laid Claymore antipersonnel landmines in Bougainville in 1994 but then removed all of them, except for two that were later found and destroyed by Captain Martin Donoghue, the New Zealand Army officer in charge of clearing mines and booby traps ahead of the 1994 peacekeeping expedition to Bougainville. He said that the two Claymore antipersonnel mines were laid by Papua New Guinea’s Defence Force and were part of a bigger defensive perimeter in which other mines had been removed by the PNGDF.^[9] He did not find any mines or improvised explosive devices laid by the Bougainville rebel army.

It is possible, though unconfirmed, that the BRA manufactured and used improvised explosive devises. According to Oxfam New Zealand, “the BRA’s ability to manufacture all kinds of weapons out of [left-over] WW2 weaponry and bits of hardware left over from the [copper] mine is legendary.”^[10] According to one source, improvised explosive devices have been used in other parts of the country, including the capital Port Moresby, around the perimeter of property to deter intruders.^[11]

Sandline mercenaries involved in the final phase of the conflict may have brought landmines with them but according to the Chief of Staff, “These were never used and all were returned to the U.K.”^[12]

Mine/UXO Problem

Papua New Guinea still has a problem with unexploded ordnance from World War II. According to the Chief of Staff of Papua New Guinea’s Defence Forces, there are UXO in Milne Bay, Lae, Wewak, Madang, Rabaul and Bougainville which engineer teams continue to clear but there are no landmines.^[13]

There have been a few casualties to UXOs and these victims are usually treated in the local hospital and then sent home to be cared for by their extended family. Workers' Accident Compensation caters for workers injured while in employment but not self-employed farmers or unemployed people.

Note: This report is based largely on a mission to Papua New Guinea conducted by John V. Head in November 1998.

^[1] Peter S Tsiamalili, Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs, Letter to Neil Mander, Convenor NZ CALM, 29 October 1998. Interview with Grace Dom, Head of Legal and Treaties Branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 23 November 1998.

^[2] Telephone interview with Sakias Tomea Acting Director of International Organisations Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Papua New Guinea, 17 March 1999.

^[3] Telephone Interview with Jimi Ovia, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Papua New Guinea, New York, 17 March 1999.

^[4] Interview with Colonel Takendu, Chief of Staff Chief of Staff, Papua New Guinea Defence Force, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 24 November 1998.

^[5] Interview with Wing Commander Athol Forrest, Royal New Zealand Air Force Military Attache, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 20 November 1998. Interview with Colonel Charles Vagi, Australian Chief Military Attaché, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 20 November 1998. Interview with Colonel Takendu, 24 November 1998.

^[6] Interview with Colonel Takendu, 24 November 1998, and Colonel Vargi, 20 November 1998.

^[7] Ibid.

^[8] Telephone interview wtih Sue Le Mesurier, Bougainville Desk Officer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Wellington, New Zealand, 11 November 1998. Interview with Captain Martin Donoghue, Royal New Zealand Engineers Army General Staff, Wellington, New Zealand, 12 November 1998. Interview with Major Woodward, Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps, New Zealand, 11 November 1998. Interview with Wing Commander Athol Forrest, 20 November 1998. Interview with Colonel Charles Vagi, Australian Chief Military Attaché, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 20 November 1998. Interview with Janet Philemon, Secretary General, Papua New Guinea Red Cross Society, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 25 November 1998.

^[9] Interviews with Captain Martin Donoghue, Royal New Zealand Engineers Army General Staff, Wellington, New Zealand, 12 November 1998 and 26 March 1999. Also email from Capt Donoghue to Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch, 25 March 1999.

^[10] Email correspondence with Phil Twyford, Executive Director, Oxfam New Zealand, 15 March 1998.

^[11] Telephone interview with Stuart Watson, Oxfam New Zealand’s representative in Papua New Guinea, 10 November 1998.

^[12] Interview with Colonel Takendu, 24 November 1998.

^[13] Ibid.

<PALAU | SINGAPORE >