LM Report 2001

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SPAIN

Key developments since May 2000: Spain completed the destruction of its stockpile of 849,365 antipersonnel mines in November 2000. It has reduced the number of mines retained for training from 10,000 to 4,000. Spain plans to set up an International Center on Demining.

Mine Ban Policy

Spain signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 19 January 1999, and became a State Party on 1 July 1999. Prior national legislation passed in October 1998 does not include the penal sanctions required by Article 9 of the Mine Ban Treaty, and the necessary additional legislation has not yet been adopted. The 1998 law obliged Spain to destroy existing stockpiles of antipersonnel mines within three years—this has been achieved in advance of the deadline—and also prohibits “similar weapons...as well as all technology and license.”^[1]

Spain attended the Second Meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000, but did not deliver a statement or intervene in the plenary debates. Spain participated in the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. At the United Nations General Assembly in November 2000 Spain voted in favor of Resolution 55/33V, which calls for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Spain’s initial transparency report required by Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty was submitted to the UN on 15 December 1999, for the period 1 July-28 December 1999,^[2] and its second report was submitted on 15 April 2001, for the period 28 December 1999-31 December 2000.

With regard to antivehicle mines with antihandling devices, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have both noted that Spanish Law 33/98 refers to mines designed to explode in the presence, proximity or contact with a person. Thus, “those mines previously designed to explode in the presence, proximity or contact with a vehicle and not a person, which include an antihandling device, will not be treated as antipersonnel landmines.”^[3] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs previously acknowledged that the national law refers not only to antipersonnel mines but also to “similar weapons as specified in Amended Protocol II of the [Convention on Conventional Weapons].”^[4] The Spanish Campaign against Landmines has pointed out that the Mine Ban Treaty prohibits antivehicle mines with antihandling devices that can explode from the unintentional act of a person. Spain did not attend the special consultation on antivehicle mines with sensitive fuses or antihandling devices convened by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva in March 2001.

Spain is a State Party to Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and attended the Second Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II in December 2000. There, it co-sponsored proposals to engage in structured discussion of the issue of explosive remnants of a war at the Second CCW Review Conference in December 2001.

Spain submitted its annual report as required by Article 13 of CCW Amended Protocol II on 20 November 2000; the report declares that Spain strictly adheres to the provisions of the Protocol, and gives details of antipersonnel mine stockpile destruction. The Article 13 report also notes that Spain supports efforts to negotiate a ban on mine transfers in the Conference on Disarmament, of which it is a member.^[5]

Production, Transfer and Use

Production of antipersonnel mines ceased officially in May 1996.^[6] The Landmine Monitor Report 2000 indicated lack of progress on conversion of production facilities. Commenting on this, Ministry of Defense sources noted, “Any specific tool or mechanism to produce landmines has been rendered useless.” Spain’s second Article 7 report reiterates that its production facilities have now either been converted or decommissioned.^[7] However, “the Administration has no legal right to ask firms about this issue, although according to Article 2 of the Spanish law on mines [No.] 33/98, keeping such procedures open would be useless.”^[8]

Regarding transfer, Law 33/1998 stipulates that “by ‘transfer’ is understood not only the actual transportation of mines from or to a national territory, but also the transfer of command and control over the mines.”^[9] The Mine Ban Treaty prohibits transfer “under any circumstances...to anyone, directly or indirectly” and states transfer “involves, in addition to the physical movement of anti-personnel mines into or from national territory, the transfer of title to and control over the mines.”^[10] The complete prohibition on the transfer and transit of antipersonnel mines is important, as the United States is not a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty and has military bases at Torrejon near Madrid, and at Rota and Moron de la Frontera near Cadiz.^[11]

There are no reports of use by non-state actors of antipersonnel mines. Spain last used antipersonnel mines on the Moroccan border in 1975.^[12]

Stockpiling and Destruction

On 15 November 2000, José María Aznar, the Spanish Prime Minister, destroyed the last stockpiled antipersonnel mine in a ceremony at the military base of Hoyo del Manzanares. Members of the Spanish campaign against landmines were present at the ceremony. The destruction process itself ended on 3 October 2000.^[13] Destruction was carried out by Fabricaciones Extremeñas, at El Gordo in the Caceres region. The overall cost was reported to be Pts538 million (around US$3 million), about Pts633 (US$3.25) per mine, at an estimated rate of destruction of about 1,000 mines per day.^[14] Between July 1998 and October 2000, 849,365 mines were destroyed.^[15]

In March 2000 it was decided to reduce the 10,000 mines retained for permitted purposes to 4,000, and this has since been confirmed in official reports.^[16] Spain’s second Article 7 report stated that two types of blast antipersonnel mines had been retained: the P-5 (3,784 mines) and P-4B (216 mines). Lot numbers were also provided.^[17]

The antivehicle mines CETME and SB-81/AR-AN, which the Spanish Campaign has questioned because they include antihandling devices, are not included in the reported stockpiles or destruction program. The Ministry of Defense has responded that it was intended that EXPAL would produce the CETME, but the project was cancelled because the mine did not pass research tests; only a few prototypes were said to have been produced, and none is known to be in store. Mine type SB-81 is an Italian-produced antivehicle mine. The Ministry of Defense has not confirmed that the SB-81 is stockpiled, but acknowledges that some versions of C-5 (similar to the SB-81) have antihandling devices. These are produced by EXPAL in Spain, and the Spanish Armed Forces keep them for what is described as deterrent use.^[18]

Mine Action Funding

In calendar year 2000, Spain contributed Pts100 million (approximately US$500,000) for demining in Central America. In January 2001, in response to a parliamentary question, it was reported that since 1995 Spain has contributed Pts610,605,215 (around US$3 million) for demining assistance.^[19] These funds were distributed as follows:

1. US$1.1 million to the UN Voluntary Trust Funds (1995: some Pts25 million; 1997: Pts100 million to Angola and Mozambique; 1998: Pts50 million; 1999: some Pts30 million to Kosovo).
2. US$1.89 million to OEA programs for demining in Central America (1996: Pts25 million; 1997: Pts75 million; 1998: Pts50 million; 1999: Pts100 million; 2000: Pts100 million).
3. US$300,000 to bilateral program on the Peru-Ecuador border (1998: Pts51 million; 1999: Pts4,374,600).

In December 2000, somewhat different figures for funding of mine action were reported to the OSCE: “Within the year 2000, the Spanish allocation to the UN Trust Fund was 35 million Ptas. (US$185,000), plus 100 million Ptas (US$500,000) to the OAS program, plus around 50 million Ptas. (US$250,000) ... to activities on demining in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina within the frame of KFOR and SFOR.”^[20]

The parliamentary answer of 26 January 2001 also described the criteria followed by the Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECI) in supporting demining programs.^[21] The criteria include the following:

1. To undertake humanitarian actions and development projects especially with antipersonnel mine victims;
2. To facilitate contact and cooperation among the official co-operation policy instruments of Spain, with intergovernmental organizations, NGOs and, as far as possible, the private sector;
3. To promote the undertaking of demining operations in countries which are a priority for Spanish cooperation (Central America, Peru, Ecuador, Angola, Mozambique);
4. To seek more efficiency, looking for comparative advantages in those countries or regions where there is more knowledge and experience;
5. To make clearly visible the Spanish donations;
6. To ask for greater transparency and accountability from organizations managing the funds;
7. To promote, through demining operations, a greater degree of autonomy for the affected populations;
8. To involve, whenever possible, Spanish NGOs with experience of demining;
9. Spanish experts will only work as educators of the local population, but never directly participate in demining in the field;
10. To prioritize countries where Spanish NGOs have a presence;
11. To ensure that recipients of demining assistance from Spain have signed and ratified the Ottawa Convention and show a clear will in favor of demining;
12. To ensure that there is, as well as demining, a program of economic and social development and rehabilitation.

The Spanish campaign has repeatedly expressed concern about the small funds allocated to these programs. The 1998 figure, for example, represents only one percent of the total amount spent by European states and the European Commission on humanitarian mine action. There is little public information on projects that have been totally or partially financed by Spain, which makes it difficult to assess their effectiveness. During the stockpile destruction ceremony at Hoyo del Manzanares in November 2000, the Spanish Campaign asked President Aznar and the Minister of Defense to spend Pts1 billion (about US$5.4 million) per year on demining activities.^[22]

During that ceremony, President Aznar stated that Spain plans to set up an International Center on Demining during 2001. According to the Ministry of Defense, this Center “intends to lead humanitarian demining programs at an international scale.” The government plans to devote the next two years to this task, which will consist of two stages. During the first stage (in 2001) three courses are planned for deminers from Lebanon, South American States and Egypt. By the end of this stage, the Center will be fully established. Courses for deminers will also be offered during the second stage of the process in 2002. As of March 2001, the Ministry of Defense had not yet provided a budget for the project.^[23]

Survivor Assistance

Civil society has undertaken a number of initiatives with a view to improving living conditions of mine victims. A project led by three NGOs (Intermón-Oxfam, Manos Unidas, and Médicos sin Fronteras) called “Vidas Minadas” (Mined Lives) consists of a book of photographs made by the Spanish photographer Gervasio Sánchez. Three exhibitions of photographs from the book have been shown all over Spain since 1997, with talks on the issue given at the same time. Book sales and private donations (around US$50,000) will be entirely used to finance two victim assistance projects—one in Angola organized by the Mines Advisory Group, and the other in Cambodia, by ACADICA. Proceeds of one of the exhibitions will be donated to ICBL.^[24]

Another initiative stems from the International Conference on Demining organized by the Catalan NGO Moviment per la Pau (Movement for Peace) at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in November 1999. Moviment per la Pau assists landmine victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[25] A third initiative, a joint project by Vida sin Barreras (Life without Barriers) and the Sant Jordi Amputee Association, also assists people handicapped as a result of mine accidents in Bosnia and Herzegovina.^[26]

^[1] Law Banning Antipersonnel Landmines as well as those Arms with Similar Effects, Law 33/1998, Article 2(1).
^[2] Article 7 reports, submitted 15 December 1999, for the period 1 July-28 December 1999; and 15 April 2001, for the period 28 December 1999-31 December 2000.
^[3] Letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2 March 2000, and from Ministry of Defense, 2 March 2001.
^[4] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 722-723; Law 33/1998, Article 2(1).
^[5] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, submitted 20 November 2000.
^[6] Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 650-652.
^[7] Article 7 report submitted 15 April 2001, for the period 28 December 1999-31 December 2000.
^[8] “En relación con los medios específicos de producción de minas antipersonal de la empresa Expal, extraoficialmente se sabe que han sido inutilizados. La Administración no tiene capacidad legal para preguntar sobre su estado, pero los condicionantes del artículo 2 de la ley 33/98 hacen inútil su mantenimiento.” Email and fax correspondence with the Ministry of Defense, 2 March 2001.
^[9] Article 1, Law 33/1998, Boletin Oficial del Estado, BOE num. 239 of 6 October 1998, p. 6: “Por transferencia se entiende, además del traslado físico de minas hacia o desde el territorio nacional, la transferencia del dominio y del control sobre las minas, pero que no implica la transferencia de territorio que contenga minas antipersonal colocadas.”
^[10] MBT Articles 1(2) and 2(4).
^[11] However, the Ministry of Defense stated in February 2000 that US mines prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty previously stored at the Rota base had been withdrawn. At the Rota base the US has around 100 Claymore mines, which the US and Spanish authorities agree are not banned by the Mine Ban Treaty. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 725.
^[12] Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 654.
^[13] “Last Landmine Eliminated in Spain under Ottawa Convention,” Itar/Tass, 15 November 2000.
^[14] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 724; Report of the Permanent Representative of Spain to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 13 December 2000, p. 1.
^[15] Report to the OSCE, 13 December 2000, p. 1. However, on 8 March 2000 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed Landmine Monitor that Spain had 853,286 antipersonnel mines when the Mine Ban Treaty and national law were approved.
^[16] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, 20 November 2000, Form C; Report to the OSCE, 13 December 2000, p. 1; Article 7 report submitted 15 April 2001, for the period 28 December 1999-31 December 2000.
^[17] Article 7 report submitted 15 April 2001, for the period 28 December 1999-31 December 2000, Form D.
^[18] Letter from the Ministry of Defense, 2 March 2000.
^[19] Boletín de las Cortes Generales Congreso, Series D, No. 125, 26 January 2001, pp. 338-340.
^[20] Report to the OSCE, 13 December 2000, p. 5.
^[21] Boletín de las Cortes Generales Congreso, Series D, No. 125, 26 January 2001, pp. 338-340.
^[22] Raül Romeva, “Hemos ganado una batalla, pero no la guerra?” [“We’ve won a battle, but not the war?”], Revista Española de Defensa (Ministry of Defense publication), November 2000, pp. 36-37.
^[23] Letter from Ministry of Defense, 2 March 2001.
^[24] Further information from Intermón-Oxfam: intermon@intermon.org.
^[25] Further information from: movpau@suport.org.
^[26] Further information from: garjesus@teleline.es.

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