Greece

Mine Ban Policy

The Hellenic Republic signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 25 September 2003, and the treaty entered into force on 1 March 2004. Ratification makes the Mine Ban Treaty part of Greek legislation.^[1] In its April 2006 Article 7 transparency report, Greece for the first time included details about its national implementation measures and specified which parts of existing criminal codes provide penal sanctions for treaty violations.^[2]

Greece submitted its fourth Article 7 report on 30 April 2007, covering calendar year 2006.^[3]

Greece attended the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2006, as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2006 and April 2007. On each occasion, it made a statement about its mine clearance program.

Greece has not engaged in the discussions that States Parties have had on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1, 2 and 3. Thus, Greece has not made known its views on issues related to joint military operations with states not party to the treaty, foreign stockpiling or transit of antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes or antihandling devices, and the permissible number of mines retained for training.

Greece is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It attended the Eighth Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II in November 2006 and submitted its annual report required by Article 13 on 26 October 2006. Greece has not yet ratified Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Production, Trade, Stockpiling and Destruction

Greece is a former producer of antipersonnel mines, and also imported them from Germany and the United States.^[4] Prior to becoming a State Party, Greece had a moratorium on production and export of antipersonnel mines for a number of years.

In its Article 7 reports Greece has declared a stockpile of 1,566,532 antipersonnel mines, composed of five types: M² (214,374), DM31 (794,400), M16 (553,359), M14 (3,895) and Area Denial Antipersonnel Mine (ADAM) artillery shells (504).^[5] However, each ADAM 155 mm projectile contains 36 antipersonnel mines; thus the 504 shells cited by Greece contain 18,144 mines, bringing the stockpile total to 1,584,172.^[6]

Greece’s treaty-mandated deadline for completing destruction of its stockpile of antipersonnel mines is 1 March 2008. As of June 2007, it had not destroyed any mines, despite having given repeated assurances (including to Landmine Monitor in May 2007) that it will meet the deadline.^[7] Greece reported in April 2007 that stockpiled mines “will be possibly transferred to a third country for destruction by 2008. An international tender has yet to be found for that. Legal and administrative procedures are in progress.”^[8] Greek officials confirmed in June 2007 that the tender was still open.^[9] An army official told Landmine Monitor that ADAM mines, which contain traces of depleted uranium, pose a problem because they must be frozen before destruction.^[10]

Mines Retained for Research and Training

In the April 2007 Article 7 report, as well as previous reports, Greece indicated that it will retain 7,224 antipersonnel mines for training and development purposes: M14 (3,780), M² (1,512), DM31 (1,512) and M16 (420).^[11] In its April 2007 Article 7 report Greece did not utilize the expanded Form D for reporting on the intended purposes and actual uses of retained mines agreed at the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in 2005. It simply entered “Void” into the Form.

In June 2005 Greek officials provided a detailed rationale to Landmine Monitor of how Greece determined its requirement to retain 7,224 antipersonnel mines.^[12] It again elaborated on this subject in June 2006. It claimed that the mines are needed for the army to retain its ability to conduct counter-mine operations; the army must have “the operational ability to lay or to clear a typical minefield of 100 meter width by 60 meters depth, of the minimum possible density as this technical operation is prescribed by NATO field manuals.”^[13]

Landmine and ERW Problem

Greece is affected by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). The mine contamination consists primarily of minefields laid by Greece in 1974 along the Evros river on its heavily militarized northern border with Turkey, and maintained since then. The minefields contained antivehicle and antipersonnel mines; in most minefields, Greece has been in the process of removing the antipersonnel mines since it became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.^[14]

The ERW contamination consists of large quantities of explosive ordnance remaining in the border regions with Bulgaria, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia from World War II and the 1946-1949 civil conflict. In 2006 the regional authority’s general secretary, Andreas Leoudis, stated that “a huge number of buried mines, grenades, ammunition and all sorts of explosives have been left in areas of Western Macedonia and Epirus.”^[15] Within the mountainous Grammos and Vitsis areas, said to be the most contaminated in Greece, suspected contamination measures well over 400 square kilometers.^[16] According to a Greek diplomat, Greece includes in its Article 7 reports only the Evros minefields because known minefields in all other regions have been cleared, and ERW-affected areas are regularly reported in Amended Protocol II Article 13 reports.^[17] A Defense General Staff official estimated 0.31 percent of Greek territory is contaminated by ERW, primarily by unexploded ordnance (UXO), but these areas are considered to have “no socio-economic impact” on the local population.^[18]

The Ministry of Defense reported in 2004 that there are other mine/ERW-suspected areas on the mainland and various islands.^[19]

Mine Action Program

There is no national mine action authority or mine action center in Greece; there is no legislation regulating mine action. There is also no strategic mine action plan because all clearance is carried out as military operations within the overall planning of the Ministry of Defense.^[20] The Ministry of Defense reports that the Land Minefield Clearance Battalion, TENX, complies with International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) as well as NATO standards for mine clearance equipment, team structure, fencing and marking. Information on mine action is stored in a database accessible only to the Army General Staff and Defense General Staff.^[21]

Demining

TENX has carried out mine and ERW clearance since 1954. Manual methods and mine detection dogs are used for clearance and survey operations.^[22] In 2006-2007 there were three TENX teams working in the Grammos and Vitsis areas. It is planned that when deminers have completed clearance of antipersonnel mines from the Evros minefields in 2010, three more teams will be sent to Grammos and Vitsis.^[23]

Identification, Marking and Fencing of Affected Areas

In February 2007 it was reported that army deminers had, over the past three years, searched various notable sites, including those where facilities for the 2004 Olympic Games were built and Line 3 of the Athens metro.^[24]

Minefields along the Evros river on the border with Turkey are said to be clearly defined and marked with double-fenced perimeters that exceed NATO standards.^[25] Mapped minefields remaining in the Evros region “are clearly marked with danger symbols, warnings in three languages and enclosed by no less than two chain-linked and barbed-wire topped fences.”^[26]

In other parts of Greece, mine/ERW-suspected areas are said to have been fenced and to pose no danger to the civilian population. During survey of mined areas prior to clearance, TENX maintains the marking of those areas with tape.^[27]

Mine and ERW Clearance

Greece has not provided complete information of the number of mines or area cleared on an annual basis. In Evros, 4,501 antipersonnel mines were removed and destroyed in 2006.^[28] According to Greece’s 2007 Article 7 report all antipersonnel mines cleared are destroyed in situ.^[29] Officials declared that a smaller number of “standard” antivehicle mines, without antihandling devices, are used to replace the antipersonnel mines.^[30]

In the Western Macedonia and Ipiros regions of Greece, a “huge” mine clearance program was said to be underway in areas of suspected contamination.^[31] Progress is said to be slow due to the large number of dangerous devices and adverse weather conditions throughout the year. In 2006, in the Grammos and Vitsis mountains along the borders of Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, 661,000 square meters of suspected hazardous areas were released to the public after surveying 813,550 square meters, and clearing 174,000 square meters.^[32] As of May 2007 TENX teams had removed 305 World War II mines, 440 unexploded shells and 3,067 grenades.^[33] Areas cleared in Grammos and Vitsis are mainly used for pasture and leisure.^[34]

Re-checking minefields on the Bulgarian border (cleared following a 1997 agreement with Bulgaria) was completed in 2006. In May 2006, however, the Ministry of Defense noted that an area of 138,400 square meters along the border might still be contaminated.^[35] A total of 113,000 square meters had been released as of May 2007, and TENX was surveying the remaining 20,400 square meters.^[36] Efforts by the army to demine contaminated areas near the border with Albania have so far proven to be ineffective.^[37]

A Greek commercial company, P.A.S.S. Defence, was contracted by the Western Macedonia regional authority in early 2007 to conduct demining of 300,000 square meters in the Grammos-Vitsis area, in a €4.47 million (US$5.6 million) project due to be completed in November 2008. The company will replace TENX, which had been exclusively responsible for such operations. US and British satellite photographs will be used to locate minefields not already recorded as well as interviews of local “shepherds, hunters, and loggers” to identify contaminated areas.^[38] In May 2007 authorities were in the process of identifying the agency responsible for certifying completion and quality of the clearance.^[39]

Summary of Efforts to Comply with Article 5

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Greece is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 March 2014.

In April 2007 Greece remained confident of its ability to comply with the Article 5 deadline.^[40] Also in April, Greece declared that it had “completed demining operations in well above 50% of the areas mined with anti-personnel mines” and that 10,248 antipersonnel landmines remained.^[41]

Landmine Casualties

In 2006 there were at least nine new mine casualties in Greece, including four killed and five injured in four incidents. All of them were non-Greek citizens attempting to cross the Evros minefields on the border with Turkey.^[42] This is similar to 2005 (casualties, including one Greek deminer).^[43] The incidents occurred in July, September and October 2006.

No new casualties were reported from January to May 2007. No ERW casualties have were reported in 2006 and the first half of 2007.

Reportedly, the army collects data on military and civilian casualties, but this data was not made available to Landmine Monitor and casualty information has been taken from media reports.^[44] Greece reported there were no Greek [civilian] mine casualties.^[45] Landmine Monitor has recorded at least 105 casualties between 1999 and the end of 2006, including 61 killed and 44 injured.^[46] It has also been estimated that at least 82 illegal immigrants have been killed and 71 injured since 1994 in the Evros minefields.^[47] The Ministry of Defense estimated that between 1987 and November 2004, 66 people were killed and 149 injured by mines on the Evros border.^[48] At least 31 deminers died in clearance operations and their families reportedly do not have access to adequate insurance benefits.^[49] An additional 17 military personnel were injured in clearance operations between 1954 and 2002.^[50]

Survivor Assistance

In 2006 and early 2007 progress was made in assuring government support for the rehabilitation of mine survivors, who are all foreign nationals. On 3 November 2006, the Deputy Minister of Defense stated that he was negotiating an agreement with relevant ministries to cover the cost of prosthetic devices.^[51] At an interministerial meeting in February 2007 it was proposed to establish a committee on survivor assistance.^[52] An official notice for the provision of free healthcare and rehabilitation to mine survivors was sent to medical facilities in January 2007.^[53] Greece reported in its April 2007 Article 7 report that assistance was available regardless of the mine survivor’s legal status.^[54] Several mine survivors were scheduled to start Greek language courses in 2007 and to receive short-term assistance from the Hellenic Red Cross in paying rent.^[55] By April 2007 the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity had covered the cost of a prosthetic device for another survivor.^[56] Some mine survivors reportedly still have difficulties obtaining services, but are no longer repatriated as soon as emergency services have been provided.^[57]

Prior to these developments, the Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity had intervened during 2006 to obtain a disability pension for one mine survivor who had official refugee status and to obtain temporary residence for another survivor. Greece noted that two survivors had received free prosthetic devices in 2005-2006.^[58] In July 2007 a Kurdish mine survivor, living at the refugee facility in Lavrion since 1996, was fitted with his first prosthetic leg.^[59]

Mine casualties in the Evros border area are usually treated at Alexandroupolis University Hospital or Didymoteichon General and Army Hospitals free of charge. Military medical personnel provide emergency evacuation and medical assistance.^[60] A study of mine casualties at Alexandroupolis University Hospital published in July 2006 recommended improved coordination of emergency response and greater on-the-spot care for mine casualties as well as increased hospital emergency capacity to treat multiple casualties.^[61]

Psychosocial support and economic reintegration remain problematic for mine survivors in Greece. In July 2006 the deputy ombudsperson reported that approximately 80 percent of people with disabilities in Greece were unemployed. Adopt-A-Minefield offered to pay wages for an information center run by and for mine survivors, but a matching government allocation for office space was required; the government had not granted this allocation as of April 2007.^[62]

Greece has legislation that protects the rights of people with disabilities and ensures their inclusion in society; the legislation is generally enforced.^[63] On 30 March 2007 Greece signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but not its Optional Protocol allowing the monitoring of disability activities.

Funding and Assistance

In 2006 Greece contributed $2,365,310 (€1,882,758) for mine action in Iraq through the International Reconstruction Fund Facility for Iraq.^[64] The UN Development Programme (UNDP) reported that in 2007 Greece (and South Korea) would provide “additional support” through the Iraq Trust Fund to assist the creation of a national mine action NGO in Iraq capable of operating according to IMAS.^[65] As of June 2007 no funds had been provided by Greece through the Trust Fund.^[66]

National contribution to mine action program

Greece has covered all costs of its stockpile destruction and mine clearance activities, in addition to providing funding for mine action in other mine-affected countries.