The Falklands/Malvinas
are administered by the United Kingdom but claimed by Argentina, and have been a
disputed territory between these two countries since the nineteenth
century.[1] In April 1982,
Argentine military forces occupied the territory but were defeated two months
later on 14 June by the U.K. forces in a short but bloody naval, air and ground
war. Thousands of antipersonnel and antitank mines were laid on the
Falklands/Malvinas by both parties to the conflict.
Both Argentina and the United Kingdom have signed the Mine Ban Treaty but to
date, only the U.K. has ratified. As the islands are under the authority of the
United Kingdom, it is obliged to clear the island territory within ten years
after the treaty has entered into force -- this means by 1 March 2009.
Argentina and the UK both acknowledge using mines during the conflict. (See
also U.K. and Argentina country reports). Argentina states it has handed to the
British maps of where the mines were
laid.[2] Many of the mines used
were remotely-delivered (scatterable) antipersonnel and antitank mines. The
United Nations lists at least nine types of landmines found in the
Falklands/Malvinas including the following antipersonnel mines: No. 4 (Israel),
SB-33 (Italy), FMK-1 plastic blast mine (Argentina) and PB4
(Spain).[3]
Estimates of the number of landmines buried in the Falklands/Malvinas vary
greatly. In 1993, the U.S. Department of State estimated 500,000 mines, then
lowered this figure drastically in 1994 to “117 identified minefields,
with a total of 25-30,000
landmines.”[4] In 1998
the State Department reported 101 mined areas totaling twenty square
kilometers.[5] The official UK
assessment is that there is no reliable figure for the number of Argentine mines
in the Falklands, but the “best current estimate is that some 18,000
Argentine mines and similar devices of various types were laid, including some
14,000 antipersonnel
landmines.”[6]
The main problem areas for landmines are located in and around the parts of
the islands which saw conflict: Port Howard, Port Fitzroy, Fox Bay, Darwin,
Goose Green, and especially around Port Stanley. There is an Explosive Ordnance
Disposal (EOD) Operation Center in Port Stanley which reminds locals and
visitors that “all parts of the Falklands/Malvinas may contain dangerous
materials and
ammunition.”[7] Mines laid
in peat and beach sand sometimes move from their original locations. The UK
government maintains that “remaining minefields, or areas where it is
suspected that mines might be, have been marked and fenced. These areas are
monitored regularly to ensure that remaining mines present no danger to civilian
or military personnel on the
Islands.”[8] The 1998
Hidden Killers report by the U.S. Department of State lists a total of 14
casualties to landmines in the
Falklands/Malvinas.[9] Since
the war ended, 4,220 mines have been cleared along with 2,713,658 assorted
pieces of unexploded
ordnance.[10]
On 17 November 1998, Argentina’s representative told the United Nations
General Assembly the Argentina and the UK had “signed a declaration
through which they agreed to work together on the evaluation...and costs of the
removal of antipersonnel mines in Malvinas
Islands,”[11] and that the
governments hoped to arrive soon at an Memorandum of Understanding describing
the way in which this evaluation will be carried out.
[2]Information provided by
the Argentine Foreign Ministry in response to a LM questionnaire in January
1999.
[3]See UN Country Database-
www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/falkland.htm
[4] United States Department
of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines,
July 1993, p. 172; and United States Department of State, Hidden Killers:
The Global Landmine Crisis, December 1994, p. 22.
[5]United States Department
of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis, September 1998, p.
A-4.
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