LM Report 1999

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GABON

Gabon signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 but has not yet ratified. There is not thought to be any specific reason for this beyond the normal time for tabling the relevant legislation.^[1] Diplomats see Gabon as favoring the treaty as a means of “portraying itself as a Central African island of stability” in an otherwise highly destabilized region.^[2] Gabon is not mine-affected.^[3] It supported the Ottawa Process by endorsing the Brussels Declaration, attending key meetings including the Oslo negotiations and by supporting the 1996 and 1997 UN General Assembly resolutions. Gabon is not known to be a producer or exporter of antipersonnel mines. Gabon is believed to be in the process of destroying some of its AP mine stockpile.^[4]

^[1]LM Researcher, telephone interviews, Gabonese diplomats, London, Paris and Ottawa, 25 March 1999.

^[2]LM Researcher, telephone interview, U.S. embassy political officer, Libreville, 25 March 1999.

^[3]LM Researcher telephone interview with Mr Moungara, Gabonese Mission to the UN, New York, 1 April 1999.

^[4]Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Mine Action Database.

<ETHIOPIA | GAMBIA>