The Gambia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December
1997. So far, it has not ratified the legislation although ratification is in
process, according to government
officials.[1] Gambia participated
in just one of the meetings of the Ottawa Process, did not endorse the
pro-treaty Brussels Declaration, and did not attend the treaty negotiations.
However, it voted in favor of the 1996 UN General Assembly resolution calling
for an international agreement banning AP mines. Gambia is not known to have
produced or exported antipersonnel mines. The government states that the Gambia
possesses no stockpile of landmines, and objects to media reports in the
Senegalese press stating otherwise.[2]
Gambia is one of the Africa’s smallest states, and except for the
Atlantic on the west is surrounded by Senegal. In 1982, Gambia merged with
Senegal to form a confederation, Senegambia, but relations deteriorated and
Senegambia was dissolved in 1989. No landmine incidents have been recorded on
Gambian territory but Gambia’s security situation has almost certainly
been occasionally compromised by its proximity to Senegal’s southern
province of Casamance, where conflict between separatists and the Senegalese
armed forces has led to the widespread use of AP and AT mines (see Senegal
report).[3]
Senegalese diplomats suspected that Gambian territory was being used as a
rearbase by rebel elements in 1992, shortly before landmines made their
appearance in Casamance.[4]
However, more recently, Gambian offers to mediate in the conflict have been
welcomed by Senegalese representatives, suggesting a decrease in Senegalese
anxiety on this point.[5]
[3]Alex Vines and Barbarcar
Diagne, “Senegal: old mines, new wars,” African Topics, no.
22, January-March 1998, p.13; Andrew Manley, “Guinea Bissau/Senegal: war,
civil war and the Casamance question,” Writenet/Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees, pp.14-16.
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