Greece signed the Mine
Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, at which time the Greek Embassy in Ottawa pledged
that “ratification of this Convention will take place as soon as
conditions relating to the implementation of its relevant provisions are
fulfilled.”[1] This
declaration on ratification has been filed with the United Nations Secretariat
in New York. Greece has not yet ratified the Mine Ban Treaty.
Greece attended the treaty preparatory meetings and the Oslo negotiations,
but as an observer in each case. Greece did not endorse the pro-treaty Brussels
Declaration in June 1997. Greece did not cast a vote on the 1996 United Nations
General Assembly resolution supporting a landmine ban, but voted in favor of
resolutions supporting the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997 and 1998.
Greece has in the past expressed concern over the rapidity of the Ottawa
process and has supported the Conference on Disarmament as the best forum for
negotiating a universal landmine
ban.[2] In February 1999,
Greece was one of 22 countries that endorsed a statement advocating the
negotiation of a ban on transfers of antipersonnel landmines through the
CD.[3]
Greece is a state party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but it has
not ratified the amended 1996 Protocol II on mines.
Production, Transfer, and Stockpiling
Greece is known to have produced and exported at
least one type of antipersonnel landmine, a copy of the U.S.
M16A2.[4] Greece has imported
57,034 antipersonnel mines from the United States, including 18,144 ADAM
artillery-delivered, self-destructing mines for $2.56 million in 1988, and more
than 30,000 M16 mines, 5,500 M14 mines, and M18A1 Claymore mines from
1973-1981.[5] There is no
information on other AP mines suppliers to Greece. There is no definitive
information on the current size of Greece’s stockpile of antipersonnel
mines.[6]
The Greek government has asserted that landmine production in Greece has
ceased, and in 1994 declared a comprehensive, indefinite moratorium on
antipersonnel landmine
exports.[7]
Landmine Problem and Mine Action
Mines are not considered to pose a danger to
civilians in Greece. However, Turks attempting to cross illegally into Greece
have been injured and killed in minefields near the Evros River, which marks the
border between Greece and
Turkey.[8] Landmines dating
from the Greek civil war (1947-1949) are also present along the northern border.
The Greek government announced in 1998 an initiative to rid the forested
northern border area of mines and transform it into a tourist
destination.[9] Greece has
“adequate” mine removal and destruction
capabilities.[10]
Greece has donated $80,000 to the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for
Assistance in Mine Clearance and has participated in UN demining and victim
rehabilitation efforts in mine affected
countries.[11] As part of a
1998 military cooperation pact, Greece pledged to assist Zimbabwe with mine
clearance.[12]
[1]Declaration of Embassy of
the Hellenic Republic, Treaty Signing Ceremony, Ottawa, 3 December 1997.
[2]Country Profiles, United
Nations Demining Database, http:www.un.org.Depts/Landmine/ (Ref.
3/8/99).
[3]Statement by Ambassador
Petko Draganov, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Bulgaria to the
United Nations Office and the other International Organisations in Geneva,
(undated) February 1999.
[4]U.S. Department of
Defense, “Mine Facts” CD ROM.
[5] U.S. Army, Armament,
Munitions, and Chemical Command (USAMCCOM), Letter to Human Rights Watch, 25
August 1993, and attached statistical tables; U.S. Defense Security Assistance
Agency, U.S. Landmine Sales By Country, March 1994.
[6] A Greek journalist cited
a figure of 1.5 million at a Medicins du Monde press conference in Athens, 18
September 1997, according to an email from Tim Carstairs, Mines Advisory Group
(UK), 23 March 1999.
[7]Country Profiles, United
Nations Demining Database.
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