Hungary signed the Mine
Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 6 April 1998, the eighth
country to do so. Hungary has been an active participant in the Ottawa Process.
It attended all the treaty preparatory meetings, endorsed the pro-treaty
Brussels Declaration in June 1997, and was a full participant in the Oslo
negotiations. Hungary also voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly
resolutions supporting a ban on antipersonnel landmines in 1996, 1997, and
1998.
Hungary is also a state party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and
ratified the amended Protocol II on mines on 30 January 1998. Hungary is a
member of the Conference on Disarmament and supports using it as a forum for
negotiating a ban on mine
transfers.[1] In February 1999,
Hungary was one of 22 countries that endorsed a statement advocating the
negotiation of a transfer ban through the
CD.[2]
The government and national assembly of Hungary hosted and co-sponsored the
Budapest Regional Conference on Anti-personnel Landmines in March 1998. The
conference, which was also sponsored by the city of Budapest, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, was
attended by government representatives and non-governmental organizations from
19 Central and Eastern European
states.[3]
Addressing the conference, Hungary’s Foreign Affairs Minister Laszlo
Kovacs stated, “We consider the drive to achieve the earliest entry into
force of Amended Protocol II of the CCW and the campaign to achieve a more
universal adherence to the Ottawa Convention as high
priorities.”[4] Kovacs
also discussed Hungary’s “Agenda ‘98" for mine-related
activities: (1) hosting the regional conference; (2) eliminating the
country’s landmine stockpile by the end of 1998--a date since pushed back
June 1999; (3) supporting the amended Protocol II of the CCW as an effective
complement to the Mine Ban Treaty; (4) supporting Hungarian academic research on
victim rehabilitation and sharing methods and technologies with other countries;
(5) dedicating resources to the development of alternative technologies for
troop protection; and (6) supporting, along with the German government, a
demining initiative in the Eastern-Slavonia region of
Croatia.[5]
Production, Transfer, and Stockpiling
Hungary, a significant producer and exporter of
antipersonnel mines in the past, has ceased all production and transfer of
landmines and has stated its intention to eliminate its landmine stockpile by
June 1999.[6]
Hungary informed the United Nations in 1995 that it no longer produces or
exports antipersonnel
mines.[7]
Hungarian state factories produced six types of landmines: the GYATA-64 blast
mine (similar to Soviet PMN) , the M62 and M49 blast mines (similar to Soviet
PMD-6), the RAMP blast mine (WWII-era), the No. 1131 bounding mine, and the
Model 36 fragmentation mine.[8]
Hungary’s mines have been used in Cambodia, Angola, South Africa, and
elsewhere.[9]
Humanitarian Mine Action
Hungary is not mine
affected.[10] In addition to
the above-noted initiative in Croatia, Hungary has pledged to support confidence
building measures, training, and other cooperative efforts related to landmines
with the armed forces of other countries. Hungary has also offered technical
and training assistance to international organizations involved in
demining.[11]
[1]Statement by H.E. Mr.
Laszlo Kovacs, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Hungary, Report:
Regional Conference on Landmines, Budapest, Hungary, 26-28 March, p. 7.
[2]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.
[3]International Campaign to
Ban Landmines, “Report: Regional Conference on Landmines, Budapest,
Hungary, 26-28 March 1998."
[4]Speaking at Budapest
Regional Conference, 26 March 1998, in ICBL Conference report.
[5] ICBL report, Regional
Conference, 26-28 March 1998, pp. 6-8.
[6]Telephone interview with
Dezso Horvath, Deputy Permanent Representative, Hungarian Mission to the United
Nations, 25 February 1999.
[7] United Nations General
Assembly, “Report of the Secretary-General: Moratorium on the export of
antipersonnel landmines,” A/50/701, 3 November 1995, p. 6.
[8]U.S. Department of
Defense, “Mine Facts” CD ROM; Eddie Banks, Antipersonnel Landmines:
Recognizing and Disarming (London: Brassey’s, 1997), pp. 128-132.
[9]Ibid. Also see, Human
Rights Watch Arms Project and Physicians for Human Rights, Landmines: A
Deadly Legacy (New York: Human Rights Watch, October 1993), p. 104.
[10]United States Department
of State, Hidden Killers, July 1993, p. 100.
[11]United States Department
of State, Hidden Killers, September 1998, p. C3.
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