Iran has not signed the
Mine Ban Treaty. Iran attended the treaty preparatory diplomatic meetings, and
the Oslo negotiations, but only as an observer. It did not endorse the
pro-treaty Brussels Declaration in June 1997. It came to the treaty signing
conference in Ottawa in December 1997 as an observer, where it stated that it
supported the efforts of the international community to ban landmines but before
Iran could lend its support, it believed that “particular security
concerns of states should be effectively
addressed.”[39] Iran was
absent from voting on the 1996 UN General Assembly resolution supporting
negotiations of a total ban on antipersonnel mines, and was one of eighteen
countries who abstained from voting on the 1997 UNGA resolution supporting the
December treaty signing, and one of nineteen who abstained from voting on the
1998 UNGA resolution welcoming new signatories to the treaty and urging its full
implementation.
Iran is not a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). At
the CCW Review Conference in Vienna in 1995, the Iranian representative stated
that while the total elimination of mines backed by a comprehensive verification
mechanism was the ideal, it did not seem realistic at present. He further called
for a ban on undetectable mines and stated that future mines should be
self-destructing.[40] Iran is a
member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Production, Transfer, and Stockpiling
The U.S. Army indicates that Iran produced a copy
of the U.S. M18A1 Claymore mine during the Shah’s reign but its current
production status is
unknown.[41] The Iranian
Defence Industries Organization lists two antipersonnel mines produced by Iran:
the YM-1 antipersonnel mine, and the Pedal Mine No. 4 (which appears to be a
copy of the Israeli No. 4
mine).[42]
Iran is believed to have been a significant exporter of antipersonnel mines.
At the signing of the Ottawa Convention in December 1997, the Iranian Ambassador
stated that Iran does not export antipersonnel
landmines.[43] At the UN
General Assembly in November 1998, the Iranian Ambassador stated: “We have
declared a moratorium on the export of antipersonnel landmines and expedited the
process of accession to the strengthened Protocol II of the 1980
CCW.”[44] However, there
is no legislation in place barring export of antipersonnel mines. Although Iran
has stated that it no longer exports landmines, Afghanistan’s Taleban has
accused Iran of supplying landmines and other weapons to the
opposition.[45] In addition,
the Iranian No. 4 Pedal mine has been found recently in Sudan, on the border
with Uganda.[46]
Iran has also imported significant amounts of landmines. Between 1969 and
1978, Iran imported between 1.5 and 2.5 million antipersonnel landmines from the
United States, primarily the M2, M14, M16A1, and M16A2
types.[47]
There is no reliable information on the current size or composition of
Iran’s mine stockpile.
Mine Action
Iran has a serious problem with landmines. The
Iranian government reports that sixteen million landmines were laid in Iran
during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 and the southern provinces in particular
are severely affected.[48]
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) began discussions with Iran
in 1996 to develop a mine action program. UNDP initially invested $200,000,
leading to a $3 million commitment from the Iranian government. Plans are
underway to survey and mark mined areas and begin mine clearance. (See also the
UNDP report).
Iran reports a lack of minefield maps and clearance equipment and places
great emphasis on the international community’s responsibility for
transfer of technology and facilitation of demining. A total of 1.2 billion
rials ($400,000) were allocated to clearing the Kordestan province in
1998.[49] Estimates of how many
mines have been cleared vary. In 1995, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran
stated that of the sixteen million mines littering Iran, only 200,000 had been
cleared. By 1997, the Iranian army cleared an additional 7,600 square kilometers
(2,900 square miles).[50] At
the November 1998 General Assembly, the Iranian Ambassador stated that since the
end of the Iran-Iraq war, Iran had been able to destroy about 6.2 million mines
and “unexploded
devices.”[51]
Estimates of civilian casualties also vary. The government states that
thousands of civilians are injured or killed each year and that on the border
with Iraq alone, dozens of people are killed each
year.[52] Villagers and
shepherds often come into contact with landmines left over from the Iran-Iraq
war. In December 1998, four shepherds were killed in a landmine blast in
southwestern Iran.[53] The U.S.
government lists 6,000 landmine casualties for Iran for an unspecified period of
time.[54]
[39] Statement by H.E.S. M.H.
Adeli, Ph.D. Ambassador of I.R. Iran in Ottawa Reflecting the Positions of
Islamic Republic of Iran (as the Observer) in the Signing Conference of
Anti-Personnel Land Mines Treaty, Ottawa 1-4 December 1997.
[40] Review Conference of
the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use
of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious
or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, Summary Record of the 4th Meeting,
CCW/Conf.I/SR.4, 3 October 1995.
[41] U.S. Army Engineer
Center, Mine Recognition and Warfare Handbook, Ft. Leonard Wood, November
1990, 102-3. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Human Rights
Watch.
[42]Defence Industries
Organization Military Products Brochure, Islamic Republic of Iran.
[43] Statement by Amb. Adeli,
Ottawa, 1-4 December 1997.
[44] Statement by H.E. Mr.
Hadi Nejadj-Hosseinian Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic
Republic of Iran to the United Nations before the Fifty-Third Session of the
United Nations General Assembly on the Agenda Item 42: Assistance in Mine
Clearance, 17 November 1998.
[45] “Afghan Taleban
Say Seize Iran-supplied Mines,” Reuters, 4 December 1998.
[46] Human Rights Watch,
Sudan: Global Trade, Local Impact: Arms Transfers to All Sides in the Civil
War in Sudan, Vol. 10, No. 4(A), August 1998, p. 20.
[47] One official U.S.
source cites the 2.5 million figure, with a breakdown of sales year by year:
U.S. Army, Armament, Munitions, and Chemical Command (USAMCCOM), Letter to Human
Rights Watch, 25 August 1993, and attached statistical tables, provided under
the Freedom of Information Act. Another official source gives the 1.5 million
figure, without further details: Defense Security Assistance Agency, “US
Landmine Sales by Country,” March 1994.
[48] Cited by the United
Nations and the U.S. Department of State. See United Nations, Country Report:
Iran, at http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/iranisla.htm, and
Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis, U.S. Department of State,
1998.
[49] “Iran Steps up
Mine-Clearing Efforts in Kordestan Province,” BBC Monitoring
Service, 29 June 1998.