São Tomé e Príncipe signed the Mine
Ban Treaty on 30 April 1998, the 125th country to sign. According to a
government official, the late signature was due to bureaucratic
problems.[1] The same official
said that parliament had already approved the ban treaty and the president was
about to ratify it.[2]
São Tomé was absent from votes on key UN General Assembly
resolutions on landmines and did not attend any meetings of the Ottawa Process.
São Tomé and Principe is not known to have ever produced or
exported antipersonnel mines. According to Luís Maria from the Office of
the Chief-of-Staff of the São Tomean Armed Forces, there are no
stockpiles of antipersonnel landmines in the
country.[3]
[1]LM Researcher telephone
interview with Dr. Ana Paula Alvim of the Department of Multilateral Issues in
the office of International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, São
Tomé, 26 March 1999.