Minister of Foreign Affairs of Solomon Islands, the
Honorable Patterson Oti, signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997. In a
statement to the signing ceremony, Oti said: “Some may wonder why Solomon
Islands, with a population of less that four hundred thousand people living on
hundreds of islands arrayed over 1,600 kilometers of ocean, has a particular
interest in an enforceable ban on landmines. In 1942 and much of 1943, the
Solomon Islands was the site of brutal land and sea warfare. Thousands of
combatants and civilians were killed and the delicate forest and marine
environments severely damaged. Left behind on land and the seabed, fifty-five
years later, are unexploded ordnance including artillery shells, bombs and other
dangerous devices.”[1]
Oti said that Solomon Islands “followed with interest the extraordinary
international effort that ... brought us to this treaty ceremony. If our
resources had permitted, our representatives would have participated in the
conferences that were so important as part of the Ottawa
process.”[2] While the
Solomon Islands did not actively participate in meetings of the Ottawa Process
or endorse the pro-treaty Brussels Declaration, it supported the key pro-ban
1996, 1997 and 1998 UN General Assembly resolutions on landmines.
On 26 January 1999, the Solomon Islands deposited its instrument of
ratification at the United Nations in New York
Solomon Islands has no defense force and is not believed to have ever
produced, transferred, stockpiled or used antipersonnel landmines. With the
assistance of the United Nations Development Program, a feasibility study to
determine the size of the UXO problem and the cost of dealing with it will begin
soon.[3]
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