On 3 December 1997 Deputy
Minister of Foreign Affairs, M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra signed the Mine Ban
Treaty on behalf of the Kingdom of Thailand. On 27 November 1998 Thailand
deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations, making Thailand
the fifty-third nation, and first in Southeast Asia, to ratify the MBT.
A representative from the Foreign Ministry, in a report prepared for the
ASEAN Regional Forum Intersessional Group on Confidence Building Measures held
in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, from 4-6 November 1998 stated, “Thailand is
determined to fulfill the obligations specified in the Convention, including the
destruction of mine stockpiles and mines buried in the
ground.”[4]
The new laws necessary to implement the treaty have been drafted and proposed
to the Cabinet.[5] They must
have Royal signature and proclamation in the Royal Gazette to make them
functional. There was already domestic law, prior to the MBT, making it illegal
for civilians to possess
landmines.[6]
Thailand had been somewhat reluctant to embrace the Ottawa Process and the
Mine Ban Treaty. It did not actively participate in the preparatory meetings
throughout 1997, did not endorse the pro-ban treaty Brussels Declaration in June
1997, and came to the Oslo negotiations in September 1997 only as an observer.
However, Thailand did vote for the pro-ban UN General Assembly Resolutions in
1996 and 1997. It also supported the more recent 1998 UNGA resolution
A/C.1/153/L.33 welcoming the addition of new states to the MBT, urging its full
realization and inviting state parties to the First Meeting of State Parties in
Mozambique.
Production
A number of different sources have identified
Thailand as a past producer of antipersonnel landmines, including the U.S. Army
and the U.S. Department of
State.[7] A U.S. Department of
Defense data base released in July 1995 indicates that Thailand produced three
types of antipersonnel mines. Model 123 Claymore-type mine; U/I TH (AP.1) blast
mine; and U/I TH (AP.2) blast mine. The data base, available on CD-ROM,
contains photographs and descriptions of the technical characteristics of the
mines.[8]
In November 1998, a Thai Army officer stated that Thailand in the past
produced only for training and research purposes, but has never produced
landmines for operational use in
battle.[9] The Thai military has
stated Thailand is not producing
APMs.[10] In 1998, the Thai U.N.
ambassador said, “While being neither a producer nor exporter of
landmines, Thailand nevertheless suffers acutely from the
problem.”[11]
Transfer
It is not believed that Thailand has exported
landmines. A 1993 U.S. State Department communication said that while Thailand
had not exported mines, it “may be attempting to sell [its] landmines
abroad.”[12]
Thailand has imported antipersonnel mines from the United States, and perhaps
other nations. According to U.S. Army documents, the U.S. shipped 437,166
antipersonnel mines to Thailand from 1969-1992. These were mostly M-18A1
Claymore mines which are not banned under the treaty when used in a
command-detonated mode, but also included M-14 and M-16 antipersonnel mines,
which are banned.[13]
Stockpiling and Destruction
According to a Thai military officer, mines are
kept in six storage centers in the military armory department and eight storage
facilities under the Royal Thai Army (RTA) Engineering
Department.[14] Most of the
stockpile of mines is held at Fort Bhanurangsri in Ratchaburi province. The
Royal Thai Navy (RTN) and the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) also hold stockpiles
of mines.[15]
The current stockpile apparently numbers approximately
400,000.[16] Details on mine
types are not available.
The RTA, the RTN and the RTAF and the Ministry of Interior have prepared a
plan to destroy stockpiled APMs within four to five years after authorization
to destroy has been made.[17]
The timing and quantity of mines to be destroyed has been considered. Some
mines will be kept for training and research. Requests by the Thai Campaign to
Ban Landmines to see the plan, as well as other documents, have been denied.
Disturbingly, the Thai military have told the Thai Campaign that they insist
on the condition that should neighboring countries act against the treaty, they
would reconsider this policy of destroying antipersonnel
mines.[18]
Use
In the past, Thai soldiers laid defensive
minefields along the Thai-Cambodian border to prevent infiltration by Vietnamese
troops. Vietnamese forces established a heavily mined perimeter (K-5), and
Cambodian and Khmer Rouge forces are believed to have laid mines on what is now
territory claimed by
Thailand.[19] The most common
mines used in Thailand were Soviet PMN-2, POMZ-1, and POMZ-2 mines, as well as
Chinese Type 72 and U.S.
M-18A1.[20] The Royal Thai Army
states that most, but not all, of its mines were documented, and that when it
found mines laid by others, the area would be marked with warning
signs.[21] Military sources
have said that some refugees entering Thailand laid mines for self-defense and
protection from external
armies.[22]
Mines were also used on the Thai borders with Burma/Myanmar, Laos, and
Malaysia. While the Thai military no longer uses antipersonnel mines, along the
northwestern Thai-Myanmar border it appears new mines are being laid by
non-state actors, including refugees from the Karen and Karenni states of
Burma/Myanmar now seeking shelter in
Thailand.[23]
Landmine Problem
A survey conducted by the RTA and the RTN in 1998
shows that in all border areas 796 square kilometers are
mined.[24] Of these mined areas,
532 square kilometers are on the Thai-Cambodian border, 124 square kilometers
are on the Thai-Lao border, 53 square kilometers on the Thai-Myanmar border, and
87 square kilometers on the Thai-Malaysian border. The seventeen provinces in
the northern, northeastern, southern and western parts of Thailand affected by
landmines are Sa Kaeo, Buriram, Surin, Sisaket, Ubon Ratchathani, Chanthaburi,
Trat, Tak, Mae Hong Son, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Nan, Uttaradit, Phitsanulok,
Songkla, Yala and Chumphon.
A 1992 military survey of the Thai-Cambodian border indicated mines in
approximately 440 square kilometres the five provinces of Ubon Ratchathani,
Sisaket, Surin, Buriram and Sa Kaeo provinces, and on 250 kilometres of roads in
two provinces, namely Chanthaburi and
Trat.[25]
A 1998 report by the U.S. State Department estimates the number of mines in
Thailand at 100,000.[26]
Mine Action
An inter-agency national committee on mine problems
was initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in mid-1998. Committee members
come from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Interior.
A new Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) was established on 18 January 1999,
located in Thung Si Gun (Don Muang) area, north of
Bangkok.[27] It is under the
Prime Minister’s Office with the Thai Military in charge of overall
operations. It is headed by director-general Lt. Gen. Dr. Vasu Chanarat. TMAC
will serve as a focal point of contact to deal with all matters concerning
antipersonnel landmines, including demining training, area demining, mine
awareness and victim assistance and coordination of domestic and international
assistance on landmine management.
Funding
Both United Nations organizations and individual
governments have been approached to provide financial assistance for mine action
programs in Thailand. The Foreign Ministry has prepared a funding request for
financial assistance which was forwarded to Humanitarian Demining Team Leaders
on 18 August 1998. The project is titled: “Thai-XYZ (unidentified nations
and one UN funding agency) Cooperation Project in Humanitarian
Demining”.[28]
Mine Clearance
The Royal Thai Army has been able to remove about
2,500-3,000 mines per year along the border, but intends to accelerate that pace
greatly in order to remove all mines within ten years, as required by the
treaty.[29]
The new TMAC is primarily responsible for the demining and destruction of
APMs in Thai territory. A team of experts on demining training from the United
States will help train demining personnel in Thailand in April 1999.
Thailand has estimated that the cost of demining and stockpile destruction
will be over 1 billion baht, or U.S.$4 27.4 million, for the Thai military
authorities and police combined. It will require four battalions and three
companies of army and marine
engineers.[30]
Thailand has also assisted others with mine clearance, notably Cambodia.
According to Thai U.N. Ambassador Asda Jayanama, “We are pleased to have
provided active assistance in demining efforts in Cambodia, bilaterally as well
as multilaterally?. During 1992-1993, we dispatched two Thai engineering
battalions into Cambodia to clear landmines on route No. 5 from Poi Pet to
Battambang, providing the safe return home for hundreds of thousands of
Cambodians.”[31]
Mine Awareness Education
The government has done little in terms of mine
awareness education. The new TMAC will be in charge of the public information
on danger of antipersonnel mines, as part of its responsibilities.
The Thailand Campaign to Ban Landmines, a group of NGOs, has organized and
coorganized numerous programs on Mine Awareness Education during 1997-1998.
Landmine Casualties
The numbers of people killed or injured by
antipersonnel landmines are not available from any sources. There have been no
records kept in the village administration, health-care units, hospitals, or
public health and social welfare offices. Only one hospital on Thai-Myanmar
border can provide their annual statistics on landmine survivors, Thai and
non-Thai, patients for the past three years. Handicap International, now working
on the Thai-Myanmar border, keeps statistics of Karen and Karenni survivors
benefiting from their prosthetic and rehabilitation services.
Colonel Veerasak Raksasab, an RTA personnel who has been assigned to the TMAC
operation unit, indicated that part of TMAC’s task is to set up a database
on landmine casualties; he admitted that it is going to take a long time.
The Thai Campaign has interviewed fifty-four survivors in fifteen sample
villages in six of the seventeen provinces known to be mined areas. Two
landmine survivors, who work in district hospitals as technicians in the
Prosthetic Unit, were a great help in the interview process of two provinces
along the Thai-Cambodian border. Both military personnel and civilians have
been injured; including both males and females, with a majority being males.
The ages of survivors and deaths range from children who can walk (1.5 years) to
over-90-year-old villagers.
Survivor Assistance
On 3 December 1998, representatives from Thai
Campaign called on the Deputy Foreign Minister, on the occasion of the first
anniversary of Thailand’s signing of the Ottawa Convention and presented a
letter signed by 1,823 supporters demanding the government begin to implement
immediate assistance to mine victims.
Medical and rehabilitation services in Thailand are available in both state
and privately owned hospitals and health care units, functioning at the
provincial, district, and community levels. While facilities offering first aid
are offered at all district and village levels, patients who have sever injuries
and are in need of surgical care are referred to a higher level and to a better
equipped institution. Psychological and social support are normally not
provided. The mine victims are mainly supported by their own families and
communities. Regarding rehabilitation facilities, mainly provincial hospitals
with adequate equipment, personnel, and space, would provide this service since
there are a number of patients with paralytic and/or diabetic problems as
well.
Several border provincial hospitals have prosthetic and assistance devices
available. There are also some government provisions for vocational or skills
training for landmine survivors but most of the interviewees, especially those
with family members dependent on them, refuse to take up the training. Projects
for financial support are under the responsibility of the social welfare
department, but most of the survivors have not been able to make use of them due
to the budget constraints of the county.
Centers supporting medical rehabilitation include:
Mae Sot District Hospital, Tak province, 300 beds: 123 mine victims treated
21 September 1997-20 September 1998.
Aranyaprathet District Hospital, Sakaeo province, 120 beds: 108 mine victims
treated 21 September 1997-20 September 1998.
Prasat District Hospital, Surin Province, 60 beds.
Mae Hong Son/ Sri Sangwan Hospital, Mae Hong Son province, 120
beds.
A national disability law, titled “Laws on
Rehabilitation of Thai Disabled Persons, 1991" has been proclaimed in Thailand,
and has been implemented since 1994. Landmine survivors are included in the
description of handicapped persons as given in this law. Due to the economic
downturn and the tight budget many conditions of this law have not yet been
realized. Implementation has been inconsistent among provinces, districts and
tambons.
[4]Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Royal Thai Government, “Thailand Mine Action Center”,
ASEAN Regional Forum Inter-sessional Group on Confidence Building Measures
Honolulu, HI, USA, 4-6 November 1998, p.1
[5]Landmine Monitor interview
with Lt. Gen. Dr. Vasu Chanarat, Director General of the Thailand Mine Action
Center on 16 February 1999.
[7]Letter from U.S. Army
Foreign Science and Technology Center to Human Rights Watch, 1 November 1993,
p.1; U.S. Department of State, Outgoing Telegram, Unclassified, Subject:
landmine export moratorium demarche, 7 December 1993.
[8]U.S. Department of
Defense, “Mine Facts” CD-ROM, first released July 1995.
[9]Personal communication in
Thai language dated 26 November 1998 from Col. Veerasak Raksasab, Royal Thai
Army, Operation & Intelligence Division, Engineering Department, Fort
Bhanurangsri, Ratchaburi.
[10]The Nation,
“Ridding the world of fear and destruction”, 6 November 1997.
[11]Statement by Ambassador
Asda Jayanama before the Plenary of the 53rd Session of the U.N.
General Assembly, 17 November 1998.
[12]U.S. Department of State,
Outgoing Telegram, Unclassified, Subject: landmine export moratorium demarche,
7 December 1993.
[13]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. (no page number). This document gives the exact number and
type of mines shipped each year from 1969-1992. Another official document from
the Defense Security Assistance Agency puts U.S. APM shipments to Thailand even
higher: 499,278.
[14]Personal communication
from Col. Veerasak Raksasab.
[15]Landmine Monitor
interview with Lt. Gen. Vasu Chanarat, Director General of TMAC on 16 February
1999.
[16]Rough estimate obtained
from Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade’s Mine Action Database.
[17] Personal communication
from Department of International Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs official
in December 1998.
[18]LM discussion with TMAC
officials in January 1999 which reiterates the Royal Thai Army stand reported in
The Nation, “Army shifts stand to support landmine ban”, 28
August 1997.
[19]U.S. Department of State,
Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines, July 1993,
p. 164.
[21]Personal communication
from Col. Veerasak Raksasab.
[22]Interview with Thai
military official in Mae Sot, Tak province, January 1999.
[23]Interview with displaced
ethnic migrants housed in camps along the Thai-Burma border, Mae Sot, Tak
province, January 1999
[24]Ministry of Foreign
Affairs Document given to Humanitarian Demining Team Leaders on 18 August, 1998,
#1.3 p.1 and also Thailand Mine Action Center, A Brief Account of TMAC,
January 1999, p. 2.
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