LM Report 2000

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BURKINA FASO

Key developments since March 1999: Burkina Faso has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, due by 27 August 1999.

Burkina Faso signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and on 16 September 1998 the instruments of ratification were deposited at the United Nations, making Burkina Faso the 40th country to ratify the treaty and thus allowing the treaty to enter into force on 1 March 1999. According to one source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, domestic implementation legislation is not viewed as necessary because Burkina Faso has never produced, stockpiled, or used landmines.^[1] Some deputies in the National Assembly are prepared to propose legislation.^[2]

Burkina Faso has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, due by 27 August 1999. An official in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs blamed the late report on the current socio-political crisis that has focused government priorities elsewhere. But he stated that there is absolutely no question of Burkina Faso’s transparency or willingness to promote the treaty.^[3] When asked for an update following a letter from the ICBL Coordinator encouraging timely submission of Article 7 reports, the same official replied that the report was in preparation.^[4]

Burkina Faso attended the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May 1999, with representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense. It did not attend any intersessional meetings of the MBT. Burkina Faso voted in support of the pro-treaty UN General Assembly resolution 54/54B in December 1999. Burkina Faso is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons but attended the December 1999 First Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II. Burkina Faso is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.

Burkina Faso neither produces nor exports AP mines. There have been allegations of illicit weapons passing through Burkina for rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone. Harouna Ouédraogo, Chief of the Cabinet at the Ministry of Defense, told Landmine Monitor that Burkina Faso has never used AP mines.^[5] In July 1998, Defense Minister Albert Millogo told the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Commission that Burkina Faso’s armed forces possess only inactive mines for military training purposes.^[6]

Burkina Faso is not mine-affected. It is not involved in mine clearance or awareness programs and has not made any financial contribution to mine action programs.

[1] Name withheld at the request of the interviewed official.
[2] Interview with Psacal Benon, President of the parliamentary governmental party Congrès pour la Démocratie et le Progrès, 15 December 1999.
[3] Interviews with Sawadogo Mahama, Head of the Europe-America-Oceania Service, Directorate General of Political, Legal and Consular Affairs, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ouagadougou, 12 November and 14 December 1999.
[4] Letter from ICBL Coordinator Elizabeth Bernstein to Foreign Minister, Burkina Faso, dated 24 November 1999. Interview with Sawadogo Mahama, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ouagadougou, 5 January 2000.
[5] Interview with Mr. Harouna Ouédraogo, Chief of Cabinet, Ministry of Defense, Ouagadougou, 9 November 1999.
[6] Parliamentary Debate, 29 July 1998.