The International
Campaign to Ban Landmines made the ad hoc working group on Non-State Actors
(NSAs), originally formed in 1997 on the initiative of the Colombian,
Philippine, and South African country campaigns, into a full working group in at
its General Meeting in May 1999. The objective of the working group is to
develop a complementary process to engage armed opposition groups in all aspects
of the humanitarian solution to the landmine crisis, including an unconditional
ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel
landmines, and obtaining the cooperation of NSAs in integrated mine action.
The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines and Mines Action Canada have
co-chaired the working group since May 1999. As of May 2000, the membership had
expanded to include: the Afghan Campaign, Australian Network, members of the
Colombian Campaign, Indian Campaign, Irish Campaign-Pax Christi, Italian
Campaign, Kenya Coalition, Mines Action Canada, Nepal Campaign, Pakistan
Campaign, Palestine Campaign, Philippine Campaign, South African Campaign, Swiss
Campaign, Thai Campaign, the UK Working Group on Landmines, and the Zimbabwe
Campaign.
The NSA Working Group is committed to an impartial application of the
principles of international humanitarian law. The working group believes in
engaging NSAs through dialogue and education, appealing to appropriate legal
and normative points of reference and to political self-interest, and, as
necessary, pressure. The working group stresses the importance of consultation
with the communities affected and of careful attention to the impact of landmine
work on initiatives aimed at establishing a just and lasting peace.
Overview of NSAs and Landmines
The majority of contemporary wars involve one or more armed groups operating
autonomously from officially recognized governments. A recent survey indicated
that there are over 190 non-state armed groups with a basic command structure
and a capacity to plan armed operations, active in over 60 countries around the
world.[1] According to
information in the Landmine Monitor Report 1999, landmines were used by
NSAs in forty-four countries during the
1990s.[2]
In the majority of situations in which there are reasonably certain reports
that landmines are in use, NSAs are involved, either as users (and sometimes
producers) or targets of landmines. Landmine Monitor 2000 research identifies
likely use of antipersonnel mines by approximately thirty NSAs in at least
eighteen conflicts in 1999 and 2000, including in Afghanistan, Angola, Burma,
Chechnya, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Georgia/Abkhazia,
India/Pakistan (Kashmir), South Lebanon, Nepal, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia,
Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkey/Northern Iraq, Uganda, Yugoslavia/Kosovo (see country
reports). The report identifies likely use by eleven governments in eleven
conflicts.
This demonstrates the necessity of engaging non-state groups as well as
states in a solution to the landmine crisis. Aware of the impact of mines on
their constituents, or, more recently, of the global movement to eliminate
landmines, some NSAs have issued public statements about their use of landmines
and their willingness to support mine action activities in areas under their
control. As with states, the public positions taken by NSAs vary in their level
of understanding and acceptance of the humanitarian principles impelling the ban
movement, and in their implementation. Some such public statements were listed
in the Landmine Monitor
Report1999.[3] Updated
information about the landmine policies of various NSAs can be found on the NSA
working group website and in the documentation of the March 2000 conference on
landmines and non-state actors (see below), or obtained directly from the NSA
database.[4]
One of the most encouraging NSA statements on landmines made recently was
issued by the RPA-ABB, a Maoist group operating in the Philippines. Their
statement of March 2000 admits past error, renounces future use and production
of antipersonnel mines and concludes, "Fighting for genuine peace, social
justice, political liberty, and a safe and clean environment are all in the
service of the human race. Destroying the world and sacrificing innocent lives
with the use of anti-personnel mines does not serve this purpose."
Customary international humanitarian law, which is taken to apply to
non-state as well as state actors, offers a common global framework in which
such unilateral statements can be evaluated. IHL states that, "In any armed
conflict, the right of the parties to the conflict to choose methods or means of
warfare is not unlimited." Three general principles are relevant to landmines:
prohibitions on weapons whose harm is disproportionate to their military
objectives, weapons which are inherently indiscriminate, and weapons whose use
violates "the public
conscience."[5] The ICBL
believes that these principles require non-state actors to adopt a complete ban
on the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel mines.
In the end, however, international humanitarian principles are only
practically relevant if NSAs accept them; the process of convincing NSAs and
their publics of their relevance and of the importance of implementing a total
ban is primary. Ultimate progress in this area is measured not in terms of the
public positions taken by NSAs, important as these can be as reference points,
but in terms of their implementation of an effective ban, together with progress
on mine clearance and victim assistance in areas under NSA control. This is the
work in which several NSA Working Group members have been engaged over the past
year.
Activities of the Working Group and its Members since March 1999
During the past
year, the members of the NSA Working Group have participated in a number of
initiatives, including: a South Asia regional workshop on landmines hosted by
the ICRC in Sri Lanka in August 1999; a workshop on Non-State Actors hosted by
the Henri Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva in December 1999;
the Intersessional Standing Committee of Experts on the General Status and
Operation of the Convention in January 2000; and the Wilton Park conference on
Engaging Non-State Actors in Humanitarian Principles in March 2000 in the
UK.
One of the chief efforts of members of the working group over the past year
was a conference, "Engaging Non-State Actors in a Landmine Ban," held in March
2000 in Geneva. The conference brought together over one hundred representatives
of governments, NGOs, NSAs and international organizations to discuss issues
around NSAs and landmines. A summary report and conference proceedings are
available from the NSA Working Group.
Drawing on the findings of the conference, the working group has begun
developing a framework for approaching NSAs. The Working Group also developed
public communication material, including an introductory brochure and a website,
in order to increase public understanding of its objectives, work and
progress.
Immediately following the March conference, several members of the working
group launched the "Geneva Call," a new international NGO based in Geneva that
will promote humanitarian principles to NSAs and serve as a mechanism to hold
NSAs accountable for their unilateral declarations banning antipersonnel mines
and other humanitarian norms articulated in the Geneva Conventions and
Protocols.
The Non-State Actor Database independently housed at International Alert in
London has continued to provide information to the Working Group, developing its
files on NSAs and in April 2000, producing an updated global survey of NSAs,
categorized by region and country, that have been, are, or are potential mine
users. The Philippine Campaign to Ban Landmines has contributed valuable
research in the field of international law as it applies to NSA use of
landmines.
Research and outreach have continued at the field level. The Thai Campaign
developed an outreach plan and information kit for NSAs operating in
Burma. The Thai Campaign's systematic approach to NSAs in Burma,
combining transparency of objectives with confidentiality, has begun to pay off
in terms of some groups questioning their continued use of landmines. The
Australian network met earlier with Karen and Karenni groups on the Thai-Burma
border and has raised the issue with representatives of the military regime.
The Philippine Campaign briefed leaders of the Karen National Union and the
National Council of the Union of Burma on the landmine issue and discussed the
possibility of a future workshop on the issue.
Members of the working group have conducted consultations in January 2000
with Sri Lanka experts on strategies to involve both the government and
LTTE in a ban; have entered into dialogue with NSAs in the Philippines;
have met with Xanana Gusmao and a very supportive Jose Ramos Horta of East
Timorto encourage East Timor to make a statement on landmines; and
have conducted research on NSAs operating in Nepal.
The Indian Campaign organized two regional landmine seminars in Jammu and
Kashmir in July and August 1999. Both representatives of NSAs and Indian
military officers took part in these meetings. In February 2000, a regional
workshop was held in Southern India and Naxalites were invited to attend. A
landmine seminar and photo exhibit were held at the beginning of March 2000 in
North East India and representatives of NSAs operating in the region were
again invited to attend.
The Pakistan Campaign (PCBL) is promoting awareness in the tribal belt of
Pakistan. PCBL has held several meetings with local administration and
government officials in which it has communicated its concerns on the use of
landmines in those areas. It has held meetings with local elders and religious
scholars.
Members of the working group have also visitedYugoslavia/Kosovo in July 1999 to discuss a mine ban with the now
disbanded KLA/UCK; conducted talks with the Polisario in the Western
Sahara in March 1999; initiated communication with NSAs in Guatemala,
Mexico and Colombia. The Zimbabwe campaign has conducted local and
regional research inSouthern Africa.
[1] Martin Rupiya, "One Man's Terrorist is
Another's Liberator," March 2000, citing Non-State Actor Database, "Non State
Armed Actors: Region and Country Survey." Updated survey, from April 2000,
available from
nsadba@international-alert.org. [2] ICBL
NSA Working Group, "The use of landmines by non-state actors," Information Paper
prepared for the January 2000 meeting of the SCE on General Status and Operation
of the Convention. [3] Landmine Monitor
Report 1999, pp 943-944. [4] NSAWG
website is www.icbl.org/wg/nsa; NSA database (housed at International Alert in
London) can be reached at
nsadba@international-alert.org. [5] Two
background papers on the international legal framework for NSAs and landmines,
“The Ottawa Treaty and Non-State Actors” and “The
International Criminal Court and Rebel Groups,” have been prepared for
the Working Group by Sol Santos of the Philippine Campaign and can be obtained
from the NSA database.