Kazakhstan
has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. The government has said that it
supports the ideas of the Ottawa process and its humanitarian aspects, but
“joining the treaty in the close future is problematic, primarily because
the treaty obliges complete and immediate destruction of landmines which are
used in Kazakhstan for defensive purposes only, to protect considerable parts of
its long border. Clearing these landmines away and their substitution with the
most modern types of landmines will require considerable financial
resources.”[1]
Kazakhstan abstained on the vote on UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B
supporting the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had in 1997 and 1998. (It voted in favor
of the pro-ban UNGA resolution in 1996). Kazakhstan did not participate in any
of the diplomatic meetings on landmines in 1999 or 2000.
Kazakhstan is not a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons
(CCW). In response to the OSCE questionnaire about antipersonnel mines, the
government noted, with respect to the CCW and Protocol II on landmines, that:
The fulfillment of obligations under the provisions of this Convention...may
require high financial expenditures. The extent of the financial outlay and
other assistance on the part of the states party to the Convention have not been
specified, and the possibility that such assistance can be provided evokes
doubt. The Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, if our state were to
join this Convention, would be deprived of one of the most inexpensive and
effective types of defensive weapons which, at the present time, we would find
impossible to replace with alternative
systems.[2]
The government concluded, therefore, that it was “inexpedient...to join
the Convention...at this
stage.”[3] Nevertheless,
an official has indicated that Kazakhstan bases its policies on landmine issues
on the provisions of the CCW and its Protocol
II.[4]
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling, Use
In April 2000, government officials said that the
country does not produce AP mines, does not have industrial facilities for their
production and does not plan to construct such
facilities.[5] Kazakhstan is
not known to have exported mines. It inherited a stockpile of mines from the
Soviet Union.
The United Nations and Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the
government declared a comprehensive moratorium on production in December 1996
and a ban on the export of antipersonnel landmines in August
1997.[6]
It is not known if Kazakstan has imported AP mines in the past. But, the
government has stated, “It is possible for Kazakhstan to import landmines
only from countries that are not party to the Convention [CCW] from now on.
This means it is necessary to preserve the available stores of APMs in case they
have to be used in the interests of state
security.”[7]
Landmine Problem
The U.S. State Department in 1993 reported that an
unknown number of German and Russian landmines from World War II were scattered
about Kazakhstan.[8] However,
Kazakhstan declared to the United Nations in 1995 that it was not mine
affected[9] and has repeated the
assertion in April 2000: “There are no mine-affected territories in
Kazakhstan, thus there are no necessity of demining, no danger of mine-incidents
with civilians and mine-victim
assistance.”[10] There
have been no recent reports of casualties due to uncleared mines.
Kazakhstan acknowledges that its long borders are
mined.[11] It can be assumed
that Kazakh mines are deployed along its border with China.
Kazakhstan is not known to have made any contributions to international mine
action programs. The Kazakhstan armed forces reportedly have sophisticated mine
removal and mine destruction
capabilities.[12]
[1] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, Director of
the Department of Multilateral Cooperation, Embassy of Kazakhstan in Moscow,
Russian Federation, in response to IPPNW-Russia inquiry. Letter No.20/178, 19
April 2000. [2] Response to
Questionnaire on Antipersonnel Landmines, Permanent Delegation of the Republic
of Kazakhstan to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
FSC.DEL/32/00, Vienna, 3 February
2000. [3] Response to OSCE, 3 February
2000. [4] Letter from E. Kazykhanov, 19
April 2000; Response to OSCE, 3 February
2000. [5] Response to OSCE, 3 February
2000. [6] United Nations, Country
Report: Kazakhstan, available at:
http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country/kazakhst.htm. [7]
Response to OSCE, 3 February 2000. [8]
U.S. Department of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared
Landmines, July 1993, p. 111. [9] United
Nations, Country Report:
Kazakhstan. [10] Letter from E.
Kazykhanov, 19 April 2000. [11]
Ibid. [12] Hidden Killers, p.
111.