LM Report 2000

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KIRIBATI

Kiribati has not yet acceded to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Kiribati is now a member of the United Nations having been formally accepted on 14 September 1999, but it was absent from the vote on UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B in support of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999.

A representative of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade noted that Kiribati is “sympathetic to the Ottawa Treaty and its objectives” and “possesses no anti-personnel mines.” Kiribati “wishes to evaluate the requirements that membership would have on scarce personnel resources and the effect of any financial obligations before acceding.”^[1]

At two recent regional meetings of parliamentarians in Fiji, members of parliament from Kiribati promised to work for Kiribati’s accession to the Mine Ban Treaty.^[2] In October 2000, Kiribati will host the next meeting of the South Pacific Forum.

It is believed that Kiribati has never produced, transferred, stockpiled or used AP mines, nor has it contributed to any humanitarian mine action programs.

Kiribati was the scene of heavy fighting in the Pacific during World War II and considerable quantities of military wreckage and unexploded ordnance affect Tarawa and other islands. Landmines are not believed to be among the unexploded ordnance. Much of Tarawa’s unexploded ordnance has been removed to make way for a new port development.

[1] Fax from Grahame Morton, International Security and Arms Control Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand, 30 March 1999.
[2] UNICEF, Report on the Pacific visit of Tun Channareth, International Campaign to Ban Landmines Ambassador, 22-31 March 2000, p. 3 and p. 6.