Key developments
since March 1999: The Mine Ban Treaty entered into force for New Zealand on
1 July 1999. New Zealand has continued its international advocacy in support of
the Mine Ban Treaty, and its financial and in kind contributions to mine action
programs.
Mine Ban Policy
New Zealand signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3
December 1997, enacted implementation legislation (the Anti-Personnel Mines
Prohibition Act 1998) on 9 December 1998, and deposited its instrument of
ratification on 27 January 1999. The treaty entered into force for New Zealand
on 1 July 1999. Its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report was submitted
on 27 December 1999.
New Zealand participated in the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo.
Its delegation was led by HE René Wilson, New Zealand High Commissioner
to South Africa and Mozambique, and also included the Convenor of the New
Zealand Campaign Against Landmines (CALM). In his plenary statement, Wilson
expressed disappointment over the reports of the laying of new mines in Kosovo
and Angola and said that “New Zealand will continue to work strenuously to
make this Treaty
universal.”[1] He stated,
“Demining must also remain a priority. The increase in resources that
have been put into this area in recent years is encouraging. New Zealand will
continue, as a matter of priority, its efforts in the area of
demining.”
Representatives from the New Zealand UN mission in Geneva have attended some
of the intersessional meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty, but have not been notably
active or vocal participants.
In November 1999, New Zealand Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN
Trevor Hughes told the 54th session of the UN General Assembly, “The
laying of new mines in Angola this year as hostilities resumed is particularly
deplorable. New Zealand has had a long standing involvement in mine action
efforts in Angola, and it was disheartening to see UN mine action efforts
reduced and shut down after so much
work.”[2]
In December 1999, New Zealand voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B
in support of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had on similar resolutions in 1997 and
1998.
A new government took office in December 1999 and the new Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, Hon. Mr. Phil Goff, made a detailed response to Landmine
Monitor’s request for updated
information.[3] He said,
“New Zealand welcomes the Landmine Monitor Report and considers that it is
a useful tool for encouraging transparency and the universalisation of the
Ottawa Convention.”[4]
Goff described New Zealand’s activities in support of the ban on AP
mines including raising accession to the treaty in high level bilateral meetings
with non-signatory governments, “Recently these have included Finland,
Russia, China, and
Israel.”[5]
At a meeting on 26 January 2000, CALM representatives and senior staff from
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) met to discuss the ways in
which both groups could work to encourage submission of outstanding Article 7
transparency reports, and also to encourage and assist signatory and
non-signatory states in the region to fully join the Mine Ban Treaty. There was
a shared concern that some antivehicle mines with antihandling devices held by
some States Parties may not be legal under the Mine Ban
Treaty.[6]
New Zealand ratified Amended Protocol II (Landmines) of the Convention on
Conventional Weapons on 8 January 1998. New Zealand's Disarmament Ambassador,
based in Geneva, attended the December 1999 First Annual Conference of States
Parties to Amend Protocol II, but did not make a statement. New Zealand has
submitted its Amended Protocol II Article 13 transparency report.
At a January 2000 meeting with CALM, the Acting Director of the International
Security and Arms Control division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated
emphatically that the government was not interested in any effort on AP mines in
the Conference on Disarmament and noted that the government would oppose it
being added to the
agenda.[7]
ICBL Issues of Concern
The ICBL has expressed concern about the possibility of ban treaty
non-signatories, notably the United States, transiting antipersonnel mines
through the national territory, waters, or airspace of States Parties. Foreign
Minister Goff told Landmine Monitor that:
Under the Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition Act 1998, “transfer”
is defined as including both importation into, and exportation from, New
Zealand. Under the Customs and Excise Act 1996, importation and exportation are
defined in terms of entry to or exit from New Zealand territory, including New
Zealand territorial waters. Therefore, any transit of anti-personal mines
through New Zealand territory would constitute a transfer, and would be
prohibited under s7(1)(d) of the Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition
Act.[8]
The ICBL has also expressed concern about the possibility of ban treaty
non-signatories using antipersonnel mines in joint military operations with
State Parties. Foreign Minister Goff wrote that:
As a party to the Convention, New Zealand does not support the use of
anti-personnel mines for any purpose, and indeed continues to promote universal
adherence to the Convention. In practice, there may be instances where New
Zealand's armed forces participate in combined military operations with States
not party to the Convention. However, there would be absolutely no question of
New Zealand's armed forces engaging in prohibited conduct, since they are bound
by the obligations of the Convention and the prohibitions under the
Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition Act. Section 6 of the Act makes it clear that
the Act binds the Crown, and s8(d) puts the matter beyond doubt:
(d) A member of the armed forces may, in the course of his or her duties,
participate in operations, exercises, or other military activities with armed
forces of a state not a party to the Convention that engages in conduct
prohibited by section 7 (1), if that participation does not amount to active
assistance in the prohibited
conduct.”[9]
In further comment on the question of the treaty prohibition on
“assist” with respect to joint military operations, Foreign Minister
Goff wrote:
As noted above, s8(d) of the Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition Act prohibits
members of the New Zealand armed forces from actively assisting in any conduct
prohibited by the Convention, when engaged in combined military activities with
States not party to the Convention. In light of the range of hypothetical
situations that may arise, it is not possible to assess questions of
interoperability except on a case-by-case basis. As a general proposition,
however, it is New Zealand's view that making military use of munitions laid by
a State not party to the Convention, or assisting another State in any way to
lay such munitions, would constitute a breach of the Convention; merely being
part of a coalition in which other States used APMs, however, would
not.[10]
Production, Transfer, Use
New Zealand has never produced or exported
antipersonnel mines, but has in the past imported AP mines from the United
States and perhaps other
nations.[11] At the First
Annual Conference of States Parties to the Amended Protocol II in Geneva in
December 1999, a Pakistani representative said that New Zealand had attempted to
buy antipersonnel mines from
Pakistan.[12] In response to
allegations that it had tried to illegally sell antipersonnel mines, the
state-owned Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) said:
The POF does not export anti-personnel mines (APMs) to any part of the
world.... The items shown at Serial No. 12 and 13 in our quotation are not APMs
but devices that can only be exploded by the installer/defender. These are not
victim-actuated mines.... It may be relevant to mention here that for the same
category of items we have received queries from a company based in Australia for
export to New Zealand which is a party to the Ottawa Convention on
landmines.”[13]
Serial No. 12 is the P5A3 Claymore-type mine and Serial No. 13 is the P7 MK2
bounding mine;[14] the latter is
clearly prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty. CALM representatives subsequently
met with MFAT officials who stated that the New Zealand Defence Forces had
placed an order with an Australian company for Pakistan-supplied demolition
charges, but not the antipersonnel mines cited by
POF.[15] According to the
officials, the demolition charges (designated Charge Demolition No. 1 and 6-inch
Beehive Mk-6) are designed so that the explosive thrust goes downwards and are
used to destroy landmines,but cannot be considered landmines.
New Zealand has a history of mine use dating back to World War II and the
Korean War, but prohibited operational use in 1996.
Stockpiling
New Zealand destroyed all of its mines, both
antipersonnel and antitank, when it declared the unilateral ban on use in 1996.
The exact number destroyed is unknown. New Zealand has not retained any
antipersonnel mines for training or research purposes, as allowed under Article
3 of the Mine Ban Treaty.[16]
Captain Martin Donoghue of the New Zealand Army said no mines are being kept for
training because of the risk of serious injury to trainees. It was considered
to be far more preferable to purchase sets of replica mines containing no
explosive. A contract was arranged with a local company for the production of
practice mines that emit a puff of smoke and a small report when
triggered.[17] New Zealand has
a small stockpile of command-detonated Claymore mines, which are permitted by
the treaty.
Mine Action
In February 2000, during his first visit to New
Zealand, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan complimented New Zealand on its work on
humanitarian demining and on its advocacy in support of the Mine Ban
Treaty.[18]
CALM has noted New Zealand’s departure in June 1999 from participation
in the mine clearance program in Angola as perhaps the most disappointing aspect
of New Zealand’s international contribution to mine action in the past
year. Two New Zealand Army engineers at the UN demining school near Luanda
returned home in June 1999 and were not replaced. New Zealand soldiers have
been involved with the school since it was set up in 1995. A senior Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade official commented that the mine clearance training
capability the New Zealand engineers had helped to build would not be lost with
their departure: “They would have been pulled out eventually in any case,
leaving a pool of indigenous skills in their wake, but growing safety concerns
with Angola's slide back into civil war prompted an earlier
withdrawal.”[19]
New Zealand continues to contribute funds to humanitarian mine action
programs in Cambodia, Laos, and Mozambique, as well as through the UN.
The letter to Landmine Monitor from Foreign Minister Goff has a lengthy
description of the several sets of criteria that are taken into account by the
government when deciding which mine action project to support. Among these are
principles developed by the United Nations, especially that priority should be
given to those who are most vulnerable, to mine action conducted under civilian
auspices, and to affected countries whose authorities cease further use of
antipersonnel landmines, and take steps to cease the trade, manufacture and
stockpiling of antipersonnel
landmines.[23]
Most NZODA mine action assistance forms a part of a wider package of
humanitarian aid in relevant bilateral and multilateral programs. It is
recognized that mine action is crucial not only in a humanitarian sense but also
as a precondition for enabling the development of rural
areas.[24]
The government has also provided funds for the New Zealand branch of the
Cambodia Trust (Aotearoa New Zealand), which in turn supports the Cambodia
School of Prosthetics and Orthotics. The head of Aotearoa New Zealand told
Landmine Monitor that by 2001 Cambodia should be self-sufficient in fully
trained prosthetists. The School this year has also been training people from
Laos (five), Sri Lanka (two) and the Solomon Islands (one). Funding for the
School has now been underwritten by the Nippon Foundation at least until the
year 2004. Future plans under consideration include funding one of the three
Cambodia Trust field clinics in Cambodia, or the adoption of a village badly
affected by landmines.[25]
Foreign Minister Goff has noted that “resources that are allocated to
national mine action programmes are intended to reinforce New Zealand's in-kind
contributions to UN mine action programmes, which aim to develop indigenous
capacities for mine action. Funding to individual projects has specific
objectives, e.g. the re-employment of landmine
survivors.”[26]
New Zealand’s in-kind contributions to humanitarian assistance for 1999
and 2000 include: two NZDF personnel serving as technical advisers with CMAC in
Cambodia and a contribution of $108,000; two New Zealanders working in the
Accelerated Demining Programme in Mozambique administered by UNDP and a $121,000
contribution; two personnel (a logistics/procurement adviser and a national
technical adviser) assisting the Laos UXO program and a $108,000 contribution.
Moreover, in May 1999, Lt. Col. John Flanagan was seconded by the New Zealand
Defence Force to head the Kosovo Mine Action Center for an initial period of six
months. He was then granted leave without pay for a further term of one year to
continue in this position. The total contribution for Kosovo in this period was
$14,500.
New Zealand has provided two personnel on secondment to the UN Headquarters
in New York, working in relevant demining sections of the UN Secretariat. At
present, there is one adviser in the Mine Action Service in the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations.[27]
Research work into mine detection continues at the Engineering School of the
University of Auckland.
Mine Victims
New Zealand is mine-free but New Zealand civilians
and military have been killed and injured by landmines during their work
overseas. In a related casualty, Nicholas Speight, a New Zealander working with
Greenfields Consulting on the UN mine clearance program in northern Iraq, was
killed when he was shot by an unknown assailant in the city of
Irbil.[28] Speight had been
training locals in mine clearance.
[1] Statement by HE René Wilson, New
Zealand High Commissioner to South Africa and Mozambique, to the First Meeting
of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, Maputo, 4 May
1999. [2] Statement by New Zealand
Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Trevor Hughes to the UN General
Assembly, Fifty-Fourth Session, Item 35: Assistance in Mine Action, 18 November
1999. [3] Letter from Hon. Phil Goff,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 13 April
2000. [4]
Ibid. [5]
Ibid. [6] Meeting with Lucy Duncan,
Acting Director, and Simon Rae, Policy Officer, International Security and Arms
Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wellington, 26 January
2000. [7]
Ibid. [8] Letter from Hon. Phil Goff,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 13 April
2000. [9] Ibid. Emphasis
added. [10]
Ibid. [11] See Landmine Monitor Report
1999, pp. 371-372. [12] Pakistani Brig.
Feroz Hassan Khan said this in a meeting with the ICBL in Geneva, 16 December
1999. [13] Letter from Azhar Nawaz Khan,
Director Exports, Pakistan Ordnance Factories Export Division, to Mr. Steve
Boulton, LWF for Dispatches, their reference No. 4105/14/G/EXPORTS, dated
December 1999, faxed on 2 December 1999, pp.
1-2. [14] Pakistan Ordnance Factories
Export Division “Quotation for Sudan,” their reference No.
4105/14/C/Exports dated 11 November
1999. [15] Meeting with Lucy Duncan,
Acting Director, and Simon Rae, Policy Officer, International Security and Arms
Control, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wellington, 26 January
2000. [16] New Zealand Mine Ban Treaty
Article 7 report, Form D, submitted 27 December
1999. [17] Telephone interview with
Captain Martin Donoghue, New Zealand Army, 11 May
2000. [18] Statement by Kofi Annan,
Secretary General of United Nations, to UN Association of New Zealand and NZ
Institute of International Affairs, Victoria University, Wellington, 23 February
2000. [19] Mathew Dearnaley, “NZ
quits scheme to clear Angola of mines,” New Zealand Herald, p. B1, 17 May
1999. [20] Funding details provided in
Letter from Hon. Phil Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 13 April 2000.
Conversion done by Landmine Monitor
NZ$1=US$0.50. [21] Letter from Hon. Phil
Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 13 April
2000. [22]
Ibid. [23]
Ibid. [24]
Ibid. [25] Email from Russell Marshall,
Chairman Cambodia Trust Aotearoa New Zealand, to Neil Mander, CALM, 2 May 2000.
At the beginning of 1999, the School was certified as of international standing
by the International Society of Prosthetists and Orthotists, one of only three
NGO-operated schools in the world to be so
registered. [26] Letter from Hon. Phil
Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 13 April
2000. [27]
Ibid. [28] Waiel Faleh, “New
Zealander Killed in Iraq,” Associated Press (Baghdad), 26 April
1999.
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