LM Report 2000

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OMAN

Key developments since March 1999: Landmine Monitor has discovered that the United States may be stockpiling antipersonnel mines at storage facilities in Seeb, Thumrait, and Masirah in the near future. The U.S. has provisionally agreed to provide humanitarian demining training to Oman.

Oman has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. At the treaty signing conference in Ottawa a representative stated that “the Sultanate of Oman shares wholeheartedly in the aims of the campaign for a total global ban...I also reaffirm that my Government is currently considering joining you as signatories to the Convention as soon as possible.”^[1] However, in 1999 and 2000 officials have not spoken on the issue in international fora, nor have they given any indication why they have not joined the treaty. On 1 December 1999 Oman joined 138 other nations in voting in favor of UNGA resolution 54/54B in support of the Mine Ban Treaty.

Oman is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but it did attend the First Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II (Landmines) in December 1999 in Geneva. Oman is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.

Oman is not believed to produce antipersonnel mines and it is not known whether Oman stockpiles them. According to Ambassador Mohammed Bin Murdas Al Quahttani, Omani ambassador to Yemen, “Oman does not have a landmine problem, nor does it export landmines.”^[2]

Landmine Monitor has discovered that the United States may be stockpiling antipersonnel mines at storage facilities in Seeb, Thumrait, and Masirah in the near future. According to U.S. Air Force plans for its war reserve ammunition stockpiles in the Persian Gulf region, U.S. Gator antipersonnel mines and Claymore mines may be introduced and stockpiled in Oman. U.S. Air Force documents indicate that ammunition storage sites at each of these facilities in Oman will eventually contain 142 CBU-89 Gator mine systems, each containing twenty-two antipersonnel mines, and 141 M18/M18A1 Claymore mines.^[3] That would constitute a total U.S. stockpile of 9,372 Gator antipersonnel mines and 423 Claymore mines in Oman.

Some remote border areas such as Dhofar Province in Oman are thought to be mine-affected.^[4] The United States provisionally approved Oman's request for humanitarian demining training assistance on 9 December 1999. Oman may receive a total of $2.2 million in humanitarian demining assistance between 2000 and 2001. A survey will be conducted sometime in 2000 to establish the training and equipment requirements needed to bring Oman's current demining units up to international standards. U.S. training of Omani deminers is scheduled to occur in February 2001. It is also possible that the U.S. will provide a mine-detecting dog capability.^[5]

[1] Sultanate of Oman’s speech at the Signing Ceremony for the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, 2-4 December, 1997, Ottawa, Canada.
[2] Interview with Ambassador Mohammed Bin Murdas Al Quahttani, Omani Ambassador to Yemen, 28 February 2000.
[3] U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command, Langley Air Force Base, Section E, Appendix 1, Enclosure 5 of Solicitation Number F44650-99-R0007 “Operation, Maintenance, And Support of Pre-positioned War Reserve Materiel in Southwest Asia” shows the planned on-hand balances of munitions stored at facilities.
[4] http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country.oman.htm.
[5] Descriptive summaries of U.S. Department of Defense demining programs provided by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance, 10 May 2000.