Although
it signed the Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) on 4 December 1997, Poland has said that it
is not likely to ratify the treaty in the foreseeable future. At the First
Meeting of States Parties to the MBT in May 1999, head of delegation Zbigniew
Szymanski, Director of UN Political Affairs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
spelled out the reasons for this position. Noting Poland's "particular
geostrategic situation," he said that while showing support for the MBT by
signing it, states "can not neglect the other side of the anti-personnel
landmines problem, the Convention has also considerable security
implications."[1]
In February 2000, the government said "the treaty has not been ratified yet
because neither the US, nor China, nor, what is more important, Russia or other
of Poland's eastern neighbors has done so."[2] A distinction was made between
the "humanitarian" rationale for signing the MBT and the "security" rationale
for not ratifying it, stating that the security rationale will only be satisfied
when these other states ratify the
MBT.[3] As an example of the
security side, in March 2000 Bronislaw Komorowski, Chairman of the Sejm
Commission for National Defense (a parliamentary committee) cited the conflict
in Chechnya as a positive example of the utility of
mines.[4]
In its report to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE), Poland also set out three conditions which must be fulfilled to make it
possible to ratify the Convention: that all main producers and permanent members
of the UN Security Council should join the Convention, that all neighboring
countries of Poland should join the Convention, and that the Polish Army have
alternatives for the weapon.[5]
One observer noted that according to some Polish diplomats this will remain the
case until at least 2006, the year that the United States has proposed to join
the MBT.[6]
Government representatives attended meetings of each of the Standing
Committee of Experts (SCE), except for Mine Clearance. Poland also participated
in the regional landmine conferences in Zagreb in June 1999 and Ljubljana in
June 2000.
Poland voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly resolutions
supporting a ban on landmines in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and co-sponsored and
voted for the 1999 resolution supporting universalization of the MBT. During
the 1999 debate in the UN First Committee, Poland associated itself with the
European Union statement that "emphasized the importance of a full and speedy
implementation of the Ottawa
Convention."[7]
Poland is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons but has not
ratified its Amended Protocol II (1996). It attended the First Conference of
States Parties to the Amended Protocol II in December 1999 as an observer. In
the same month Poland reported to the OSCE that all ministries and institutions
supported ratification of Amended Protocol II, and expected formal ratification
in early 2000."[8]
The government continues to view the Conference on Disarmament (CD) as the
appropriate forum for dealing with landmines. In a statement before the
Conference, Bronislaw Geremek, Minister of Foreign Affairs, indicated that "a
global ban on transfers of anti-personnel landmines...would be a fitting theme
for the Conference on Disarmament" and insisted that Poland regarded the CD "as
the principle, indeed sole, multilateral disarmament negotiating body of the
international community."[9] It
has also argued that a transfer ban in the CD would contribute to keeping
landmines out of the hands of "non-governmental forces and terrorist
groups."[10]
Production, Transfer and Stockpile
Poland has produced at least one type of
antipersonnel landmine, the
PSM-1,[11] but has stated on
more than one occasion that its production stopped in the
mid-1980s.[12] An export ban
was first enacted in 1995 and has been extended
indefinitely.[13] The size and
composition of Poland’s AP mine stockpile is unknown. In May 2000 a
Foreign Ministry official stated that the stockpile of AP mines is small and
kept solely for reasons of national
security.[14]
Mine Action
The government reported in 1998 that Poland is not
mine-affected but may still have a problem with unexploded ordnance (UXO) from
World War II.[15] By 1985
Poland had disposed of over eighty-eight million items of UXO, including fifteen
million mines.[16]
The Foreign Ministry reports that Poland has provided training and assistance
for demining and rehabilitation of mine victims in Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Lebanon.[17] Poland also sent
specialists to demining training programs in Albania and Yemen, and granted
$10,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1999, in support of
victim assistance
operations.[18] Poland has also
played an active role in humanitarian demining via the Euro-Atlantic Partnership
Council and NATO's Partnership for
Peace.[19] It has not
contributed to the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Mine Action.
[1] Statement by Mr. Zbigniew Szymanski,
Director of UN Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at First Meeting
of States Parties (FMSP) to the Mine Ban Treaty, Maputo, Mozambique, 3-7 May
1999. [2] Letter from Zbigniew
Szymanski, Director of UN Political Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to
Piotr M. Hajac, 10 February 2000. [3]
Ibid. [4] Pawel Wronski, "Straight Face
for Bad Mine," Gazeta Wyborcza, 7 March
2000. [5] Report of the Mission of
Poland to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), 14
December 1999, p. 1. [6] Pawel Wronski,
"Straight Face for Bad Mine," Gazeta Wyborcza, 7 March
2000. [7] Statement by the European
Union and the Associated Countries, UN First Committee on Disarmament and
International Security, 1999 General Debate, 11-20 October 1999; available at:
http://www.acronym.org.uk/unfccomp.htm. [8]
Report to the OSCE, 14 December
1999. [9] “‘Security has to
be a Common Commodity which is Assured to All,’ Polish Foreign Minister
Tells Conference on Disarmament,” Press Release DCF/364, Conference on
Disarmament, 23 March 1999. [10]
Statement by Mr. Zbigniew Szymanski, FMSP, May
1999. [11] U.S. Department of Defense,
“Mine Facts” CD ROM. [12]
United Nations General Assembly, “Report of the Secretary-General:
Moratorium on the export of antipersonnel landmines,” A/50/701, 3 November
1995, p. 3; Statement by Mr. Zbigniew Szymanski, FMSP, May
1999. [13] “Report of the
Secretary-General Moratorium on the export of antipersonnel landmines,”
A/50/701, 3 November 1995, p. 3; Report to the OSCE, 14 December
1999. [14] Telephone interview with Mr.
Tomaszewski, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Warsaw, 18 May 2000. In addition to AP
mines, Human Rights Watch has identified several antivehicle mines produced and
stockpiled by Poland that may have antipersonnel capabilities, and thus may be
prohibited by the MBT. These include the MN-111, MN-121, MN-123 and MPP-B
antivehicle mines. See, Human Rights Watch Fact Sheet, “Antivehicle Mines
with Antihandling Devices,” January
2000. [15] Statement of Mr. Kazimierz
Tomaszewki to Budapest Conference, 26-28 March 1998; available at:
http:www.un.org.Depts/Landmines/index.html. [16]
Arthur H. Westing, “Explosive Remnants of War: an Overview,” in
Arthur H. Westing, Ed., Explosive Remnants of War: Mitigating the Environmental
Effects, (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and UN Environment
Programme, 1985), p. 6. [17] Statement
by Mr. Zbigniew Szymanski, FMSP, May
1999. [18] Report to the OSCE, 14
December 1999, p. 3. [19] Interview with
Grzegorz Poznanski, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 February 2000.
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