LM Report 2000

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SOLOMON ISLANDS

The Solomon Islands signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified on 26 January 1999. The treaty entered into force for the Solomon Islands on 1 July 1999. It has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, which was due by 27 December 1999.

The Solomon Islands voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B in support of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999, as it had on previous UNGA landmine resolutions. The Solomon Islands did not attend the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo and has not participated in the intersessional meetings of the ban treaty, most likely due to resource constraints.

The Solomon Islands has no defense force and is believed to have never produced, transferred, stockpiled, or used AP mines. The Solomon Islands is not known to provide assistance to humanitarian mine action.

There is a problem with UXO left over from World War II, especially on Guadalcanal, but it is unknown if this includes landmines. Recent media reports indicated that the WW II weapons once buried in ammunition dumps around the island of Guadalcanal, have been “dug up and pressed into service in a new conflict – the fighting between Isatabu militants who want to push migrant Malaitans off Guadalcanal, the nation's main island.”^[1] Isatabu rebel leader Andrew Tee told media that his troops have no need to buy ammunition from outside the Solomon Islands because “[w]e get our arms from the American rubbish, what they left.”

[1] “Back In Service: Rebels in Solomon Islands are using U.S. weapons left over from WWII,” Associated Press (Ngalibiu, Solomon Islands), reprinted in Dallas Morning News, 15 June 2000.