LM Report 2001

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CAPE VERDE

Key developments since May 2000: Cape Verde ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 14 May 2001.

Cape Verde signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, and ratified it on 14 May 2001. The treaty will enter into force for Cape Verde on 1 November 2001. According to Luis Dupret, Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ratification papers had waited for a while for approval by the National Assembly and the delay was due to other pressing business.^[1] Questioned on the ratification process, the Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal had said in a March 2001 letter to Landmine Monitor that “Cape Verde went through a legislative electoral period, on the 14.01.01, which altered both the Government and the National Assembly. Those organs were empowered a very recent date, therefore it is certain that the Government is still functioning as a management [transitory] Government, as it hasn’t had its program approved yet by the National Assembly, which will meet for that purpose on the 5^th [of March].”^[2]

Cape Verde attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in September 2000, where it was represented by a member of Cape Verde’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva. Cape Verde also attended the Bamako Seminar on Universalization and Implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty in Africa, held in Mali in February 2001. It has not participated in any meetings of the intersessional Standing Committees in Geneva. Cape Verde voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 55/33 V in support of the Mine Ban Treaty in November 2000.

According to the Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal, there are no mines on the territory of Cape Verde (an insular State), since the liberation struggle took place in Guinea-Bissau’s territory, when both countries had the same liberation movement (PAIGC).^[3] However, it has very important Cape-Verdian communities in severely mine-affected countries like Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. According to Luis Dupret, Cape Verde maintains no stockpile of landmines.^[4]

^[1] Interview with Luis Dupret, Secretary-General at the Cape Verde Ministry of Foreign Affairs, London, 27 May 2000.
^[2] Letter from the Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal to Landmine Monitor, Lisbon, 1 March 2001.
^[3] Interview with Cape Verde’s Ambassador to Portugal, Dr. João Higino Silva, Lisbon, 9 January 2000.
^[4] Interview with Luis Dupret, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 27 May 2000.

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