LM Report 2001

Full Report   Executive Summary   Translations   Major Findings   Key Developments   Print   Maps

	Select a chapter ... About LM 2001 Introduction Africa Americas Asia-Pacific Europe/Central Asia Middle East/North Africa ICBL Appendices Exec. Summary Maps
	Select a country ... -STATES PARTIES- Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Cape Verde Chad Congo (Brazzaville) Côte D'ivoire Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Gabon Ghana Guinea Guinea Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone South Africa Swaziland Tanzania Togo Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe -SIGNATORIES- Angola Burundi Cameroon Ethiopia Gambia São Tomé e Principe Sudan -NON SIGNATORIES- Central African Republic Comoros Dem. Rep. of Congo Eritrea Nigeria Somalia -OTHER- Somaliland

GUINEA

Mine Ban Policy

Guinea signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 8 October 1998. It entered into force for Guinea in April 1999. There is no national implementation legislation in place. Guinea has not made its required Article 7 transparency report submissions to the United Nations. The initial report deadline of 28 September 1999 was not met, nor have the subsequent deadlines of 30 April 2000 and 30 April 2001 been met.

Landmine Monitor was informed in May 2001 that an officer in charge of the mine ban file was recently appointed to make all necessary steps to implement national legislation and write the transparency reports as quickly as possible in order to meet the Guinean international commitments.^[1]

Guinea attended the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2000, but not the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000 and May 2001. Guinea participated in the Bamako Seminar on Universalization and Implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty in Africa held in Bamako, Mali, on 15 and 16 February 2001. Guinea voted in favor of the November 2000 UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Mine Ban Treaty. Guinea is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, Transfer, and Stockpiling

Guinea is not known to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines. A Foreign Ministry official told Landmine Monitor that Guinea would not allow another country to transit antipersonnel mines across its territory. He said that given the strategic position of the country, Guinea wishes to encourage effective implementation of the treaty throughout the region.^[2]

Guinea has been one of the few countries in the world that has not publicly acknowledged whether or not it maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines.^[3] In 2001, Landmine Monitor has received possibly contradictory information from Guinean sources. The Guinean military told Landmine Monitor in February 2001 that they had no stockpile.^[4] However, two members of the army have independently acknowledged that there could be a stock in Guinea, but strictly for training purposes, as permitted under Article 3 of the Mine Ban Treaty.^[5]

Use

Between September 2000 and February 2001, various rebel groups operated in the border areas between Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Government and army officials met with both formally and informally maintain that if there were to be any incidents with landmines on Guinean territory, it would have to be the result of landmines being brought into the country by these non-state actors.^[6]

No incidents with landmines have been recorded throughout the entire period of full-scale war going on between the various rebel groups, local Guinean volunteer army and the Guinean armed forces.^[7] Throughout the year humanitarian organizations and international media have continuously reported that thousands of displaced populations and refugees crossed daily the borders between Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. None of these organizations or media have, however, reported any landmine incident. This would seem to clearly indicate that no landmines have been laid in these areas.^[8]

One humanitarian organization claims that the Guinean military is considering mining its border to stop the Sierra Leonean Revolutionary United Front (RUF) infiltration.^[9] Landmine Monitor has not found any evidence to substantiate this claim. Moreover, the official in charge of the mine ban issue stated that laying of mines by Guinea would be totally in contradiction with Guinean interests, as the purpose of present policy is precisely to avoid that such a scourge affects its territory.^[10]

Mine Action, Casualties and Survivor Assistance

Guinea is not considered mine-affected,^[11] and reportedly has never had a mine incident on its soil.^[12] However, some border areas and particularly the towns of Guéckédou and Pamelap are affected by unexploded ordnance. Both towns were heavily shelled by the Guinean army to dislodge RUF rebels. The destroyed towns are presently empty and consequently, there are no UXO incidents at the moment. The problem will certainly arise when the inhabitants attempt to come back.^[13] A third town more recently UXO-affected is Conakry itself, where a terrible explosion occurred on 2 March 2001 at Alpha Yaya Diallo Camp, killing about 100 people and spreading ammunition into the area of the town called “Simbaya.”^[14]

Since the landmine problem in Guinea is considered to be non-existent, there has never been the need for mine action programs.^[15]

Although the hospitals of Kissidougou and Conakry have received many victims of the hostilities, most notably between September 2000 and February 2001, not one incident involving a mine casualty has been recorded.^[16]

^[1] Interview with Mohamed Camara, National Director of Legal and Consular Affairs, Ministry of the Presidency in Charge of Foreign Affairs, Intersessional Standing Committee Meeting, Geneva, 9 May 2001.
^[2] Ibid.
^[3] Landmine Monitor Fact Sheet, Prepared by Human Rights Watch for the Seminar on the Implementation and Universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty, Bamako, Mali, 15-16 February 2001.
^[4] Interview with Michel Lamah, Head of Battalion, Headquarters, Ministry of National Defense, at the Seminar on the Implementation and Universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty, Bamako, Mali, 15 February 2001. This statement was also made orally during the Stockpile Destruction workshop. Notes taken by Landmine Monitor/Human Rights Watch.
^[5] Informal interview with army officer, Kissidougou, 6 May 2001, and a second officer, Guéckédou, 8 May 2001.
^[6] Informal conversation, Ministry of Defense, Conakry, 10 May 2001; informal interview with army officer, Kissidougou, 6 May 2001; interview with Sékou Cissé, Director of the regional hospital, Kissidougou, 9 May 2001.
^[7] Interview with Sékou Cissé, Director of the regional hospital, Kissidougou, 9 May 2001.
^[8] Interview with Mohamed Camara, Ministry of the Presidency in Charge of Foreign Affairs, Geneva, 9 May 2001.
^[9] Confidential source, May 2001.
^[10] Interview with Mohamed Camara, Ministry of the Presidency in Charge of Foreign Affairs, Geneva, 9 May 2001.
^[11] Ibid. Please also refer to Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 55.
^[12] Interview with Michel Lama, Guinean government representative, Bamako Seminar, Bamako, Mali, 15 February 2001.
^[13] Landmine Monitor field trip to Conakry, Kissidougou and Guéckédou, May 2001. Pamelap is a small town to the south of Conakry on the border with Sierra Leone.
^[14] Landmine Monitor observation and informal conversation, Conakry, 12 May 2001. No other information could be gathered as it is strictly forbidden to talk about this event in Guinea.
^[15] Informal conversation, Ministry of Defense, Conakry, 10 May 2001; informal interview with army officer, Kissidougou, 6 May 2001; interview with Sékou Cissé, Director of the regional hospital in Kissidougou, 9 May 2001; interview with Mohamed Camara, National Director of Legal and Consular Affairs, Ministry of the Presidency in Charge of Foreign Affairs, Intersessional Standing Committee Meeting, Geneva, 9 May 2001.
^[16] Interview with Sékou Cissé, Director of the regional hospital in Kissidougou, 9 May 2001; interview with the Felice Dindo, Acting Head of Delegation, ICRC, Conakry, 3 May 2001.

<Previous | Next>