Key developments since May 2002: Greece
has completed domestic measures necessary to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty and on 3
May 2003, Greece and Turkey issued a joint statement that they would adhere to
the treaty simultaneously. In March 2003, the Ministry of Defense for the first
time revealed the size of Greece’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines to be
just over one million mines.
Mine Ban Policy
Greece signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997. On 19 March 2002, the Greek Parliament voted unanimously to ratify the
treaty, which was published as Law 2999/2002 in the Official Gazette on 8
April 2002. Since then, the instrument of ratification has been held in New
York, awaiting deposit at the United
Nations.[1] After the Turkish
parliament adopted accession legislation, the Foreign Ministers of Greece and
Turkey issued a joint statement on 3 May 2003 announcing their intention to
simultaneously submit their respective instruments of ratification and
accession.[2] No timetable was
set for this to happen.
Greece participated as an observer in the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in
September 2002. Ambassador Tassos Kriekoukis, the Permanent Representative of
Greece to the UN in Geneva, described the Mine Ban Treaty as the most important
instrument to achieve a mine-free world and noted that Greece is a member of the
Human Security Network, which is encouraging other States to join the treaty.
He also noted that Greece is carrying out mine clearance operations in the
Epirus and Macedonia regions.[3]
On 8 October 2002, European parliamentarians asked if the presence of Greek
mines along the country’s border with Turkey was compatible with the
European Union policy in support of the total elimination of antipersonnel
mines. The European Parliament responded that it was aware of the mine problem
on the border and that Greece and Turkey were close to joining the Mine Ban
Treaty.[4]
On 22 November 2002, Greece voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution
57/74, which calls for the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban
Treaty. Greece attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in
February and May 2003.
Greece is party to Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional
Weapons (CCW) and attended the Protocol’s Fourth Annual Conference of
States Parties in December 2002. Greece submitted an annual report, as required
by Article 13 of the Protocol, on 12 March 2002.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
Greece has had a moratorium on production and
export of antipersonnel mines for a number of
years.[5]
In March 2003, the Ministry of Defense revealed to Landmine Monitor that
Greece’s antipersonnel mine stockpile totals 1,078,557
mines.[6] This was the first
public declaration on the size of the stockpile. Previously, a 19 March 2001
report to a closed session of parliament had indicated a stockpile total of 1.25
million antipersonnel mines.[7]
In May 2002, Greece reported to the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction
that the stockpile includes four types of antipersonnel mines: M2 and M16
(deployed in minefields as well as stockpiled), M14 and DM31. Greece reported
that two stockpile destruction options were under
consideration.[8] Greece also
possesses a fifth type of antipersonnel mine, the ADAM projectile.
Landmine Problem and Mine Clearance
Greece maintains minefields on its border with
Turkey, along the Evros River in northern Greece. There are also mined areas
dating from the Greek civil war (1947-1949) in the Epirus, Grammos, and Vitsi
mountains, and in areas near the border with Bulgaria.
Greece has stated that its minefields along the border with Turkey are
“clearly defined and marked, well above any standard established by
Amended Protocol II and the relevant NATO” standards. From 28 August to 2
September 2002, the Landmine Monitor Greece researcher visited these border
areas after making a request to the Ministry of Defense. Landmine Monitor
observed a 1.7-meter-tall outer fence erected around the minefields, as well as
two rows of older fencing further inside the minefields, and warning signs in
red phosphorescent paint spaced between one and 1.5 meters apart.
In the northern regions, Greece has reported that there are “no
properly defined minefields in this area and no maps, the number of dangerous
devices to be removed is very large.... ‘Suspect areas’ to be
cleared and secured in the mountains of Grammos and Vitsi alone, measure well
over 40,000 hectares.”[9]
In 2002, the Greek Army demined 66,000 square meters of mine-affected land in
these regions, as part of an ongoing clearance
operation.[10]
Clearance operations along the border with Bulgaria were completed in
December 2001.[11]
Unexploded ordnance (UXO) left over from World War II continues to pose a
threat. On 17 May 2003, a British mine was found by fishermen in the sea off
Kavala and defused.[12] World
War II UXO was found and destroyed at 2004 Olympics construction sites near
Hellenikon airport outside of
Athens.[13]
Mine Action Assistance
In 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Service
for International Development Cooperation provided mine action funding of
approximately €1,571,000 (US$1.5 million), including €611,000 for
demining in Bosnia and Herzegovina, €884,000 for demining in Lebanon, and
€76,000 as a contribution to the UN Voluntary Fund for Assistance in Mine
Action.[14]
The grants for Lebanon and Bosnia and Herzegovina funded demining projects by
a Greek demining NGO, the International Mine Initiative (IMI), which was founded
in 2000. IMI reported that in Bosnia and Herzegovina it carried out
humanitarian clearance of 150,000 square meters of mine-contaminated land in
District Brcko. This was IMI's third demining project in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. It started demining operations in Lebanon in 2002, in the
Nabatiyeh area.[15] In 2002
Greece also donated mine detection equipment to the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia.[16]
In 2002, Greek Army deminers took part in the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in
Afghanistan.[17] Greek Army
deminers were also involved in mine clearance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the
context of the international Stabilization Force
(SFOR).[18]
Landmine Casualties
In 2002, 10 new mine casualties were reported:
four were killed and six injured. There is no central register of mine
casualties.[19] On 20 March
2002, two immigrants from Turkey were killed and another injured near the border
village of Kastanies, 70 kilometers south of Gemisti, after entering a
minefield, which an army official said was “clearly marked and even had
fluorescent warning signs and a double perimeter
fence.”[20] On 28 March,
another immigrant was killed and three others were injured after straying into a
fenced minefield, again near Gemisti. The immigrants were from Algeria, Iraq,
and Morocco.[21] On 29 August
2002, one Turkish Kurd was killed and two more were slightly injured attempting
to cross the Evros minefields near
Vyssa.[22]
In 2001, ten civilians were killed and four injured in mine incidents. In
addition, two Army mine clearers were killed while defusing a mine near
Petritsi, Serres, on the Bulgarian border. According to the Greek military,
since 1954, 30 personnel have been killed and 17 more injured in mine/UXO
clearance operations.[23]
Greece has stated that fencing and marking of the minefields along the border
between Greece and Turkey has been improved and that it now exceeds NATO
standards. Based upon the number of migrants arrested, Greece estimates that
these measures have resulted in reduction of mine incidents by almost 90
percent.[24]
Casualties continue to be reported in 2003. On 4 January 2003, two African
immigrants were killed and another was severely injured after they strayed into
an Evros minefield near Marassia in thick fog after crossing over from Turkey.
The injured man was taken to a hospital in the nearby town of
Didymotichon.[25] On 24 March
2003, it was reported that among a group of 20 Somali migrants, one man was
killed and another injured in a minefield on the Evros
border.[26]
A survey of media reports carried out by Médecins sans
Frontières-Greece indicated that the number of mine casualties per year
averaged eight between 1994 and
2002.[27] A press report in
August 2002 said that illegal migration into Greece “has rocketed over the
past decade, and minefield deaths have reached 64 since
1990.”[28]
Survivor Assistance
The Ministry of Defense and the National Health
System are the main bodies in Greece involved in assistance to mine survivors.
There is emergency medical treatment offered free at the hospitals in the
mine-affected northeastern area. The treatment includes all nursing care,
intensive care, and medicines. In addition, the Hellenic Red Cross provides
physiotherapy and support. Mine casualties in the southern part of the Evros
border area have been treated at Alexandroupolis General Hospital, and in the
central and northern sections at Didymoteichon General and Army Hospitals.
Greece has claimed previously that mine survivors receive full medical and
rehabilitation assistance programs, including prosthetic services, with all
expenses covered through the National Health System of Greece
(ESY).[29] However, interviews
carried out by the Landmine Monitor researcher in hospitals in northeastern
Greece indicate that no prostheses are available, although some hospitals are
seeking private sponsorship to finance the provision of prostheses in the
future.
The Director of the Orthopedic Surgical Department at Alexandroupolis General
Hospital reported the cost of treating 15 mine survivors between 1997 and 2002
totaled €38,179 in general nursing care (€73 for general nursing per
day, 523 days for 15 patients). To this must be added intensive care costs and
extras such as X-rays, splints, and
pins.[30]
[1] Intervention by Greece, Standing
Committee on General Status and Operation of the Convention, 12 May 2003; see
also, Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p.
557. [2] Statement by the Permanent
Representative of Turkey on behalf of Turkish and Greek Delegations on the
Ottawa Convention, Standing Committee on General Status and Operation of the
Convention, Geneva, 12 May 2003; Karolos Grohmann, “Neighbors Greece and
Turkey – Let’s Live in Peace,” Reuters, 23 May
2003. [3] Intervention by Greece, Fourth
Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 18 September 2002 (Landmine Monitor
notes). [4] Question posed by Dr.
André Brie and Jan Joost Lagendijk, European Parliament, 8 October 2002,
RAT Art. 44; Reply by European Parliament No. E-2960/02, 20 February
2003. [5] Apparently, the moratorium on
export has been in place since 1994, and on production since 1997. See Landmine
Monitor Report 2001, p. 829. [6]
Interview with Major Kontantinos Kalantzis and General Athanasios Kofos,
Engineers Directorate, General Defense Headquarters, Ministry of Defense,
Athens, 31 March 2003. [7] Minutes of
the Governmental 1st Period, Presidential Democracy, Second Meeting, 19 March
2002. [8] Presentation by Major Ionannis
Christogiannis, Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 30 May
2002. [9] Article 13 Report, Form B, 11
December 2002. [10] Interview with Major
Kontantinos Kalantzis and General Athanasios Kofos, Engineers Directorate,
General Defense Headquarters, Ministry of Defense, Athens, 31 March
2003. [11] For more details, see
Landmine Monitor Report 2002, pp.
559-560. [12] “Mine off
Kavala,” Kathimerini (daily newspaper, English-language internet edition),
19 May 2003. [13] “Two World War
II Bombs Found in Athens,” Associated Press, 20 January
2003. [14] Telephone interview with
Dimitrios Skoutas, Embassy Secretary, D1 Directorate, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, 25 July 2003; email from Dimitrios Skoutas, 28 July
2003. [15] International Mine
Initiative, www.deming.gr, accessed on 25 July
2003. [16] Telephone interview with
Dimitrios Skoutas, Embassy Secretary, D1 Directorate, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, 25 July 2003; email from Dimitrios Skoutas, 28 July
2003. [17] Report of Greece to the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 13 December 2002, p.
3. [18] Intervention by Greece, Fourth
Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 18 September
2002. [19] Interview with Maj.
Kontantinos Kalantzis and Gen. Athanasios Kofos, Engineers Directorate, General
Defense Headquarters, Ministry of Defense, Athens, 31 March
2003. [20] “Two More Die in Evros
Minefields,” Kathimerini (daily newspaper, English language edition), 21
March 2002; “Mines Spell Death for Illegals,” Athens News, 22 March
2002. [21] “More Bad News,”
Athens News Agency, 28 March 2002. [22]
“Mine Explosion Kills Immigrant,” Kathimerini, 29 August
2002. [23] See Landmine Monitor Report
2002, pp. 560-561. [24] Ibid., p.
560. [25] “Migrants Killed on
Border,” Kathimerini, 7 January
2003. [26] “ERT News,” ERT
(press agency), 24 March 2003. [27]
Kathy Tzilivakis, “Greece to Scrap Evros Landmines Ahead of Turkey,”
Athens News (weekly English language newspaper, 30 March
2002. [28] “Mine Explosion Kills
Immigrant,” Kathimerini, 29 August
2002. [29] Amended Protocol II Article
13 Reports, Form B, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December 2001. See
Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p.
561. [30] Fax from Dr. Dion Verettas,
Director of the Orthopedic Surgical Department, Alexandroupolis General
Hospital, 23 December 2002.