Key developments since May 2002: Russian
forces continued to use antipersonnel mines in Chechnya in 2002 and 2003.
Russia denied new allegations of mine use by Russian peacekeeping forces in
Georgia in October 2002. In 2003, Russia for the first time publicly claimed
that it destroyed more than 16.8 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines from
1996 through 2002. In November 2002, a senior military official stated that for
the past eight years Russia has not produced or supplied to its troops
antipersonnel mines of the PFM-1, PMN, PMN-2, and PMN-4 types. Russia’s
eight-year export moratorium expired on 1 December 2002, but officials indicate
that steps to formally extend it are underway. In November 2002, the ICRC
hosted a regional conference on “Landmines and Explosive Remnants of
War” in Moscow.
Mine Ban Policy
The Russian Federation has not acceded to the Mine
Ban Treaty. At an international seminar in Moscow in November 2002, a
government official said, “The Ministry of Defense of the Russian
Federation shares the concern of the international community related to the
solution of the mine problem.... Russia is aware of its role and responsibility
in the movement of the international community towards the future free of
mines.... We understand and support the humanitarian significance of it [the
ban treaty].” He listed a number of measures Russia has taken in recent
years and noted that “we think they are quite concrete steps directed at
realization of the Ottawa
Convention.”[1]
However, he confirmed that military requirements continue to shape
Russia’s attitude toward the mine ban: “As of today, the Ministry of
Defense of the Russian Federation considers anti-personnel mines as a necessary
element in its purely defensive arsenals.... At this stage we are not prepared
to implement the radical requirements related to a complete ban on and
destruction of anti-personnel mines, and immediately accede to the Ottawa
Convention.”[2]
He said Russia’s preconditions for joining the Mine Ban Treaty include
the design and production of sufficient quantities of alternatives to
antipersonnel mines and its ability to clear mine-affected areas and destroy
antipersonnel mine stockpiles within the time frames set by the Mine Ban Treaty.
Among the factors preventing Russia from joining the treaty are the
“significant length of our borders, continuous tensions in different
strategic directions, a number of treaty obligations in the field of defense
that we share with our partners from the CIS countries, the ongoing
anti-terrorist operation in Chechnya, and resistance to international terrorism
including actions against drug
trafficking.”[3]
Russia attended the Fourth Meeting of Mine Ban Treaty States Parties in
September 2002 and participated in the intersessional Standing Committee
meetings in February and May 2003. As it has done every year since 1996, Russia
abstained from voting on the annual pro-ban UN General Assembly Resolution 57/74
on 22 November 2002, which called for universalization of the Mine Ban
Treaty.
Russia is a party to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and
its original Protocol II, but not the 1996 Amended Protocol II on landmines,
booby-traps and other devices. Amended Protocol II was submitted to the State
Duma for ratification in early May 2000, but in March 2001 the ratification
package was returned for further interdepartmental consultations on legal,
political, military, technical, and economic matters and no progress toward
ratification has been noted since then.
On 4-5 November 2002 the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
hosted a regional conference on “Landmines and Explosive Remnants of
War” in Moscow with the participation of official representatives from
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS).[4] A large delegation
from Russia participated in the meeting, including high-ranking officials from
the Ministries of Defense and of Foreign Affairs. Delegations presented their
national positions and circumstances regarding the Mine Ban Treaty and CCW,
including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.
Production and Transfer
The Soviet Union was one of the world’s
largest producers and exporters of antipersonnel mines. Since 1992, Russia has
produced at least ten types of antipersonnel mines.
In November 2002, a senior military official for the first time revealed that
for the past eight years Russia has not produced or supplied to its troops
antipersonnel mines of the PFM-1, PMN, PMN-2, and PMN-4
types.[5] Previously, in May
1998, Russia declared that it had stopped producing blast antipersonnel mines,
and, in December 2000, Russia said that it was decommissioning production
facilities for blast mines.
There is no new information on the status of a prototype alternative to
antipersonnel mines called the M-225 Engineer Munition with Cluster Warhead,
which was first displayed at the International Exhibition of Defense and
Protection Means in Nizhny Taghil on 3-6 July 2001 by the Scientific Research
Machine Building Institute
(NIMI).[6]
On 1 December 1994, Russia announced a three-year moratorium on the export of
antipersonnel mines that are not detectable or not equipped with
self-destruction devices. This moratorium was extended for five years on 1
December 1997.[7] Although the
export moratorium expired on 1 December 2002 and has not been officially
extended, a Russian military official told Landmine Monitor that “Russia
continues abiding by the moratorium requirements. New moratorium elaboration is
underway.”[8] In a
presentation to a NATO-Russia meeting in April 2003, Russia confirmed that it
continues to abide by the moratorium, and stated, “The necessary documents
package for the prolongation of the moratorium has been prepared and will be
submitted to the RF
President.”[9]
Stockpiles and Stockpile Destruction
Official information on the number of
antipersonnel mines stockpiled by Russia is not publicly available. Landmine
Monitor has previously reported an estimate of 60-70 million stockpiled
antipersonnel mines, the world’s second largest
stockpile.[10] With new reports
of massive stockpile destruction, that estimate may no longer be valid.
Russian officials have acknowledged that there are antipersonnel mine
stockpiles at the disposal of Russian military units in certain other CIS
states. Tajikistan, a Mine Ban Treaty State Party, officially declared in
February 2003 that Russian forces stockpile 18,200 antipersonnel mines of
different types on its territory and that bilateral negotiations are ongoing
about the disposition of these
stockpiles.[11]
In 2003, Russia for the first time publicly claimed that it destroyed more
than 16.8 million stockpiled antipersonnel mines from 1996 through 2002. This
startling information is inconsistent with past statements and documents. For
example, in November 2002, a senior military official publicly said that
“in the period from 1991 to 2002 several million of anti-personnel mines
were recycled.”[12] In
December 2001, a Russian ambassador reported to CCW delegates, “To date,
all in all more than 1 million anti-personnel mines were destroyed and over 1
million antitank mines and about 1 million antipersonnel engineering
munitions.”[13] Very
detailed information provided by the Chief Division of Engineer Forces and
published in previous Landmine Monitor reports showed that 1,054,094 stockpiled
antipersonnel mines had been destroyed from 1996 through
2000.[14]
The new information on stockpile destruction differs from previous
information primarily with respect to PFM-1 and PFM-1S mines. Whereas before,
destruction of less than 150,000 such mines had been reported, Russia now states
that more than 13.8 million PFMs were destroyed from 1999 through
2002.[15] It appears that in
previous reporting, Russia counted destruction of KSF-1 and KSF-1S cluster mines
as one mine each, when in fact each KSF-1 contains 72 PFM-1 antipersonnel mines
and each KSF-1S contains 64 PFM-1S antipersonnel mines.
From 1996-2002, Russia now reports destruction of more than 1.6 million PMN,
PMN-2, and PMN-4 mines, 822,000 POMZ-2M mines, and 227,439 OZM-72 mines. The
overall cost of destruction has been estimated as an equivalent of about $30
million.[16]
In 2002, Russia destroyed 638,427 antipersonnel mines, including 512,000
PFM-1S.
Antipersonnel Mine Stockpile Destruction in Russia
1996-2002[17]
At a meeting between European Union representatives and officials of MoD,
MoFA and Center for Mine Action and Munitions Disposal on 27 March 2003, Russian
officials lauded a Russian cementation method—developed by the state-owned
Bazalt enterprise[20]—that
they maintain irreversibly deprives PFM-1/1S mines of the landmine function,
secures safe transportation and storage, and allows further use of
“converted” cluster mines as industrial charges with no way of using
them as mines; they maintain it provides a comprehensive solution to the
disposal of all elements of PFM-1/1S in KSF and BKF cluster
mines.[21] On 31 March 2002,
the jury at the Fifth International Salon of Industrial Technologies,
“Archimed 2002,” awarded the developers of this cementation process
the gold medal in Ammunition Demilitarization
methods.[22]
During 2002 and through early 2003, consultations have been held between
Russian Foreign and Defense Ministry representatives and the NATO Partnership
for Peace fund aimed at developing an agreement to demilitarize PFM-type
antipersonnel mines using the Russian cementation disposal method. At the same
time, preliminary talks were held on the same issue with technical experts from
the European Commission.[23]
Use
Russia has acknowledged using antipersonnel mines
during conflicts in the past six years in Chechnya and Tajikistan, but has
denied allegations of mine use in
Georgia.[24] New allegations of
mine use by Russian peacekeeping forces in Georgia surfaced in October 2002.
In Chechnya, Russian forces continued to use antipersonnel mines in 2002 and
2003. In addition to using mines to secure checkpoints, unit positions and
strategic points, Russian forces use antipersonnel mines while engaged in direct
combat operations. Russian forces also deployed antipersonnel mines in 1999 and
2000 from airplanes, helicopters, and rockets, resulting in large tracts of
mined land that is unmarked and
unfenced.[25] Russian officials
continue to assert that antipersonnel mines are only used in accordance with the
requirements of Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.
They claim all minefields are fenced and marked to prevent civilian casualties,
and that once active military operations are over, minefields are
cleared.[26] Neither past nor
current reports coming out of Chechnya validate these claims. (See separate
Landmine Monitor report on Chechnya).
Georgian media sources reported on 16 October 2002 that there was a landmine
incident involving a 14-year-old boy near Kuabchara settlement, in the upper
part of Kodori gorge, in the area under the control of the Georgian
government.[27] According to
“Rustavi-2,” a Georgian TV company, the mine had been planted by the
Russian peacekeepers during their patrolling of the gorge. The press secretary
of the CIS Peacekeeping Force, Aleksander Tretyakov, rejected these allegations,
saying, “CIS peacekeeping forces have been conducting the monitoring of
the gorge together with the UN Military Observing mission. Our task is to
control the fulfillment of the 1994 Moscow Agreement on Ceasefire and Separation
of conflicting sides, but not to plant
mines.”[28]
In February 2003, Tajikistan, a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty, reported
on minefields in Tajikistan that had been laid by Russian
forces.[29] Six minefields in
the Rushan region of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast had been laid by
Russian forces in 1995.[30]
Seven other minefields in the Vanch region and eight minefields in the Darvoz
region were emplaced by Russian forces in 1995. Additionally, nine minefields
in “regions subordined (sic) to the central government” were
emplaced in 2000 by Russian forces using PMN, PMN-2, POMZ-2, and OZM-72
antipersonnel mines. These latter minefields are located on parts of the
Tajik-Afghan border that are under the control of the Russian border guard
forces. The last time Russian authorities informed Tajik authorities of mine
use by Russian forces in Tajikistan was October
2001.[31]
Landmine Problem and Mine Action
The problem of mines and unexploded ordnance left
over from World War II remains acute in Russia. For example, bomb disposal
experts reportedly were called out 159 times around St. Petersburg alone in
2002, and removed a total of nearly 15,000 World War II-era bombs and
mines.[32] In Moscow and its
vicinity more than 500 pieces of UXO were cleared in
2002.[33] On 18 November 2002,
a German-made antipersonnel mine produced in 1939 was discovered on the edge of
the road next to the residence of the Russian Federation President in Zavidovo,
Tver region.[34] After violent
floodwaters swept through a region on the Black Sea coast in August 2002,
explosive removal experts cleared some 50 World War II-era mines and explosives
found on the shore.[35]
During the period from 1946 to 2002 in the USSR/Russian Federation, more than
153 million items of UXO and mines were cleared and
destroyed.[36] The overall cost
for these activities has been estimated at tens of billions of US
dollars.[37] A Russian
Federation delegation in December 2002 stated, “Over 100,000 mines [and
UXO] left after World War II are being deactivated every year in the territory
of Russia.”[38] In April
2003 it was estimated that a total clearance of mines and UXO in affected areas
of Russia would take 15-20 years providing “all means and resources are
utilized.”[39]
There are no humanitarian mine clearance operations underway in Chechnya, but
Russian engineering troops conduct military mine clearance operations on a daily
basis to support the safe movement of Russian
troops[40] In 2000 and 2001,
the engineer units of the United Grouping of Forces in the Northern Caucasus
surveyed and cleared about 317,900 landmines and
UXO.[41]
The Russian Federation stated in December 2002 that Russian deminers
participating in humanitarian demining programs had “rendered harmless
more than 100,000 explosive objects,” including 70,000 in Afghanistan and
Tajikistan, 25,000 in Abkhazia and Georgia, and 15,000 in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.[42]
From February through March 2002, a Russian non-governmental demining company
named “Fort” participated in humanitarian demining operations in
Croatia under a contract with Heinrich Hirdes GmbH. It checked and cleared over
156,000 square meters of land around the Drava-Dunai dam in Drav national park,
as well as the Orlovnak, Plovar, Barbara, Yakovac, Kopachevo Channels, and the
Vuka River.[43]
A Counter Mine Danger Service was reportedly established under the auspices
of the Russian Federation Engineer Forces, to integrate military and civilian
mine action-related elements, and to provide to the armed forces and the
civilian population effective protection from dangers posed by mines and
unexploded ordnance.[44]
Russian officials attributed the 43 percent reduction in the number of recorded
mine/UXO incidents in January-June 2003 as compared with the same period in 2002
to the successful work of the new Counter Mine Danger
Service.[45]
Mine Risk Education
Currently there are no federal-level mine risk
education (MRE) activities in the areas of ongoing conflict in Chechnya and
neighboring territories. International aid organizations such as UNICEF and the
ICRC are responsible for the bulk of mine risk education activities in affected
areas in Russia. In 2002, the focus of the ICRC’s MRE activities shifted
from working with internally displaced people living in Ingushetia, to
supporting local structures in Chechnya. In the first half of 2003, the ICRC
conducted MRE programs, including “beware of mine” poster design
contests and poster displays in schools and public locations in two regions of
Dagestan.[46] The ICRC also
joined with the Republican puppet theater to produce an MRE puppet show, which
opened in February 2003 in
Makhachkala.[47]
IPPNW/CBL-Russiaalso made a number of contributions to mine awareness
efforts during the reporting period.
In 2002 and 2003, UNICEF supported MRE activities for children at internally
displaced persons (IDP) camps in Ingushetia. UNICEF’s implementing
partners--Let’s Save the Generation, Voice of the Mountains, and
others--distributed and displayed materials including posters and
notebooks.[48] In May 2003,
Voice of the Mountains intensified MRE activities in the camps in preparation
for the expected movement of children back to Chechnya in the
summer.[49] IDP children
attended regular MRE dramatic performances sponsored by UNICEF at the Russian
Academic Theater in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, in 2002 and
2003.[50]
Landmine Casualties
There have been substantial numbers of mine
casualties in parts of the Russian Federation, particularly in Chechnya since
1994 and Dagestan since 1999. In September 2002, five boys were killed after
tampering with a World War II landmine at the site of the Stalingrad battle near
Volgograd.[51] There is limited
official data on mine casualties in these regions.
According to various media and military sources, there were over 1,300 mine
incidents involving Russian federal forces in Chechnya from 1999 to March 2003,
resulting in 2,500 military casualties. In 2002, there were at least 360 mine
incidents among Russian forces. Landmine Monitor reported that in
2001, based on various sources, 279 Russian armed forces, including police and
internal forces, were killed in reported landmine incidents and 684 injured. In
2000, approximately 300 Russian servicemen were killed in reported landmine
incidents and over 1,000
injured.[52]
The Ministry of Health of Chechnya reported that 5,695 landmine/UXO
casualties were registered by health facilities in 2002, including 938 children
of which 125 were killed. In 2001, officials report that there were 2,140
landmine casualties.[53]
Landmine Monitor recorded about 300 mine/UXO casualties in Chechnya from
international media sources in 2002. In 2001, Landmine Monitor collated data on
at least 1,153 mine
casualties.[54] (See Chechnya
report for more information on civilian mine casualties.)
On 8 June 2002, one Russian peacekeeper was killed and another injured by a
landmine in the Kodori gorge of Georgia’s separatist Abkhazia region. The
peacekeepers were patrolling the gorge near the village of Zemmo-Lata when the
mine exploded.[55]
In April 2003, a Russian UN Military Observer was killed when his vehicle
detonated an antivehicle mine in the Democratic Republic of
Congo.[56]
Survivor Assistance
Russian military medical practice has accumulated
enormous experience in the treatment of blast injuries. Medical, surgical,
prosthetic, rehabilitation, and reintegration services are available for
landmine survivors in Russia. There are about seventy specialized federal
prosthetic enterprises operate in the Russian
Federation.[57]
The International Institute for the Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Landmine
Survivors (IPRLS) and its Russian partner, the St. Petersburg Institute of
Prosthetics, have been assisting mine survivors with surgical and rehabilitation
assistance, vocational training and socio-economic reintegration since
1998.[58] Under the program an
Ice Hockey-On-Prostheses Team, the “St. Petersburg Elks,” was
formed. In April 2003, the team participated in the first-ever World Standing
Amputee Ice Hockey Championships in
Helsinki.[59] Members of the
team, which includes seven mine survivors, participated in the Standing
Committee on Victim Assistance and Socioeconomic Reintegration in Geneva in
February 2003, following a demonstration ice hockey match in Geneva the previous
weekend.
Many international agencies and local and international NGOs are working to
strengthen the health infrastructure in Ingushetia and other regions of the
Northern Caucasus with medicines, hospital supplies, expertise and training for
local staff at hospitals and health posts. Others have supported mobile
clinics, psycho-social support services, transportation to medical facilities,
and other humanitarian aid activities, often aimed at internally displaced
persons from Chechnya. Organizations that engage in survivor assistance-related
activities include Agency for Rehabilitation and Development, CARE
International, Center for Peacemaking and Community Development, Danish Refugee
Council/Danish Peoples Aid, Hammer Forum, Handicap International, ICRC,
International Humanitarian Initiative, International Medical Corps, Islamic
Relief, Medecins du Monde, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Memorial, People in Need
Foundation, Saudi Red Crescent Society, Save the Generation, Serlo, UNHCR,
UNICEF, VESTA, WHO, and World
Vision.[60] (For more
information see Chechnya report).
Disability Policy and Practice
Since 1995, mine survivors in Russia have been
under the protection of the Federal Law “On Social Security of
Disabled/Handicapped.”[61]
The All-Russian Public National Military Foundation has been focusing its
efforts on the support of military personnel injured in Chechnya. In February
2002, two major directions for the Foundation's efforts were identified: the
purchase of flats for the families of the servicemen killed in Chechnya; and
ensuring medical aid to servicemen wounded in Chechnya, especially to those who
need prosthetic aid. According to the Chairman of the Council, state agencies
including the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will
provide the Foundation with verified lists of persons needing medical or other
aid, and the Foundation will arrange and finance the necessary
aid.[62]
In May 2001 the “International Complex Program on the Rehabilitation of
War Veterans, Participants of Local Conflicts, and Victims of Terrorism for
2001-2005” was approved by a resolution of the Council of the Heads of
Government of the CIS
countries.[63]
About 2.5 million people in 17 countries have benefited from the Inter-State
Program’s support since 2001 through early 2003. In 2002, consultations
on medical and social care, including outpatient treatment, medicines, medical
care, rehabilitation, and prosthetics was provided to 2,780 veterans and members
of their families. Other forms of assistance was provided to 16,152 war
veterans and participants of local conflicts, 25 veteran organizations,
associations, and medical institutions in Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, and Uzbekistan. Assistance was also
provided to the Inter-regional Organization of the Vietnam War Veterans, RF
Ministry of Emergency Situations and Catastrophes, Ryazan Paratroop Division,
and Moscow House of
Invalids.[64]
[1] Major General Alexander Averchenko,
Ministry of Defense, “Making the Ottawa Convention a Reality: Military
Implications,” presentation to the ICRC Seminar on Landmines and ERW,
Moscow, 4 November 2002. [2]
Ibid. [3]
Ibid. [4] ICRC, “Landmines and
Explosive Remnants of War: Proceedings of the Regional Conference,”
Moscow, 4-5 November 2002. [5]
Presentation by Major General Alexander Averchenko, Ministry of Defense, 4
November 2002. [6] See Landmine Monitor
Report 2002, p. 733. [7] Presidential
Decrees No. 2094, 1 December 1994 and No. 1271, 1 December
1997. [8] Telephone interview with of a
representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, 7 April
2003. [9] Presentation by the Russian
Federation delegation to a NATO-Russia Group of Experts Meeting, Brussels, 29
April 2003. [10] See Landmine Monitor
Report 1999, pp. 805-806, 809. [11]
Tajikistan Article 7 Report, Form B, 3 February
2003. [12] Presentation by Major General
Alexander Averchenko, Ministry of Defense, 4 November
2002. [13] Statement by HE Ambassador
Skotnikov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United
Nations, Geneva, to the Third Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended
Protocol II, 10 December 2001. [14] See,
Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 734.
[15] Presentation by the Russian
delegation to NATO meeting, 29 April
2003. [16]
Ibid. [17]
Ibid. [18] There are 72 PFM-1
antipersonnel mines in each KSF-1
cluster. [19] There are 64 PFM-1S
antipersonnel mines in each KSF-1S
cluster. [20] “Russia patents new
technology for scrapping antipersonnel mines,” Interfax, 29 May
2003. [21] Vladimir Korenkov, General
Director of FGUP GNPP “Bazalt,” at the meeting between EU
representatives and officials of MoD, MoFA and Center for Mine Action and
Munitions Disposal, 27 March 2003. [22]
Vadim Udmantsev, “Russia: New Technologies for Land Mine, Ammunition
Disposal Examined,” Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye (Independent
Military Review), Moscow, 21 June
2002. [23] Interviews with Russian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, January-March
2003. [24] Response to Landmine Monitor
by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation. Sent by Fax to Landmine
Monitor Coordinator by Vassily V. Boriak, Counsellor, Embassy of the Russian
Federation to the United States, 16 August 2001. Original in Russian,
translated by Global Communications LLC, Washington
DC. [25] “Unexploded Federal
Ammunition Makes Up Most of Landmines Used by Chechen Guerillas,” Interfax
(Moscow) 20 May 2003. [26] Interviews
with officials from the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs during January-March
2002. [27] Black Sea Press Information
Agency, 15 October 2002; “Rustavi-2” TV company, 15 October 2002;
APSNYPRESS Information Agency (Abkhazia), #210, 16 October
2002. [28] APSNYPRESS Information Agency
(Abkhazia), #210, 16 October 2002. [29]
Tajikistan Article 7 Report, Form C, 3 February
2003. [30] The number of mines used is
not known, but include the following types: PMN-2, PFM-1, OZM-72, MON-50, and
MON-100, as well as the ML-7 (a
booby-trap). [31] Interview with
Johnmahmad Rajabov, Deputy Head of the Board of the Constitutional Guarantees of
Citizens Rights, Executive Board of the President, Geneva, 5 February
2003. [32] “15,000 WWII shells and
mines found in 2002 in St Petersburg,” Agence France Presse, 30 December
2002. [33] Vadim Udmantsev,
“Moscow Is Filled with Mines and Airbombs,” Nezavisimaya Gazeta
(national daily), 7 March 2003. [34]
Aleksei Lyakhov, “The President Had Been Sitting on Mine,” Vremya
Novostei (news agency), 18 November
2002. [35] “At least 58 dead in
Black Sea floods,” Agence France Presse, 11 August
2002. [36] Presentation by Russian
Federation Ministry of Defense to a Russia-UK meeting on anti-terrorism measures
within the international military cooperation program, London, April
2003. [37] Ibid. Military sources have
cited an estimate of $46 billion to Landmine
Monitor. [38] Statement of the
Delegation of the Russian Federation on Military Security and Arms Control to
the Permanent Missions and Delegations to the OSCE, 23 December 2002.
[39] Presentation by Russian Ministry
of Defense to anti-terrorism meeting, April 2003.
[40] Landmine Monitor researchers
prepared a 30-page list of these efforts in Chechnya during 2001, using Russian
media reports and other sources. [41]
Presentation by Major General Alexander Averchenko, Ministry of Defense, 4
November 2002. [42] Statement by Russian
Delegation to the OSCE, 23 December 2002.
[43] Interview with Andrei Kostiukov,
Director, Fort, Moscow, 23 March
2003. [44] Official response to Landmine
Monitor (IPPNW-Russia) inquiry from Ministry of Defense, signed by General of
Army Nikolai Kormiltsev, Chief Commander, Ground Forces of the Russian
Federation and Deputy Minister of Defense, Ref. # 565/2507, 27 June
2003. [45]
Ibid. [46] ICRC, “Chechnya: still
in dire need of help,” 18 June 2003, at
www.icrc.org. [47]
Ibid. [48] UNICEF, “Northern
Caucasus,” Situation Report, 10 February 2003, and 13 January
2003. [49] UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, “OCHA Humanitarian action in
Chechnya and Neighbouring Republics (Russian Federetion [sic]) 16 - 31 May
2003,” ReliefWeb, 31 May
2003. [50] UNICEF, “Northern
Caucasus,” Situation Report, 10 February 2003, and October
2002. [51] “Second World War mine
kills five boys in Russia,” Reuters, 14 September 2002. For details on
post-WW II casualties, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p.
814. [52] Landmine Monitor Report 2002,
p. 738. [53] UNICEF, “Northern
Caucasus,” Situation Report, No. 61: 10-24 February 2003; US Department of
State, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2002, Russia, Section
1.g.: Use of Excessive Force and Violations of Humanitarian Law in Internal
Conflicts,” 31 March 2003, available at
www.state.gov. [54]
See Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p.
805. [55] “Russian peacekeeper
killed in breakaway Georgian province,” Associated Press, 9 June 2002.
[56] “UN Envoy Condemns Violence
in Wake of Historic Meeting in Capital,” UN News Service, 30 April
2003. [57] For more information see
Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p 845; Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp.
907-908. [58] See Landmine Monitor
Report 2001, p. 908; see also ICBL Portfolio of Landmine Victims Assistance
Programs, available at
www.landminevap.org. [59]
Christopher Hamilton, “Amputation No Handicap for These Hockey
Players,” St. Petersburg Times, 29 April
2003. [60] World Health Organization,
“Health Sector Field Directory: Republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya,
Russian Federation,” Nazran, March 2003, available at
www.who.int/disasters/repo/9010.doc. [61]
For more details see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp.
908. [62] RIA NOVOSTI, 21 February
2002. [63] For details see Landmine
Monitor Report 2002, p. 740. [64] Letter
to Landmine Monitor (IPPNW-Russia) from Professor Galina Z. Demchenkova, Doctor
of Medical Science, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for War Veterans Affairs
under the CIS Council of Heads of Governments, 25 June 2003.
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