LM Report 2004

Madagascar

Key developments since 1999: Madagascar ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 16 September 1999, and became a State Party on 1 March 2000. It submitted its initial Article 7 report, due by 28 August 2000, on 20 June 2001, and has not provided required annual updates since. It declared that it does not have a stockpile of antipersonnel mines.

The Republic of Madagascar signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified on 16 September 1999, and the treaty entered into force on 1 March 2000. In 2001, the government said national implementation legislation was unnecessary because the country did not “possess antipersonnel mines.”^[1] In May 2004, however, the Commander of the Armed Forces said there are “plans to draft one” in the future.^[2] A directive on treaty obligations has also been issued for the Armed Forces.^[3] The Ministry of National Defence is in charge of the landmine issue.^[4]

Madagascar did not participate in the Ottawa Process, but it has voted in favor of every annual pro-mine ban resolution by the United Nations General Assembly since 1996. Madagascar has attended two of the annual Meetings of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty (2000 and 2002), as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in 2003. Madagascar also participated in an Africa-wide regional landmine meeting in Mali in February 2001.

On 20 June 2001, Madagascar submitted its initial Article 7 report, originally due by 28 August 2000.^[5] It has not submitted any of the required annual updates since.

According to the report, Madagascar has not produced and does not possess antipersonnel landmines.^[6] An Army official has stated that Madagascar has a small number of inert practice mines (type AP Mle 35) for training purposes.^[7]

It appears Madagascar had a stock of mines in the past. In 1999, an official told Landmine Monitor that Madagascar had not imported any landmines since 1970.^[8] Landmines were reportedly used in 1991 as a deterrent to the opposition marches in the immediate vicinity of the presidential palace. Despite some allegations, Landmine Monitor could find no evidence that landmines were used in the 2002 crisis.^[9]

Madagascar is not considered mine-affected, although it has not made an official declaration to that effect to States Parties. There have been no reported landmine casualties.^[10]

In 2003, five soldiers participated in a demining training at the regional mine clearance training center for ECOWAS member states in Ouidah, Benin.^[11]

[1] Article 7 Report, 20 June 2001.
[2] Response to Landmine Monitor Questionnaire by Gen. Raonenantsoamampianina, Commander in Chief of the Malagasy Armed Forces, 18 May 2004.
[3] Article 7 Report, Attachment, 20 June 2001.
[4] Response by General Raonenantsoamampianina, Malagasy Armed Forces, 18 May 2004.
[5] The report is incomplete and does not provide all of the information required by Article 7, including a declaration regarding the presence of mined areas.
[6] Article 7 Report, 20 June 2001.
[7] Response by General Raonenantsoamampianina, Malagasy Armed Forces, 18 May 2004.
[8] Telephone interview with Elena Rajaonarivelo, Madagascar Mission to the UN, New York, 31 March 1999, in Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 59.
[9] Landmine Monitor Report 2002, pp. 336; Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 325.
[10] US State Department, “Hidden Killers,” July 1993, p. 121.
[11] “Benin Mine Clearance Training Center,” provided to Landmine Monitor by Thomas Adoumasse, Deputy Director, Department of International Organizations, Benin Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in February 2004.