LM Report 2004

Togo

Key developments since 1999: Togo ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 9 March 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 September 2000. Togo submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report in April 2003, more than two years late. It declared a stockpile of 436 antipersonnel mines, all of which are retained for training purposes.

Togo signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified on 9 March 2000, and the treaty took effect on 1 September 2000. According to the government, domestic legislation to implement the treaty should be drafted by December 2004.^[1]

Togo participated in the Ottawa Process leading up to the Mine Ban Treaty in 1997, and has voted in favor of every annual pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996. Togo has attended two annual Meetings of States Parties (1999 and 2003), as well as intersessional Standing Committee meetings since 2003.^[2] Regionally, Togo has attended seminars on landmines held in Burkina Faso (January 2004), Nigeria (October 2001), and Mali (February 2001). In November 2000, the annual Francophone Africa Landmine Monitor researchers meeting was held in the capital of Lomé and officially opened by the Ministry of Defense.

Togo submitted its initial Article 7 report, which was due by 28 February 2001, on 11 April 2003. It submitted an annual update on 1 March 2004.^[3]

Togo states that it has not produced, transferred or used antipersonnel mines.^[4] It has declared a stockpile of 436 antipersonnel mines of Korean origin, all of which are retained for training purposes.^[5]

Togo is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its original Protocol II on landmines, but not the Amended Protocol II.

Togo is not mine-affected, but the Army has mine action capability. In 1998-1999, in the context of the African ECOMOG peacekeeping force, it assisted in marking mine-affected areas in Guinea-Bissau.^[6] In 2003, five Togolese soldiers participated in a training at the regional mine clearance training center for ECOWAS member states in Ouidah, Benin.^[7]

[1] Interview with Lt. Col. Edeou Méwékiwé, Deputy Chief of the Cabinet of the Minister of National Defense and Former Combatants, Lomé, 8 March 2004.
[2] An official stated that Togo could not attend the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua, Nicaragua, in September 2001 due to flight disruptions resulting from the terror attacks of 11 September 2001 in the US; see Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 494.
[3] See Article 7 Reports submitted 11 April 2003 (for the period 21 March 2003–30 March 2004) and 1 March 2004 (for the period 1 March 2004–1 March 2005).
[4] Letter from Brig. Gen. Assani Tidjani, Ministry of Defense, N° 314/MDN/CAB/00, 6 April 2000.
[5] Article 7 Reports, Forms B and D, 11 April 2003 and 1 March 2004.
[6] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 113.
[7] “Benin Mine Clearance Training Center,” document provided by Thomas Adoumasse, Deputy Director, Department of International Organizations, Benin Ministry of Foreign Affairs, February 2004.