Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Republic of Yemen signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 1 September 1998, and it entered into force on 1 March 1999. National implementation legislation was enacted on 20 April 2005.[1] Yemen submitted its 12^th Article 7 transparency report on 31 March 2010, covering the period 31 March 2009 to 31 March 2010.[2]

Yemen participated in the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena, Colombia in November–December 2009, where it made statements on its mine clearance and victim assistance efforts. It also participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2010.

Yemen is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Yemen has stated that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It destroyed the last of its known stockpile of 74,000 to 78,000 antipersonnel mines in April 2002.[3] An additional 30,000 mines were found in November 2006 and destroyed in December 2007.[4]

Yemen reported that, as of March 2010, it retained 3,760 antipersonnel mines for training and research purposes.[5] This is the same number of retained mines reported in 2009 and 2008. As it did in the previous years, Yemen reported using 60 mines of each type, totalling 240, to train mine detection dogs, but did not subtract this number from the total retained.[6] The Yemen Mine Action Center (YEMAC) told Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor that the mines were not consumed (exploded) during the training.[7]  

Yemen has not reported in any detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines as agreed by States Parties in 2004. It has not used the expanded Article 7 report Form D for reporting on retained mines agreed by States Parties in 2005.

Use

On 12 February 2010, a cease-fire was concluded between the government of Yemen and rebel forces led by Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi in the mountainous northern Sa’daa governorate.

In the years after the insurgency started in June 2004, there were occasional reports and allegations of the use of antipersonnel mines by both sides.[8] The government and the rebels continued to accuse each other of using antipersonnel mines in 2009.[9]  However, Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor has never been in a position to assess the veracity of the claims of antipersonnel mine use, in large part because of lack of access to the conflict areas by media, humanitarian workers, and others.[10]

However, following the February 2010 cease-fire and the opening up of the region, it appears certain that the rebel forces were using antipersonnel mines during the conflict, mostly if not exclusively homemade mines (victim-activated improvised explosive devices).

The cease-fire agreement reportedly includes an obligation to clear mines placed during the conflict. On 15 February 2010, three days after the signing of the cease-fire, two soldiers and three Al-Houthi representatives, members of the joint Ceasefire Committee, were reportedly killed by a landmine while supervising clearance.[11] Three army demining teams have reportedly been sent to the north to clear the main roads and begin a threat assessment.[12]

As people have started to return to conflict areas, reports of mine incidents and mine injuries have increased, leading the government to make an additional request for maps of areas mined by the rebels.[13] A mine risk education campaign was launched in March 2010. The head of the National Mine Action Committee said, “The handmade mines that the Houthis planted do not give the impression that they are mines, encouraging children to touch them and pick them up.”[14]

There have been no new allegations of mine use by either side since the cease-fire.