Sri Lanka
Mine Ban Policy
Mine ban policy overview
| Mine Ban Treaty status | Not a State Party |
| Pro-mine ban UNGA voting record | Voted in favor of Resolution 66/29 in December 2011, as in previous years |
| Participation in Mine Ban Treaty meetings | None since December 2010 |
Policy
The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.[1]
Sri Lanka has not made any formal statements regarding the Mine Ban Treaty since 2009 when it said that it “fully subscribes to the humanitarian objectives of the treaty.”[2] However, in a July 2012 meeting with the diplomatic community in Colombo, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa reportedly stated that the Defence Ministry was ready for Sri Lanka to sign the treaty.[3] In September 2010, the Ministry of Economic Development published a plan that would, “advocate for a ban of landmines and cluster munitions,” but as of 1 August 2012 it is not known to have done so.[4]
Sri Lanka did not attend the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in November-December 2011 in Phnom Penh or the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2012 in Geneva. While it submitted a voluntary Article 7 report in 2005, Sri Lanka has not updated it to include information on its stockpile since then. It voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 66/29 on 2 December 2011 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it has for every annual pro-ban General Assembly resolution since 1996.
Sri Lanka is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, but has never submitted an annual Article 13 report and did not attend the annual meeting on Amended Protocol II in November 2011. It has not joined Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
The Sri Lankan Campaign to Ban Landmines (SLCBL) continued to advocate for the government of Sri Lanka to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty.[5] In November 2011, SLCBL organized “Towards a Sri Lanka free from the threat of Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War” in Colombo with the participation of National Mine Action Centre of Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Social Services and Ministry of Health. The chief guest, former Vice-President of the International Court of Justice Christopher Gregory Weeramantry, addressed the meeting on the importance of the ban, of non-use and of accession to Mine Ban Treaty, where he stated, “Sri Lanka is in progress towards banning landmines in the country and its commitment to acceding to the Mine Ban Treaty. This will guarantee that landmines will not be possessed or used in future in Sri Lanka.”[6]
Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling
Since the end of armed conflict in May 2009, the Monitor has not received any reports of new use of antipersonnel mines by any entity.
There is no evidence that the government of Sri Lanka has ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines. It has a stockpile, but its current size and composition are not known.
In April 2009, Brigadier Lasantha Wickramasuriya of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) acknowledged that the army had used antipersonnel mines in the past, but stressed that such use was only in the past. He said the army had used non-detectable Belgian, Chinese, and Italian mines, as well as bounding and fragmentation mines of Pakistani, Portuguese, and United States (US) manufacture.[7] The Monitor had previously reported that Sri Lanka acquired antipersonnel mines from China, Italy (or Singapore), Pakistan, Portugal, and perhaps Belgium, the US, and others.[8]
Subsequently in October 2009, Army Commander Lieutenant General Jayasuriya said that, “the use of mines by the Sri Lankan military is strictly limited and restricted to defensive purposes only…to demarcate and defend military installations...” and are “marked accordingly and relevant records systematically maintained….”[9]
Prior to the end of armed conflict, in particular in 2008 and 2009, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) laid large numbers of mines throughout the north. In October 2009, the SLA’s commander stated, “With the end of conflict in Sri Lanka, large quantities of mines laid by the LTTE in the former LTTE dominated areas have been recovered and are continuing to be recovered by the Army during the past five months.”[10] Throughout 2010 and into 2011, the SLA was reported to continue finding numerous caches of LTTE antipersonnel mines, including a cache containing 18,000–20,000 antipersonnel mines.[11]
Prior to its demise, the LTTE was considered an expert in making explosive weapons. It was known to produce several types of antipersonnel mines: Jony 95 (a small wooden box mine), Rangan 99 or Jony 99 (a copy of the P4MK1 Pakistani mine), SN 96 (a Claymore-type mine), fragmentation antipersonnel mines from mortars, and variants of some of these antipersonnel mines, including some with antihandling features (including Rangan 99 antipersonnel mines with a motion sensor),[12] as well as Amman 2000, MK1, and MK2 antivehicle mines.[13]
[1] In the past, the government has stated that Sri Lanka’s accession was dependent on progress in the peace process and on an agreement to ban landmines by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The civil war in Sri Lanka ended on 20 May 2009.
[2] Also in 2009, the Sri Lankan Army Commander stated, “In the current post-conflict phase in Sri Lanka, it is timely that we focus our attention on the international legal instruments that limit or ban certain weapons based on humanitarian grounds,” referring to the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). He said that after a review of its position the government decided to submit an updated voluntary Article 7 report. Keynote address by Lt.-Gen. J. Jayasuriya, International Law and Explosive Remnants of War Seminar, Colombo, 27 October 2009. The text of the keynote address was reproduced in: “Flow of arms to terrorists must stop,” Daily News, 28 October 2009, www.dailynews.lk.
[3] Dinidu de Alwis, “Gotabhaya - diplomats in high profile meet,” Ceylon Today, 6 July 2012, http://bit.ly/KSrykg.
[4] Ministry of Economic Development, “National Strategy for Mine Action in Sri Lanka 2010,” September 2010, p. 25.
[5] On 6th July 2011 the SLCBL met with the newly appointed Secretary to the Ministry for External Affairs Karunatilaka Amunugama. The SLCBL discussed with him the importance of the Mine Ban Treaty and Secretary Anunugama pledged to take up the matter with the Ministry of Defence.
[6] Ishara Mudugamuwa, “Public awareness must for SL to be landmine free - Judge Weeramantry,” Daily News, 26 November 2011, http://bit.ly/KTZDM8.
[7] Presentation on Humanitarian Demining by Brig. Lasantha Wickramasuriya, SLA, Bangkok Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free South-East Asia, 2 April 2009. Notes by the Monitor. The presentation included a section titled “Types of Mines Used by the Sri Lankan Army,” followed by photographs and titles: P4MK1 (Pakistan antipersonnel mine); M72 (China antipersonnel mine); VS-50 (Italy antipersonnel mine); M16A1 (US bounding antipersonnel mine, however the photograph shows what appears to be a P7 MK 1 Pakistan or PRBM966 Portugal bounding mine); PRB 415 (photograph shows what appears to be a NR 409 Belgian antipersonnel mine); PRB 413 (photograph shows what appears to be a Portugal M421 antipersonnel mine); M15 and ND MK 1 antivehicle mines; and M18A1 Claymore mines.
[8] In its voluntary Article 7 report submitted in 2005, Sri Lanka noted the presence of these antipersonnel mines in minefields: P4MK1, P4MK2, P4MK3, P5MK1, Type 69 (Pakistan); PRB 413 (Portugal/Pakistan); PRB 409, M696 (Portugal); Type 66, Type 72 (China); and VS-50 (Italy/Singapore). Voluntary Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Forms C and H, 13 June 2005. The Monitor previously identified the following antipersonnel mines as having been used by government troops in the past: P4 and P3 MK (manufactured by Pakistan); Type 72, Type 72A, and Type 69 (China); VS-50 (Italy or Singapore); NR409/PRB (Belgium); M409 and M696 (Portugal); and M18A1 Claymore (US). See Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 1,118; and Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 881.
[9] “Flow of arms to terrorists must stop,” Daily News, 28 October 2009, www.dailynews.lk.
[10] Ibid.
[11] See “Supun Dias “Large ammo haul recovered,” Daily Mirror, 6 August 2010; Ministry of Defense, “Search operations recover a haul of weapon,” 13 August 2010, www.defence.lk; “Sri Lankan troops continue to recover mines and explosives from former battlefields,” Colombopage.com, 21 November 2010, www.colombopage.com; Supun Dias, “Stock of Anti Tank Mines found,” Daily Mirror, 9 December 2010, http://print.dailymirror.lk; Supun Dias, “83 anti-personnel mines found in search operation,” Daily Mirror, 29 January 2011, http://print.dailymirror.lk; Supun Dias, “41 anti-personnel mines recovered,” Daily Mirror, 24 February 2011, http://print.dailymirror.lk; and Supun Dias, “Weapons cache found,” Daily Mirror, 24 June 2011, http://print.dailymirror.lk. Previously, between July 2009 and May 2010, the Monitor recorded media stories reporting the recovery of more than 36,000 antipersonnel mines, as well as a large number of antivehicle mines, Claymore mines, and IEDs.
[12] Presentation by Maj. Mangala Balasuriya, SLA, Risk Education Workshop, Negombo, 10 March 2009. Notes by the Monitor.
[13] Presentation by Brig. Lasantha Wickramasuriya, SLA, Bangkok Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free South-East Asia, 2 April 2009. Sri Lanka previously provided technical details of the Jony 95 and Jony 99 mines, which it identified as “produced and used” by the LTTE. Voluntary Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form H, 13 June 2005. See also, Landmine Monitor Report 2008, p. 1,017.