Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 November 2018
(Not on track to meet deadline)

Recommendations for action

• Thailand should allocate more funds to mine action in order to accelerate completion of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 obligations.
• The Thailand Mine Action Centre (TMAC) should develop a strategic mine action plan based on an up-to-date assessment of remaining contamination and realistic timelines for survey and clearance.
• TMAC should upgrade information management to allow timely reporting of mine action.

Contamination

The Kingdom of Thailand is affected by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), including both abandoned explosive ordnance and unexploded ordnance (UXO), the result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Myanmar. The precise extent is not known, but the estimate of contamination as of end 2014 was in 474km² across 328 areas.[1] 

A 2001 Landmine Impact Survey (LIS) identified 530 communities in 27 of Thailand’s 76 provinces, and more than 500,000 people, as mine/ERW-affected, estimating total mine/ERW contamination at 2,557 km².[2] Thailand’s revised Article 5 deadline extension request, submitted in 2008, claimed it had released 1,355km² of this area, leaving a total of 1,202km² of suspected hazardous area (SHA), including an estimated 528km² of “real minefield” requiring manual clearance.[3] TMAC reported the total confirmed hazardous areas (CHA) had been reduced to 496km² by the end of 2013 and to 474km²[4] by the end of 2014.[5] 

TMAC’s latest assessment in mid-2015 reported contamination in 16 provinces totaling 461km².[6] Seven provinces along Thailand’s 700km-long border with Cambodia, used as a base for Cambodian non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in the 1980s and 1990s, are the worst affected, accounting for 80% (381km²) of the end-2014 total. TMAC identified another 91km² of contamination on its northern border with Lao PDR and western areas on the border with Myanmar (see table below).[7]

TMAC reported that 16 of Thailand’s 77 provinces are still affected by mines. Phayao province was removed from the list of contaminated provinces after the last area in Chiangkam district was released in 2014,[8] and Mae Hong Son province in July 2015 after TMAC had quality assured the last task area in Khunyuam District.[9] 

Contamination by province as of end 2014[10]

Violent conflict in the mainly Muslim southern provinces has continued since 2004, including use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), some of them victim-activated.[11]

Program Management

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), set up in 2000 and chaired by the prime minister, has responsibility for overseeing the national mine action program, but has not met since 2008. 

TMAC was established in 1999 under the Armed Forces Supreme Command to coordinate, monitor, and conduct mine/UXO survey, mine clearance, mine/ERW risk education (RE), and victim assistance throughout Thailand. TMAC is also responsible for establishing a program to meet Thailand’s obligations as a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.[12] However, TMAC has had to contend with limited funding and, as a military organization, with regular rotation of personnel at all levels.[13] Lieutenant-General Wittaya Wachirakul took over as Director-General in April 2015, becoming the ninth director since TMAC became operational in 2000 and the fifth in the last five years. 

TMAC pressed for a change in its status to a civilian organization in 2005, prompted by the slow progress of demining and the armed forces’ limited budget for its operations. NMAC agreed in principle to TMAC becoming a foundation in February 2007 but proposed to keep it under the armed forces. A final decision was still pending as of time of writing. NMAC decided in February 2007 to establish five sub-committees for victim assistance, coordination with foreign organizations, demining, RE, and also for monitoring and evaluation. The Demining and Monitoring and Evaluation sub-committees met once in 2012 and once in 2013[14] but not at all in 2014.[15]

Strategic Planning

TMAC does not have a strategic mine action plan.

Standards

TMAC drafted its first national mine action standards with Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)’s support in 2010 and formally adopted them in June 2012. A revision of the standards was completed on 1 April 2015, mainly amending chapters on land release and baseline survey.[16] 

Operators 

TMAC operated with four humanitarian mine action units (HMAUs) employing a total operations staff of around 267 (HMAU1-80, HMAU2-82, HMAU3-86, HMAU4-80) a slight decrease from 287 in 2013. The number of TMAC’s headquarters personnel was 61.[17]

NPA has supported TMAC operations since 2011, initially operating non-technical survey (NTS) and technical survey (TS) teams in Surin province bordering Cambodia, before shifting to the Thai-Myanmar border in 2014 and working under a memorandum of understanding that will run to the end of 2015.[18] NPA has also supported TMAC’s database unit since 2009 providing a data-entry technician to help consolidate data and resolve gaps left by missing clearance reports, assisted by periodic visits by NPA’s regional information management advisor. The number of data gaps fell from 120 to 71 in 2013 and to 67 as of June 2015.[19] NPA discontinued providing a full-time data entry technician in January 2015.[20]

The Peace Road Organization Foundation (PRO), established in August 2006, took over the personnel and equipment of the Japan Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support (JAHDS), which had operated in Thailand from 2002 until its dissolution in 2006. PRO worked with APOPO conducting NTS and “limited technical survey” in provinces on the Cambodian border until 2013 when APOPO relocated to Cambodia.[21] In February 2015, PRO received funding support from Japan, under its Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects Scheme (GGP) to clear landmines and UXO in Nam Yuen district, Ubon Ratchathani province.[22]

Another NGO, Thai Civilian Deminers Association (TDA) started a project due to run from April 2014 to September 2015 to clear 2.42km² of mine-affected areas in Buached district of Surin province, funded by the JAPAN-ASEAN Integration Fund (JAIF).[23]

TMAC completed accreditation of operators for the first time in March 2015, accrediting the four HMAUs, one international NGO (NPA), and two national NGOs (Thai Civilian Deminer Association and PRO). Operators are now required to renew their accreditations annually.[24] 

Land Release

Operators released a total of 25km² through survey and clearance in 2014, nearly a quarter less than the almost 32km² released the previous year, mainly as a result of a drop in the area cancelled by NTS (see table below). A clean-up of TMAC’s data resulted in a further 25,243m² of contamination being removed from the database.[25] 

Land release in 2012−2014

Survey in 2014

Operators surveyed a total of 34 hazardous areas in 2014 resulting in release of 24.81km², including 16.2km² cancelled by NTS and 8.61km² reduced by TS. TMAC reported that it conducted a mixture of non-technical and technical survey on a total of 22.15 km² and released all but 0.22km²,which was released by clearance.[26]

NPA, which had initially worked in Surin province with HMAU 3, shifted its team to undertake survey and land release working with HMAU 4 near the Thai-Myanmar border in July 2013. In the first quarter of 2014, NPA adopted a “part-completion initiative” aiming to complete release of all known hazardous areas on the borders with Lao PDR and Myanmar by September 2015.[27] It started work with two teams but decreased to one team at the end of May 2015 due to a decrease in funding.[28] In 2014, NPA cancelled 1.82 km² by NTS and released 0.55 km² by TS.

In May 2015, NPA started work on the last task in its project area covering 9.8km² of Chiangmai province. It expected to complete the task before 30 September 2015. In July 2015, Mae Hong Son province was removed from the list of mine-affected provinces.[29]

PRO did not conduct survey in 2014, but in February 2015 started NTS in Nam Yuen district, Ubon Ratchathani province as part of a land release project funded by Japan, under its GGP Scheme, for clearance along the Thai-Cambodia border.[30] TDA started work in April 2014 on a project to release 2.42km² of Buached district of Surin province, funded by the JAIF. The project was due for completion in September 2015.[31]

Survey in 2014[32]

TMAC set operators a target of releasing 46.62km² in fiscal year 2015 (ending 30 September 2015). Joint operations between HMAU4 and NPA were expected to account for some 25km² (around 54%) of the total. Targets for other operators included 2.67km² by HMAU1, 5.07km² by HMAU2, 9.22km² by HMAU3, 1.28km² by HMAU4 alone, 1.97km² by TDA, and 1.05km² by PRO.[33] By 31 May 2015, operators had achieved 35% (16.5km² out of 46.6km²) of the target.[34]

Clearance in 2014

Only two of TMAC’s four HMAUs conducted full clearance in 2014, releasing a total of 0.2km² (see table below), a slight drop from 0.3km² released by three HMAUs in 2013.[35]

Mine clearance in 2014[36]

Note: * HMAU2 and HMAU4 did not conduct clearance in 2014, items reported destroyed in 2014 were actually cleared from the ground in 2013.

Deminer safety

One military deminer from Trad province was injured in 2014.[37]

Article 5 Compliance 

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the nine-and-a-half year extension granted by States Parties in 2008), Thailand is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 November 2018.[38] At the present rate of progress Thailand will miss its deadline. 

Lack of attention to mine action by Thai political leaders remains a major constraint on progress, leaving TMAC and the mine action sector without the funding needed to fulfil its Article 5 obligations. The current Prime Minister, General Prayut Chan-ocha, who came to power after a military coup in May 2014, has been involved in mine action as a former HMAU1 commander[39] but as of mid-2015 did not show an intention to increase support for mine action.

Thailand’s extension request estimated the area requiring full clearance at 528km². It said Thailand would employ some 900 deminers and clear or release between 40km² and 65km² a year during the plan period, setting a target of 170km² in the first four years.[40] Land release has accelerated in the last three years but consistently falls short of Thailand’s extension request targets. In the last five years, Thailand released less than 95km², barely one-third of the amount of land projected in the extension request. Although land release has accelerated in recent years, it remains far behind the rate needed to release the 254km² foreseen by the extension request in the four remaining years until Thailand’s deadline.

Land release in 2009–2014 compared to extension request targets (km²)

TMAC’s revised estimates of contamination and the wide gap between land release targets and results have eroded the relevance of Thailand’s extension request as a realistic reference point for measuring the progress of mine action. 

Longstanding disagreements with Cambodia on demarcation of their shared border obstruct clearance and release of mined land on both sides of the border, although discussions continue at a number of different levels, including a General Border Committee, and in ASEAN regional cooperation frameworks. A Thai-Cambodian Joint Working Group, established to decide on ways to implement an International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment, agreed in May 2013 to joint demining of the area adjacent to Preah Vihear temple but no further action has yet been taken.[41]

Mine action in Thailand is mainly government-funded. TMAC’s budget for fiscal year 2014 (1 October 2013 to 30 September 2014) amounted to THB 72.65 million (US$2.24 million), and slightly decreased to THB 68.98 million (US$2.13), for fiscal year 2015 (1 October 2014 to 30 September 2015).[42] 

Norway contributed NOK3.79 million (almost US$0.5 million) to fund NPA operations in 2014. Japan provided almost $0.5 million to TDA through the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund for a project in Surin from 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2015.[43] In February 2014, Japan also provided THB11.96 million (some US$350,000) to PRO under its GGP Scheme for mine/UXO clearance along the Thai-Cambodia border.[44]