Contaminated by: mines (massive contamination) and explosive remnants of war (ERW).

Article 5 deadline: 1 November 2018
(Five-year extension requested)

By July 2017, the Kingdom of Thailand had an estimated 410km² of suspected mined area. In 2016, a total of 28.19km² was released, of which 98% (27.72km²) was canceled by non-technical survey. Just over 0.07km² was reduced by technical survey and 0.39km² was cleared, with the destruction of 1,231 antipersonnel mines. Land release results for 2016, including clearance, were a decrease from 2015.

Recommendations for action

• The Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) should complete non-technical survey of all mined areas to international standards.
• Thailand should increase its capacity to conduct survey and clearance; as of mid 2017 it already appeared to be behind on its new extension request target.

Contamination

Thailand is affected by mines as well as by ERW, including both abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO) and unexploded ordnance (UXO), the result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Myanmar.

At the end of 2016, Thailand reported that 14 of 77 provinces are still mine-affected with a total of 309 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) covering 422km² (see table below). Three-quarters of this suspected contamination (approximately 319km²) was concentrated in seven provinces bordering Cambodia. Of the remainder, 69.6km² or 16% was on the border with Lao PDR; 33km² (8%) was on the border with Myanmar; and the remaining fragment was in Yala province along the border with Malaysia.[1] By July 2017, the Thai Mine Action Center (TMAC)’s estimate of total contamination had fallen to less than 410km².[2]

Mine contamination by province (km²)[3]

* As part of a re-survey of contaminated areas TMAC reclassified confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) as SHAs.

Program Management

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), chaired by the prime minister, has responsibility for overseeing the national mine action program, but has not met since 2008. The NMAC was reconstituted in May 2017, still with the prime minister as chairman.[4] The engagement of national leadership in the committee was seen as important in facilitating policy direction and progress on issues affecting national security, notably regarding cooperation with neighboring countries on clearing border areas.[5]

TMAC, which is under the Armed Forces Supreme Command, coordinates, monitors, and conducts mine/UXO survey, mine clearance, mine/ERW risk education, and victim assistance. TMAC is also responsible for establishing a program to meet Thailand’s obligations as a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty.[6] However, TMAC has had to contend with limited funding and, as a military organization, with regular rotation of personnel at all levels.[7] 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. General Wittaya was promoted in 2016 and handed over to a new director, Lieutenant-General Prasopchai Kongburan in October.[8]

Strategic planning

Thailand’s revised Second Article 5 Extension Request, submitted in August 2017, set out a two-phase program for completing clearance, seeking an extension of just over five more years to 31 December 2023. Phase 1, spanning 2017 and 2018, expected release of 63.8km² of suspected contamination, leaving the remaining 358.8km² to be tackled in the requested five-year extension period.

Planned land release 2017–2023[9]

The request draws attention to potential obstacles to completion, including border demarcation, difficult terrain, financial constraints, and unforeseen circumstances such as flooding and political upheavals. Border demarcation poses a particular concern. The request states that Phase 1 is intended to release all SHAs outside border areas, leaving Phase 2 to tackle areas to be demarcated on its borders covering 358.8km², or 85% of the outstanding suspected contamination.[10]

The extension request also proposed a Phase 1 budget of THB443.4 million (US$12.3 million[11]) for Phase 1, including THB 376 million from TMAC and THB48.5 million from two internationally funded humanitarian operators, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and the Thai Civilian Deminers Association (TDA). TMAC’s costs, however, have far exceeded the Thai government funding of TMAC in the two previous years (THB 69 million in 2015 and THB 68 million in 2016).[12]

Standards

A revision of the national mine action standards was completed on 1 April 2015, mainly amending chapters on land release and evidence-based survey.[13]

Operators

TMAC completed accreditation of operators for the first time in March 2015, accrediting its four Humanitarian Mine Action Units (HMAUs), one international NGO (NPA), and two national NGOs (TDA and Peace Road Organization Foundation, PRO). Operators are now required to renew their accreditations annually.[14]

TMAC reported employing a total of around 276 operations staff and 61 headquarters personnel in 2015.[15] The extension request said TMAC would employ 330 operations personnel in the four HMAUs and 172 headquarters staff.[16]

NPA, the only international operator working in Thailand, has supported TMAC operations since 2011, conducting non-technical survey in the north in cooperation with HMAU 3 in 2015 and shifting to Ubon Ratchathani province in 2016, working with 18 personnel, half of them women, in three six-strong teams.[17] National NGO TDA conducted operations on the border with Cambodia.[18] PRO received funding to conduct demining in Ubon Ratchathani province in 2015 but suspended operations pending receipt of additional funding.[19]

TMAC said it planned to train additional civilian deminers to work in border areas because of sensitivities about deploying military personnel to these locations. It said it would work closely with NPA and TDA on this.[20]

Land Release

Thailand released a total of 28.19km² in 2016, 98% of it canceled by non-technical survey. The total was almost one-third less than in 2015, which was a record year for land release in Thailand when NPA and HMAU 3 were able to cancel large areas of SHAs in northern Thailand that proved to be uncontaminated and TMAC reported an almost tenfold increase in area cleared.[21]

NPA-HMAU3’s survey results in 2016 reinforced earlier findings indicating that only a small percentage of Thailand’s SHA is actually mined. NPA-HMAU 3 teams conducted non-technical survey on a total of 16,247,355m² in Ubon Ratchathani province in 2016, of which 10,163,208m² was canceled, 4,027,868m² was designated “area without evidence,” and only 2,056,279m² was identified as hazardous. A further 156,918m² outside the SHAs it surveyed were also found to be contaminated. For areas without evidence, HMAU 3 later in 2017 conducted the technical survey and so far, none of them was identified as hazardous.[22]

Land release in 2016[23]

Note: NTS = non-technical survey; TS = technical survey.

Survey in 2016

Thailand released 27.8km² through survey in 2016, continuing the focus on survey that TMAC started five years earlier. Of the total, 27.7km² was canceled by non-technical survey and 0.07km² reduced by technical survey. This included 14.39km² canceled in the northeast (Surin and Ubon Ratchathani provinces), 10.8km² in the north (Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai), and 2.06km² canceled in eastern Thailand (Trat and Chanthaburi).[24]

NPA, after working with HMAU 4 in 2015 conducting non-technical survey in northern Thailand, shifted operations back to the border with Cambodia, working in 2016 in the northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani where teams identified additional contamination of 155,918m² and canceled 7.6km². NPA started conducting survey in Sisaket province in 2017.[25]

Clearance in 2016

After record clearance results in 2015, TMAC’s clearance rate fell sharply in 2016, releasing only 0.39km², of which nearly two-thirds was in Surin province and most of the rest in Trat and Chanthaburi provinces bordering Cambodia. TDA started clearance in Surin in September 2016.[26]

Cooperation between the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) and the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) is extended to at least one more year. In 2017, NPA-HMAU3 will continue conducting the baseline survey in Si Sa Ket province. NPA will assist the HMAU2 conducting the desk assessment of SHAs in Trad province and will stand by to assist TMAC to update the National Mine Action Standards.

Mine Ban Treaty 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.[27] Thailand will miss its deadline and submitted a request for a five-year extension in April 2017, followed by a revised request in August.

The extension request benefits from the progress of non-technical survey in the past four years, providing a much clearer assessment of remaining contamination, but the timelines appear ambitious set against the record of land release in the past five years (see tables below). To fulfil the Phase 1 targets set out in its extension request, TMAC planned to release 34.74km² in 2017 and 29.05km² in 2018.[28] By the end of July 2017, TMAC appeared to be slipping behind schedule and had released a total of only 12.88km².[29]

Extension request 2019–2023: land release targets (km²)

With 85% of Thailand’s remaining contamination in border areas where access may be restricted by security or demarcation issues, its ability to meet its revised deadline is contingent on developing cooperation with its neighbors.

Land release in 2012–2016 compared to 2008 extension request targets (km²)[30]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the mine action research in 2017, including on survey and clearance, and shared all its resulting landmine and cluster munition reports with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.