Sri Lanka

Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 09 October 2018

Policy

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 13 December 2017, which came into force for it on 1 June 2018. Sri Lanka’s initial Article 7 report is due by 28 November 2018. Previously, Sri Lanka submitted a voluntary Article 7 report in 2005.

Sri Lanka participated as an observer in the Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties in Vienna, Austria in December 2017, as well as the convention’s intersessional meetings in June 2018 in Geneva, where it stated that the government had approved Sri Lanka’s accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[1] Following a change of government in January 2015, and with extensive lobbying by Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Landmines activists, there was steady movement toward Sri Lanka’s accession.

Sri Lanka voted in favor of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 72/53 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 2017, as it has for every annual pro-ban UNGA resolution since 1996.

Sri Lanka is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines.

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 in Sri Lanka.

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.

Previously, in April 2009, Brigadier Lasantha Wickramasuriya of the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) acknowledged that the army had used antipersonnel mines 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.[2] 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.[3] 

In October 2009, Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath 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.”[4] 

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.[5] Prior to its demise, the LTTE was considered 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 P4 MK1 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, as well as Amman 2000 MK1 and MKII antivehicle mines.[6] 



[1] Statement of Sri Lanka, Mine Ban Treaty Intersessional Meetings, Geneva, 7–8 June 2018. 

[2] Presentation on Humanitarian Demining by Brig. Lasantha Wickramasuriya, Sri Lankan Army (SLA), Bangkok Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free South-East Asia, 2 April 2009. The presentation included a section entitled, “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.

[3] 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 ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 1,118; and Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 881.

[4] Flow of arms to terrorists must stop,” The Sri Lanka Guardian, 28 October 2009.

[5] 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), as well as Amman 2000, MK1, and MK2 antivehicle mines. See, ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2010.

[6] Presentation on Humanitarian Demining by Brig. Wickramasuriya at the Bangkok Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free South-East Asia, Bangkok, 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 Article 7 Report, Form H, 13 June 2005. See also, Landmine Monitor Report 2008, p. 1017. Maj. Mangala Balasuriya of the SLA Field Engineering Brigade stated that during the last stages of the war they encountered a modified antipersonnel landmine that used white phosphorus. Telephone interview with Maj. Mangala Herath, Filed Engineering Brigade, SLA, Colombo, 25 June 2009.