Note: SHA = suspected hazardous area; ERW = explosive remnants of war; UXO = unexploded ordinance.

Contamination

The Kingdom of Thailand is affected by mines as well as by ERW, the result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, the Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Myanmar. Re-survey in recent years has sharply reduced estimates of the extent of contamination.

By the end of 2017, Thailand reported suspected mined areas covering 391km², of which 84% was located in seven eastern and northeastern provinces bordering Cambodia (see table below). Most of the rest was in Chiang Mai, bordering Myanmar, and in Pitsanuloke, on the border with Lao PDR.[1] This was a decrease on the 422.61km² of suspected mined areas at the end of 2016.[2] 

Mine contamination by province (at end 2017)[3]

Program Management 

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), chaired by the prime minister, hasresponsibility 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. It was expected to meet for the first time before the Mine Ban Treaty Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties and thereafter to meet annually.[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]

The Thailand Mine Action Centre (TMAC), which is under the Armed Forces Supreme Command, coordinates, monitors, and conducts mine/ERW 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 Sittipol Nimnuan took over as TMAC’s director in October 2017, the eleventh director since TMAC was created in 2000 and the seventh in the last seven years. 

Strategic planning

Thailand’s revised Second Article 5 Extension Request, submitted in August 2017, set out a two-phase program for completing clearance, and seeking a deadline extension until 31 October 2023. Phase 1, spanning 2017 and 2018, projected 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[8]

Potential obstacles to completion identified in the request included border demarcation disputes, difficult terrain, financial constraints, and unforeseen circumstances, such as flooding and political upheavals. Border demarcation poses a particular concern. The request stated 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.[9]

Standards 

TMAC’s director reported in mid-2018 that it is again in the process of updating standards.[10] The last revision was completed in April 2015.[11] 

Information management

TMAC manages a database using Excel and Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping.

Operators 

TMAC’sfour Humanitarian Mine Action Units (HMAUs), one international NGO—NPA— and two national NGOs—the Thai Civilian Deminer Association (TDA) and Peace Road Organization Foundation (PRO)—have operational accreditation. Operators are now required to renew their accreditations annually.[12]

Thailand’s second extension request said TMAC would employ 330 operations personnel in the five HMAUs and 172 headquarters staff.[13]

 NPA has supported TMAC operations since 2011, conducting land release through non-technical and technical survey along the Thai-Cambodian border (in cooperation with HMAU 3) and in the north (with HMAU 4). In 2017, working with three teams and 12 field personnel, NPA had two teams working in Sisaket province in cooperation with HMAU 3, and a third team in Trat province, working with HMAU 2. NPA’s two teams moved to Ubon Ratchathani province in March 2018, while the third team remained in Trat province.[14]

TDA employed a total of 24 staff in 2017, including 17 field staff.[15] PRO suspended operations in 2015 pending receipt of further funding.[16] 

Land Release 

Thailand released a total of 30.98km² in 2017, 10% more than the previous year. As in previous years, Thailand’s main focus remained on survey, seeking to define a realistic estimate of contamination and avoiding wasteful use of clearance assets.[17]

Land release in 2017[18]

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

The total fell a little short of the 34.74km² planned for release in 2017 under Phase 1 of Thailand’s 2017 Article 5 deadline extension request, but land release accelerated in the first half of 2018 and TMAC was confident of easily surpassing the 63.8km² target it set for 2017 and 2018 combined under Phase 1 of the request.[19] TMAC projected releasing 71.15km² in 2018, expecting more than 70% to be cancelled by non-technical survey.[20]

TMAC also expected to declare three provinces (Tak, Uttaradit,and Yala) as mine free in 2018 and progress in the first few months of the year appeared to put it on track to achieve those goals. TMAC said that by the end of April it had released 30km², almost as much as in the whole of 2017. TMAC reported it had completed Uttaradit in April and moved its teams from that province to Tak province bordering Myanmar. In Yala, contamination in the jungle bordering Malaysia consisted of decaying booby-traps. After cancelling 0.56km² in Yala through non-technical survey in 2017, only around 5,000m² remained to be cleared in 2018, a task that TMAC expected to complete in the second half of the year.[21] 

Survey in 2017

NPA’s results, as in the previous year, underscored the consistently small proportion of Thailand’s SHAs actually affected by mines. By the end of 2016, areas confirmed as hazardous averaged about 13.5% of the area surveyed. By the end of 2017, the average area confirmed had dropped to just below 10% of the SHA.[22]

In 2017, NPA-HMAU teams surveyed a total of 11.44km², cancelling 10.76km² and confirming 0.68km². It had one survey team working alongside HMAU 2 in Trad province and two survey teams that started the year working in Ubon Ratchathani province before moving to Sisaket province in March 2017.

TDA conducted a process it describes as “Survey to Identify Mined Area,” which combines non-technical survey, technical survey, and clearance, as well as undertaking spot tasks of explosive hazards posing an imminent threat. In 2017, it cancelled 100,000m² and confirmed 701,434m² in three districts of Surin province.[23] It also stated that it released 744,077m² through technical survey but mostly through clearance. However, this was all reported as technical survey in Thailand’s Article 7 report.[24] 

The pace of survey appeared to increase in 2018. NPA cancelled almost 12.75km² through non-technical surveyin the first half of the year, more than in the whole of 2017, a result it attributed in part to increasing efficiency and experience of its surveyors. This included 4.5km² released in Sisaket province and 8.3km² in Trat. In this period, it also confirmed 0.3km²of hazard in Sisaket and 0.6km² in Trat.[25]

Clearance in 2017 

TMAC’s data showed clearance continued to account for a small part of land release, amounting to only 427,983m² in 2017 as the focus continues on survey. Most of the clearance occurred in Surin province (246,036m²) with small areas cleared in four other provinces. A total of 5,664 antipersonnel mines, 145 antivehicle mines, and 92 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) were destroyed by TMAC during survey and clearance.

TDA reported releasing 744,077m² in Surin, some of it through technical survey but mostly as a result of full clearance. In the process it destroyed 4,846 antipersonnel mines, 67 antivehicle mines, and 33 other items of UXO. Thailand’s Article 7 Report for 2017 did not record any clearance by TDA and appears to have recorded all its operations as technical survey.[26] 

Article 5 Compliance 

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty and in accordance with the second extension request granted in 2017, Thailand is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 31 October 2023. 

Thailand’s extension request targets look highly ambitious set against the record of the last five years in which land release averaged less than half the levels the request has projected. Thus, in 2013–2017, cancellation by non-technical survey totaled 120km², while reduction by technical survey released a further 33.8km². During the same period, clearance released only 3.4km². Land release annually therefore averaged less than 35km².

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

A major potential obstacle to achieving the 2023 deadline is thehigh proportion of remaining contamination located in border areas that are the subject of decades-old demarcation disputes or which are inaccessible due to insecurity (348km² at the end of 2017; close to 90% of outstanding contamination).[27] Cambodian soldiers requested TMAC deminers to cease operations in particular locations on two occasions in June and December 2017 and on one occasion in January 2018, underscoring the potential for setbacks in the progress of border clearance.[28] 

Improved relations between Thailand and Cambodia have opened the way for increased contacts with Cambodia on border cooperation. TMAC has previously had contacts with the Cambodian Mine Action Centre. TMAC Director Lieutenant-General Sittipol Nimnuan reported that Thailand was working with Cambodia’s mine action authorities to explore possibilities for cooperation.[29] 

Thailand’s extension request observed that earlier levels of cancellation through non-technical survey suggested the amount of land that would need technical survey and clearance in the extension period would amount to about 48.4km².[30] If this is true, TMAC and partners would still have to release an average of 9.6km² a year through technical survey and clearance. 

Mine clearance in 2013–2017

Land release in 2012–2016 compared to 2008 extension request targets (km²)[32]

The extension request also presumed a sharp increase in mine action expenditure, with funding averaging about THB 240 million (US$6.15 million) a year during the extension period, compared with TMAC’s annual budget averaging about THB70 million ($ 2.1 million) a year in recent years.[33]

The Monitor acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review (www.mineactionreview.org), which has conducted the primary mine action research in 2018 and shared all its country-level landmine reports (from “Clearing the Mines 2018”) and country-level cluster munition reports (from “Clearing Cluster Munition Remnants 2018”) with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.