Policy

Argentina signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 14 September 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2000. Argentina has not enacted domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. In the past, Argentina has indicated that it was studying ways to incorporate penalties on the use, stockpiling, production, or transferring of antipersonnel mines into Argentine law.[1] Law No. 4745/01 prohibits the use of antipersonnel mines by the armed forces.[2]

Argentina regularly attends meetings of the treaty, including the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014, and more recently, the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it made statements on victim assistance, Article 5 mine clearance requirements, enhancement of cooperation and assistance, and universalization of the convention.[3] Argentina consistently submits annual updated Article 7 transparency reports. On 5 December 2018, Argentina voted in favor of UN General Assembly resolution 73/61 promoting universalization and implementation of the convention, as it has done in previous years.[4]

Argentina is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. Argentina is not party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and retention

Argentina is a former producer and exporter of antipersonnel mines. Production took place at the General Directorate of Military Industries (Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares) of the Ministry of Defense. Argentina has stated that it produced only one type of antipersonnel mine, the FMK-1 plastic blast mine, at the “Fray Luis Beltrán” factory between 1976 and 1990, manufacturing 18,970 FMK-1 mines during this period.[5] Equipment formerly used for production is now being used to make reinforced fuzes, detonators for grenades, estopines (initiators), and other items.[6] According to the United States (US) Department of Defense, Argentina had manufactured two other types of antipersonnel mines: the MAPG pressure or tripwire-initiated mine and the MAPPG bounding mine.[7] The government never officially declared production of these mines which date from the 1940s/1950s, but an official said the mines could have been imported and re-catalogued to make their identification easier.[8]

Based on Article 7 reports and mines found in the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, Argentina imported antipersonnel mines from Libya (MAP and TRA), Israel (Number 4), Italy (SB-33), and Spain (P4B). Argentina exported nearly 3,000 FMK-1 antipersonnel mines to Honduras. An export moratorium was instituted in March 1995, which has since been superseded by the Mine Ban Treaty. Argentina sold weapons to Croatia, including 5,750 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, several months before the moratorium was instituted.[9]

Argentina formerly possessed a stockpile, but on 4 December 2003, Argentina completed the destruction of its 90,919 antipersonnel mines.[10] Argentina originally indicated it would retain 13,025 mines for training but decided to convert most of these mines to inert “exercise mines.” At the end of 2018, Argentina reported that it had destroyed the remaining mines retained for training and research.[11]

Use

Argentina last used landmines during the Malvinas/Falkland Islands war in 1982, and it has stated that the islands are the only mine-affected part of Argentina (see also United Kingdom country profile). According to Argentina’s May 2001 Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, 20,000 EXPAL P4B and FMK-1 antipersonnel mines were laid during the 1982 conflict.[12] In July 2002, it added SB-33 antipersonnel mines to the list of mines it used on the islands.[13]

During the confrontation with Chile in 1978, the Chilean army laid mines along the border; it is unknown whether the Argentine army laid mines as well.[14]