Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Policy

The Kingdom of Thailand signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 27 November 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 May 1999. Thailand has not enacted domestic legislation to implement the Mine Ban Treaty. As it has reported since 2002, Thailand is still in the process of passing an executive measure, the Office of the Prime Minister Regulations Governing the Implementation of the Convention.[1]

Thailand submitted its fourteenth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 30 April 2012, covering calendar year 2011.[2]

Thailand attended the Eleventh Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Phnom Penh in November–December 2011, where it was elected as a Vice-President of the meeting. Thailand made interventions during sessions on enhancing international cooperation and assistance, assisting victims, clearing mined areas, and evaluation of the Implementation Support Unit; it was elected as incoming co-chair on cooperation and assistance.

At the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in May 2012, in addition to its co-chair role, Thailand made interventions during the sessions on Article 3 under the General Status and Operation of the Convention on mines retained, on its clearance progress since receiving an extension on its Article 5 obligations, and during the session on victim assistance.

Thailand is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Thailand states that it has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Thailand formerly imported antipersonnel mines from China, Italy, the United States, and the former Yugoslavia. It completed destruction of 337,725 stockpiled antipersonnel mines on 24 April 2003.

In its Article 7 report submitted in 2012, Thailand stated that at the end of 2011 it retained 3,374 antipersonnel mines for training purposes, a reduction of 92 mines from the previous year.[3] Ninety-two antipersonnel mines held by the army were transferred for training of new deminers. Thailand has never reported in any detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of mines kept for training—a step agreed upon by States Parties at the Review Conferences in 2004 and 2009.[4]

In June 2011, Thailand stated, “Inventories of mines retained will continue to be done so that our article 7 submissions accurately reflect mines in official possession.”[5] At the end of 2011, the Royal Thai Army retained 2,708 mines, the Royal Thai Air Force retained 581 mines, and the National Police Department retained 85 mines.[6] In June 2010, Thailand said that since the number of mines retained is high compared to the number used each year, it would review its retention and destruction plans.[7]

Thailand is not known to have undertaken physical modifications of its Claymore mine stockpile to ensure use only in command-detonated mode. Officials have previously stated that all units have received orders that Claymore mines are to be used only in command-detonated mode.[8]

Use

The insurgency in southern Thailand has seen extensive use of command-detonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs). There are also reports of increased use of homemade, or “craft mines”[9] that function as victim-activated IEDs. Insurgents use these devices as “area-denial” weapons against Buddhist Thais who own rubber and fruit plantations, and also against the Malay Muslims working in those places. On 6 September 2012 in Narathiwat’s Ra Ngae district, Jiraporn Ratanawong stepped on a landmine while working in her rubber plantation, which severed her left foot. Rubber plantation worker Maena Latae lost her left leg to a landmine in Narathiwat’s Muang district on 1 September 2012.[10]

There were additional incidents. In March 2012, a Thai soldier was injured after stepping on a mine in a farmer’s field. Later three more mines were found.[11] In January 2011, a woman rubber tapper was injured after she reportedly stepped on a mine in Narathiwat’s Bacho district.[12] In July 2011, a female soldier was injured after reportedly stepping on a mine near the site of an insurgent attack.[13] Previously, a rubber tapper lost his leg after stepping on a mine in May 2010, another rubber tapper was killed by a mine in July 2010,[14] and a woman was injured after stepping on a mine while tapping rubber trees in Raman district, Yala province in October 2010.[15]

An incident in October 2008 concerning two Thai soldiers who stepped on antipersonnel mines while on patrol in disputed territory between Thailand and Cambodia, near the World Heritage Site of Preah Vihear, remains unresolved. Thai authorities maintained that the area was previously clear of landmines and that the mines had been newly placed by Cambodian forces. Cambodia denied the charges and stated that the Thai soldiers had entered Cambodian territory in an area known to contain antipersonnel mines and were injured by mines laid during previous armed conflicts.[16] Cambodia and Thailand never reached a resolution on this matter, and other States Parties did not pursue a resolution of this serious compliance concern.[17] In May 2012, a Thai soldier on patrol near the disputed border area stepped on a mine which Thai authorities claim was recently laid. According to a media report, government authorities speculated that rogue Cambodian soldiers aiding timber poachers may have laid the mine. The Army reportedly asked the Foreign Ministry to file a complaint at the meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty.[18]