Key
developments since May 2001: On 19 March 2002, the Greek parliament voted
unanimously in favor of ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty. The instrument of
ratification will be deposited at the same time as Turkey’s instrument of
accession. Greece is believed to hold a stockpile of 1.25 million antipersonnel
mines. Greece reported that clearance of all minefields on the Greek-Bulgarian
border was completed in December 2001, and included the destruction of 25,000
antipersonnel and antivehicle mines. Illegal immigrants crossing into Greece
continue to fall victim to landmines.
MINE BAN POLICY
Greece signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997. On 19 March 2002, the Greek parliament voted unanimously in favor of
ratifying the treaty, which was published as Law 2999/2002 in the Official
Gazette on 8 April.[1] The
final step of depositing the instrument of ratification with the
Secretary-General of the United Nations will take place jointly with Turkey,
according to an agreement between the foreign ministers of both countries
announced on 6 April
2001.[2]
Greece participated, as an observer, in the Third Meeting of States Parties
in September 2001 in Managua, Nicaragua, represented by its ambassador to
Argentina. A statement was delivered on behalf of the European Union, which
includes Greece; it urged all non-party States to adhere to the Mine Ban Treaty
as soon as possible, and to maintain high levels of funding for mine
action.[3]
On 18-19 October 2001, the Ministry of Defense hosted a NATO Partnership for
Peace seminar on regional mine action, attended by representatives of 21
countries and NGOs, including the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and
the Landmine Monitor. Greece made a presentation on its ongoing mine clearance
activities.
In November 2001, Greece cosponsored and voted in favor of United Nations
General Assembly Resolution 56/24M calling for universalization of the Mine Ban
Treaty.
Greece participated in the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee
meetings in January and May
2002.[4] In May 2002, the Greek
representative announced that Parliament had voted unanimously to ratify the
Mine Ban Treaty and was ready to do so as soon as arrangements had been made
with Turkey for the two countries to deposit jointly the instruments of
ratification/accession. Two military officers made presentations on
Greece’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines and progress with mine clearance
(see later sections).
Greece is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its
Amended Protocol II on landmines. An annual report as required by Article 13 of
the protocol was submitted on 10 December 2001 to the Third Annual Conference of
States Parties to Amended Protocol
II.[5] It was identical to the
report submitted in March 2001, covering the period 16 October 1999 to 28
February 2001. Greece attended both the Third Annual Conference and the Second
CCW Review Conference in December 2001 in Geneva.
The annual report to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) on landmine-related matters for 2001 was submitted on 14 December
2001.[6]
STOCKPILING, PRODUCTION, AND TRANSFER
In February 2001, Greek officials described as
“too high” the previous estimate of 1.5 million for the
country’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines. In March 2002, officials of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to advance any
figure,[7] but a report of a
closed session of parliament on 19 March disclosed that Greece has a stockpile
of 1.25 million antipersonnel
mines.[8]
In May 2002, at the Standing Committee meetings, Major Ioanannis
Christogiannis presented new information on Greece’s stockpile of
antipersonnel mines, without revealing its total size, although he referred to
“big quantities.” He stated that Greece possesses four types of
antipersonnel mines: M2 and M16, which are both in stockpiles and deployed in
minefields, and the M14 and DM31, which are stockpiled but not deployed. He
noted two options for disposal of these mines in line with NATO and EU
environmental and safety requirements: via international tender or via the NATO
Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA). He noted that no suitable destruction
facility exists in Greece at present. The cost of destroying mines both in
stockpiles and deployed in minefields was estimated at €6 million (US$5.39
million),[9] although it is not
clear how this figure was arrived at. Later, in conversation with the Landmine
Monitor, Major Christogiannis agreed that Greece also possesses a fifth type of
antipersonnel mine, the ADAM projectile, and that this may pose greater disposal
problems as it contains depleted
uranium.[10]
Greece has had a moratorium on production and export of antipersonnel mines
for a number of years.[11] The
closed session of parliament also heard from the Deputy Defense Minister that
Greece has imported the Skorpion mine delivery system from Germany or will do
so; the report did not make clear which mine(s) would be used with the system,
or if new mines would be
acquired.[12]
LANDMINE PROBLEM
Greece has created and maintained minefields on
the eastern border with Turkey along the river Evros. There are also mined
areas dating from the Greek civil war (1947-1949) in the Epirus, Grammos, and
Vitsi mountains in northern Greece, and in areas near the border with Bulgaria.
At the Standing Committee meetings in May 2002, Major Constantinos Kalatzis
stated that “after the end of World War II, the politico-military
situation in Balkans forced the Hellenic Army to lay minefields in the borders
of the country.” It was clarified after the presentation that this
referred only to the border with
Bulgaria.[13]
There appears to be no comprehensive report of the mine problem in Greece. A
media report in October 2001 gave the fullest description yet, but omitted the
minefields on the border with Turkey. It identified the Grammos, Vitsi,
Smolikas, Mourgana, and Tomaros mountains as most affected by mines and other
munitions during the Greek civil war, and said that “it is still not safe
for anyone crossing the slopes of Grammos and other mountains of western
Macedonia and Epirus.... In contrast, Mount Belles and the Rhodope range on the
Greek-Bulgarian border have been cleared of mines. During the Cold War ... the
Greek Army sowed thousands of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines from Lake
Doirani to Echino, Xanthi.... The Germans used anti-personnel mines widely in
Greece to neutralize action by
partisans.”[14]
MINE CLEARANCE
In May 2002, Greece reported that demining
activities since 1954 have cleared more than 150,000 square kilometers of land
and disposed of 250,000 mines and other munitions. In the last two years 3,700
square kilometers have been cleared and 2,210 square kilometers returned to
public use. In this time, 16,000 antipersonnel and 14,000 antivehicle mines
were disarmed and 18,000 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO)
destroyed.[15]
Greece’s Land Minefield Clearance Battalion was formed in 1954. It
includes five minesweeper companies, each led by an Engineering officer with
eight men.[16] Manual clearance
techniques are used, and “canine detection is also being
explored.”[17] Mines in
minefields are assessed as either having “booby-trap status,” in
which case they are destroyed in situ, or as “pick up, carry away”
status, in which case they are collected for open burning/open detonation in a
sheltered pit.[18]
Bulgaria Border
Clearance near the Bulgarian border started in
November 1997, and was completed in
2001.[19] At the October 2001
NATO seminar, a Greek officer claimed that clearance of minefields near the
Bulgarian border had just been completed, at an estimated cost of US$1
million.[20] Greek officials
later told Landmine Monitor that 16,181 antipersonnel mines and 12,409
antivehicle mines were removed and 38 minefields cleared. Twenty-three of the
minefields are being re-checked to ensure their complete safety; the rest are
open to public use. The officials said that communities were not affected by
mines since they were only on Ministry of Defense land, and no mine awareness
programs were carried out as the minefields were well marked and
secure.[21]
At the May 2002 Standing Committee meetings, Greece provided somewhat
different information regarding clearance on the Bulgarian border. It stated
that the operation was completed in December 2001, with the clearance of 25,000
antipersonnel and antivehicle mines, and “hundreds of UXOs,” and at
a cost of €5,900,000 (US$5,298,200). This was described as one of the
largest and most difficult tasks for the Greek Army, due to the mountainous
terrain, dense vegetation, and adverse weather
conditions.[22]
Turkey Border
The government maintains that “all
minefields along the border with Turkey in the Evros province are clearly
defined and marked, well above any standard established by Amended Protocol II
and the relevant NATO
STANAGs.”[23] Minefields
laid by Greece on its border with Turkey have been protected with an extra
barbed wire fence, two meters high with illuminating signs, which was erected
some three years ago at a cost of €150,000 ($134,700) in order to minimize
accidents by illegal migrants. Greece claims, “The result of this program
contributed to the reduction of accidents by almost
90%.”[24]
Northwest
Greece has reported on a “huge mine
clearance program ... in vast areas of Western Macedonia and Ipiros in northwest
Greece, in ‘suspected areas’ containing not only mines but also
booby-traps, UXOs and other devices dating from World War II and the 1946-1949
era.”[25] In these
areas, there are no properly defined minefields and no maps. Weather conditions
for much of the year make progress in clearance slow. In the Grammos and Vitsi
mountains alone, the affected areas total over 40,000
hectares.[26] In May 2002, a
Greek official said, “All over Hellenic territory and especially at North
West, which was an operational theater for almost ten years during WWII, the
Hellenic army is conducting clearance of all these old minefields including UXO
and booby-traps in order to give all these areas back to free use by the
civilians.”[27]
MINE ACTION FUNDING AND ASSISTANCE
In 2001, Greece gave $80,000 to Bosnia and
Herzegovina for demining
operations.[28]
Personnel in the Greek contingent with KFOR in Kosovo ran mine awareness
courses for the local population in 2001. The Multinational Peace Support
Operations Training Center near Kilkis in northern Greece was established in
1998 under command of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff. Seminars
offered by the Center include the topics of international humanitarian law and
mine-related matters.[29]
LANDMINE/UXO CASUALTIES AND SURVIVOR ASSISTANCE
In 2001, ten civilians were killed and four
injured in mine incidents; and in March 2002, another three civilians were
killed and four injured in two incidents. There is no central register of mine
casualties, but incidents continue to be reported in the media. On 21 May 2001,
three immigrants from Turkey were killed and one was injured after straying into
a minefield.[30] A day later,
the bodies of two men evidently killed by landmines were found near the border
with Turkey.[31] On 29
September 2001, the dismembered body of a male mine casualty was found by Greek
army personnel between Gemisti and Gefyra in the Evros
minefields.[32] On 24 December
2001, four immigrants were killed and three were seriously injured in “the
worst incident of its sort since late 1999 when five Iraqi Kurds died in one
minefield.” The incident occurred early in the morning in the area of
Gemisti near the village of Ferres. It was reported that the minefield they
entered had been marked and
fenced.[33] On 20 March 2002,
two immigrants from Turkey were killed and another injured near the border
village of Kastanies, 70 kilometers south of Gemisti, after entering a minefield
which an army official said, was “clearly marked and even had fluorescent
warning signs and a double perimeter
fence.”[34] On 28 March,
another immigrant was killed and three others were injured after straying into a
fenced minefield, again near Gemisti. The casualties were from Algeria, Iraq,
and Morocco.[35]
Officially, Greece claims that “there are no mine victims among the
Greek population. Few mine casualties suffered during the last years by illegal
migrants who tried to cross the border coming from Turkey.... Mine casualties
among illegal migrants are suffered from time to time because they are led to
the border along river Evros at night and then instructed to ignore any mine
fences and markings and walk into the Greek
territory.”[36]
On 15 October 2001, two Army mine clearers were killed while defusing a mine
near Petritsi, Serres, on the Bulgarian
border.[37] According to the
Greek military, since 1954, 30 personnel have been killed and 17 more injured in
mine/UXO clearance
operations.[38]
According to one media report, since 1990, 59 illegal immigrants and three
Greek soldiers have been killed by mines in the Evros area on the border with
Turkey, and 20 people have been
injured.[39] At least 13
immigrants have died in the Evros minefields in the last two
years.[40] The NGO
Médecins du Monde Greece calculated that 55 people have been killed and
46 seriously wounded since
1994.[41]
Mine casualties are treated in the Alexandroupolis hospital or other major
hospitals in northern Greece and then offered “full disabled people
programs (including prosthetic services) through the National Health System of
Greece (ESY).”[42] This
covers “all
expenses.”[43]
[1] “Land Mine Ban,”
Kathimerini (daily newspaper, English language edition), 22 March
2002. [2] See Landmine Monitor Report
2001, pp. 828-829. [3] See the report on
Belgium in this edition of the Landmine
Monitor. [4] At the January session,
Greece was represented by Brigadier-General Emanuel Krasanakis, Ministry of
Defense, and Vassiliki Gounari, from the Greek Permanent Mission to the United
Nations in Geneva, and in May by Major Ioanannis Christogiannis and Major
Konstantinos Kalatzis, from the Ministry of Defense, and Vassiliki
Gounari. [5] CCW, Amended Protocol II
Article 13 report, submitted on 10 December 2001, but dated 27 June
2001. [6] Report of the Permanent
Mission of Greece to the OSCE, submitted on 14 December
2001. [7] Interview with Ambassador
Stephanou, Nikos Kanellos, First Counselor, and Dimitris Skoutas,
Attaché, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 March 2002, and subsequent
faxes and emails. [8]
Πρακτικα
Βουλησ, Ι'
Περιοδοσ
(Προεδρευομενησ
Δημοκρατιασ),
Συνοδοσ Β',
Συνεδριαση
Ρστ', Τρίτη 19
Μαρτίου 2002, (Minutes of the Governmental
1st Period, Presidential Democracy, Second Meeting, Tuesday 19 March 2002).
[9] Exchange rate at 29 April 2002:
€1 = US$0.898, used
throughout. [10] Landmine Monitor notes
and Presentation by Major Ionannis Christogiannis to the Standing Committee
on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 30 May 2002. Greece imported 504 artillery
projectiles containing 18,444 ADAM mines from the U.S. in 1988. See Landmine
Monitor Report 1999, p. 710. [11]
Apparently, the moratorium on export has been in place since 1994, and on
production since 1997. Greece produced at least one type of antipersonnel
mines, a copy of the U.S. M16A2. See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 829, and
Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 767, for more details on past production,
import, and export. [12] The German AT2
antivehicle mine, which fits the Skorpion system, may not be Mine Ban
Treaty-compliant; see report on Germany in Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp.
699-701. In November 1999, there were reports in Germany that the export of
36,000 AT2 mines to Greece was planned. In February 2001, Greek officials
claimed that this export did not take place. See Landmine Monitor Report 2000,
p. 647, and Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 829.
[13] “Demining operations by
Hellenic army,” Presentation by Major Constantinos Kalatzis to the
Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Awareness and Mine Action
Technologies, Geneva, 28 May 2002. [14]
Stavros Tzimas, “Live Minefields Cast a Dark Shadow on Peace,”
Kathimerini , 22 October 2001. [15]
Presentation by Major Kalatzis to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance,
Geneva, 28 May 2002. [16] Captain
Panagiotis Kafetsellis, “Land Minefield Clearance Presentation,”
Workshop on Regionally-focused Mine Action, NATO Partnership for Peace, Athens,
18-19 October 2001; before 1971 the Battalion was named the Land Minefield
Clearance Service and Command. [17]
Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, Form F, submitted in March 2001 and on 10
December 2001; Report to the OSCE, 14 December 2001, p.
2. [18] Presentation by Major Ionannis
Christogiannis to the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 30
May 2002. [19] Amended Protocol II
Article 13 report, Form B, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December
2001. [20] Captain Kafetsellis,
“Land Minefield Clearance Presentation,” 18-19 October
2001. [21] Interview with Ambassador
Stephanou, Nikos Kanellos, First Counselor, and Dimitris Skoutas,
Attaché, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 March 2002, and subsequent faxes
and emails. [22] Presentation by Major
Kalatzis to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, 28 May
2002. [23] Amended Protocol II Article
13 report, Form B, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December
2001. [24] Presentation by Major
Kalatzis to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, 28 May
2002. [25] Amended Protocol II Article
13 report, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December 2001, Form
B. [26]
Ibid. [27] Presentation by Major
Kalatzis to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, 28 May
2002. [28] Interview with Ambassador
Stephanou, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 March 2002, and subsequent faxes and
emails. [29] Amended Protocol II Article
13 report, Form F, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December 2001; Report to
the OSCE, 14 December 2001, p. 3; and email from Dimitrios Skoutas, Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, 26 March 2002. [30]
“Three killed after straying into minefield while crossing Greece-Turkey
border,” Associated Press (Athens), 21 May
2001. [31] “Migrants die in
attempt to cross border,” Athens News (weekly English language newspaper),
25 May 2001. [32] “Man Dies in
Mine Blast in Evros Region,” Athens News, 5 October
2001. [33] “Minefield Kills Four
Immigrants,” Kathimerini, 24 December 2001. For details of previous
incidents, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p.
831. [34] “Two More Die in Evros
Minefields,” Kathimerini, 21 March 2002; “Mines Spell Death for
Illegals,” Athens News, 22 March
2002. [35] “More Bad News,”
Athens News Agency, 28 March 2002. [36]
Amended Protocol II Article 13 report, submitted in March 2001 and on 10
December 2001, Form B. [37] “Land
Mine Kills Officers,” Athens News, 19 October 2001; Stavros Tzimas,
“Live Minefields Cast a Dark Shadow on Peace,” Kathimerini, 22
October 2001. [38] Presentation by Major
Kalatzis to the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, 28 May
2002. [39] “Two More Die in Evros
Minefields,” Kathimerini, 21 March
2002. [40] “Minefield Kills Four
Immigrants,” Kathimerini, 24 December 2001; “Mines kill 4 Iraqi
migrants, injure 3 at Evros border,” Athens News, 28 December
2001. [41] Kathy Tzilivakis,
“Greece to Scrap Evros Landmines Ahead of Turkey,” Athens News, 30
March 2002. It arrived at those numbers using media reports in one newspaper
and the websites of three NGOs, including the ICBL/Landmine
Monitor. [42] Amended Protocol II
Article 13 report, Form B, submitted in March 2001 and on 10 December
2001. [43] Interview with Ambassador
Stephanou, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4 March 2002, and subsequent faxes and
emails.