Key
developments since May 2001: Slovakia served as the co-chair of the
Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction until September 2001. Six mine
clearance teams from Slovakia are operating with the UN Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea.
MINE BAN POLICY
The Slovak Republic (Slovakia) signed the Mine Ban
Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 25 February 1999, becoming a State
Party on 1 August 1999. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reiterated previous
statements that national implementation legislation was not needed and that the
existing penal codes cover violations of the
treaty.[1] Slovakia submitted
its initial Article 7 Report on 9 December 1999 and subsequent annual reports on
12 June 2000, 25 July 2001, and 30 April
2002.[2] The most recent report
utilized voluntary Form J to report on mine action activities.
Slovakia participated in the Third Meeting of States Parties in September
2001 in Managua, Nicaragua.[3]
Slovakia associated itself with the statement delivered by Belgium on behalf of
the European Union. As the outgoing co-chair of the Standing Committee on
Stockpile Destruction, Slovakia offered its assistance to other States in
stockpile destruction: “Slovakia, with its expertise, wants to take its
share and contribute to international assistance.... Slovakia possesses
technical and personal capacities for destruction of stockpiled landmines... Our
capacities in this regard are fully available and can be used to help other
countries to deal with the mine
problem.”[4]
Slovakia also participated in the Standing Committee meetings in January and
May 2002. On 29 November 2001, Slovakia cosponsored and voted in favor of
United Nations General Assembly Resolution 56/24M in support of the Mine Ban
Treaty.
Slovakia is a party to Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Conventional
Weapons (CCW), and on 22 October 2001, submitted the annual report required by
Article 13, offering technical cooperation for ammunition and mine
destruction.[5] It attended the
Third Annual Conference of State Parties to the protocol as well as the Second
CCW Review Conference in December 2001. At the Review Conference Slovakia
cosponsored the US-Danish proposal to increase the technical requirements for
antivehicle mines and supported a strongly-mandated expert working group on
explosive remnants of war. Slovakia associated itself with the statement made
by Belgium on behalf of the European
Union.[6]
PRODUCTION, TRANSFER, STOCKPILING, AND
DESTRUCTION[7]
Slovakia completed the destruction of its
antipersonnel mine stockpile on 31 August 2000, destroying 185,560 out of the
original stockpile of 187,060
mines.[8] It has retained 1,500
mines (1,000 PP-Mi-Šr II and 500 PP-Mi-Na 1) in accordance with Article 3
of the Mine Ban Treaty.
The Ministry of Defense stated that, as of March 2002, none of these mines
have been consumed.[9] While
the latest Article 7 Report states the retained mines are for the
“development of demining technology and for training in mine
destruction,”[10] the
Ministry of Defense told Landmine Monitor that the Slovak armed forces did not
need mines for training, but only for testing new demining
equipment.[11] Slovakia reports
that Guidelines for the use of the APMs retained for development of demining
technology and mine detection training were issued after the completion of
stockpile destruction.[12]
In March 2002, the Ministry of Defense stated that an inventory has been
made of antivehicle mines in stock and under development to identify which may
be considered prohibited or permissible by the Mine Ban Treaty, and will
consider any measures necessary to prevent antivehicle mines with antihandling
devices or sensitive fuzes from functioning as antipersonnel mines. When the
financial resources and technical capacity are ready, details of measures to be
taken and the time-frame will be
announced.[13] The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs clarified that it had not attended the special consultation on
antivehicle mines convened by the International Committee of the Red Cross in
Geneva in March 2001, because it had not been
invited.[14]
MINE ACTION ASSISTANCE
In 2001-2002, Slovakia has not reported providing
financial assistance to mine-affected countries. Consultations on assistance in
stockpile destruction have continued with Peru, and with Canada regarding
Ukraine.[15] Since December
2000, Slovakia has participated in the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE) with 198 engineering troops engaged in demining activities. In
2002, Slovakia has six mine clearance teams (totaling about 60 deminers) with
UNMEE.[16]
From September 1999 to March 2002, Slovakia contributed an engineering unit
of 43 troops to the Kosovo Protection Force (KFOR) mission in Kosovo; within
this unit, ten deminers have been involved in mine clearance
activities.[17]
The Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report and the latest Mine Ban Treaty
Article 7 Report include details of the Slovak mine clearing machines Bozena and
Belarty.[18] Slovak military
forces use both machines as a complement to manual demining in international
missions. In Kosovo, Slovak deminers used one machine of each type, and in
Eritrea they are using one Belarty and two Bozena
machines.[19]
LANDMINE/UXO PROBLEM AND CASUALTIES
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that, in
rare instances, items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) from Second World War are
found. The procedure is to report this to the police who fence off the area and
call in an explosive ordnance disposal
specialist.[20]
On 20 July 2001, a Slovak military observer with the European Union
monitoring mission in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was killed along
with a Norwegian colleague and their Albanian interpreter when their car hit an
antivehicle mine.[21] There
were no other serious accidents involving landmines during Slovak participation
in international missions in
2001.[22]
[1] Interview with Peter Kormúth,
Director, and Igor Kucer, Department of OSCE, Disarmament and Council of Europe,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bratislava, 5 March 2002. Regulations on landmines
are also included in Law 179/1998, which covers trade with all kind of military
equipment, and Law 246/1993 on the use of a number of weapons and ammunition.
Amendments on penal sanctions for violations of these laws remain under
revision, as reported previously. [2]
Article 7 Reports, submitted on 9 December 1999 for the period 3 December
1997-30 November 1999; submitted on 12 June 2000 for the period 1 December
1999-30 April 2000; submitted on 25 July 2001 for calendar year 2000; and
submitted on 30 April 2002 for calendar year 2001.
[3] Its delegation was led by Ivan
Korcok, Director General of the Directorate of International Organizations and
Security Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Karol Mistrík,
Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
Correction: Landmine Monitor Report 2001 incorrectly identified the title of the
head of delegation at the Second Meeting of States Parties in September 2000.
It was Ján Figel, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. [4] Statement by Ivan Korcok,
Director General of the Directorate of International Organizations and Security
Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the Third Meeting of States Parties,
Managua, Nicaragua, 18 September 2001.
[5] Amended Protocol II Article 13
Report, Form E, submitted on 22 October
2001. [6] Letter from Peter
Kormúth, Director of Department of OSCE, Disarmament and Council of
Europe, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 21 February
2002. [7] For previous information on
these issues, see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p.
772. [8] Article 7 Report, Form B, 25
July 2001; however, the total destroyed is incorrectly reported as
186,560. [9] Interview held at the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Vladimír Valusek, Director, Lt.-Col.
Frantisek Zák, and Capt. Martin Sabo, Verification Center, Ministry of
Defense, Bratislava, 5 March 2002. [10]
Article 7 Report, Form D, 30 April
2002. [11] Interview with
Vladimír Valusek, Director, Lt.-Col. Frantisek Zák, and Capt.
Martin Sabo, Verification Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5 March
2002. [12] Article 7 Report, Form A, 30
April 2002. [13] Interview with
Vladimír Valusek, Director, Lt.-Col. Frantisek Zák, and Capt.
Martin Sabo, Verification Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5 March 2002.
It was previously announced in April 2000 that the PT-Mi-K antivehicle mine with
antilift firing mechanisms had been destroyed and that the status of other
antivehicle mines that may function as antipersonnel mines would be considered
after completing the destruction of antipersonnel mine stockpiles. See Landmine
Monitor Report 2000, p. 714, and Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p.
773. [14] Letter from Peter
Kormúth, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 21 February
2002. [15] Interview with Peter
Kormúth and Igor Kucer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vladimír
Valusek, Lt.-Col. Frantisek Zák, and Capt. Martin Sabo, Verification
Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5 March 2002.
[16] Interview with Lt.-Col. Frantisek
Zák, Verification Center, Ministry of Defense, at Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Bratislava, 5 March 2002. [17]
Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form E, 18 October 2000; and email from
Peter Kormúth, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 28 March
2002. [18] See Amended Protocol II
Article 13 Report, Form G, 18 October 2000, and Article 7 Report, Form J, 30
April 2002. [19] Interview with Lt.-Col.
Frantisek Zák, Verification Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5
March 2002. [20] Email from Peter
Kormúth, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 28 March
2002. [21] Interview with
Vladimír Valusek, Lt.-Col. Frantisek Zák, and Capt. Martin Sabo,
Verification Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5 March
2002. [22] Interview with Peter
Kormúth and Igor Kucer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vladimír
Valusek, Lt.-Col. Frantisek Zák, and Capt. Martin Sabo, Verification
Center, Ministry of Defense, Bratislava, 5 March 2002.
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