Key developments since May 2003: Singapore voted in favor of UN
General Assembly Resolution 58/53 in December 2003 calling for universalization
of the Mine Ban Treaty. Singapore attended as an observer the Fifth Meeting of
States Parties held in Bangkok in September 2003. The Swedish company Biosensor
signed an agreement with CEO, a subsidiary of Singapore’s landmine
producer STK, to market a mine detection system in Asia. ICBL members protested
and asked for termination of the agreement. Biosensor maintained that CEO
claimed that STK no longer produces antipersonnel mines, although in April 2004
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again confirmed that STK is a producer.
Key developments since 1999: Singapore remains one of the fifteen mine
producers globally. While stating the need for antipersonnel mines for
“legitimate security concerns,” Singapore has voted in favor of
every pro-ban UN General Assembly resolution since 1996, and has attended all
but one of the annual Mine Ban Treaty States Parties meetings. Singapore has
maintained an indefinite moratorium on the export of all types of antipersonnel
mines since February 1998. An NGO Campaign to Ban Landmines was launched in
Singapore in June 2001.
Mine Ban Policy
The Republic of Singapore has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Its
position on the mine ban has not changed during the past five years. In a
letter to Landmine Monitor dated 23 April 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
stated, “Singapore has always been clear and open on its position on
anti-personnel landmines. Singapore continues to support all initiatives
against the indiscriminate use of APLs, especially when they are directed at
innocent and defenseless civilians. However, we believe that the legitimate
security concerns and right to self-defense of states should not be
disregarded.”[1]
Singapore did not participate in the Ottawa Process, but came as an observer
to the treaty negotiations in Oslo in September 1997 and the treaty signing
conference in Ottawa in December. Singapore has voted in favor of every pro-ban
UN General Assembly resolution since 1996, including UNGA Resolution 58/53 in
December 2003 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. Singapore
has attended as an observer all but one of the annual States Parties meetings,
including the Fifth Meeting of States Parties held in Bangkok in September
2003.[2] Government delegates
and civil society representatives from Singapore also attended the seminar
“APMs Are They Worth It?” in Bangkok in August 2003. Singapore has
never participated in any Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings.
Singapore is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). It
attended as an observer the Fifth Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended
Protocol II in November 2003, as it did in previous years.
A Campaign to Ban Landmines was launched in Singapore on 16 June 2001, with a
week of activities organized by the Think Centre in cooperation with the
Bangkok-based Nonviolence International. In February 2004, the Think Centre, in
collaboration with the multinational advertising company M&C Saatchi
Singapore, launched a Cambodian Landmine Survivors Support Campaign with a photo
exhibition. The campaign aims to raise awareness on the issue and to support
landmine victims in Cambodia.[3]
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling, and Use
Singapore is one of the fifteen mine producers globally. Singapore
Technologies Kinetics (STK), a government-linked company, remains the only
company in Singapore that manufactures landmines. In April 2004, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs declared that antipersonnel landmines produced in Singapore
are used solely by Singapore’s armed forces for self-defense
purposes.[4] The types of
landmines currently in production were not revealed. Singapore has produced two
types of antipersonnel landmines: a plastic blast mine (VS-50) and a bounding
fragmentation mine (VS-69), both copies of Italian designs.
On 13 April 2004, Biosensor (a Swedish company) and Chartered Electro-Optics
Pte Ltd (CEO), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Kinetics,
signed an agreement under which CEO will have exclusive marketing and
distribution rights to Biosensor’s BIOSENS-D/E drug/explosive detection
system in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and ASEAN countries, for a period of
three years.[5]
The demining NGO Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) and the Swedish Peace and
Arbitration Society (SPAS) immediately contacted Biosensor to inform the company
that STK is a producer of antipersonnel landmines. Both NPA and SPAS said that
they considered it inappropriate for Biosensor, a company that is developing
landmine detection equipment, to cooperate with a company that produces
antipersonnel landmines, and therefore asked Biosensor to terminate its
cooperation with STK. Biosensor contacted its partners in CEO, who, according
to Biosensor, claimed that STK is no longer producing landmines. A
representative of Biosensor stated that he was satisfied with this answer from
his partners.[6] NPA decided to
end its cooperation with
Biosensor,[7] as did the Swedish
Rescue Services Agency (Sweden’s main actor for humanitarian mine
clearance).[8]
Singapore declared an indefinite moratorium on the export of all types of
antipersonnel mines in February 1998, after a two-year moratorium on the export
of antipersonnel mines which have no self-destruct or self-neutralizing
mechanisms. Records of antipersonnel mines exported from Singapore before 1996
are kept confidential. From 1982-1986, Chartered Industries of Singapore (later
reorganized as part of STK) assembled antipersonnel mines from components
received from the Italian company Valsella. The assembled antipersonnel mines
were then reportedly shipped to Iraq and probably also to
Cambodia.[9] Ecuador reports
importing 25,151 VS-50 antipersonnel mines from Singapore in its Mine Ban Treaty
Article 7 transparency reports. Cyprus has declared 4,450 stockpiled VS-50
antipersonnel mines in its stockpile, which according to a media report were
imported from Singapore.[10] It
is not known if Singapore exported mines to other countries.
Singapore imported 3,843 M-18A1 Claymore mines and ten M-14 blast mines from
the United States from
1970-1981.[11] It is not known
if Singapore imported antipersonnel mines from other countries.
Information about the size or composition of Singapore’s current
stockpile of antipersonnel mines remains unavailable. Singapore declares that
expired mines are dismantle into irrecoverable components by the
manufacturer.[12]
Landmine Problem and Mine Action
Singapore is not mine-affected. Landmine Monitor has not recorded any mine
victims in or from Singapore. The government has never contributed to
international humanitarian mine action programs.
[1] Letter faxed from Tan Yee Woan,
Director of International Organizations Division, for Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2004.
[2] Singapore did not attend the
Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001 in Nicaragua. It was also
absent from regional landmine conferences in 2001 and 2002. See Landmine
Monitor Report 2002, p. 742. [3]
Interview with Sinapan Samydorai, President, Think Centre, Bangkok, 26 April
2004. [4] Letter faxed from Tan Yee
Woan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April 2004. In December 2000, a Ministry
of Defense representative stated that the MoD retains a number of antipersonnel
mines for “training and defensive purposes only,” and noted that
“training for APLs and removal techniques is done in Singapore.”
Letter from Eric Chong, Ministry of Defense, 15 December 2000. The language
would imply training in both how to use mines and how to clear
them. [5] Biosensor Applications
Sweden AB, Press release, 13 April
2004. [6] Email from Carl Lundberg,
Biosensor, 29 April 2004, and subsequent telephone
conversations. [7] Letter from Sara
Sekkenes and Per Nergaard, NPA, 14 May
2004. [8] Letter from Kjell Larsson,
Swedish Rescue Service Agency, 17 June
2004. [9] Francesco Terreri,
Produzione, Commercio ed Uso delle Mine Terrestri: Il Ruolo dell’Italia
(Production, Trade and Use of Landmines: The Role of Italy), Edizioni Comune
Aperto, Comune di Firenze, pp.
33-34. [10] Cyprus, Article 7 Report,
Forms B and G, undated (for calendar year 2003); Jean Christou, “Mines
deadlock,” Sunday Mail, 21 January
2001. [11] Letter to Human Rights
Watch from US Army, Armament, Munitions, and Chemical Command, 25 August 1993,
and attached statistical tables. [12]
Letter faxed from Tan Yee Woan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April
2004.