Anti-mine NGO criticizes Turkey for its failure to honor int’l treaty

The Geneva-based International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) issued a 78-page report titled “The Landmine Monitor 2010” last week and directed criticism at the Turkish state for its failure to destroy its landmine stockpile by March 2008, the deadline agreed on as part of its ratification of the treaty. Record-breaking progress in implementing the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty -- known formally as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction -- was made in 2009. Use and production of such weaponry, as well as casualty rates, were the lowest on record, while more contaminated land was cleared than ever before according to “The Landmine Monitor 2010,” which was released on Wednesday at the UN office in Geneva.

Due to its failure to live up to its words vis-à-vis the agreement, the NGO said, Turkey remained one of the few countries negatively affecting the overall performance of the signatory states. “The excellent record on stockpile destruction was tarnished when Belarus, Greece and Turkey failed to meet their March 1, 2008 deadline and Ukraine missed its June 1, 2010 deadline. Each of these states parties was not only unable to meet its deadline, but each still had a very large number of mines left to destroy at the time of its deadline (about 3.4 million for Belarus, 1.6 million for Greece, 2.5 million for Turkey and 6.1 million for Ukraine),” said the NGO in its extensive assessment.

ICBL added that the present situation in Turkey emerged because it delayed its stockpile destruction program. The report, nevertheless, commended the progress that had been made at least in rendering those landmines inoperable. “It took the positive step of removing all fuses from its mines by April 2008, rendering them inoperable, but it experienced delays in building a destruction facility and bringing it up to full capacity,” the report read. Turkey, on the other hand, said in June that it reduced its stockpile to 266,143 antipersonnel mines, and added that it expected complete destruction by the end of 2010. ICBL did not find this official statement a “firm” commitment.

On the specific issue of destroying antipersonnel land mines in the mined areas under its jurisdiction or control, which is stipulated in Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, the report expressed disbelief that Turkey will be able to meet its deadline, which is 2014. “Without enhanced efforts, future compliance with Article 5 deadlines seems likely to be similarly disappointing,” read the document’s assessment made on the progress to date. For the NGO, because Turkey “has still not formally acknowledged its responsibility for clearance in northern Cyprus” the island is likely to seek an extension of its pre-specified deadline until 2013. The complication in that regard emerges from the fact that the international community does not recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), which was founded in 1983, and considers it under Turkish occupation, consequently placing the responsibility of clearing the mined areas on Turkey’s shoulders. The Greek Cypriots that have the control over the southern part of the divided island, however, have not yet declared whether they will seek an extension.

‘Disturbing allegations’

The report also cautiously acknowledged the allegations of the use of banned landmines by the Turkish military. “There are highly disturbing allegations that members of the armed forces in Turkey used antipersonnel mines in 2009; these are currently the subject of a legal investigation by Turkey,” the report read.

In fact, as a result of that investigation a general was put behind bars earlier this month. Brig. Gen. Zeki Es, who ordered the placement of land mines which killed seven soldiers in the Çukurca district of the eastern Hakkari province last year, has been kept in a military prison since Nov. 8. Es was put under the spotlight in April of this year when the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in the eastern province of Van revealed that the explosion which killed the soldiers was caused by mines planted by the Turkish military, contrary to earlier beliefs that they had been planted by Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.

Maj. Gen. Gürbüz Kaya was also partially responsible for the incident. The Military Prosecutor’s Office of the General Staff concluded the investigation into Es and Kaya; however, Es was arrested as a result of the investigation, while Kaya went unpunished. Kaya was recently suspended from duty by Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül as he was also implicated in a suspected plot to topple the government by civilian prosecutors. Turkey is one of 58 countries around the world where casualties due to antipersonnel landmines were reported last year.