India and Pakistan hold world's largest stockpile of anti-personnel mines: report
BY Iftikhar Gilani
Delhi
India and Pakistan are hosts to worlds largest stockpile of anti-personnel landmines, reports International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisastion. The report also expresses concerns at the use of these landmines in South Asia and the lack of consistent and accurate data availability of landmine victims in the region.
The 2010 Landmine Monitor Report estimates that India has a stockpile of 4 million to 5 million anti-personnel mines while Pakistan has more than 6 million mines. India has produced five types of mines that includes two variants of antipersonnel mines (AP NM-14 and AP NM-16), two types of antivehicle mines (AT ND 1A and AT ND 4D), and the APER 1B mine (a type unknown to Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor).
Bracketing India with Afghanistan, Colombia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Yemen, countries where non-state armed groups use anti-personnel mines, the report identifies India as among the 12 largest producers of these mines. Nepal was removed from the largest producers list following official declarations of non-production.
In addition to anti-personnel mines, India also possesses a huge arsenal of cluster bombs that inflict heavy civilian casualties. According to Janes Information Group, India possesses KMG-U dispensers, BL-755, BLG-66 Belouga, RBK-250, RBK-275, and RBK-500 cluster bombs. In February 2006, India bought 28 launch units for the Russian-produced dual-purpose Smerch Multiple Launch Rocket System fitted with sensor-fused sub-munitions. Also, the US announced in September 2008 that at the request of India, it was intending to sell 510 CBU-105 air-dropped sensor-fused weapons in an arms deal valued at as much as $355 million (over Rs 1,620 crore today).
The Landmine Monitor Report has listed 57 casualties (17 killed, 40 injured) during past one year in India, against 33 during the previous year. Over the past 10 years, some 3,000 people across India, but mostly in Jammu and Kashmir, have fallen victim to landmine explosions.
Large fluctuations in annual casualty figures can be attributed to the challenges in collecting consistent and accurate data from media and local sources, since India lacks a systematic data collection system, the report said.
However, the number of causalities globally has come down by 29 per cent since 2008 to 3,956 casualties during 2009-10. The 65-page report expressed satisfaction with the substantial progress being made globally to eradicate anti-personnel mines, but criticised the US for not joining the international treaty for banning the mines.
Although India had on October 1, 2007, ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities that got implemented in May 2008, it abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 64/56 calling for universalisation and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Indias stand on this resolution is that it (India) supports the vision of a world free from the threat of anti-personnel mines and that the availability of militarily effective alternative technologies that can perform, cost-effectively, the legitimate defensive role of anti-personnel landmines will considerably facilitate the goal of the complete elimination of anti-personnel mines.
