• Press Release February, 2005
• 28th December 2004.
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• Joint Public Statement 7th June 2002.
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• 29th December 2001.
• 18th October 2001.
• 17th September 2001.
• Joint Statement 7th August 2001.
• 27th March 2000.
• Joint Statement by Forum.
• 19th April 1999.

On the 2nd of June a seven year old girl was killed and three other children injured when one of seven mines floating in a canal in which they were bathing exploded in Mirjewala near Sriganganagar (Rajasthan) on the Indian side of the Indo-Pak border. This was not the first and indeed may not be the last such tragedy involving landmines. There have been several reports of a number of civilian casualties along both sides of the Indo-Pak border involving antipersonnel landmines.

The military buildup on the Indo-Pak border has resulted in extensive antipersonnel mine laying operations being conducted by both India and Pakistan since December 2001. While neither Government has actually released figures regarding the scale of the mining operations, an attempt at mining the 2897 kilometer long Indo-Pak border may amount to one of the largest mine laying operations in world since 1997 when the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty came into force.

In many areas mines have been laid in agricultural or pastoral lands and civilians have been evacuated from these areas. Apart from a large number of civilian casualties deaths of large numbers of livestock on both sides of the border have also been reported, adversely affecting both agricultural and pastoral communities in India and Pakistan.

The large-scale land acquisition for mining operations has also resulted in displacement or at least temporary dispossession of land of a large number of people living in the border areas. Out of the 70,000 acres of land acquired for defences in Jammu and Kashmir (India) around 25,000 acres have been mined. Similarly some 98,000 acres of land have been acquired in Punjab (India) for construction of defences and mining.

Mine laying and transportation are in themselves potentially fatal and an Indian Defence Ministry statement in Parliament confirmed the deaths of at least 176 soldiers due to 'accidents' in the course of mine laying or transportation up to May 2002. Seven more soldiers died in an 'accident' while transporting mines on the 1st May 2002.

Around the world there are some 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties every year due to landmines and unexploded ordinance. In several countries such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia etc antipersonnel mines continue to claim a large number of victims. By their very nature landmines, hidden and often forgotten once laid, continue to kill and maim people years after the cessation of conflicts.

India and Pakistan have not ratified the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty that prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines and is ratified by 123 countries. The two countries are amongst the 14 in the world that still produce antipersonnel landmines and their stockpiles of these mines are the sixth and fifth largest in the world respectively namely between 4-6 million.

Both India and Pakistan are parties to the Amended Protocol II of the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons. This protocol restricts and regulates the types and manner of use of antipersonnel mines. The string of reports suggesting a large number of civilian casualties on both sides of the border indicates poor compliance with one of the most important clauses of the Protocol namely effective exclusion of civilians from mined areas.

There are serious concerns that both countries may be continuing to stockpile and use low metal content mines (in violation of the Protocol II) that are hard to detect. In fact both Indian and Pakistan opposed international moves to apply the same detectability requirement for antipersonnel mines as in the case of antivehicle mines.

Given the indiscriminate nature of antipersonnel mines, their devastating impact on civilian lives and the strong international opinion in favour of their prohibition we call on the Governments of India and Pakistan to:

For more information please contact:

Gautam Navlakha / Vijayan MJ (PIPFPD, New Delhi) 647 3425 / 656 1743
Vijay Nagaraj (Amnesty International India) - 651 0202 / 685 4763
Ganesh Nochur (Greenpeace India) - 098200 42897 (Mumbai)
Syed Shamsuddin (Amnesty International Pakistan) - 00-92-21-496 0661