Country & Territory Reports - Landmine Action

Kyrgyzstan
Background
The presence of ERW in Kyrgyzstan stems from clashes of
Kyrgyz government troops with units of the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in 1999 and 2000. Mines,
presumably including MOTAPM, were laid along the border
with Uzbekistan in 1999 by Uzbek border guards as an
alleged protection against the intrusion of IMU fighters
from Kyrgyz territory during the so-called Batken Wars.
Assessment
ERW and MOTAPM present a significant risk to border
villages in the Batken region in south Kyrgyzstan. 1086 About
a dozen caches of abandoned ordnance have been
discovered in southern Kyrgyzstan since 1999, which are
assumed to be left behind by IMU fighters – missile and
grenade launchers, large quantities of cartridges, fuzes
and explosive material, MOTAPM, anti-personnel mines
and other munitions. 1087
Impact
According to a former spokesperson for the OSCE Centre in
Dushanbe, in late 2003 about 2 per cent of Kyrgyzstan’s
territory was contaminated with ERW and mines, much of it
arable land that thus could not be used for agriculture or
other productive use. 1088 No casualty data were available
for 2004, but according to the Kyrgyz Red Crescent
between autumn 1999 and October 2003 five people died
and another five received injuries from ERW or mines laid
in the Batken region. Half of the victims were reportedly
children. 1089 In 2001 and 2002, three ERW incidents were
reported which killed five children. 1090
A recent IRIN news agency report described the ERW
situation in Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring countries as
follows: “According to Colonel Leonid Bondarets, an
analyst at the Bishkek-based International Centre for
Strategic Research, Central Asia’s densely populated
Ferghana Valley shared by Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan was used excessively by the three countries’
military bodies following the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1991 and was full of weapons and munitions. The
danger of accidental explosions remained, he maintained.
A local scrap metal dealer was killed by UXO in Batken
while loading an artillery shell on a truck to ship it to
China as scrap metal.” 1091
Efforts to address these problems
Demining in the Batken region began mid-August 2004. 1092
Following a June 2001 decree on mine clearance and mine
awareness, the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency Situations in
2003 started conducting risk education programmes
among high-risk populations in contaminated areas. 1093
Starting early in 2003, the ICRC and the Kyrgyz Red
Crescent trained volunteers in community-based mine
action, in close coordination with the Ministry of Ecology
and Emergency Situations, which collected mine data. The
Red Crescent also assisted ERW and mine victims. 1094
Legislation
Kyrgyzstan has not acceded to any of the international
instruments dealing with ERW and MOTAPM.
kyrgyzstan 101
1086 Kyrgyz Pyramid TV, Uzbek mine-clearance operation under way on Kyrgyz border, 19 August 2004.
1087 “Central Asian Mountains Full of Weapons”, WPS: Defense & Security (source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta), 4 July 2003; see also “Kyrgyz security service
finds arms cache in south”, Kyrgyzstan Daily Digest, 25 June 2003,
http://www.eurasianet.org/resource/kyrgyzstan/hypermail/200306/0049.shtml, accessed 13 September 2004.
1088 Salla Kayhko, “Clearing the way for a mine-free Tajikistan, Promising start for OSCE’s first de-mining project”, OSCE Newsletter, Vol. XI No.7,
November/December 2003, p. 18.
1089 “Five Kyrgyz killed, five injured by Uzbek border mine incidents”, Kabar news agency, 24 October 2003; Landmine Action, Explosive Remnants of
War: A Global Survey, 2003, p. 54.
1090 According to Kyrgyz press reports cited in Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 629.
1091 IRIN, Osh, “Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan: Demining around Uzbek enclaves brings hope to impoverished villagers”, 24 November 2004.
1092 “Uzbekistan to begin to clear mine fields on Kyrgyz border on 15 August”, Kyrgyz TV, 12 August 2004; “Uzbekistan to demine Sokh and
Shahimardan enclaves”, Kyrgyzinfo, 13 August 2004.
1093 Human Rights Watch, World Report 2003, p. 343.
1094 ICRC Annual Report 2003, p. 176.
erw and motapm – global survey 2003–2004