First Landmine Monitor Report released.

The result of a major international collaborative effort, the Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World was released in May in Maputo, Mozambique. The massive, 1100-page document represents an unprecedented initiative by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) to report on the global landmine situation after one year of implementation of the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning landmines. Drawing on its broad network of members, as well as journalists, academics and research institutions, the ICBL engaged 80 researchers in more than 100 countries to collect information, largely within the documented countries.

Key findings of the Landmine Monitor Report 1999 include:

1. As of March 31, 1999 there were 135 signatories to the Ottawa Treaty among which 71 states had ratified the Treaty into domestic law. Non-signatories include the US, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, most Middle East and former Soviet states, and many Asian countries.

2. The estimated number of anti-personnel landmines in the ground is down significantly from over 100 million to between 60 and 70 million. (The drop is largely due to better estimating measures.) Meanwhile, there are many more stockpiled landmines than previously estimated, some 250 million in 108 countries, about two-and-a-half times the earlier estimate.

3. Several countries are sites of new use, or reported new use, of anti-personnel mines. These include: Angola, DR Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda in Africa; Colombia in the Americas; Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan in Asia; Georgia, Turkey, and Yugoslavia in Europe; and Lebanon and Israel in the Middle East. At least three signatories, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal used anti-personnel mines in 1998 after signing the treaty.

4. Despite the new use of mines, there was no evidence of new production by treaty signatories or significant trade by any country.

5. Humanitarian mine action remains underfunded and the picture of monies spent or pledged is confusing. This is largely because of no common understanding of transparent reporting.

The Landmine Monitor Report 1999 is intended to be the first annual report by the ICBL on the implementation of, and compliance with, the 1997 Ottawa Landmines Treaty. Future reports will coincide with the annual meetings of states parties to the Treaty. Equally importantly, the 1999 report is the first time that NGOs have come together in a coordinated way to monitor a humanitarian law or disarmament treaty and to regularly document future progress and problems.