Singapore attended as an observer the Fourth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2002 and the Fourth Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II of the Convention of Conventional Weapons in December 2002. Singapore also participated in the regional seminar, “Building a Cooperative Future of Mine Action in Southeast Asia,” held in Phnom Penh on 26 -28 March 2003. It did not attend Mine Ban Treaty intersessional meetings in February and May 2003.

Singapore Technologies Kinetics Ltd. continues to produce antipersonnel landmines.[2] The First Secretary of the Embassy of Singapore to Thailand told to Landmine Monitor, “Singapore continues to exercise strict control over the production of landmines in Singapore. SK Kinetics remains the only company in Singapore that manufactures landmines.”[3] Two antipersonnel mines are produced, both copies of Italian designs: a plastic blast mine (VS-50) and a bounding fragmentation mine (VS-69). Singapore states that an indefinite moratorium on export of all types of antipersonnel mines is still in force.[4] In December 2000, a Ministry of Defense representative stated that Singapore stockpiles antipersonnel mines for “training and defensive purposes only.”[5] The number of stockpiled mines remains unknown.

Singapore is not mine-affected. Singapore has never contributed to international humanitarian mine action programs.

[1] Fax from Pong Kok Tian, First Secretary, Embassy of Singapore to Thailand, Bangkok 23 June 2003.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 576.

International Campaign to Ban Landmines Banning Antipersonnel Mines

The Mine Ban Treaty was opened for signature on 3 December 1997. After achieving the required 40 ratifications in September 1998, the Mine Ban Treaty entered into force on 1 March 1999, becoming binding international law.

A total of 134 countries are States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, as of 31 July 2003. Another 13 countries have signed, but not ratified the treaty.[4] Thus, 147 countries have legally committed to the core obligations of the treaty, including no use of antipersonnel mines.

Since the Mine Ban Treaty was opened for signature in December 1997, over three-quarters of the world’s nations have joined the treaty. This indicates widespread international rejection of any use or possession of antipersonnel mines, and widespread commitment to mine clearance and assistance to mine survivors.

Most of the major mine-affected countries are now States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. These include: Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Thailand in Asia.

Malaysia and Thailand completed destruction of its stockpiled antipersonnel mines by July 2003.

ANTIPERSONNEL LANDMINE PRODUCERS Nine of the fifteen mine producers are in Asia (Burma, China, India, Nepal, North Korea, South Korea, Pakistan, Singapore, and Vietnam), three in the Middle East (Egypt, Iran, and Iraq), two in the Americas (Cuba and United States), and one in Europe (Russia).

What You Can Do:

The ICBL calls for:

An international ban on the use, production, stockpiling, and sale, transfer, or export of antipersonnel landmines

The signing, ratification, implementation, and monitoring of the mine ban treaty

Increased resources for humanitarian demining and mine risk education programs

Increased resources for landmine victim rehabilitation and assistance