Geneva, July 2, 2014 (SPS) - Maputo Conference on Mine Ban has welcomed SADR initiative to present voluntary reports on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction, said Monday a statement issued by Polisario Front’s office in Geneva.
According to the statement, the initiative was welcomed by the delegate of Belgium, as the Chair of Article 7 Contact Group of the Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, during the Third Review Conference of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, which took place in Maputo, Mozambique, from 23 to 27 June 2014.
In its statement before Maputo Conference, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), receiver of Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, also noted the submission of the SADR’s reports as a as a sign of the support of the Sahrawi State for the goals of the Treaty.
SADR presented two voluntary reports in accordance with article 7 of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction (Ottawa Treaty) of 1997 and the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008.
The voluntary reports, which were submitted to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs in Geneva, contain information on the efforts made by the SADR since 2005 in relation to the destruction of its landmine stockpile, mine clearance and national measures regarding landmine and cluster munition victims and survivors of other explosive remnants of war (ERW).
It is worth noting that Western Sahara is one of the most heavily mined areas in the world as a result of the war that broke out in the Territory in the wake of Morocco’s military invasion and occupation of Western Sahara in 1975.
According to mine action organisations working in the field, there are over 7 million landmines throughout the Sahrawi Territory in addition to large quantities of cluster munitions and ERW.
Most of the landmines are buried along the 2720 km long Military Wall built by the Moroccan occupying forces in Western Sahara in the early eighties, which is considered the largest uninterrupted minefield in the world.
It is to be noted that the SADR, a founding member of the African Union, is a State Party to the African Nuclear Weapons-Free-Zone Treaty (Treaty of Pelindaba of 2009).
In 2005, the Frente POLISARIO signed the Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment as a sign of its commitment to banning the use of anti-personnel mines.
In addition to its establishment, in 2013, of the Sahrawi Mine Action Coordination Office (SMACO), the SADR cooperates fully with mine action organisations in conducting surveys and demining operations in the SADR Liberated Territories.
Despite repeated calls by international bodies and organisations, Morocco still refuses to sign the Ottawa Treaty on Landmines and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. (SPS)
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