Policy

The Kyrgyz Republic has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In an April 2010 letter to the Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it supports the idea of a full ban on antipersonnel mines and advocates for the successful implementation of the treaty.[1] However, as in the past, Kyrgyzstan indicated it could not yet join because it does not have necessary alternatives for border defense and because it lacks both financial and technical resources to implement the treaty.[2] It last participated in a treaty meeting as an observer at the 2005 Meeting of States Parties.

On 5 December 2018, Kyrgyzstan voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 73/61, calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.[3] Prior to December 2010, Kyrgyzstan had abstained on similar UNGA resolutions.

Kyrgyzstan is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, nor is it party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling, and use

In April 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Kyrgyzstan has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[4] Kyrgyzstan has not enacted legislation to regulate export and manufacture of antipersonnel mines “due to the absence of technical means on the territory of our country.”[5]

Kyrgyzstan inherited a stockpile of mines from the Soviet Union.[6] In April 2010, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially confirmed that the Ministry of Defense possesses a stock of PMN and OZM-72 antipersonnel mines—which it described as expired—and the State Border Guard Service possesses “a small amount” of antipersonnel mines, which are “kept for guarding the more vulnerable sectors of the state border with difficult access in high mountains.”[7]

Kyrgyzstan said that it does not have the financial resources to destroy its expired mines or to purchase alternatives. It estimates the cost of destroying its expired stockpiles of PMN and OZM-72 antipersonnel mines at approximately US$600,000. It linked stockpile destruction to acquisition of new types of mines (apparently command-detonated), which it said might cost $1.5 million.[8]

Kyrgyzstan has acknowledged previously that it used antipersonnel mines in 1999 and 2000 to prevent infiltration across its borders.[9] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in May 2010 that in 1999–2000 the military “used a certain amount of antipersonnel landmines,” but stated that reports and maps of the mined areas were produced and that after the end of the military operation, the mines were removed and destroyed.[10] In June 2011, a government official confirmed that “We do not have any minefields on the territory of Kyrgyzstan.”[11]