Policy

Malaysia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 22 April 1999, becoming a State Party on 1 October 2009. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically took effect on 25 June 2000.

Malaysia attends some meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it did not provide a statement. Malaysia did not attend the intersessional meetings in Geneva in May 2019, nor did it previously attend the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014.

Malaysia submitted its sixth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 3 May 2006. Malaysia submitted subsequent annual reports through 2014, but they consisted only of a cover page.

Malaysia served as co-rapporteur and then co-chair of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction from 1999–2001.

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

Production, use, stockpiling, and destruction

Malaysia has never used, produced, or exported antipersonnel mines. According to defense officials, the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) rebels used to manufacture “booby traps” from the 1950s and the 1980s. These were jointly cleared by the rebel and government forces after negotiations were successfully conducted in December 1989.[1]

Mine supplies, including Claymore mines, were bought from the United Kingsom and the United States (US).[2] Malaysia acquired 88,278 M18 and M18A1 Claymore mines from the US between 1969 and 1978.[3]

Malaysia completed destruction of its stockpile of 94,721 mines on 23 January 2001, well in advance of its October 2003 treaty-mandated deadline. Malaysia chose not to retain any mines for training or development purposes.