LM Report 2003

Cameroon

Key developments since May 2002: Cameroon ratified the Mine Ban Treaty on 19 September 2002 and became a State Party on 1 March 2003.

The Republic of Cameroon signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997. Domestic procedures for ratification were completed on 28 July 2000, but the ratification instrument was never deposited. A new ratification law was adopted on 23 July 2002, and Cameroon deposited its instrument of ratification at the United Nations on 19 September 2002, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2003. National implementation legislation was reported in its Article 7 report, has not yet been adopted.^[1]

Cameroon attended the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in September 2002, and participated in intersessional Standing Committee meetings in February and May 2003. Although not a State Party at the time, Cameroon submitted an Article 7 report on 14 March 2001. Its first Article 7 report after the treaty’s entry into force for the country is due on 27 August 2003.

On 22 November 2002, Cameroon voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 57/74 on the universalization and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. The Cameroon Campaign to Ban Landmines represented the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) at a Mine Ban Treaty workshop in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo from 7 to 8 May 2003.

Cameroon has not produced, exported or used antipersonnel mines and will not facilitate their transit through its territory.^[2] It possesses a stockpile of 500 antipersonnel mines for training purposes, which will be destroyed once the mines are out of date.^[3]

Cameroon is not mine-affected, but some military are trained in demining techniques.^[4] The Mine Ban Treaty is part of the curriculum at the Military Academy in Yaoundé.^[5] Each year on 24 October, Cameroon commemorates a national who was killed in a mine incident in Cambodia during military operations with the UN Peacekeepers during the 1992-1993 UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia.^[6]

[1] Interview with Richard Etoundi, Ministry of External Relations, Geneva, 14 May 2003; Article 7 Report, Form A, 14 March 2001.
[2] Statement of Richard Etoundi, Ministry of External Relations, Fourth Meeting of State Parties, Geneva, 19 September 2002; Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 543.
[3] Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 543.
[4] Interview with Col. Jacques Lobe Edjeh, Director of Engineers, Ministry of Defense, Yaoundé, 14 March 2003.
[5] Interview with Col. David Jotsa, Senior Training Officer, Military Academy, Yaoundé, 13 March 2003.
[6] Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 543.