Iran

Mine Ban Policy

The Islamic Republic of Iran has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. In a February 2006 letter to Landmine Monitor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “Due to our expansive borders and problems resulting from narcotics and terrorist trafficking, our defense institutions are considering the use of landmines as a defensive mechanism.”^[1] In August 2005 the Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mine Action Center (IRMAC) stated that Iran is against the use of landmines, but war in and occupation of two countries bordering Iran were not conducive to Iran joining the Mine Ban Treaty.^[2]

Iran has abstained from voting on every annual UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Mine Ban Treaty since 1997, including Resolution 61/84 on 6 December 2006. Iran has never participated as an observer in the annual meetings of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, and has not attended meetings of the intersessional Standing Committees in Geneva except in May 2001.

Iran is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but in February 2006 told Landmine Monitor it has “announced its support for the regulations stipulated in the second protocol of this convention regarding the method of utilizing antipersonnel landmines.”^[3]

Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use

There is evidence that Iran produced and exported antipersonnel mines at least as recently as 2000, and perhaps later. Landmine Monitor received information that mine clearance organizations in Afghanistan were removing and destroying many hundreds of Iranian YM-I and YM-I-B antipersonnel mines, date stamped 1999 and 2000, from abandoned Northern Alliance frontlines.^[4]

In November 2006 the UN group monitoring the arms embargo on Somalia reported shipments of arms including landmines from Iran to combatants in Somalia in violation of the arms embargo on the country. The November report states that on 25 July 2006 an aircraft carrying arms, including an unknown quantity of mines, from Iran landed at Baldogle airport and was met by senior members of the Courts Union and the Dayniile Islamic Court.^[5] The type of mine, antipersonnel or antivehicle, was not specified. In response, Iran stated that it had not transferred any arms to Somalia.^[6]

Iran exported a significant number of antipersonnel mines in the past. An export moratorium was instituted in 1997, but it is not known if it is still formally in effect. In its February 2006 letter to Landmine Monitor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states, “It has been several years since Iran voluntarily halted export of anti-personnel mines.”^[7]

The Director of IRMAC told Landmine Monitor in August 2005 that Iran neither uses nor produces landmines.^[8] He did not state when Iran stopped using and producing mines, or if there is a formal policy or law prohibiting use and production.^[9] In September 2002 the Ministry of Defense declared, “The Islamic Republic of Iran, since the termination of its war ^[1988], has not produced anti-personnel mines.”^[10]

Iran is thought to have a large stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but no official information is available on its size and composition.

Jondollah activists allege that Iranian forces maintain an “internal border” with mines in order to control insurgency in Baluchi areas of Iran. They claim mines have been laid in the following areas: Narmashir between Zahedan and Bam, Pir Sooran near Zahedan, Rabot near the tri-border junction with Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Mirjaneh near the border with Pakistan and Koch.^[11]

Jondollah militants in the Baluchi areas of Iran have carried out attacks using explosives but none have been identified as victim-activated devices. None of the militant organizations operating in Kurdish areas of Iran have been identified as users of antipersonnel mines. Landmine casualties continue to occur in Kurdish areas, although the government states they are caused by landmines remaining from the war with Iraq.^[12]

Landmine and ERW Problem

Landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW), especially unexploded ordnance (UXO), remain in Iran from the 1980-1988 conflict with Iraq, affecting particularly the provinces of Kurdistan, Western Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah and Ilam in the west and southwest from Abadan on the Persian Gulf to the Turkish border some 600 kilometers north.^[13] A member of the Ahwaz Human Rights Organization claimed that Arabian areas of the country remain heavily mined.^[14] The eastern provinces of Khorasan and Sistan-Baluchestan are also said to be affected by mines, especially in joint border areas with Pakistan and Afghanistan.^[15]

Although the extensive use of mines during the eight-year-long conflict with Iraq can be expected to have left substantial contamination, the various estimates of area contaminated offered in recent years are improbably large. IRMAC’s website states that some 16,000 square kilometers remain to be cleared.^[16] In February 2007 the Defense Minister claimed that 12,800 square kilometers were still contaminated.^[17] It is likely that technical survey would reduce these estimates significantly.

Minefields along the border with Iraq are said to block access to agricultural land, infrastructure and social services.^[18] In April 2007 the head of the Agricultural Jihad Organization in Khuzestan Province claimed that more than 24,380 hectares (243.8 square kilometers) of potential agricultural land in the province were mine contaminated; clearance would add about 95,600 tons of agricultural produce to the province’s annual production.^[19]

The mine and UXO threat has other adverse effects, endangering safe return of refugees and internally displaced people, compromising exploitation of oilfields and other development projects, and access to historical sites.^[20] In February 2007 the Defense Minister reportedly declared that: “the problem of mines is a national one, but regrettably 18 years after [the Iran-Iraq war], five provinces are still contaminated and some of our compatriots are exposed to danger” and “Regrettably, this problem is hampering the development of the [provinces].”^[21]

Mine Action Program

The National Mine Action Council (NMAC), formed at the cabinet level, is said to be the national authority “mandated with the responsibility to adopt policies, strategies, draft operational protocols, mobilize resources, and overview the general implementation of mine action.” NMAC is chaired by the Minister of Defense.^[22]

NMAC created the Islamic Republic of Iran Mine Action Center in 2003 to plan, coordinate and implement mine action.^[23] IRMAC is in charge of executing policies and ensuring quality assurance and quality control of mine action activities. IRMAC also states that in early 2006, soon after becoming President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Ilam, one of the highly contaminated provinces, to observe the consequences of the war in the area. He issued a presidential order making the Defense Minister his Special Representative for Mine Action, after which new management was installed in IRMAC; on 10 June 2006 Morteza Habibi Karehroudi became IRMAC’s director. IRMAC further reported that the Ministry of Interior has been made responsible for providing the plans and defining priorities for contaminated provinces.^[24]

Strategic Mine Action Planning

In February 2007 the Defense Minister reportedly declared that a 40-year timetable for mine clearance was being reduced to five years. He further noted that “In view of the president’s special attention to this matter, the ministry has given priority to mine clearance operations.” He claimed that operations would be concluded in West Azerbaijan and Kordestan Provinces by the end of Year 1385 (21 March 2007) and that one year later, the province of Kermanshah would be cleared of mines. Finally, he declared that “in line with our schedule and taking into account the high level of contamination in Khuzestan and Ilam Provinces, these two provinces will be decontaminated by 1389 ^[2011].”^[25]

Integration of Mine Action with Reconstruction and Development

The benefits to agriculture and other development from demining are well known in Iran. For example, the Defense Minister declared that: “A complete clearance must be done in order to reduce landmine accidents to zero. And provide development basis for the affected provinces in agricultural, industrial and animal husbandry sectors.”^[26] IRMAC stated that tasks include integrating mine action activities with development projects and following the five-year plan for clearance as integrated into the national five-year development plan.^[27] It is not known, however, to what extent Iran has explicitly linked mine action operations on the ground to broader reconstruction or development in the affected areas.

Demining

With the exceptions such as commercial clearance for the purposes of oil exploration, demining in Iran has been conducted by the Iranian military. In October 2006, however, the Defense Minister declared that, “In addition to using the full capacity of the operational units of the Guard Corps and the Army, with the special support of the Defense Ministry and the participation of private companies and non-governmental organizations, and by the use of demolition, combat forces and modern equipment, we will speed up the operation of clearing minefields.”^[28]

Iran reported clearance of 104.42 square kilometers in 2006, with the destruction of 53,632 antipersonnel mines, 16,918 antivehicle mines and 43,444 items of UXO.^[29] According to IRMAC, however, in each hectare of contaminated land, about 50 to 120 landmines and 20 to 60 pieces of UXO are found and destroyed.^[30]

For clearance in 2005, contradictory figures have been reported. In March 2007, in a pamphlet produced by the Ministry of Defense for a workshop in Tehran, it was claimed that 33,815 hectares (338.15 square kilometers) of land were cleared during 2005.^[31] In September 2006 Iran informed Landmine Monitor that 647.5 square kilometers in the provinces of Khuzistan, Illam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and Azerbaijan, including 450 military bases from the war with Iraq, had been cleared.^[32] If true, this would be equivalent to the total area demined by the rest of the world. It has not been possible to verify these figures or to account for the huge discrepancy.

It is not known what quality assurance and quality control procedures are followed in Iran. In October 2006 the Defense Minister declared that the Construction Counsel Company, affiliated with the Defense Ministry and the Khatam ol-Anbia’ engineering camp, supervised clearance operations “in order to increase the quality and precision of the task.”^[33] The casualty rate among deminers is very high, with reports that 168 demining personnel have been killed and a further 697 injured in the past eight years.^[34]

Mine Risk Education

In 2006 mine risk education (MRE) was carried out by the Iranian Red Cross Society (IRCS) supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Department of Behzisti (part of the Ministry of Welfare) and the Zaynab Welfare Agency.

Mine risk education in Iran is coordinated by IRMAC, which established an MRE committee in December 2005 which is responsible for policy development, planning, implementation and evaluation of MRE.^[35] Development of MRE national standards appears to be incomplete. IRMAC’s New Policies and Approaches, under its Ministry of Defense management, does not include any specific MRE objectives.

In 2006, the ICRC continued work with the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to finalize a cooperation agreement on MRE. In 2006, 50 Iranian journalists attended information sessions on MRE; 50,000 MRE leaflets in Dari and Pashto were distributed by the IRCS and the ICRC for Afghan returnees in Khorasan; 120,000 copies of three different MRE leaflets in Farsi were distributed during MRE sessions for Iranians.^[36] Between March 2006 and February 2007 the IRCS provided 185 MRE sessions reaching more than 5,500 people in the mine-affected province of West Azerbaijan.^[37] The ICRC covers all expenses for the returnee MRE program.^[38]

As of March 2007 the Disability Prevention Department of Behzisti was involved in MRE and expanded its activities to the five affected provinces; extra capacity was developed in Kurdistan province. Its primary focus was MRE training to teachers and shepherds.^[39]

The Zaynab Welfare Agency provides MRE to women in mine-affected communities in Ilam. It conducted 30-minute MRE sessions for 600 women in the second half of 2006 and from January to March 2007.^[40]

Landmine/UXO Casualties

Landmine Monitor has not been able to confirm any new civilian casualties in Iran in 2006.^[41] As in previous years, IRMAC declined to provide casualty data for 2006 to Landmine Monitor and did not report casualties on its website as it had done previously. The Iranian Mine Victim Resource Center (IMC) was not able to collect casualty data in 2006 or 2007 due to financial difficulties. The ICRC was not in a position to provide information and English language media monitoring did not identify new mine/ERW casualties in Iran. In 2004 and 2005, partial data collection identified more than 100 recorded new casualties per year (2005: 109, 28 killed and 81 injured).^[42]

However, it can be assumed that casualties continued to occur in the five mine-affected provinces of Iran in 2006-2007. Reportedly, an Iranian Red Crescent Society survey in mid-2006 recorded more than 60 civilian casualties in two months in 2006.^[43] At a conference in March 2007, an IRMAC representative said that some 80 reports of mine/ERW casualties between 21 March 2006 and 1 March 2007 had been received; about half of them were deminers.^[44]

At the end of 2005 IRMAC stated that on average three people were injured or killed by mines and ERW every two days.^[45] This would mean that approximately 550 people per year are injured or killed by mines; casualties are thought to be primarily shepherds and local residents living near the Iran-Iraq border.^[46] Other actors state that the casualty rate might be higher, and similar to that of Afghanistan at approximately 800 casualties per year.^[47]

The Ministry of Defense stated that nine deminers were killed and 20 injured in clearance operations in 2006.^[48] At least 168 clearance staff have been killed and 697 injured in the last eight years.^[49]

According to “official statistics, more than 2,000 people have been either maimed or killed by mine explosions in Ilam [province] in recent years,” but the most affected province is Kermanshah with 34.4 percent of recent casualties.^[50]

Casualties continued to occur in 2007, and Landmine Monitor English-language media analysis recorded at least 18 new mine/ERW casualties as of 18 July 2007 (eight killed and 10 injured). At least two were police and one was military. At least four casualties occurred while farming. Ten casualties occurred in Kurdistan province, six in Ilam, and two in Kermanshah. On 28 April two people were injured and two killed in separate incidents while farming in Marivan (Kurdistan) and Qasr-e Shirin (Kermanshah).^[51] On 9 May, two policemen were involved in a mine incident in Sardasht (Kurdistan); five more people had been involved in incidents in the same area since 21 March 2007.^[52] In June one soldier was killed on patrol in Piranshah (Kurdistan).^[53] On 18 July 2007, two people were killed and four injured in a mine incident in Dehloran (Ilam).^[54]

In Greece in 2006, at least two Iranians were injured in the Evros minefields while trying to cross the border illegally.^[55]

Data Collection

There is no unified casualty data collection mechanism in Iran. However, several actors are or have been involved in data collection. Until 2006 the IMC recorded casualty data, mainly in Ilam province, but ceased activities due to capacity constraints. IRMAC collects data but it is reportedly not comprehensive or of good quality; it is not “allowed” to share the information.^[56] Several veterans’ organizations and the Iranian Red Crescent Society have information on mine/ERW disabled people requiring assistance.

Several research institutes have conducted retroactive casualty data collection for assistance and research purposes, most notably the Janbazan Medical and Engineering Research Center (JMERC), the research body of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. In 2003 it started compiling an epidemiological evaluation of injuries associated with mine/ERW explosions since the 1988 cease-fire in five western provinces. This was intended as the basis for planning community-based projects such as MRE and survivor assistance. Results of the study had not been finalized by March 2007. The ICRC was scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding with IRMAC and JMERC for completion of this database for a 10-year period and to study the impact of mine/ERW incidents on the quality of life of the survivors and their families.^[57] ICRC provided technical advice on data gathering and analysis to IRMAC during 2006 and the quality of life survey started in early 2007.^[58]

The total number of mine/ERW casualties in Iran is unknown; under-reporting appears to be significant, especially in recent years. According to Ministry of Interior data used by the IMC, between 1988 and 2002 there were 6,765 mine casualties in Iran, including 2,840 people killed and 3,925 injured. Casualties were recorded in Kurdistan (437 killed and 1,720 injured), Khuzestan (601 killed and 1,241 injured), Kermanshah (874 killed and 522 injured), Ilam (730 killed and 250 injured) and Western Azerbaijan (198 killed and 192 injured).^[59] Reportedly, more than 850 military deminers were killed in the same period.^[60]

The Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center at Tehran University of Medical Sciences recorded over 7,000 mine-related incidents in Iran since 1988; over 95 percent resulted in civilian casualties and 13-15 percent involved children. In Kermanshah province from 1994-2004, 990 people were killed and 1,270 seriously injured in mine incidents.^[61]

In December 2006 a one-week regional course on disability and health statistics was organized by the UN Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific and the Statistical Center of Iran.^[62]

Survivor Assistance

In March 2007 the first International Congress on Landmine Induced Injuries was held in Tehran, organized in cooperation with IRMAC and relevant stakeholders. Conference participants stated that the key priorities for mine action in Iran were decreasing mine/ERW incidents and survivor assistance. Survivor assistance would be a second phase after mine clearance activities and improving pre-hospital care, health services, nursing support, rehabilitation, provision of mobility devices, research and basic life support training for communities.^[63]

Military mine casualties receive medical care, rehabilitation, prosthetics and a pension. Civilian mine casualties are assigned to a private or public facility. Specialized care and rehabilitation is available in large cities but can be problematic in rural areas, especially in mine-affected border areas. Veterans’ organizations often provide financial assistance for disabled, but many survivors are in need of physical rehabilitation and suffer from psychological problems.^[64] Government-sponsored physical rehabilitation programs cover services for 40 to 60 percent of people with disabilities.^[65] It is unknown to what extent psychosocial and economic reintegration programs exist and include mine/ERW survivors.

Iran has disability legislation but it is unclear which government department is responsible for implementing and monitoring it. Issues relating to people with disabilities are coordinated by the State High Council for Coordination of Disabled Persons Affairs. All mine survivors from the Iran-Iraq war or those injured while resettling to former war zones and the families of those killed are entitled to monetary support, if they were not at fault in causing the incident. Decisions to allocate compensation must be made within a week of receipt of the case by a committee composed of the provincial Martyr’s Foundation, Department of Veterans Affairs, Intelligence Agency, Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation, police and the Attorney General.^[66]

As of 31 July 2007 Iran had not signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with disabilities or its Optional Protocol allowing for the monitoring of disability activities.

Survivor Assistance Strategic Framework

IRMAC does not implement survivor assistance activities. It is described as coordinating with other agencies to ensure that the needs of all mine survivors and/or their families are met.^[67] A budget line for mine action has been established but is insufficient, and it is unclear if survivor assistance is covered by this budget line.^[68] The New Policies and Approaches created by IRMAC’s new management under the Ministry of Defense do not include any objectives or policy on survivor assistance, but have the general aim of “raising the standards of victim assistance and integrating mine action activities with development projects.^[69] The Ministry of Defense held a mine action stakeholder meeting to stimulate progress of mine action through the five-year National Development Plan, and established specialized working groups for relevant issues. It was decided that the Ministry of Health should provide medical services to mine/ERW survivors free-of-charge and the Ministry of Defense would provide helicopter emergency evacuation if needed.^[70] JMERC has taken increased responsibility for follow-up projects for the “special injuries” group and organized meetings to improve coordination between organizations.^[71]

The loss of Trauma Care Foundation funding for the IMC in December 2005 is said to have “had a devastating effect.”^[72]

The Mehran Emergency Center provides emergency care and has sufficient staff capacity, but lacks equipment; complex cases are referred to Ilam provincial hospital. In Kurdistan the Sanandaj Besat hospital assists mine casualties. The Sina Trauma and Surgery Research Center and Hospital in Tehran specialize in acute care and surgery, and also provides training courses, material and statistics on emergency care.^[73]

The Iranian Red Crescent Society has an extensive network of community-based first-aid, physical rehabilitation and physiotherapy centers throughout Iran. From March 2006 to February 2007 IRCS provided first-aid courses for approximately 20,000 people in the mine-affected province of West Azerbaijan; a specialized psychological support training program was also conducted and a database of relief workers was established.^[74] IRCS opened a medical information center in Tehran aiming to improve knowledge about services and to provide better referral and more suitable services. It also runs hospitals in Lebanon and Yemen and provided ad hoc support to Iraq and Lebanon. ^[75]

The Foundation of Martyrs and Veteran Affairs (Bonyade Shahid va Omoore Isargaran, FMVA) is responsible for providing assistance to all war veterans and their families. There are reportedly 430,000 surviving veterans; most mine/ERW survivors would be classified under the category of “special injuries that warrant special facilities and attention.” FMVA provides health information and education, insurance and socioeconomic support, physical and occupational therapy, prosthetic and orthotic devices and follow-up services; however, it is not know if these services are free of charge.^[76]

The Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation (IKRF) supports families affected by conflict, particularly mine/ERW casualties; in total it supports some 4.5 million people.^[77] They receive pensions, medical benefits, financial assistance for education, self-sufficiency grants, micro-credits and other financial support. To March 2007, 1,101 families with mine casualties have received support from IKRF, mostly in West Azerbaijan (385), Kermanshah (307) and Kurdistan (304) provinces. An additional 1,268 families were referred to FMVA.^[78]

The Welfare Organization of Iran (Behzisti) in Tehran has an Office or Disability Prevention which conducts MRE activities and deals with all forms of social welfare for disabled.^[79] Within a Behzisti MRE project, shepherds, nomads and communities in mine-affected areas will receive first-aid and health training.^[80]

The Zaynab Welfare Agency for Women in Ilam provides first-aid training and MRE. It also assists community members to obtain disability benefits. In Ilam’s very traditional society this all-women organization is the only agency to have adequate access to the community’s women. The organization receives funding from a private demining organization; services are free of charge.^[81]

The Kowsar Orthotics and Prosthetics Center designs and distributes orthetic and prosthetic devices.^[82]

Funding and Assistance

Iran requested $31,873,500 through the UN 2006 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects for projects including survey, canine clearance, monitoring and evaluation, mine risk education and victim assistance. No funding was received.^[83] In 2007 Iran did not submit any project appeals to the Portfolio.

Landmine Monitor identified no international funding for mine action in Iran in 2006, as in 2005.