Recommendations for action 

• Jordan should request a new extension to its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline for the period through to the completion of all demining to humanitarian standards.

Contamination 

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Contamination is the result primarily of the 1948 partition of Palestine, the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict, the 1970 civil war, and the 1975 confrontation with Syria. Military training ranges and cross-border smuggling have added to the ERW problem.

Jordan claimed it had completed clearance of all known mined areas on 24 April 2012 after Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) finished clearance of the mine belt along its northern border with Syria the previous month, but subsequently acknowledged that not all mines along the border had been accounted for.[1] In fact, Jordan appears to still contain mined areas on its territory. 

NPA was due to “verify” some 10.5km² of land adjacent to the mine belt for close to 10,000 mines from the mine belts unaccounted for and which may have been removed during unrecorded army clearance operations or by smugglers, or may have shifted due to weather, floods, or land erosion.[2] NPA’s verification procedure involved a mixture of visual inspection of areas adjacent to the mine belt, “ground preparation” with mechanical assets and limited involvement of manual deminers, and full technical survey of areas where evidence and experience pointed to a risk of contamination. When operations halted in February 2013 due to security issues on the northern border, NPA had completed work on 8.2km², leaving 2.3km² to be verified. The National Committee for Demining and Rehabilitation (NCDR) had “inspected” 6.8km² of the total area, leaving a total of 3.7km² requiring inspection.[3] 

Jordan is also continuing verification and clearance in the Jordan Valley. The Army’s Royal Engineering Corps (REC) cleared the area and declared completion in 2008 but the NCDR concluded operations had not met national standards. Verification and clearance operations in the past two years have found 354 uncleared mines. Jordan estimated the area remaining to be verified and cleared at 12.5km² in mid-2011.[4] By the end of 2013, the estimate had fallen to 5.4km² and by the end of 2014, to 4.85km².[5]

Program Management 

Jordan established the NCDR as “the primary national mine action authority” under a 2000 law while an April 2002 royal decree appointed its board of directors, which includes representatives of the Jordanian armed forces, the government, NGOs, landmine survivors, and the media. The NCDR became fully operational in 2004 when Prince Mired Raad Zeid al-Hussein became its chair.[6]

The NCDR was responsible for preparing and overseeing implementation of a national mine action plan and for ensuring mine action is integrated into the country’s wider development strategies.[7] It is responsible for coordinating, accrediting, regulating, and quality-assuring all mine action organizations, as well as for fundraising.[8]

Strategic planning

The NCDR’s 2010–2015 National Plan published in June 2010 aimed to complete clearance of all known mines, including 65,000 mines from the northern border, by May 2012, and to clear all ERW by December 2012.[9] Jordan had also planned to complete Jordan Valley verification and clearance by the end of 2015 but now says the timing of completion will depend on the availability of resources. In 2014, NCDR said it provided US$21,000 for verification and clearance and that the government provided additional support in kind.[10] 

NCDR has drawn up a National Plan for 2015−2020, which now aims to eliminate all ERW contamination by 2020. It targets completing Jordan Valley verification and clearance by the end of 2017, employing six manual clearance teams and one mechanical demining team at a projected cost of $2 million. Resuming verification and release of the remaining 3.7km² along the northern border with Syria will depend on the security situation but, according to the plan, would require one year of work and expenditure of $1 million.[11]

The plan also states that NCDR “will transform from a ‘national’ institution focusing largely on its own mine clearance to one that will concentrate on assisting other war-affected countries to overcome the challenges associated with the work of mine action and Explosive Remnants of War removal.”[12] 

Land Release 

Army engineers continued verification and sampling in the Jordan Valley, operating with two manual teams of Royal Engineers and releasing 546,000m² in 2014, down significantly from about 1.1km² the previous year.[13] Operations verified 10 areas, destroying in the process 112 antipersonnel mines, one antivehicle mine, and 56 items of unexploded ordinance (UXO).[14]

NCDR said it expected operations in 2015 to release a further 0.6km² but the level of operations would depend on the availability of resources.[15]

Article 5 Compliance

Given Jordan’s recognition of remaining suspected contaminated areas, Jordan still has outstanding Article 5 survey and clearance obligations to fulfil. It should submit a request for a deadline extension. 

Jordan officially declared completion of its Article 5 obligations on 24 April 2012, just ahead of the 1 May 2012 deadline set as a result of the four-year extension granted by States Parties in 2008. It submitted its formal declaration of completion to the Twelfth Meeting of States Parties in December 2012.[16] Jordan’s announcement came after NPA completed demining minefields along the northern border with Syria. Announcing completion, however, Prince Mired acknowledged that “a residual risk could remain in areas where landmines have been emplaced.”[17]

Jordan subsequently noted that completion of northern border verification will depend on security conditions. At the 2013 Standing Committee meetings, Jordan said it expected to complete of 4.4km² in the Jordan Valley in 2015.[18] However, Jordan revised its estimate of the area needing verification up to 5.4km² in 2014, and the 2015−2020 National Plan said it would need three years to finish the task, aiming for completion by December 2017.[19] Even the extended deadline may prove unrealistic unless Jordan is able to commit more resources to the program and increase the number of demining teams deployed on the task.