On 25 – 30 August 2013, Thailand hosted a Humanitarian Mine Action Study Programme for Myanmar officials to share expertise and lessons learned on mine clearance, mine risk education and victim assistance, as Myanmar is initiating its national mine action programme.
Following a call upon the Director of Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC), Thailand’s main humanitarian mine action implementing agency, the delegation visited the military canine training center in Nakhon Ratchasima Province and Humanitarian Mine Action Unit 1 in Sa Kaeo Province.
The programme also covered Thailand’s victim assistance work, and included visits to Aranyaprathet Hospital, near mine contaminated areas, the Prostheses Foundation in Chiang Mai and the subdistrict office of Don Kaew and its Community Learning Center (CLC).
In Lampang Province, the programme introduced the delegates to a community-based rehabilitation project by the Wang Nuea Persons with Disabilities Group and the work of the Elephant Hospital – the first in the world, which provides prostheses to elephants maimed by landmines.
Thailand signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Mine Ban Convention) on December 3, 1997, making it the first Southeast Asian country to become a signatory.
Thailand has played an active role as a state party to the Convention, hosting the Fifth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Convention (5MSP) in 2003 as well as serving as co-chair of such standing committees to the Mine Ban Convention as the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance. Thailand is currently Co-Chair of the Standing Committee on Resources, Cooperation and Assistance.