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Africa: Landmines Updates
Africa: Landmines Updates
Date distributed (ymd): 000411
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Continent-Wide
Issue Areas: +security/peace+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains two updates on landmines, one a release
from the International Campaign to Ban Mines at a regional
conference on landmines in Cairo, and the second an update on
the status of landmines in Mozambique following recent floods.
For an earlier posting on African signatories to the landmines
treaty, see
http://www.africafocus.org/docs00/land0002.php>
For more background and updates see the ICBL web site:
http://www.icbl.org
For more updates on the floods in Southern Africa, see
http://www.africapolicy.org/action/floods.htm
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
International Campaign to Ban Landmines
Sunday, 9 April 2000
For further information contact:
Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch, Al Safir Hotel, Cairo. Tel.
(+202) 348 28 28. or +202 348 2424 Cell: +44 171 374 1004;
Habbouba Aoun, Landmines Struggle Center, Al Safir Hotel,
Cairo. Tel. (+202) 348 28 28; Kamel Sa'adi, Landmine Monitor
Jordan, Al Safir Hotel, Cairo. Tel. (+202) 348 28 28; or
wareham@hrw.org or banemnow@icbl.org.
Also: Liz Bernstein, International Campaign to Ban Landmines
110 Maryland Ave NE Box 6, Suite 504, Washington, DC 20002 USA
Tel: +1 202 547 2667; Fax: +1 202 547 2687; E-mail:
banemnow@icbl.org; Web: http://www.icbl.org
EGYPT, OTHERS URGED TO SIGN MINE BAN TREATY
(Cairo, Egypt: 9 April 2000)
At the opening of a regional conference on landmines, the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) called on Egypt
to end its support for the continued use of antipersonnel
mines -- which kill or maim 26,000 civilians each year -- and
to join the 137 nations that have signed the 1997 Mine Ban
Treaty. The ICBL called on other governments in the Middle
East/North Africa region to do the same.
"Egypt increasingly seems to be emerging as a leading opponent
of a comprehensive ban on antipersonnel mines," said Mary
Wareham of Human Rights Watch, a member of the ICBL, 1997
Nobel Peace Laureate. "Egypt has worked against the Mine Ban
Treaty in major international fora, such as the last U.N.
General Assembly session and the Africa/Europe Summit in Cairo
last week. Egypt can become part of the global solution to the
mine problem by demonstrating true leadership and joining the
Mine Ban Treaty now," she said.
While welcoming the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty (also called the
Ottawa Convention), the Africa/Europe Summit Declaration
contains no reference to the need for its universalization nor
does it link its calls for demining and mine victim assistance
to the framework provided by this unique treaty. The Mine Ban
Treaty comprehensively bans all antipersonnel mines, requires
destruction of stockpiled mines within four years, requires
destruction of mines already in the ground within ten years
and urges extensive programs to assist the victims of
landmines.
Jordan, Qatar, Tunisia and Yemen have signed and ratified the
ban treaty, while Algeria has signed but not yet ratified.
Thirteen countries in the region have not yet signed: Bahrain,
Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco,
Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.
Globally, 137 countries have signed and 94 have ratified.
"As someone who has experienced a landmine blast and lost a
leg because of it, I feel that the bleeding pain of tragic
memories will not heal unless we do something about it," said
Kamel Sa’adi, a Jordanian landmine survivor injured twenty-one
years ago when he was just 14 years old. "My pains are caused
by everyone who continues to say NO to the ban treaty. Egypt
can and must sign the ban of this weapon," he said.
Three countries in the region -- Egypt, Iran, and Iraq --
continue to produce antipersonnel mines. Egyptian officials
occasionally state that Egypt no longer exports mines, but no
official statement or policy is in place.
Egyptian-manufactured mines are known to have been used in
countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia,
Iraq, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan. Nearly every
nation of the region has stockpiled antipersonnel mines.
"In Egypt, as in the rest of the world, the horrific
humanitarian impact of this weapon far outweighs its military
usefulness," said Haboubba Aoun of the Lebanese Landmine
Resource Center. "Egyptian civilians, especially in the Sinai,
the Suez Canel and in the Western Desert, suffer from
uncleared landmines. The ICBL hears clearly Egypt’s pleas for
international assistance to deal with its mine problem but we
cannot understand why Egypt refuses to join the community of
nations that have addressed the mine problem in all its
aspects by signing the Mine Ban Treaty." She said, "Egypt
needs to join the global efforts aimed at solving the landmine
problem, especially in this part of the world where there is
a true need to have comprehensive, action- oriented, long-term
approach to its solution."
The three-day regional meeting on landmines is taking place at
the Arab League in Cairo. It is hosted by National Middle East
Studies Center along with other local non-governmental
organizations. For more information please consult:
International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Landmine Monitor
Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free World, May 1999
(http://www.icbl.org). The next annual Landmine Monitor report
is due for release in September 2000 to the Second Meeting of
States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty. Landmine policy and
problems in every country in the world are included in this
report.
Landmines in Mozambique: After the Floods
By Mary Wareham, Human Rights Watch.
Paper prepared for Conference on Mozambique After the
Floods, 28 March 2000, Washington DC.
[available on-line at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/arms/mines-moz.htm]
While the floods in Mozambique during the past month have
undoubtedly reversed much of the progress made recently on
many fronts in Mozambique, their impact on the country's
well-established mine action programmes remains mostly
unknown at this point. It is not yet possible to evaluate
the impact of the floods that have devastated the southern
and central region of the country, including the
mine-affected provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala
and Manica. Most areas affected are still inundated by the
floods with the possibility of more floods as river levels
increase again. In the areas where the flood is receding,
there is still little mobility with few villagers returning
home. In addition to mines, many other life-threatening
problems confront Mozambique as a result of the flooding
including the threats of malaria and cholera.
The main danger with respect to mines is however very clear:
there is no certainty as to where the mines are now because
landmines and buried explosives, shift like stones in
rushing water, and tend to move downstream following
gravity. Some of the antipersonnel mines used in Mozambique
were made of plastic and float in water. According to
Gerhard Zank, the Mozambique representative of the Halo
Trust, a British demining agency: "In the past, mines have
been washed downstream in heavy rains, but we never had
flooding on this massive scale before. We just don't know
what the effect will be."
Markings of mined areas may have been swept away or
destroyed. The rain and flooding may have exposed buried
mines. Mines may have shifted in the floodwaters and end up
in areas previously considered clear and safe. These mines
will therefore present a more serious risk for deminers and
civilians alike. Fear of mines has already delayed
significantly the repair power lines taken out by the
floods.
One of the most-publicized messages from Mozambique's
leaders on the flooding is their appeal to citizens to be
aware of the landmine danger. "They should alert the
authorities so that that device is checked before they can
continue with their work because it is true when there are
floods in any country where there are mines, mines are moved
around from one place to another," said Mozambique President
Joaquim Chissano on 8 March.
Chissano rightly identified Mozambique with the 87 other
mine-affected countries of the world, all of which face
common problems with uncleared mines and unexploded ordnance
(UXO) that shift from their original location through
erosion, flooding, melting snow, shifting sand and other
natural elements.
In central Vietnam, mines and UXO that were once 4-12 inches
below the surface shifted during severe flooding in
November-December 1999. The BLU 26/36 "bombies" and 40 mm
grenades were most susceptible to shifting, as well as being
responsible for a large number of casualties; this
phenomenon is blamed for at least 3 deaths last November.
In the Republic of Korea, Landmine Monitor reported on
civilian casualties that mainly occur near the 155-mile
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and more recently due to flooding
or landslides caused by heavy rains that wash landmines out
of the DMZ minefields or storage sites and into areas
frequented by civilians. In one incident in August 1998, it
was reported that 200 M14 antipersonnel mines had been swept
away by rains. In April 1999, the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff
reportedly said that only 59 of 321 landmines washed away by
rainstorms in late 1998 had been recovered.
While the flooding in Mozambique may have set-back mine
action programs, some operators are very wary of making
statements that could deter donors by giving painting a
hopeless scenario that is worse that the anticipated effect
of the flooding. When Tropical Storm Mitch hit Central
America in late 1998, much media attention focused on a
statement that 25,000 mines were adrift in Honduras and
Nicaragua as a result of the storm. No one knew the exact
number of mines adrift for certain; more important was the
impact of the storm on existing mine action programs. In
Mozambique, one operator's main concern is that areas that
had been verified safe or that had been demined before the
flooding cannot be deemed safe until they have been through
a verification process again, especially those areas close
to or downstream from known minefields.
Most demining operators today suggest that the number of
mines in Mozambique is likely to be in the hundreds of
thousands of landmines but it is not the number of
landmines, but their impact that provides an indicator a
country's mine-affected status. Few maps and records were
kept of the mines laid during Mozambique's decades-long
civil war, which ended in 1992. Mines were used by both
Frelimo and Renamo for both around areas including military
headquarters, towns and villages, sources of water and
power, pylon lines and dams, as well as on roads, tracks and
paths and alongside bridges and railway lines. Many of mines
in Mozambique were laid around bridges and culverts, to
protect bridges from being attacked by people intent on
blowing them up. Since the war, many of these, including the
bridges on N1 the main road up the country, have simply been
demarcated as mined areas, and/or cleared when the roads
were repaired. On smaller upcountry grade roads, the
culverts and bridges were similarly mined, even fewer of
these have been cleared.
Minefields have been located in all provinces, but the most
heavily mined regions are found along the border with
Zimbabwe in the west of Manica province, in the center of
the country in Zambezia and Tete provinces, and in the south
in Maputo and Inhambane provinces. A major global initiative
is currently underway to get better baseline data for mine
action operations at the country level. Mozambique is one of
a dozen mine-affected countries that have been identified
for this level one survey but the survey in Mozambique seems
to be unaffected by the flooding as it has only just
started. Village level data collection began just recently
in the northern, less-flood impacted province and it is
unknown what impact, if any, the flooding will have on the
survey when it moves to the central and southern regions in
5-6 months.
To date, no injuries directly related to landmines in the
floods is known, yet it is still to early to rule out that
such injuries might have occurred as people moved around.
Indeed the greatest danger to populations by mines may come
as the return home and begin to rebuild their lives and
communities. Local landmarks will have changed and already
established minefield marking will have been destroyed by
the flooding. Minefield marking can include the including
sticks, the red-and-white signposts and tape emblazoned with
a skull and crossbones. In the areas affected by flooding,
many of these markings have washed away. If mine action
operators were not yet in the area prior to the flooding,
locals might know to avoid an area suspected of mines or
place a marker, such as a small pile of stones or sticks, to
indicate a mined area and others would therefore steer clear
of it. Now that small pile of stones of stocks may also have
been washed away. Such markers may no longer be trusted.
On 15 March, a four-month emergency mine action programme
was initiated supported by the National Institute for Mine
Clearance (IND), the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP), the Accelerated Demining Program (ADP), Handicap
International (HI), Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) and other
mine action operators. Main components of the programme
include: the identification of the most populated at-risk
areas; the collection of data relating to the possible
effects of the floods on landmine location; raising
awareness among the affected population, including those in
refugee camps and the establishment of teams to identify and
destroy displaced landmines. The emergency mine risk
education campaign in the areas where floods may have
covered or disturbed confirmed or suspected minefields
includes precautions to be taken when people return home.
After people have returned and settled in, the intensive
awareness campaign is expected to continue. This emergency
programme is in addition to the continued and
long-established mine action programmes, including demining
and mine awareness.
In Mozambique, there are approximately nine to twelve
thousand amputees but it is too difficult to trace how many
of these people are amputees as a result of mine injuries.
In 1995, Handicap International estimated that there were
between fifty and sixty new mine victims each month. In
1998, a total of eighty-three new mine victims were reported
over the entire year. Over the course of 1999, a dozen
people were killed and 48 others injured by the explosives.
This is a dozen deaths too many but a dramatic indicator of
the progress that has been made on all fronts to combat
Mozambique's landmine problem. While no new mine victims
have occurred due to mines that shifted in the floods, it is
still possible that injuries will occur when the populations
displaced by the floods returns home.
Unlike Korea and Vietnam, which have been reluctant to issue
public warnings on the dangers of mines that have moved in
flooding, Mozambique's leaders are on record urging their
citizens to be aware of these dangers. Their statements are
an important indicator of how far the country has advanced
in acknowledging and dealing with its mine and UXO problem.
This response cannot be fully understood without a final
examination of the policy steps Mozambique has taken to
totally eradicate this weapon.
In February 1997, during the International Campaign to Ban
Landmine's Fourth International NGO Conference on Landmines,
held in Maputo, Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao announced
Mozambique's immediate ban on the use, production, import
and export of antipersonnel mines. Simao cited the of the
mobilization work undertaken by the non-governmental
Mozambican Campaign Against Landmines (CMCM) as a key factor
in the decision to renounce antipersonnel mines. The
campaign collected and presented to President Chissano
100,000 signatures from citizens calling for a total ban on
the weapon.
From this point on, Mozambique has played an important role
in ensuring African support for the Ottawa Process and the
1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,
Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and On their
Destruction (otherwise referred to as the Ottawa or Mine Ban
Treaty). Mozambique signed Mine Ban Treaty in Ottawa, Canada
in December 1997 and was thirty-third country to ratify. In
May 1999, Mozambique was host to the First Meeting of States
Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty - a significant event as it
was the first diplomatic meeting of the treaty to be held in
a mine-affected county as opposed to the diplomatic capitols
of New York or Geneva.
Mozambique's response to the landmine crisis, both
domestically and internationally, has not gone unnoticed by
the donor community who generally view the country as a
success story in terms of mine action. Unlike its heavily
mine-affected neighbor Angola, Mozambique has not returned
to war since the Peace Accords and there have been very few
instances of new use of antipersonnel mines. According to
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, between
1993 and the end of 1998, funding for mine action in
Mozambique exceeded US$116 million with major donors
including the United States, Norway, Canada, E.U., Germany,
Denmark and France.
There are currently numerous donor appeals for assistance
for Mozambique in the aftermath of the flooding, including
calls for increased assistance for mine action. It is
critical that mine action in Mozambique continues to be
funded. While the floods have undoubtedly knocked back mine
action efforts in Mozambique, the degree to which operations
have been affected still remains mostly unknown. One lesson
that can be drawn from the experience is that the progress
that has been made by Mozambique over the course of the past
decade in dealing with its mine problem will not be
completely undone as a result of the flooding, it will
hopefully only be delayed.
This conference paper is drawn from the Mozambique country
report contained in: International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-Free
World (New York: Human Rights Watch, April 1999, 1,100
pages). ISBN: 1564322319.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC's primary
objective is to widen international policy debates around
African issues, by concentrating on providing accessible
policy-relevant information and analysis usable by a wide
range of groups and individuals.
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