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From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#1 (June 1999), page 3

Landmine ban marks more progress

Treaty signatories, meeting in Mozambique, pledge total eradication

By Paul Fauvet , Maputo

At a five-day conference in Mozambique of the signatories to the Ottawa convention outlawing anti-personnel landmines, Chad and Côte d'Ivoire announced that they had ratified the treaty, bringing the number of ratifying countries to 81. Thus far, a total of 135 states have signed the convention, including 48 of the 53 countries in Africa.

Participants in the conference, which concluded on 7 May, declared their "unwavering commitment to the total eradication of an insidious instrument of war and terror: anti-personnel mines." They also committed themselves to ensuring full compliance with the goals of the treaty, namely, to ensure no new use of mines; to eradicate stocks; to cease development, production and transfers; to clear mined areas; and to help landmine victims reclaim their lives. "We believe these to be common tasks for humanity and therefore call on governments and people everywhere to join us in this effort," said their declaration.

Rapid acceptance

The Ottawa treaty has been in existence only since December 1997. Never in the history of international law have so many countries acceded to a treaty in such a short space of time. Much of the credit goes to the energetic work of the coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which attended the Maputo conference on virtually equal footing with the signatory countries.

The ICBL produced a 1,100-page Landmine Monitor, exhaustively surveying the landmine situation around the globe since December 1997, and gave copies to each of the more than 100 delegations in attendance. The report contained some very positive news, indicating that revulsion against the use of anti-personnel mines is becoming the norm in international politics.

The Monitor identified 13 conflicts since December 1997 in which it was likely that landmines had been used, and another five in which unproven allegations had been made. "While even one is too many, this number is surprisingly low," ICBL spokesman Stephen Goose told the conference. "Mines are clearly no longer being used automatically and without consideration of the human consequences."

Production of landmines is clearly in decline. The ICBL says that 38 nations have stopped producing these weapons, while in only 19 are armaments industries still manufacturing anti-personnel mines. There is no evidence of any country exporting mines in recent years. Indeed, all known past exporters, with the exception of Iraq, have publicly declared a halt to such exports. Eight of the 12 largest producers and exporters of the past 30 years have signed the Ottawa treaty.

Every country in the Western hemisphere has signed except the US and Cuba, every member of the European Union except Finland, every member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization except the US and Turkey, and every member of the Southern African Development Community except the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Work has begun on eliminating stockpiles of landmines, with at least 30 nations destroying more than 12 mn of their mines. But that still leaves global stockpiles of more than 250 mn mines. The ICBL insists that destroying them is the only way of ensuring that they never go into the ground.

Non-signatories and violators

Some 50 countries remain outside the treaty - including three veto-wielding, permanent members of the Security Council, the US, China and Russia. But even they have been demonstrating some movement. The US has indicated a willingness to sign, but only in the year 2006, and only if it can find alternative weapons, supposedly to defend the Republic of Korea. Russia has expressed willingness to sign "in the foreseeable future." And China now says it supports "the ultimate objective of comprehensive prohibition." The US has destroyed 3.3 mn of its mines, and Russia 500,000.

Several non-signatories felt obliged to attend the conference. Representatives of both Turkey and Sri Lanka made speeches in which they claimed that they were regrettably unable to sign the treaty at the moment because they are fighting "terrorists" who lay mines.

The Turkish delegation reacted angrily, however, to claims in the Landmine Monitor about the Turkish army's use of mines, and claimed it had not laid any anti-personnel mines since December 1997. The ICBL found such a denial encouraging, since previously Turkey had always insisted on its right to use mines in its war against Kurdish rebels. "This defensiveness on the issue is new," Mr. Goose told reporters. "If there is a new Turkish policy of no use of landmines, I would be delighted."

The ICBL, and many other conference delegates, were angry at reports that at least two signatories, and possibly three, all in Africa, have disregarded their treaty obligations and continued to lay mines.

The Angolan armed forces have openly used mines in their war with the UNITA rebels. Angolan Deputy Foreign Minister Toko Serrão told Mozambican reporters that his government was entitled to use landmines "because we are at war." The ICBL's roving ambassador and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ms. Jody Williams responded at a press conference that it is "unconscionable that the government is laying new mines when Angola is already one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world. You can't give up landmines only when you're at peace."

The then government of Guinea-Bissau also was accused of using mines in the 1998 civil war, as was the Senegalese intervention force assisting that government. The Senegalese delegation, however, denied the ICBL's charges, and claimed that it was committed to implementing a total ban on landmines.

Debate on funding

Mine-affected countries that do not sign the treaty, or which sign but then violate the treaty, are likely to find funds for mine clearance reduced or even cut off entirely. The Netherlands and several other European Union countries made no secret of their anger at the Angolan position. Ms. Williams said she had told an Angolan delegate that donors "will be more inclined to fund people who don't lay new mines. He was shocked by that. That delegate sounded out the donors and came away with the same information."

The Australian delegation countered that funds for mine-clearance should be allocated strictly on humanitarian, not political, criteria, and indeed that civilians need assistance particularly in situations where new mines are being laid. But the general sentiment at the conference was that funds are limited and should go as a matter of priority to those countries that show themselves committed to the landmine ban.

As expected, there was a warning in the conference declaration that "as a community dedicated to seeing an end to the use of anti-personnel mines, our assistance and cooperation will flow primarily to those who have forsworn the use of these weapons forever through adherence to and implementation" of the Ottawa treaty.

Clearance difficult, costly

Mine clearance is an expensive and time-consuming process. Mozambique is one of the countries that has received most donor aid for mine clearance, yet over the past 5 years only an average of 11,000 mines a year have been removed.

No one knows how many mines have been laid in Mozambique - some were planted during the anti-colonial war in the 1960s, some during incursions by Rhodesian troops in the 1970s, some during the war against South African-backed rebels in the 1980s and early 1990s. Estimates vary from 300,000 to 2 mn mines. Even if the lower figure is accurate, at the current rate of clearance it will take almost 3 decades to eliminate every mine. If the upper figure is true, it would take more than a century. But the Ottawa treaty gives signatories just 10 years to demine their territory completely. To meet this ambitious target requires that more resources be devoted to mine clearance, and that new technologies be developed.

Mine detectors do not really detect mines at all - they detect metal. According to Mozambican Foreign Minister Leonardo Simão, for every mine detected, 2,000 other pieces of metal are unearthed, ranging from bullets to beer cans. Much more sensitive means of detection are needed if the treaty target is to become feasible.

Mechanical demining was once regarded as a substitute for manual demining. Heavily armoured vehicles ploughed up the land and exploded all the mines in their path: in a few days land was cleared that would have taken traditional sappers months to make safe. Unfortunately, in the Mozambican experience, these heavy machines simply did not catch all the mines, and so sappers still had to come in their wake for any that were missed.

A South African company, Mechem Demining, which is clearing minefields around the Massingir dam in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, uses a triple method of machines, sappers and dogs. The vehicles go in first and explode perhaps 80 per cent of the mines. Then come the sappers with mine detectors looking for the other 20 per cent. Finally, specially trained Alsatian dogs move in to sniff out any mines that have been missed. This is slow and dangerous work.

The Ottawa treaty also obliges signatories to care for landmine victims and ensure their social and economic reintegration. This too is far from cheap. Mr. Jerry White of the Landmine Survivors Network, an NGO, told the conference that the average cost of treating a landmine victim is $9,800 (including the cost of rehabilitating health services in mine-

affected countries, without which such treatment would be impossible). The total number of landmine victims across the globe is unknown, but Mr. White thought a reasonable estimate for treating all of them would be $3 bn.

At the conference's conclusion, the participants agreed that they would meet again in Geneva in September 2000. In the meantime, standing committees of experts will hold meetings dealing with mine clearance, victim assistance and mine awareness, stockpile destruction, and demining technologies.

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