Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Zimbabwe has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Zimbabwe was encouraged to accede to the ban convention during a June 2014 visit to Harare by Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba, who is serving as president of the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties held in Lusaka in September 2013. According to a statement issued after the visit by Zambia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi told Kalaba that the government has the political will to accede to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and committed to do everything possible to expedite the process of Zimbabwe’s accession. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence Dr Sydney Sekeramayi also reaffirmed the government’s commitment to acceding to the Convention on Cluster Munitions and acknowledged Zimbabwe needs to be pro-active in its approach to accession.[1]

Previously, in May 2013, a government representative told a regional meeting that Zimbabwe is “seriously considering” accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions but acknowledged the process toward joining the convention has been slow.[2]

Zimbabwean officials have expressed support for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on several occasions.[3] In May 2012, a government representative said it was Zimbabwe’s intent to “work diligently towards accelerating the conclusion of consultations with relevant stakeholders on the country’s accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.”[4]

Zimbabwe participated in two regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and expressed its support for a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[5] It was absent from the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and Oslo signing conference in December 2008.

Despite not joining, Zimbabwe has continued to participate in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions since 2008. It attended the convention’s Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka in September 2013 as an observer and participated in intersessional meetings held in Geneva in April 2014, but did not make any statements at either meeting. Zimbabwe attended a regional meeting in Lomé, Togo in May 2013, where it provided an update on its accession process.

Zimbabwe was invited to, but did not attend, a workshop on universalization of the ban convention held in Geneva on 20 and 24 February 2014.

Zimbabwe has not made a national statement to express concern at Syria’s cluster munition use, but it endorsed the 2013 Lomé Strategy on the Universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions which expresses “grave concern over the recent and on-going use of cluster munitions” and calls for the immediate end to the use of these weapons.[6]

Zimbabwe is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

It is unclear if Zimbabwe has ever used cluster munitions.[7]

Zimbabwe is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions since its independence. Jane’s Information Group has reported that the Alpha bomblet developed for the South African CB-470 cluster bomb was produced in Rhodesia and that “Zimbabwe may have quantities of the Alpha bomblet.”[8]

In March 2010, an official informed the CMC that Zimbabwe still possessed cluster munitions that remained from the former Rhodesia’s arsenal.[9]

In July 2012, a major Brazilian newspaper reported that Brazil had sold cluster bombs to Zimbabwe a decade earlier.[10] A review by Folha de São Paolo of 1,572 pages of Ministry of Defense documents obtained under the Law on Access to Information shows that, in the period from January 2001 to May 2002, Brazil transferred 104 BLG-250K and four BLG-60K cluster bombs and various components for BLG-500K, BLG-250K, and BLG-60k cluster bombs to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe also possesses RM-70 122mm surface-to-surface rocket systems, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[11]

Contamination and Impact

Overall Mine Action Performance: AVERAGE BUT IMPROVING[1]

The Republic of Zimbabwe is contaminated with mines, the overwhelming majority antipersonnel, from minefields laid in the late 1970s during a conflict of decolonization. Initially antipersonnel mines were laid in very dense belts (reportedly 5,500 mines per kilometer of frontage) to form a “cordon sanitaire.” Over time the cordon sanitaire was breached or subject to erosion and so, in many sections, a second belt of “ploughshare” directional fragmentation mines guarded by antipersonnel mines were laid “inland” of the cordon sanitaire.[2] Antivehicle mines were used extensively by insurgents but most were detonated by vehicles or have been cleared.[3]

Contamination was assessed at some 310km², which was “erroneously” reported by Zimbabwe as 511km².[4] In its fourth Article 5 deadline extension request, submitted in December 2013, Zimbabwe reported remaining contamination of almost 209km².[5] This contamination comprises five minefields, referred to as: Musengezi to Rwenya, Sango Border Post to Crooks Corner, Rusitu to Muzite Mission, Sheba Forest to Beacon Hill, and Burma Valley. There are also three suspected hazardous areas (SHAs): at Lusulu, Mukumbura, and Rushinga. A fourth SHA, at Kariba, was cleared of improvised explosive devices in June 2013.[6] Of the total affected area, 174km² is said to be fertile land largely owned by the poor rural communities farming in the border regions.[7]

HALO Trust has found that in the areas where it is operating, in the northeast of the country bordering Tête province in Mozambique, the humanitarian and developmental impact of the border minefields is significant, with the very close proximity of schools, homes, and agriculture to mine belts. While human casualties occur infrequently, livestock is being killed on a weekly basis.[8]

Mine Action Program

The National Mine Action Authority of Zimbabwe (NAMAAZ) is a policy and regulatory body on all issues relating to mine action in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC) was established in 2000 within the Ministry of Defence as the focal point and the coordination center of all mine action activities in the country. ZIMAC is mandated to report to NAMAAZ. National mine action standards took effect in July 2013.[9]

ZIMAC, and, since 2013, HALO and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), conduct land release activities. HALO has been given initial responsibility for survey and clearance of the border minefields running from Musengezi in Mashonaland Central to Rwenya in Northern Manicaland, originally estimated to cover some 139km² in total.[10] NPA has been working in the Burma Valley minefield where people have built houses and have been cultivating land within the minefield, resulting in mine incidents. NPA began clearance operations in May 2013.[11]

In 2012, the ICRC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Zimbabwe to train ZIMAC personnel and to provide metal detectors, protective equipment, and trauma kits. In 2012 and 2013 through November, 69 deminers were trained on international mine action standards, and the ICRC donated 50 sets of mine detection equipment and deminer personal protective equipment.[12]

Land Release

In 2013–2014, NPA conducted non-technical survey (NTS) of 17.15km² covering the three mined areas in Zimbabwe that ZIMAC had allocated to it. Surprisingly, no land was released as a result.[13] HALO conducted NTS of 7.8km² of land on the Musengezi to Rwenya minefields. The survey as of early 2014 indicated that the ploughshare belt might be considerably narrower than the 400 meters assumed by Zimbabwe in its extension request, but the sample size was too small for definitive conclusions to be drawn.[14]

Zimbabwe’s reported clearance was almost 0.8km² in 2013.[15]

Mine clearance in 2013[16]

N/R = not reported; * ZIMAC also reported clearance of 210 IEDs; ** This figure includes 67 antipersonnel mines that were dealt with as call-outs from local communities.

HALO reported one very slight injury to a deminer during its demining operations in 2013.[17]

Article 5 Compliance

Zimbabwe’s latest Article 5 deadline is due to expire on 1 January 2015. Since its initial Article 5 deadline expired on 1 March 2009 it has submitted a total of four extension requests, its latest request of 31 December 2013 seeking three additional years until 1 January 2018. This extension will enable further survey and clearance, but Zimbabwe is not committing itself to complete its clearance obligations within the requested period.

Based on 2013 clearance rates and capacity, NPA expects clearance in its allotted areas to take between 11 and 17 years. It was, however, planning to increase capacity from 20 to 30 deminers in 2014 and to further increase operational capacity once additional funding has been identified. The possibility of using dogs or machines to speed up demining productivity was still under consideration as of early 2014.[18]

HALO has been working to increase the number of deminers employed in its clearance operations from 34 in 2013 to as many as 80 in 2014. As of February 2014, it was negotiating the import of a demining machine.[19]

Support for Mine Action

In 2013, Japan, Norway, the United States (US), and Ireland contributed a total of US$2.26 million toward clearance activities in Zimbabwe.[20] In 2012, Zimbabwe received international assistance for mine action for the first time since 1999.

International assistance in 2013[21]

In 2013, the Government of Zimbabwe reported contributing $800,000 to its mine action program.[22] A breakdown of this contribution has not been provided.

Recommendations

·         Ensure all demining operators are using appropriate land release methodologies and standards.

·         Ensure functional quality management system for all operators.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Zimbabwe is responsible for a significant number of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors who are in need. Zimbabwe has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

For 2013, the Zimbabwe Mine Action Center (ZIMAC) reported eight mine/ERW casualties. One was a child, one a woman, and one casualty was a deminer.[1] The 2013 casualty total represented a decrease from the 23 new civilian casualties recorded in Zimbabwe in 2012. In 2013, as in 2012, mines caused only two casualties.[2] However, only three casualties were reported in 2011[3] and also three in 2010.[4] ZIMAC has stated for many years that incidents in remote areas are underreported.[5]

Since 1980, 1,593 casualties have been reported by ZIMAC.[6]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 1,321 mine/ERW survivors in Zimbabwe by the end of 2013. In 2013 the ICRC also reported that 2,000 people have been injured by mines on the Zimbabwean side of the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border.[7]

It was reported that victim assistance was not well coordinated. There was a need to establish a committee to integrate the functions of the various bodies with responsibilities relevant for survivors and to develop a broad agenda to address victim assistance. Disability issues are coordinated by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, while emergency assistance is led by the Victim Friendly Unit. Responsibility for surveying survivors needs and other assistance to mine/ERW survivors is centralized through the national mine action centre ZIMAC.[8]

The ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) continued providing support to the Parirenyatwa group of hospitals in 2013; of 149 prostheses manufactured, 33 were for mine survivors. An SFD physiotherapist and ortho-prosthetist also made a support visit. At the end of 2013 the SFD ended support to the Parirenyatwa groups, as expected, as part of the ICRC SFD phase out, finding that they had reached a satisfactory level of autonomy.[9] ICRC SFD assistance to the Bulawayo Rehabilitation Center had been phased out by the end of 2012, as planned.[10]

Discrimination by educational institutions toward children with disabilities and the lack of government resources devoted to training and education severely hampered the ability of persons with disabilities to compete for scarce jobs.[11]

Legislation prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities but was not widely known or implemented by government institutions, and discrimination remained prevalent. The law stipulated that government buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, but implementation was slow.[12]

Zimbabwe ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 23 September 2013.

In 2012 the Republic of Zimbabwe received international assistance for mine action for the first time since 1999. Although Zimbabwe is one of the world’s leading recipients of humanitarian and development assistance, mine action has not been one of the sectors receiving funding.[1]

Japan, the United States (US), Norway, and Ireland contributed a total of US$1,668,362 in 2012.[2]

Zimbabwe plans to submit a fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request in 2014, which will include long term international assistance needs.[3]

International assistance: 2012[4]

The government of Zimbabwe provided $800,000 to the Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre for field logistics to conduct demining equipment maintenance, and personnel costs.[5]

National Contributions: 2008–2012[6]