The magnitude of the proliferation of
anti-personnel mines in Africa is known enough and does not need to be
overemphasized. It will be simply recalled that, out of the 110 million devices
of this type spread throughout the world, a little more than one third is found
in Africa. According to the United Nations, about two million mines are laid
every year while those that are cleared number only 200,000. This trend may
continue in Africa, more especially as the price of a mine is particularly low
- between 3 and 75 US dollars while the cost of clearance varies between 300 and
1000 US dollars, - and that many internal conflicts involving rebel movements
continue to tear apart the Continent.
Continuing to strike long after the end of conflicts during which they were
used, the mines have a human, social and economic cost totally disproportionate
from their military use. Unable to distinguish between a fighter and a
non-fighter, these weapons kill or maim hundreds of people every month, mainly
civilians among whom women and children represent a high proportion. The
medical expenses for the victims weigh so heavily that they overstretch the
public health structures of the African countries concerned. Furthermore, the
mine victims are a heavy burden for their families and communities. The loss of
one limb, indeed, makes them unfit for work. At the economic level, the mines
have devastating consequences. They cause the collapse of social structures and
considerably hamper agricultural and pastoral activities. They prevent the
rehabilitation of road, railway and electric networks; they perturb the domestic
market and induce inflationist moves. In a more general manner, these weapons
complicate the process of emerging from conflict situations and peace-building:
on the one hand, because they lengthen the list of budget priorities with the
obligation of undertaking costly mine clearance operations; on the other, hand
because they impede the restoration of state authority.
Considering all these elements, the OAU, in consort with the ICRC, organized,
during the first half of 1995, three Regional Seminars in Addis Ababa, Harare
and Yaounde. It was to sensitize the Member States about the magnitude of the
proliferation of mines and the stakes of the Review Conference of the 1980 UN
Convention and its Protocol II on Mines, Booby Traps and other devices, then
scheduled in Vienna in September 1995.
On its part, the Council of Ministers had, at its 62nd and 63rd Ordinary
Sessions, held in Addis Ababa respectively in June 1995 and February 1996,
adopted Resolutions CM/Res. 1593 (LXII) and CM/Res. 1628 (LXIII) on the revision
of the 1980 UN Convention and on problems posed by the proliferation of
anti-personnel mines in Africa. In its Resolutions, Council expressed deep
concern about the fact that Africa is, throughout the world, the Continent with
the largest presence of anti-personnel mines and is, as a result, paying the
heaviest toll.
It affirmed its awareness that only appropriate measures adopted by the
entire international community would eventually put an end to the scourge of
mines. It condemned the cases of flagrant violation of the International
Humanitarian Law, through the indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines and
pronounced itself in favour of a total ban of mines and the development of
Inter-African Cooperation in the field of mine clearance and assistance to
victims as well as an increased assistance from the International Community. In
its Resolution CM/Res. 1662 (LXIV), adopted in Yaounde in July 1996, Council
reaffirmed the African Common Position as stated in Resolution CM/Res. 1628
(LXIII) and the need to adopt national and regional measures to ban
anti-personnel mines.
Sign of the deep concern roused by the scourge of mines, other organs of the
OAU adopted resolutions on the matter. Thus the African Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights, at its 17th Session held in Lome, from 13 to 22 March 1995,
recommended "that concrete and effective measures be taken urgently to ban the
manufacture of anti-personnel mines and that, in the meantime, the existing
stockpiles be destroyed and an international monitoring mechanism be
established". On its part, the 5th Ordinary Session of the Conference of
African Ministers of Health, held in April 1995 in Cairo, pronounced itself for
the ban of anti-personnel mines.
As it is known, the extreme weakness of the provisions contained in the
revised Protocol II (3 May, 1996) and the need to put a definitive end to the
ravages caused by the mines led a number of States, in favour of the total ban
of mines, to consider the short and medium term measures to be taken to attain
that objective. They grouped around the "Fast Track" of the Ottawa Process.
The OAU participated in the Ottawa Conference of October 1996 and contributed
actively to the implementation of the Declaration which was then adopted. Thus,
it organized from 19 to 21 May 1997, in Kempton Park, South Africa, the First
Continental Conference of African Experts of Anti-Personnel Mines. That
Conference, which was attended by more than forty Member States and many
non-African countries, International Organizations and NGOs, adopted a Plan of
Action based on the following :
At the political level, the Conference particularly requested the African
countries to adopt, as objective, the elimination of all anti-personnel mines
and the transformation of Africa into a zone free of these weapons and to lay
down national legislation totally banning anti-personnel mines;
As regards mine clearance and assistance to victims, the Conference stressed
the urgent need to build the national capacities of African countries and
Inter-African Cooperation in these fields;
Finally, with regard to international cooperation, the Conference appealed
for assistance from the International Community and stressed the moral
responsibility of the powers that laid anti-personnel mines in the African
countries during the Second World War and / or during conflicts which preceded
their accession to independence.
The 66th Ordinary Session of the OAU Council of Ministers, held in
Harare, at the end of May and beginning of June, 1997, approved that Plan of
Action, urged the Member States to participate fully and actively in the Ottawa
Process, particularly in the meetings then scheduled in Brussels in June 1997,
Oslo in September 1997 and Ottawa in December 1997, and called upon those that
had not yet done so to accede, as early as possible, to the 1980 UN Convention
and its Protocol II. Within the framework of the implementation of that
decision, about 30 African countries participated in the Oslo Diplomatic
Conference which led to the adoption of the Convention on the total ban of
mines. The OAU Member States also participated in large numbers in the signing
ceremony of that Convention, which was held in Ottawa in December, 1997.
To maintain the dynamism generated by the Ottawa Conference, the OAU
Secretary General, on 27 April, 1998, addressed a letter to the Ministers for
Foreign Affairs of the Member States, requesting them to take all the necessary
measures for the signing and ratification, as soon as possible, of the
Convention on the Ban of Mines. He also stressed the need for the African
countries victims of the scourge of mines to design projects to take advantage
of the disposition shown by the donors.
Following that letter, many Member Countries reported on the measures taken,
at their level, for the ratification of the Convention and expressed their
readiness to contribute to the development of Inter-African cooperation in the
field of mine clearance and assistance to the victims. In that connection, the
South African Minister for Foreign Affairs informed the Secretary General about
the signing of an agreement between his country and Mozambique for the demining
of the province of Maputo and other areas and the training given to the members
of the Angolan Demining Institute.
As of 8 February, 1998, 41 African countries had signed the Ottawa Convention
while 14 of them had ratified it. Three member countries - South Africa, Mali
and Zimbabwe - announced the total destruction of their stocks of anti-personnel
mine. Furthermore, it should be stressed that, within the framework of the
continued sensitization of the Member States, the OAU General Secretariat, in
cooperation with the Institute for Strategic Studies, based in Johannesburg,
launched a newsletter on small arms, part of which is devoted to the mine
problem. Other initiatives meant to speed up the implementation of the Kempton
Park Plan of Action and the Ottawa Convention are being considered and would be
announced as soon as they were finalized.
Today, there is a double priority. On the one hand, there is need to ensure
that those African States which are not yet parties to the Convention become so,
as soon as possible. On the other hand, the conditions for the effective
implementation of the Convention must be established. In this connection, the
mobilization of the donor community is crucial to assist the African countries
financially and technically.
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