Chad signed the Mine Ban
Treaty on 6 July 1998, but has not yet ratified. Chad endorsed the pro-treaty
Brussels Declaration of June 1997, but otherwise did not participate in the
Ottawa Process, including the treaty negotiations in Oslo. There is no evidence
of landmine production in Chad and the country is not believed to have any
production capacity. Chad is not known to have exported antipersonnel mines.
There is no information on Chad’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines. There
have been some indications of possible recent use of landmines in the Togoimi
revolt in the far north region of Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti (BET), including rumors
of antitank mine incidents, but no concrete information is available.
Landmine Problem
Decades of conflict and the 1973 Libyan invasion
have left Chad with a severe landmine and UXO problem. Estimates of landmine
numbers vary from a low of 50,000 to a high of one
million.[1] There is currently no
comprehensive mine database or minefield records. An assessment carried out by
an UN expert deminer in June 1995 concluded that 70,000 mines were still in need
of clearance.[2]
Based on comprehensive reconnaissance of the region by a French expert, it is
estimated there are approximately one million mines and an unknown amount of UXO
in Chad.[3] The BET is the most
severely mine-infested region and there are relatively few mine incidents in the
rest of the country. In May 1996, a vehicle carrying a new sub-prefect, an army
officer and gendarmerie strayed off the road and hit a mine, wounding all
three.[4]
During their occupation of the Aozou Strip and environs, Libyan forces laid
both AT mines and AP mines. Battles with Chadian forces resulted in the spread
of unexploded ordnance and other dangerous debris. Most mines are located in
the BET region. Although some were laid in field patterns, most were randomly
deployed, many in food-producing areas. Minefields were neither marked nor
fenced, and no maps were handed over to the Chadian authorities at the end of
the hostilities.[5] Further
south, the presence of mines and UXO has also been reported in the provinces of
Biltine, Ouaddai, Salamat and Moyen Chari, but no figures are
available.[6]
According to the Chadian military there are approximately 10,000 mines in
Aouzou; 2,000 in Zouar; 31,000 in Wour; 10,000 in Oudi Doum; 2,000 in Fada;
5,000 in Ounianga-Kabir and 10,000 in other locations. Landmines restrict
travel in parts of the country and have also restricted access to oasis in the
north.[7] Minefields are
generally made up of a combination of AT mines and AP mines, with approximately
one-third of devices booby-trapped. To date, twenty-two different types of
landmine of various origins have been
identified.[8] Countries of
origin include Belgium, Germany, Italy, the United States, former Yugoslavia and
former Czechoslovakia.[9]
Mine Action
In 1995, Chad approached the U.N. Development
Program (UNDP) for help in launching a global national mine action
program.[10] The UNDP has set up
a mine action center under the authority of the Haut Commissariat National pour
le Déminage (HCND). Despite efforts to increase funding, potential
international donors are waiting for more detailed data on the social, economic
and health impact of landmines. The United States finances a bilateral
cooperation program to strengthen the Chadian armed forces’ mine clearance
capacity.
Under Chad’s mine action program, the National Humanitarian Demining
Program plans to implement both a national mine awareness campaign and to create
a national database.[11] Since
the departure of Libyan forces from the north in 1994, there have been a number
of mine clearance efforts. A joint Chadian-Libyan initiative to clear landmines
in the north in 1995 claims officially to have destroyed 529 antitank mines and
263 others. But, a U.N. official told Human Rights Watch that the Libyans gave
the Chadian official responsible for verifying these efforts a Toyota Land
Cruiser in return for declaring the work
complete.[12]
French forces from the Chad-based Opération Epervier garrison have
conducted mine clearance operations, as have Chadian
forces.[13] Mine action was
established as a priority by a presidential decree, which also created a
national mine action center and the
HCND.[14] The U.S. Department of
State estimates that by 1998, 3,000 landmines have been cleared in these
operations.[15]
After a conference sponsored by Chad at the U.N. in New York, the United
States began a bilateral program, which resulted in the national action
center’s establishment, along with the training of eighty Chadian demining
instructors and staff. The next phase involves the training of a further forty
deminers and the establishment of a regional mine action
center.[16] The US bilateral
program is divided into the following phases:
- Command and control structure development, from January to September
1998;
- Infrastructure development;
- Specialised training and program assessment;
- Quality Assurance program certification.
Landmine Casualties
Despite Chad’s otherwise relatively efficient
collection system for epidemiological data, no data is at present available on
mine victims.[17] Reasons for
this vary: ‘mine-victim’ may not feature as a category in data
collection questionnaires; equally, poor and scarce healthcare infrastructure in
the north may result in an artificially low number of incidents recorded.
There is no information available on the nature and scope of disability
legislation. Chad has three hospital structures capable of treating war-related
injuries: Faya Largeau Hospital in the north; the National Hospital in
Ndjamena and the capital’s military hospital, both of which have surgery
departments at their disposal. N’djamena has one functioning prosthetic
rehabilitation workshop. No information is available on socio-economic
reintegration or financial support initiatives for mine victims. The ICRC
reports that between 1981 and 1992 it was present in Chad and manufactured over
1,300 prostheses. The program has been handed over to the Secours Catholique et
Développent (SECADEV) although the ICRC provides technical visits
annually.[18]
[1]The U.S. Department of State
estimated between 50,000 and 70,000 mines remain in Chad. See U.S. Department
of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis (Washington D.C.:
U.S. Department of State, 1998) p. A-2.; and for the one million figure see,
Déminage du B.E.T. - Soutien cartographique - Réhabilitation
des pistes déminées. République du Tchad,
N’djamena, 1997. Mine-clearance reconnaissance report in the
Borkou-Ennedi-Tibesti (BET) region, conducted in December 1996 by General
Grangeon (France) and three Chadian officers.
[2]Paddy Blagden, 'Outline
Proposal for the Mine Clearance of the Tibesti region of Northern Chad,' U.N.
Demining Office, New York, 1995.
[5]Anthony Cordesman and
Abraham Wagner, The Lessons of Modern War (Boulder: Westview Press,
1990), vol. 1, p.70;cited in Anti-Personnel Landmines. Friend or Foe? A study
of the military use and effectiveness of anti-personnel mines (Geneva: ICRC,
1996), p.33.
[6]Chad report, UN Country
Database, http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country-chad.html//12/98
[7]Alex Vines, 'The Killing
Fields: Landmines in North and West and Central Africa,' African Topics,
no.18, June-July 1997.
[8]Republic of Chad,
National Mine Action Plan 1999. 1 November – 31 December 1998. National
Plan for the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance in support to the
economic and social development for Chad,(Ndjamena: Republic of Chad, 1998),
p. 5.
[9]Chad report, UN Country
Database, http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/country-chad.html//12/98; the most
common antipersonnel mines are NR409 (Belgian); PPM2 (German); M14 (US); M18
(US); PMA3 (Yugoslavia); PMN (Russian).
[10]Republic of Chad,
National Mine Action Plan 1999. 1 November – 31 December 1998. National
Plan for the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance in support to the
economic and social development for Chad,(Ndjamena: Republic of Chad, 1998),
21pp.
[11]Republic of Chad,
National Mine Action Plan, p.7.
[12]Alex Vines, 'The Killing
Fields,' African Topics, no.18, June-July 1997.
[13]Between May and November
1987, French engineers removed or destroyed: 4,747 ATM, 1,073 APM, 6,735 items
of UXO (rockets, mortar, grenades, etc), twenty-five plane-carried bombs, 4,490
stockpiled mines and 192,880 rounds of ammunition. See, Bilan Global des
interventions réalisées par le 17 RGP entre le 28 mai et le 2
novembre 1987,' in, Déminage du B.E.T. Soutien
Cartographique.
[14]Republic of Chad,
National Mine Action Plan 1999, p.5.
[15]U.S. Department of
State, Hidden Killers, 1998, p.A-4.
[16]Republic of Chad,
National Mine Action Plan 1999, p. 6.
[17]Ministère de la
santé, Annuaire des statistiques sanitaires du Tchad. Tome A, niveau
national, année 1997, (Ndjamena: Ministère de la santé,
1998).
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