The Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire) has been the subject of increasing allegations of
landmine use since the uprising of anti-Mobutists and eastern Zairian
Banyamulenge which triggered the successful offensive of Laurent Kabila’s
Alliance des forces Démocratiques pour la Libération (AFDL) in
late 1996.
The flight of Mobutu and Kabila’s accession to power, in April 1997,
marked the end of nearly three decades of kleptocratic rule, which saw former
Zaire virtually cease to exist as a meaningful national entity. Kabila had been
closely backed by the Ugandan and Rwandan governments, who saw in him a solution
to the threat to their borders posed by the exiled Rwandan Hutu Interahamwe
forces responsible for the Rwandan genocide of 1994. It was Kabila’s
failure to live up to hopes of Kigali, Kampala and many of his own AFDL
colleagues that led to a fresh rebellion against him in July-August 1998, under
the political leadership of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la
Démocratie (RCD) and with equally visible Rwandan and Ugandan
involvement.
This has led to what is now referred to as Africa’s “First World
War.”[1] Angola, Zimbabwe
and Namibia deployed forces on Congolese territory in support of Kabila, as the
RCD’s advance threatened to turn into a rout of governmental forces. It
also emerged in the first weeks of the revolt that Uganda and Rwanda were
closely aligned with the RCD’s military forces although both countries
initially denied this. Virtually all these armies, both domestic and foreign,
have been accused of laying mines. However, the situation is too chaotic at
present for Landmine Monitor to make definitive assessments. Other countries to
become directly or indirectly involved include Chad, Sudan and Libya, in a
geopolitical convulsion whose final outcome is still far from
certain.[2]
Mine Ban Policy
DRC has neither signed nor ratified the Mine Ban
Treaty. This is generally thought to reflect the chaotic nature of political
developments since Kabila arrived in power in May 1997. However, it may also
reflect an unwillingness on the part of Kabila’s top military staff to
abandon the option of using a cheap and destructive
weapon.[3] The DRC did in
November 1998 vote in favor of the UN General Assembly resolution welcoming the
addition of new signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty, urging states to sign and
ratify, calling for full implementation of the treaty, and inviting States
Parties and observers to the First Meeting of States Parties in Mozambique in
May 1999.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
DRC is not a known producer of antipersonnel mines.
Information on the transfer of antipersonnel mines of landmines either to or
from DRC is not available at this time and Landmine Monitor has no information
on stockpiled landmines.
Use
The current role of landmines in the conflict is
unclear. The difficulties of researching and reporting events on the ground are
compounded by often sophisticated techniques of disinformation, employed by all
protagonists. However, landmines have undoubtedly become a feature of conflict
in Zaire/DRC in recent years.
During the final battle for the control of Rwanda at the height of the 1994
genocide, Zairian planes were used to transport weapons including Zairian-origin
landmines to the retreating Forces armées rwandaises. Zairian airspace
was used for a variety of other weapons deliveries, of various
origins.[4] On 24 October 1995,
landmines were reported at Goma, Kivu Nord province, presumably laid as part of
the continuing conflict between Rwandan forces and exiled Hutu extremists, who
at the time were in control of refugee camps in the area.
By the end of 1995, the UN had begun classifying the then Zaire as a
mine-affected country, after staff of the ICRC and the American Refugee
Committee had been injured in separate mine-related
incidents.[5] Other incidents
included an APM detonation at a water point at Panzi camp in August 1995, which
maimed five children.[6] The
Panzi area was the scene of several AT mine incidents in early 1996, with
Rwandan Hutu Interahamwe as the prime suspects. At about this time, the Forces
Armées Zairiennes (FAZ), the armed forces of then head of state Mobutu
Sese Seko, engaged in some clearance and defusing work.
Meanwhile, the UN launched an in-country security newsflash to inform workers
of the growing menace.[7] In
November 1996, Hutu extremists were suspected to have taken delivery of fifty
APMs of Italian origin, in one of many violations of the international arms
embargo in place at the time.[8]
In early 1997, UN sources noted that there had been approximately forty reported
mine incidents since 1995, and suggested that both extremist Rwandan Hutu in
exile and Rwandan army units were using the weapons. Also in 1997, as
Kabila’s forces advanced westwards, mercenaries hired by the Mobutu
government made widespread use of landmines around the strategic airport of
Kisangani. Reportedly no maps or charts were kept and when the mostly Serbian
mercenaries[9] withdrew in
disarray, the mines remained. It is not known what their continuing impact may
be.
In October 1998, rebel commanders accused Kabila’s Forces Armées
Congolaises of using AP mines in their unsuccessful defense of the key strategic
outpost of Kindu in Kasaï Orientale province. The commanders displayed
cases of AP mines to reporters and claimed that they were going to demine Kindu
to prevent civilian
casualties.[10] Around the same
time, an EU official accused Angolan forces of laying mines in southern DRC, in
order to isolate rearguard forces of UNITA, as the Angolan war again began to
intensify (see Angola).[11] There
have been unconfirmed claims that a hybrid unit of RCD and Rwandan army
personnel is active and using landmines in the Cabemba region, adjoining Angolan
territory around Mbanza
Kongo.[12]
On 26 November 1998, the Namibian Ministry of Defense confirmed that two of
its soldiers in DRC had been killed when a landmine detonated. The Ministry
offered no forensic information as to who had laid the mine in question, but
stated that Namibia and its allies “hold Rwanda and Uganda responsible for
using antipersonnel landmines, weapons which the international community has
banned.”[13] In December,
it was reported that “invasion forces from Rwanda, Uganda and rebels
fighting to topple President Laurent Kabila are laying minefields in and around
Kabalo, Kalemle, Nyunau and Moba. The acting Minister of Defense, Cde. Sydney
Sekeramayi?confirmed a number of Zimbabwean troops had fallen victim to
landmines at the warfront in the
DRC.”[14]
According to the “Information Minister” of the RCD, Lambert
Menga, RCD forces took Kabinda on 18 March 1999. Menga alleges that the last
few miles into Kabinda itself gave RCD forces much difficulty due to seriously
mined terrain.[15] According to
Menga, the RCD has adopted the expedient of flying in cows from Goma and driving
them in front of advancing forces as a mine-clearance device. However, he
stresses that this offers protection only to RCD soldiers and that there are
growing civilian casualties in the Kabinda region. According to his
information, Mbuji-Mayi and environs have also been heavily mined, in
particular, there are mines all around the airport. Menga could not confirm the
origin of the alleged mines, or whether Congolese government or Zimbabwean
forces were responsible for laying them. Although he did not mention the Mine
Ban Treaty (to which the DRC is not a signatory), Menga argued that the
international community should tell Kabila to stop the use of
landmines.[16]
Contacted by Human Rights Watch, the Defense Advisor at the Zimbabwean High
Commission in London, Lieutenant-Colonel Ezekiel Zabanyana said, “We do
not use landmines in the DRC. This is improper. We are signatories to the
Convention and we abide by our commitment to this Convention. This is
emphatic.” When asked whether this meant that Zimbabwe refrained from the
use of all mines, at home and abroad, the Lieutenant-Colonel replied, “No.
That is correct.”[17]
Zimbabwe signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified this on
18 June 1998. The Mine Ban Treaty has now been incorporated into
Zimbabwe’s domestic law (see report on Zimbabwe).
Representatives of Handicap International have mixed views on the landmine
question in DRC. The organization has not detected AP or AT mines at
Mbuji-Mayi, despite the RCD’s accusations. However, HI representatives
have met landmine victims on medical premises in Kinshasa. They were told that
the victims “had come from the front,” although which front was not
specified.[18]
Internationally, suspicions are growing that Zimbabwean or Congolese forces
are indeed resorting to the use of landmines. A U.S. State Department analyst
told HRW, “When you’ve got a war to fight, you’ll do whatever:
I’d certainly use them in [Kabila’s]
position.”[19]
Mine Awareness
The UK-based Mines Advisory Group initiated a mine
awareness program in mid-1996, which concentrated upon displaced Angolans in
camps along border of the two countries. However, with renewed heavy fighting
between the Angolan government and UNITA, the program was ended in
mid-1998.[20]
[1]Michaela Wrong,
“Neighboring states take sides in Congo conflict”, Financial
Times, (London), 19 August 1998; James Walker “Congo on the edge as
Kabila falters,” Independent, (London), 16 August 1998.
[2]“Africa scrambles for
Africa,” Africa Confidential (London), vol. 40, no. I, 8 January
1999, pp.1-6.
[3] Interview, French defense
specialist, Centre d’analyse et de prévision, Paris, 29 March
1999.
[4] Human Rights Watch,
Rwanda/Zaire. Rearming with Impunity. International Support for the
Perpetrators of the Rwandan Genocide, Human Rights Watch Short Report, vol.
7, no. 4, May 1995, p.11
[5]UN Country Database, DR
Congo report, http://www.un.org/Depts/Landmine/ country/congodem.htm
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