The Kingdom of Swaziland signed the Mine Ban Treaty
on 4 December 1997 and deposited its instrument of ratification on the 23
December 1998, the fifty-eighth country to do so. Swaziland voted in support of
the pro-ban 1996 UN General Assembly resolution on landmines. During the
government statements session of the February 1997 Fourth International NGO
Conference on Landminesin Maputo, Mozambique, a Swazi government
official, J.M. Dube, High Commissioner to Mozambique, called for a ban "with
immediate effect.”[1]
During the May 1997 OAU Meeting in Kempton Park, Dr Timothy L. Dlamini,
Principle Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressed
Swaziland’s full support for the Ottawa Process stating that the
government “is convinced that the use, development, production and
stockpiling of anti-personnel mines should be banned with immediate
effect.”[2]
Swaziland supported the landmines resolution by the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) in June 1997 which was based on the Kempton Park "Plan of Action."
At the Brussels meeting later that month, Swaziland endorsed the Brussels
declaration and Captain M. Fakudze affirmed that Swaziland’s support for
"the total ban on manufacture, use, transfer and stockpiling of anti-personnel
mines" and announced its intent to sign the ban treaty in December
1997.[3] Swaziland attended the
Oslo treaty negotiations as a full participant and spoke against proposals to
weaken the treaty text. Swaziland non-governmental organizations have been
active in the campaign to ban landmines including the Red Cross and the Swazi
affiliate of the Southern African Churches in Ministry with Uprooted People.
Swaziland has not produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Contrary to a
report in African Topics, the government has denied that the Umbutfo
Swaziland Defence Force maintains a stock of antipersonnel
landmines.[4] The government has
stated that Swaziland “does not use, buy or manufacture
landmines.”[5] However, the
Swaziland government has failed to disclose what happened to weapon caches left
by African National Congress (ANC) cadres en-route to South Africa from
Mozambique, some of which may have contained landmines. Two landmines were
recovered in 1993, and three in 1995 in arms
caches.[6]
Although Swaziland has not been listed as mine affected by various sources,
it does in fact have a landmine problem, albeit very
limited.[7] Several Swazi
citizens have been killed or maimed by mines along the Mozambique border,
including army officers patrolling the border and Ministry of Agriculture
officials rehabilitating the fence, which controls foot-and-mouth
disease.[8]
In addition, a small minefield exists near the border town of Mananga. In
1988, Swazi authorities blamed Renamo rebels for the mines, but in the 1990s the
Mozambican government has been accused of planting them. Another explanation
given is that the minefield is simply the result of an error by the Mozambique
authorities presuming the area to be South African land. The minefield is well
known, fenced and marked posing little or no threat to the local population.
The field is 100 meters wide and 10 kilometers long and contains an estimated
ten uncleared mines.[9] The
extent of spillover from Mozambique border minefields however also needs to be
thoroughly investigated.
The United States of America has a direct, bilateral Humanitarian Demining
Program with Swaziland to the value of US$210 000. The funds are earmarked to
enable Swaziland to develop an indigenous self-sustaining humanitarian demining
program by training defense force personnel in demining techniques.
[1]J.M. Dube,
“Swaziland’s Policy Position on Anti-personnel Landmines,”
Statement to Fourth International NGO Conference on Landminesin Maputo
Mozambique, 27 February 1997.
[2]T. Dlamini, “Swaziland
Government’s Position. Statement to the OAU Conference,” Kempton
Park, South Africa, 19-21 May 1997.
[3]“Declaration by the
Kingdom of Swaziland,” Brussels Conference, 24-27 June 1997.
[4]T. Dlamini, “Swaziland
Government’s Position. Statement to the OAU Conference,” Kempton
Park, South Africa, 19-21 May 1997. See also: African Topics, issue 17,
1997
[6]G. Oosthnysen, Small Arms
Proliferation and Control in Southern Africa. (Johannesburg: South African
Institute of International Affairs, 1996), p. 68.
[7]According to the United
Nations Country Database, Swaziland is not mine-affected. See:
www.un.org/depts/landmine/country/swazilan.htm. In 1993, the United States
Department of State stated that Swaziland “has no landmine problem”
but in 1998, it revised this to “affected”. See U.S. Department of
State, Hidden Killers: The Global Problem with Uncleared Landmines
(Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of State, 1993), p. 159 and U.S.
Department of State, Hidden Killers 1998: The Global Landmine Crisis
(Washington: United States Department of State, 1998), p. A-2.
[8]Human Rights Watch, Still
Killing: Landmines in Southern Africa (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997),
p.138.
[9]T. Dlamini, 'Statement to
the OAU Conference on the Legacy of Anti-personnel Landmines,' 19 – 21 May
1997.