Tanzania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
Honorable Jakaya M. Kikwete, signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and
stated, “It is the expectation of my delegation that at the end of this
conference, we shall have come up with a credible plan of action. Firstly the
quick ratification of the treaty by those of us signing today. Secondly, to
have a concrete plan to clear the minefields and expeditiously assist the
affected countries and persons. And, thirdly, to have a clear strategy which
will ensure the actual elimination of production and use of
landmines.”[1]
Tanzania has not yet ratified the ban treaty. When Foreign Minister Kikwete
tabled his ministry’s budget for 1998/1999 in parliament, he told the
National Assembly that a “Bill on the Abolition and Accumulation of Land
Mines” (most likely the ratification legislation) would be tabled
shortly.[2] Tanzanian
non-governmental organizations working to ban landmines are actively lobbying
for swift ratification of the ban treaty, in addition to mine awareness
activities.[3]
In November 1996, Tanzania issued its first statement in support of a ban,
which was later presented during the Fourth International NGO Conference on
Landmines held in Maputo in February
1997.[4] Tanzania attended the
1997 Bonn, Brussels, and Oslo meetings of the Ottawa Process, endorsed the
Brussels Declaration and supported key 1996, 1997, and 1998 UN General Assembly
resolutions on landmines.
Tanzania does not manufacture landmines and is not believed to transfer them.
It is not known whether Tanzania maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines.
Tanzanian Armed Forces used landmines in Uganda in 1979 and in Mozambique in
1986-1988.[5] Tanzania
experienced a limited number of landmine incidents on its soil in the 1960s. In
April 1966, a woman and man in the village of Kilambo, about five miles from
Mahuranga, stepped on a landmine, and security forces subsequently found and
destroyed another mine. In November 1966, four Tanzanians died from mine
explosions in the village of Mahuranga, about thirty miles from the post of
Mtwara. Six mines had been laid according to the
police.[6] The OAU Standing
Committee on Defense condemned these landmine incidents and blamed the
Portuguese.[7] A Portuguese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson in Lisbon denied that their forces were
responsible, claiming in 1967, "It is not one of our methods to place mines on
trails used by peaceful populations, and even less so in a foreign country. In
Mozambique we are fighting foreign-backed
rebels."[8]
According to Major-General John Walden of the Tanzanian army, there have been
no other landmine incidents since the 1960s, although UXOs at former nationalist
bases remained a problem.[9] There
was, however, an incident in 1996 in which a child was killed by a mine in a
forest near Ngara.[10] The mine
was reported to have been dropped by refugees fleeing Rwanda.
Tanzania's main link to the landmines problem is the refugee population in
the Kigoma area, in the western part of the country. The Kigoma area
accommodates several refugee camps which host refugees from Rwanda and Burundi.
Unconfirmed reports from Tanzania say that Burundi is reported to be planting
landmines inside Tanzania along its borders to prevent Hutu rebels from crossing
back into Burundi. (The Burundian government denies using AP mines— see
Burundi country report). Tanzanian diplomats say that there have been a handful
of cases in which booby traps or improvised devices have been used, but no
antipersonnel landmines.[11]
Forty-five Burundian males aged between seventeen and thirty-nine were
registered at Kibirizi Port in Kigoma as landmine casualties between 1 January
and 31 December, 1998. They have been treated at Kigoma regional
hospital.[12]
[1]Statement by the Honorable
Jakaya M. Kikwete, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tanzania, at the Landmines
Signing Conference, Ottawa, 3 December 1997.
[2]Hubert M. Lubyama, Christian
Council of Tanzania, “Tanzania Country Report,” prepared for
presentation at the Southern African Regional Landmines Campaign Meeting,
Johannesburg, South Africa, 15-16 March 1999.
[3]Tanzanian NGOs campaigning
to ban landmines include the Christian Council of Tanzania.
[4]Human Rights Watch, Still
Killing: Landmines in Southern Africa (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997)
p.140.
[5]Human Rights Watch, Still
Killing: Landmines in Southern Africa (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1997),
pp.71, 140.
[6]East African Standard,
(Dar-es-Salaam), 14 April, 1967.
[7]Radio Dar-es-Salaam, in
English, 18 April 1967.
[8]East African Standard,
(Dar-es-Salaam), 20 April 1967.
[9]Human Rights Watch interview
with Major-General Walden, London, 6 January 1997.
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