Uganda’s Minister
of State for Foreign Affairs, Honorable Martin Aliker, signed the Mine Ban
Treaty on 3 December 1997 and made a statement to the signing ceremony that:
“Those who have already been maimed and disabled are closely watching
to see whether their plight has moved us enough to append our signatures to this
very important convention. Uganda has signed the treaty and pending the
finalization of our constitutional process shall fully abide by
it.”[1] Uganda ratified the
ban treaty on 5 November 1998. The instrument of ratification was handed over to
the UNICEF Country Representative in Uganda for onward transmission to the U.N.
Secretary-General and deposited on 25 February 1999. Uganda has not yet enacted
domestic implementing legislation.
Uganda played an active role during the Ottawa Process. It endorsed the
Brussels Declaration, was a full participant to the Oslo treaty negotiations,
supported statements and resolutions taken on landmines by the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) and and voted in favor of pro-ban UN General Assembly
resolutions on landmines in 1996, 1997, and 1998.
The Government has stated that it has never laid mines. It also states that
the locations of the mines laid by rebel groups are not marked and the
government does not have accurate information on them. Uganda has made a
statement that the Uganda Armed Forces will not engage in the use, production,
storage or transfer of APMs; a military directive was issued to that
effect.[2]
Ugandan military forces have been supporting opposition forces fighting
against the government of Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC). (See country report on DRC). The Namibian Defense Ministry has accused
Uganda of laying mines in the conflict. When two Namibian soldiers (fighting in
support of Kabila) were killed by a landmine in November 1998, the Defense
Ministry said that it and its allies “hold Rwanda and Uganda responsible
for using antipersonnel landmines, weapons which the international community has
banned.”[3] However, there
is no conclusive evidence that Ugandan forces have used AP mines.
Uganda is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, but has not
ratified the amended Protocol II on landmines. Following the Fourth
International NGO Conference on Landmines in Maputo in February 1997, a number
of Ugandan NGOs, including the Ugandan Association of Medical Workers for Health
and Environment and IPPNW-Uganda, formed the Uganda Campaign to Ban Landmines
(UCBL). The campaign held a number of public seminars on the issue and informed
the Ugandan media. In September 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO), with
the support of the Ugandan Campaign, held an inter-regional workshop in Kampala
on public health and antipersonnel mines.
Production and Transfer
Uganda produced AP mines until at least 1995.
These mines were produced by the State-run National Enterprise Corporation (NEC)
at Nakasongora. The factory was constructed between 1987 and 1992 with
assistance from China's China Wabao Engineering
Corporation.[4] According to
Ugandan officials the plant produced two antipersonnel mines, a PMD-6 and a
plastic mine.[5] The factory had a
capacity of to produce 50,000 mines per year, and by one account had produced a
total of 10,000 by 1997.[6] But,
according to NEC's acting Managing Director, Major Fred Mwesigyi, the
Nakasongola factory stopped producing AP mines in 1995 because of the worldwide
campaign against mines. Mwesigyi also said that "all the mines and grenades we
produced have since been kept in stores and have not been sold anywhere." He
said that the factory now produces dry cell batteries instead of mines and
grenades[7] Uganda states that it
has never exported antipersonnel
mines.[8] There is no information
about importation of AP mines by Uganda.
Stockpiling
At the treaty signing conference in Ottawa in
December 1997, Uganda’s Foreign Minister said, "We hold a small stockpile
of antipersonnel mines which we intend to destroy as soon as
possible.”[9] The stockpile
apparently numbers approximately
50,000.[10] According to a
Foreign Ministry official, Uganda has already destroyed some mines—those
that it produced itself. But, he indicated that destruction of foreign mines is
awaiting acquisition of the technology to do so. He added that Uganda is in the
early consultation process with Norway and Austria over acquiring destruction
technology and expertise.[11]
Three rebel groups are known to have stockpiles of AP mines, the Lords
Resistance Army (LRA), the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the West Nile
Bank. According to the Ugandan government there is not much information on the
quantities and types of these mines but the rebels are believed to be supplied
from outside Uganda, mainly from
Sudan.[12]
Use
Uganda obtained independence from Britain in 1962
and from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s the country was marked by conflict
and numerous human rights abuses, especially under Idi Amin (1971-78) and Milton
Obote's second term (1980-85). Obote was again overthrown by his army in 1985
who formed a military government which soon ran into difficulties in its efforts
to defeat Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA). After failed
negotiations, the government was overthrown by Museveni who was sworn in as
President of Uganda in January 1986. He has been president ever since.
In 1987, remnants of Obote's army formed a rebel group, the Lords Resistance
Army (LRA) which has enjoyed support from the Sudanese government. It has been
fighting the Ugandan government in the northern part of the country mainly in
the districts of Gulu and Kitgum. Another group, the West Nile Bank, also
supported by Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been fighting
the Uganda government in the West Nile Region. From 1997, a third rebel group,
the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), supported by the previous government of
Mobutu and since 1998 by the current government of Kabila in the DRC, and Sudan,
has been fighting the Uganda government in the western part of the country in
the Mount Rwenzori area. Since 1990 these rebel groups have used antipersonnel
mines.
Only a small number of mines appear to have been in used in the pre-1990s
conflicts in Uganda resulting in a few mine victims. Arua hospital reports that
they get occasional mine victims from the West Nile region who are injured by
the mines left behind by fleeing Amin soldiers in
1979.[13] There were only a few
incidents or injuries in these former conflict zones in central Uganda
indicating that not many mines were used in this conflict.
The 1990s have seen the wider use of landmines. The ADF in western Uganda and
the LRA in northern and north-western Uganda have used antipersonnel landmines.
Two children were injured by an AP mine in Kitgum district during the first week
of January 1999 for example. AP mines laid by the LRA have also been reported
in Kitgum and Gulu, and by the ADFin Kasese. In Kitgum the rebels plant
mines in abandoned homes, waiting for the occupants to return to check their
property.[14] The rebels also
plant mines along their tracks, to stop hot pursuit and keep people away from
their route ways. In 1998, a teacher tried to follow the path that rebels had
used to see where they had gone and was injured by an AP
mine.[15]
At the UPDF garrison in Gulu in northern Uganda, Human Rights Watch saw and
photographed large quantities of antipersonnel and antitank mines taken from the
LRA. They were sorted by type and labeled by date and place of capture. Both the
antipersonnel and antitank mines matched the types of many of those seen by
Human Rights Watch in Yei and Kaya in Sudan and those seen in
Eritrea.[16] During the period
1991-1998, there were a total of 328 landmine
casualties.[17] The number of
mine injuries is on the decline from 118 in 1996 to twenty-four in the whole of
1998. The most affected districts are Gulu and
Kitgum.[18]
In a recent article in the Ugandan newspaper, The Monitor, UPDF
Brigadier Katumba Wamala denied that the army had planted landmines along the
Uganda-Sudan border.[19] "Do we
plant landmines so that our soldiers are maimed? Do you want to talk to my
landmines engineer who was hit by a mine when I sent him to detect mines at
Agoro area? The UPDF has no landmine fields at the border," Katumba said while
responding to a letter, "Save us from
landmines."[20] The letter
alleged that five civilians have so far been hit by the 5,000 landmines planted
by the UPDF at Lomwaka Hills in
Agoro.[21] Katumba however,
acknowledged that there are more landmines around Agoro hills than anywhere else
in Gulu or Kitgum and he said that demining the two districts is difficult
because the said mines were planted by the LRA rebels and are
scattered.[22]
Mine Clearance
There are no humanitarian mine clearing and
training operations. The UPDF carries out the demining of mined roads in
affected areas. In addition to manual clearance, the UPDF uses mine sweeper
vehicles popularly known as 'Mambas.' More systematic clearance by the UPDF has
resulted in a decline in mine
incidents.[23] A special unit of
the mechnised division of the UPDF is being trained in mine clearance
techniques.[24]
There are no national priorities for demining. The cost of mine clearance is
not known and there are no available records of cleared areas. The main
obstacle to a more effective mine clearance program is that the mines used by
the rebels are scattered. The lack of funds is also a constraint for demining
such areas. However, recently some of the areas bordering the Sudan, which were
mined by rebels, have been sealed off with barbed wire to exclude civilians from
the area and that the civilians have been made aware of
this.[25]
Mine Awareness
There has been some mine awareness activities,
mainly through the media, in seminars and workshops and through drama and
posters. There are a number of agencies working on mine awareness issues in
Uganda including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); the AMHEC
(IPPNW-Uganda) and the Ministry of Health. But hardly any people have been
trained as mine awareness educators.
Landmine Casualties
The combined number of victims from Kitgum and Gulu
Districts per month for the year 1996, 1997 and 1998 were 9.8 and 4.9
respectively, a declining
trend.[26] Statistics from the
orthopedic center indicates also that the AP mine problem is in north and
north-western Uganda, especially in Gulu and Kitgum districts.
From the available results so far from four hospitals, the people mostly
injured or killed by AP mines are soldiers followed by peasant farmers. Males
between the age of twenty and forty are the most affected and the majority of
victims were injured while traveling.
In Gulu or Kitgum districts once the patients get
to the hospitals they are quickly attended to and usually receive definitive
surgical treatment, i.e. amputation would be done within about three hours of
arrival, a reasonable time. The Ministry of Health regards landmines as a trauma
injury. With the assistance of WHO and CIDA Canada an Injury & Trauma
Control Center has been set up which is responsible for documenting traumatic
injuries throughout the country. This program is in its infancy and there are no
specific programs for psychological and social support services for landmine
victims.[30]
There are seven orthopedic workshops in Uganda, four are regional orthopedic
workshops, one is a central workshop, and there are two missionary orthopedic
workshops run by the Church of Uganda. Most mine victims receive physical
rehabilitation at Gulu hospital. While the workshops are well equipped there is
a shortage of trained staff. For example there are only eight orthopedic
technologists and eleven orthopedic technicians in the whole country and only
one social worker attached to the Gulu
workshop.[31]
Although the orthopedic workshops are regionally distributed and well
equipped, prosthetics and orthotics are not provided free of charge to victims
and their costs are prohibitive to most of the population. Even where these are
subsidized by government, such as at the Mulago Central workshop in Kampala, the
prices are still high and this center is far from affected areas. In Gulu
victims cannot afford to pay for wheelchairs.
While the overall number of amputees fitted with prosthesis is low (27.9
percent), the percentage of mine victims fitted with prosthesis is relatively
high (55.6 percent). A number of agencies have been donating funds for
prosthesis for survivors in Gulu district, including AVSI, the Italian and
Austrian governments, the World Relief Fund (WRF) and the Dutch embassy.
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