Zambia gained independence from Britain in 1964,
and Kenneth Kaunda became Zambia’s first president. Soon after
independence Zambia began supporting independence guerrilla groups from Angola,
Mozambique, Namibia, Rhodesia and South Africa. This support increasingly made
Zambia a target for counter-subversion. Violent incidents, including the use of
landmines, occurred in Western Province border areas and along the Rhodesian and
Mozambique frontiers. Only in late December 1979 following a lasting cease-fire
in Zimbabwe did the situation improve.
Mine Ban Policy
Zambia signed the Mine Ban Treaty in New York on 12
December 1997, but has not yet ratified. Zambia endorsed the Brussels
Declaration and participated in the Oslo negotiations. Zambia voted for the UN
General Assembly resolutions in support of banning landmines. Zambian Foreign
Minister Keli Walubita was asked in May 1998 by the Landmine Monitor when his
country would ratify the ban treaty and replied, “Soon. This is a priority
for my government. I represent a constituency that suffers from landmines. I
am therefore determined to see this enacted into Zambian law
quickly.”[1]
In September 1996, a group of students and staff at Lusaka’s University
Training Hospital launched the Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines in an effort to
lobby the government and raise public awareness of Zambia’s and southern
Africa’s landmine problem. Members of the campaign included the Zambian
Red Cross Society, medical students and various NGOs. The ZCBL played an
important role in raising public awareness of Zambia’s landmine legacy,
reflected by increased media coverage of incidents.
In February 1999, the Zambia Campaign to Ban Landmines interviewed the
Foreign Minister. He said that "We are very committed to the complete
eradication of landmines and Zambia has always supported the ban. Zambia is a
peaceful country and we have always campaigned for peace. We will certainly
ratify the treaty. My colleagues at the Defense ministry are working on a
Cabinet memorandum and we should ratify before the first half of the
year."[2] Zambia is not a party
to the Convention on Conventional Weapons or its amended Protocol on
landmines.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
Zambia is not a known producer or exporter of
landmines. The Zambian Defense Forces maintains stocks of antipersonnel
landmines, many of them provided to ZIPRA in 1979 by the former Soviet Union and
former Yugoslavia. After Zimbabwean independence the Zambian government assumed
control of the mines. Nearly thirty types of antipersonnel mines from ten
nations have been found in
Zambia.[3] If the Defense Forces
have begun planning for the eventual destruction of their mine stocks, that
information has not been made available.
Use
A number of antipersonnel landmines appear to have
been planted in Zambia in 1999 for criminal or political reasons. In late
January several antipersonnel mines were planted by a shop owned by businessman
Hugo Batista. An 18-year-old youth died and another sustained injuries when they
stepped on these mines.[4] Local
residents have reported that the area between Zambezi Boma and Chinyingi is
particularly dangerous for landmines. They claim that Angola’s UNITA
rebels are responsible for laying
them.[5]
Due to military operations in the 1970s and 1980s, Zambia has a limited
landmine problem in Western and Eastern Provinces although there have also been
incidents near Lusaka. The part of Western Province most affected by South
African military actions was around Sesheke, close to the Namibian border,
stretching northwest to the Senanga sector. This had been an area of tension
since the start of the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO)
nationalist activity in Namibia in the early 1970s.
The first documented landmine incident on Zambian soil occurred on 12
November 1970, when a Zambian Government vehicle detonated a landmine in Western
Province. The driver survived but had to have his leg amputated. A Zambian
police investigation identified the mine as being of British
origin.[6] In 1971 there followed
a number of mine incidents, all antitank mines probably laid by the South
Africans during cross border operations against SWAPO
rebels.[7]
South African forces also planted mines near the Angolan border in the 1970s,
as did the Portuguese forces in an attempt to curtail MPLA infiltration. A
number of antipersonnel mines were laid in these
operations.[8] The conflict
escalated seriously in 1978 and 1979, with the South Africans stepping up their
clandestine operations. This resulted in the widespread mining of roads
especially in the Imusho to Sesheke area. In 1980 the Zambian army laid
minefields along the Caprivi border in anticipation of further South African
cross-border raids. Even today villagers still regard some of these areas as
“no go” zones, fearing the continued presence of landmines.
[9]
The Zambian Defense Forces (ZDF) may have laid a few small minefields along
the Angolan border in the mid-1980s in an apparent attempt to show solidarity
with the Angolan government (Zambia had in the mid-1970s supported the UNITA
rebels).[10] However, the
ex-defense chiefs deny that their forces laid any landmines on Zambian soil.
The flow of weapons from Angola into western Zambia continued to be a concern
to the Zambian police in the 1990s. In February 1995 police seized weapons,
including antiaircraft guns and landmines, during a sweep along the border,
where members of the Lozi ethnic group were demanding self-rule. Police
estimated that at least 500 weapons, including landmines, could be in the hands
of pro-secession villages.[11]
Rhodesian forces were responsible for the covert laying of a small number of
mines on Zambian soil in Eastern Province in the early
1970s.[12] Rhodesian laying of
mines in Zambian border areas to disrupt nationalist infiltration routes became
more regular in the mid-1970s and peaked in
1979.[13] The Rhodesian Special
Air Service (SAS) reportedly lost eleven men laying mines in such
operations.[14] In June 1979
Rhodesian forces claimed to have destroyed more than 500 antitank and
antipersonnel mines in a raid against a ZIPRA supply depot near Lusaka. ZIPRA
used landmines to protect its bases from attack. In October 1979 two Rhodesian
SAS soldiers were injured by shrapnel from two POMZ-2 fragmentation
antipersonnel mines attached to either side of a trip wire during an operation
against a ZIPRA camp.[15] Because
of the Rhodesian incursions President Kaunda declared a nation-wide military
mobilization in 1979. Some minefields were laid along what is now the Zimbabwe
border, as well as around key bridges.
Landmine Problem
In 1994, Zambia defense spokesperson, Major Jack
Mubanga, said. “There are a lot of landmines in Southern and Western
provinces, but it is too costly for the government to embark on an exercise to
have them removed. It is very expensive to carry out such an
assignment.”[16]
There are areas in Western Province along the Namibian border that are mine
affected. In the early 1980s the Zambian Defense Force (ZDF), with multinational
assistance, conducted mine clearing operations in the southern region of Western
Province, near the Caprivi strip. The U.S. military has reported that in 1990
Zambia and Namibia conducted a joint mine-clearance exercise in the Katima
Mulilo border area, although local Namibian and Zambian officials have told the
Landmine Monitor the exercise never
occurred.[17] Whatever the case,
this area is still not considered safe by local residents. Former Zambian
military officials also reported that in the early 1980s they spent significant
resources on clearing landmines along the Angolan and Mozambican borders and at
former nationalist bases.[18]
The Zambia Red Cross also reports that the clearing of the road to Shangombo
in Western Province in 1996 was done by a commercial firm, using a bulldozer and
grader. There had been no mine clearance on the road, and the bulldozer simply
pushed the mines to the verges. A past employee of the Zambia Red Cross and
founding member of the Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines almost stepped on one
of these “cleared mines.”
[19]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) visited one former base, the Matondo farm in Lusaka
West, and found there had been continued landmine incidents there. The Sri
Lankan farm manger told HRW that although the army had cleared the area, he had
mines explode on three occasions in 1993 when burning undergrowth. Although the
explosions produced lots of shrapnel, nobody was
injured.[20]
Public awareness of Zambia’s landmine legacy is growing. In March
1997, member of parliament Jerry Muloji asked when the Ministry of Defense would
send military experts to clear landmines along the border areas with Angola in
his district. Deputy Defense Minister Mike Mulomgoti told parliament,
“It’s impossible to clear all landmines at the moment. They will
only be cleared on an ‘as is found’
basis.”[21]
Landmine Casualties
Former Zambian military officials reported that
there was a high number of landmine casualties amongst Zambia National Army
soldiers in the 1970s because of South African and Rhodesian incursions. The
government responded by conducting a nation-wide mine awareness campaign in
areas along the Namibian, Angolan and Mozambican borders and within its armed
forces resulting in a decline in landmine
incidents.[22] However, Zambians
continue fall victim to mines laid over fifteen years ago.
According to government statistics over 200 Zambians have been killed or
maimed since Zimbabwean independence in 1980, but many believe the figure to be
much higher.[23] The Zambia Red
Cross estimates that there are several casualties a year in addition to a higher
number of incidents related to unexploded ordnance. In November 1991 Sylvia
Maphosa, a twenty-seven-year-old pregnant Lusaka housewife, stepped on a ZIPRA
landmine while collecting firewood on a Lusaka West farm. The explosion left
Maphosa half paralyzed. She cannot walk and speaks with difficulty. She
sustained severe head wounds and had her right limb shattered. The farm served
as ZIPRA headquarters, dubbed “Victory Camp,” during the liberation
war.[24] Although the Zambian Army
combed the area for mines in 1980 and 1981, Maphosa can attest that they failed
to clear it of mines completely.
Fieldwork in 1998 by the ZCBL in Chiawa, 200 kilometers south of Lusaka has
established that landmines and UXOs continue to be a problem. In the early 1980s
antipersonnel landmines claimed 125 civilians alone and a Japanese sponsored
water project had to be stopped because of the mines. People in the area have
lost their livestock and as the population grows, the land area to accommodate
the population is getting
smaller.[25] In late January 1999
an 18-year old youth died and another sustained injuries when they stepped on a
antipersonnel mine planted by a shop near Zambezi Boma in Western
province.[26]
[17]U.S. Army Foreign Science
and Technology Center, Intelligence Report, “Landmine Warfare - Mines and
Engineer Munitions in Southern Africa (U);” Namibian officials denied to
Human Rights Watch in 1996 that any joint clearance operation had occurred.
[18]Zambian Campaign to Ban
Landmines Workshop, Lusaka, June 1997.
[19]Human Rights Watch Arms
Project, Still Killing: Landmines in Southern Africa (New York: Human
Rights Watch, 1997) p.149.
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