Key
developments since March 1999: Both Angolan government troops and UNITA
rebel forces have continued to use antipersonnel mines. Mine action funding in
2000 totals $17.4 million. Mine action programs have continued despite the
ongoing conflict. As of May 2000, some 10 square kilometers of land and 5,000
kilometers of road have been cleared, and 15,000 mines destroyed. Funding for
the government’s mine action office, INAROEE, has dried up, and its
operations are largely suspended. NGOs continue to operate, though at reduced
levels due to reduced funding. The number of mine victims was up sharply in
1999 (from 103 in 1998 to 185 in 1999 in Luena alone).
Mine Ban Policy
After active participation in the Ottawa Process,
Angola signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997. The government has said
that because of the renewal of the war in November 1998, it has been unable to
ratify the treaty. Both government troops and UNITA forces have been using
antipersonnel landmines since the resumption of fighting. The ICBL has
condemned both sides for use of AP mines, but is particularly appalled at the
Angolan government's disregard for its international commitments.
Though the Mine Ban Treaty has not entered into force for Angola, the use of
mines by a signatory can be judged a breach of its international obligations.
Under Article 18 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, “A state
is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a
treaty when...it has signed the treaty....” Clearly, new use of mines
defeats the object and purpose of the treaty.
At the First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo,
Mozambique on 3-7 May 1999, the Angolan government delegation arrived only on
the eve of the closing day and attempted to avoid discussing its new use of
landmines in Angola. Vice Minister of External Relations Toko Serrão
justified the government's use of landmines by saying, “We remain
committed to the noble objectives of the treaty. But we are at war right
now.”[1]
Roberto de Almeida, the speaker of the national assembly, constitutionally
number two in Angola, justified the government's position to Human Rights Watch
in December 1999 saying, “It is war. We have the right to self defend
ourselves. Landmines are part of that right. Once Savimbi [UNITA] is defeated
we will stop using
landmines.”[2]
The country’s national mine clearance organization Instituto Nacional
de Remoção De Obstáculos E Engenhos Explosivos (INAROEE)
also gives the government's position on its web site, which states:
“The Government of Angola has said that they have documented their
mine laying activities, and will be fully responsible for the clearance
operations when appropriate, without any additional cost and negative impact on
the international community funded demining projects, currently implemented
through NGOs.”[3]
Just as this Landmine Monitor Report 2000 was going to print, on 25
July 2000, Angola’s parliament approved ratification of the Mine Ban
Treaty, with 147 votes in favour, one against and one
abstention.[4] Before the vote,
Vice Minister Toko Serrão, addressed the parliament: “Formal
adherence to a convention is not sufficient to guarantee the application of all
the provisions referred to. The Ottawa Convention envisages different mechanisms
destined for the implementation of the convention and resolution of possible
disputes. Through these mechanisms, the states that are part of the convention
are forced to elaborate and regularly present reports about the measures that
they have taken relating to the obligations that result from the
convention.”[5]
Vice-Minister Serrão finished his address by stating that: “The
entry into force of this convention is considered a historic achievement in the
struggle to ban the use of antipersonnel mines. However given the provisions in
Law 6/90 regarding international treaties it appears to us important that the
Ministry of National Defense states its position on this
issue.”[6] It is unclear
precisely what additional steps are needed before Angola can formally submit its
instrument of ratification to the United Nations, and thus be fully legally
bound by the treaty. The incongruity of Angola apparently moving toward
ratification at the same time that it admits to continued use of antipersonnel
mines is cause for concern and requires close attention on the part of States
Parties and others.
Angola attended three of the intersessional meetings of the Standing
Committees of Experts of the MBT, one each on Mine Clearance, Victim Assistance,
and the General Status and Operation of the Convention. It sponsored and voted
in favor of the December 1999 UNGA resolution on the implementation of the MBT,
as it had with previous pro-ban UNGA resolutions.
Angola has not signed the Convention on Conventional Weapons or its Landmine
Protocol II, and is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Inside Angola there has been little public discussion over the
government’s policy of continued use of landmines although an exhibition
and video show on the extent of the damage landmines have caused Angola and its
people was shown at the Portuguese Cultural Center in Luanda in March 2000.
Entitled “Ottawa Yes, No More Landmines,” the opening of the
exhibition included a drama on mine awareness by the Julu theatre
company.[7]
Production, Transfer and Stockpiles
Angola is not a known producer or exporter of
landmines. Seventy-six different types of AP mines from twenty-two countries
have been found or reported in Angola, eleven of which have not been confirmed
by the UN.[8] Little is known
about the size or composition of Angola’s current landmine stockpiles.
Mine clearance NGOs claim there is no evidence of fresh imports of mines by the
government. The mines government troops have are mostly from the USSR, East
Germany, Cuba, China, Romania, and
Hungary.[9] According to the
UK-based demining agency HALO Trust, “Even the most recently laid mines
are old-fashioned and appear to have come from the ‘80s stock or dug out
of the ground and reused. This is very
promising.”[10]
Little is known about UNITA’s stocks. According to the Angolan
military, they captured 15,000 tons of military equipment from UNITA in October
1999 including 2,450 antipersonnel mines and 8,742 antitank
mines.[11] In June 2000, the
Angolan military announced they had discovered a UNITA bunker in Uige province
full of weapons including “large numbers of antipersonnel
mines.”[12] According to a
document on a computer disk the government claims to have found at UNITA leader
Jonas Savimbi's command bunker in Andulo when they captured it in September
1999, UNITA had deemed procurement of antipersonnel mines a priority for its
sanctions-busting weapons procurements in 1998 as the rebels prepared for
renewed hostilities.[13]
New Use of Mines
A re-survey of eleven provinces by Norwegian
People’s Aid (NPA) and HALO Trust in 1999 indicated that both the
government and UNITA have laid new mines. UNITA has tended to mine primary,
secondary and tertiary roads to impede transportation. The government has been
using mines for defensive purposes around strategic locations. Mine clearance
operators believe the number of mines laid is significantly less than during
previous conflicts. According to HALO and NPA the majority of reported mine
accidents, an estimated 75 percent, involve old mines where Internally Displaced
Persons traverse unfamiliar areas.
Government Use
Although the Angolan government signed the Mine Ban
Treaty in December 1997 it has since been responsible for laying new
antipersonnel and antitank mines and minefields. In 1999 Landmine Monitor
published eyewitness accounts of this gross disrespect of the
treaty.[14] Human Rights Watch
has continued to obtain credible information of continued landmine warfare and
has interviewed a number of eyewitnesses to new use of mines in 2000. For
example, two government soldiers admitted in June 2000 that they had laid
landmines along paths to ambush UNITA patrols in Moxico province along the
Zambian border;[15] they also
admitted to laying two AP mines across the border inside
Zambia.[16] Norwegian
People’s Aid reports that FAA (Angolan Armed Forces) Engineers in April
2000 admitted to laying new mines, but claim to have maps of the areas
mined.[17] Government troops also
used mines in Luena in 1999, prompting Daniel Tessema, Program Director for
Veterans International in Luena, to state that if the government “put
signs up, the mines can be easily seen. (But) they don't even map the
areas.”[18] Angolan troops
appear to have also carried AP mines in an operation in northern
Namibia,[19] but UNITA has more
widely used mines in these border
areas.[20]
In a document produced for donors in March 2000, INAROEE admitted,
“There is no doubt that limited new mines have been planted in Angola
within the last six months. These mines are primarily planted as reinforcement
in already mined areas around military installations and other strategic
locations such as hydro-electrical power plants or access to provincial
capitals.”[21] INAROEE
officials have also stated that the only area in which the government has mined
since December 1998 is Bie, when UNITA tried to take Kuito, and that only
antitank mines were used. INAROEE also said that the FAA always demines where it
mines,[22] and that the mines in
Bie had already been taken up. According to INAROEE the local provincial
authorities monitor
clearance.[23]
But, clearly antipersonnel mines have been used, and have been laid outside
Bie, and are not always removed by government troops after use. Moreover, in
June 2000, NPA found that an area in Luena declared clear of mines and safe by
the army was still mined, casting doubts about the quality of the clearance by
the Angolan military.[24]
There are also worrying reports that Angolans trained with international aid
to do humanitarian demining have been used to plant fresh mines. Human Rights
Watch interviewed a deminer from a folded NGO mine clearance operation who
admitted that he had been conscripted into the Angolan armed forces and ordered
to lay as well as clear
mines.[25]
UNITA Use
UNITA has continued to use landmines in its
operations across the country. Save the Children reports that during a recent
polio vaccination campaign, UNITA placed landmines on “previously cleared
paths which mothers had to use to bring their children to vaccination posts.
Unknown numbers of women and babies were killed and maimed in this way and many
were dissuaded from vaccinating their
children.”[26] UNITA has
also used landmines to control and “effectively imprison
populations” under its control by planting landmines around villages,
according to Save the Children. In 1999 the rebels were reportedly paying
infiltrators $300 to plant mines in
Luena.[27] UNITA has also
increased use of antitank mines. For example, on 24 April 2000 thirty-eight
people were killed on the Puri-Negage road (north Uige province) when the
vehicle they were traveling in triggered an AT mine in all probability laid by
UNITA.[28]
UNITA rebels have conducted military operations in northern Namibia,
including laying antipersonnel and antivehicle
mines,[29] in response to Namibia
granting permission in late 1999 for its territory to be used by Angolan
government troops as a base for attacks on UNITA positions in southeastern
Angola.[30] (See Landmine Monitor
report on Namibia for more details on UNITA use in Namibia.)
Re-Mining of Cleared Land
In June 1999, NPA reported that some re-mining had
occurred in Luena, Malanje, Huambo and Kuito. About 25% of the minefields
previously cleared in Huambo and Kuito showed signs of re-mining. But HALO has
said, “We've checked every single minefield we've cleared in six years
(between 100 and 150) and none have been re-mined. Cleared land has not been
re-mined.”[31] This may be
the case in UNITA areas, too. When the government's military reached Bailundo
in late 1999 they found no new minefields. HALO had cleared Bailundo in 1998
and UNITA, it appears, never re-mined. On the other hand, Santa Barbara has
reported that UNITA re-mined one of the bridges it had cleared in 1999 for the
World Food Program.[32]
Landmine Problem
Long cited as one of the most heavily mined
countries in the world, the early UN estimate of 10 to 15 million landmines
contaminating Angolan soil is widely still cited. While no comprehensive
landmine survey has been completed, estimates have been revised downward, with
the 1998 U.S. State Department report stating, “The source of the original
baseline data remains unknown and the actual number of landmines may never be
determined, although six million appears to be a more reasonable
figure.”[33]
Through the end of May 2000, 2,610 mine or UXO fields had been identified, of
which 517 had been cleared.[34]
According to INAROEE Cuando Cubango, Moxico, Bie and Malanje provinces have very
high density of UXOs and landmines; Bengo, Benguela and Cuanza Sul and Huambo
have a high density; Lunda Sul, Cabinda, Cunene, Huila, Zaire, Uige and Cuanza
Norte have a moderate density and Luanda, Namibe and Lunda Norte have a low
density.[35] But these figures
give little feel for the impact on communities.
Norwegian People's Aid has been contracted by the UN to conduct a nationwide
survey of the landmine problem in the northern eleven provinces, the extent of
damage, its consequences for local trade, and to map the existence of mines. By
the end of 1998, NPA had completed an initial survey to identify mined or
suspected mined areas in nine provinces, where about 80 percent of the
population lives. By January 2000 fifteen provinces had been surveyed, thirteen
by NPA and two by HALO. These surveys have not been fully comprehensive due to
the war.
Mine Action Funding
Following the return to open conflict in November
1998, some donors became wary of continued funding of mine action in Angola, and
some organizations carrying out mine action programs experienced reductions in
funding.[36] It appeared some
donors were concerned because of a perception that there was large scale
re-mining of previously cleared areas, making continued funding of mine
clearance pointless, and because the Angola government was laying mines even
though it had signed the Mine Ban Treaty. INAROEE has stated, “Donor
concern about the renewed laying of landmines, as well as the Angolan
government’s reluctance to ratify the Ottawa Treaty, have made resource
mobilization for mine action extremely difficult for all those who are trying to
provide this
assistance.”[37]
Five major mine action organizations (Handicap International, Medico
International, Mines Advisory Group, Mine Clearance Planning Agency, and
Norwegian People’s Aid) issued a statement at the Standing Committee of
Experts on Mine Clearance in March 2000 that in part said: “Donors must
ensure that sanctions against governments that have violated the 1997 Landmine
Convention do not affect the availability of funds for Humanitarian Mine
Action.... We believe that funding for Humanitarian Mine Action should be based
on the needs in affected areas, and not on the Landmines Convention status.
Sanctions against the violators and encouragement of non state-parties must be
designed in a way that does not further victimise the people and communities in
mine and ordnance-affected
areas.”[38]
Because of this situation, in 1999 and 2000 many NGOs felt pressure to cut
costs while trying to remain operational. HALO Trust roughly maintained its
funding flows although gaps had to be covered by an individual donation. NPA
had to cut expatriate staff and suspend contracts in early 2000. MAG suspended
a program with more than 300 personnel and re-entered with a smaller operation.
MgM had to temporarily halt its operations during the first six months of 1999
and in May 2000 required a loan from an individual to remain operational. Care
International and HMD had to suspend their operations. INAROEE has had to halt
its operations altogether and lay off most of its staff. INAROEE had received
funds from seven sources, the Angolan government, the U.S., the Netherlands,
Norway, Germany, Italy, and the EU.
Support for mine action in Angola in 1999 and 2000 came from the European
Union, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway,
Sweden and the United States. Italy became a major donor in 1999 for the first
time.[39] The EU, U.S., Norway
and Sweden were the top donors to mine action in Angola in 1999; in 2000 it is
the EU, the U.S. and Norway.
As noted in the chart below, support for mine action in 2000 has totaled
$17.4 million.
ANGOLA MINE ACTION PROGRAM - Year 2000 -
Project & Implementing partners
Donors
(Funding sources)
Budget
(USD)
Funds available
01.05.00
Shortfall
Land Mine Survey & an assistance for secondment of National Database
Capacity.
Mine Awareness in Kwanza Sul, Benguela, Huambo, Bie. Implemented by
HIF
Balance from Italian Gov. Contrib. Through VTF(UNMAS)
Italian Government
68,948
68,948
181,052
0
Available for selected projects (Huila or Bengo )
Italian Cooperation
250,000
0
TOTAL
14,534,820
17,417,000
1,178,094
UN agencies have also helped. World Food Program has supported
mechanically-assisted demining of secondary and tertiary roads in Bengo province
by MgM and bridge and road clearance in the south by Santa Barbara Foundation.
WFP has also provided support to HALO Trust (supply of two mine protected
vehicles) and NPA, as well as some food-for-work support for road clearing by
INAROEE brigades.
Because of the tight nature of funding in 1999 and 2000, foundations and
individual donations have played an important role in enabling mine clearance
operations to continue. These include: Anti-Landmijn Stichting, Brot fur die
Wit, Comic Relief, Christian Aid, Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund,
Misereor, National Lottery Charities Board, Johanniter International, Action
Medeor, and the German Association of the Economy. A British book publisher, a
German rock band, and a British journalist have also provided bridging funds to
keep a number of clearance projects operational.
Mine Clearance
Through the end of May 2000, 2,610 mine or UXO
fields had been identified, of which 517 were cleared (20 percent of the total).
A total area of ten million square
meters of land and some 5,000 kilometers of main roads had been
cleared.[40] Some 15,000 mines
have been cleared and 300,000 UXOs have been cleared since
1995.[41]
INAROEE
In 1995, the Angolan government established its own mine action office,
INAROEE. By1998, INAROEE was operating with seven demining brigades. INAROEE
was supposed to do four things: logistics, the Escola Technico Angola Desminagem
(ETAM) demining training school, quality assurance and coordination of mine
action.
When the UN Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) withdrew in January 1999, its
support of INAROEE was terminated, and INAROEE and UNDP/UNOPS started developing
a contingency plan. In March 1999, a further review of the UN Mine Action
Program in Angola was conducted, with the participation of representatives of
the Angolan government, INAROEE, UNDP and UNOPS, and
donors.[42] The main conclusions
were that INAROEE should concentrate on its original mandate of coordination
rather than direct involvement in clearance operations, and that its demining
brigades should be handed over and managed by independent operators, such as
NGOs.
INAROEE had its budget cut back in 1999 following renewed
fighting.[43] At its
headquarters, the expatriate staff has been reduced from eighteen (twelve in the
main program and six in the training school) to two (a UNDP/UNOPS-funded program
manager and support for the data base funded by NPA).
INAROEE had demining brigades in the field in Bie, Huambo, Uige, Cuando
Cubango, Huila and Moxico provinces. In January 1999 all the brigade operations
were suspended because UN funding dried
up[44] although these forty-man
brigades are theoretically still intact. Its regional offices also have only
skeleton staff left and $6 million in demining assets remain idle at the ETAM
logistics base in Viana.[45]
According to its director Helder Cruz many of the brigade members will find work
with the NGOs.[46]
This has caused problems for the NGOs because the standards of many of the
INAROEE deminers has been low, raising further concerns about what purpose the
ETAM school will serve.
The general view is that INAROEE's brigades were not very productive at
demining because of poor logistics and the quality of expatriate advisors
contracted by the UN. However, it does have a future as a coordinating office
for the operators in the field although coordination is currently weak, with no
meeting of mine operators taking place since November
1999.[47]
NPA has taken one brigade and INTERSOS has raised funds to operate another.
HALO offered to employ 20-25 ex-INAROEE deminers, but INAROEE refused saying
HALO could take all or none of their fifty-seven staff. HALO could not do this
and therefore recruited from outside of INAROEE.
UNDP has tried to fundraise for INAROEE. In November 1999, it urged donors
to provide funding for INAROEE arguing that it was better to keep it operational
than dismantle it and recreate it post-conflict. UNDP also argued that Angola
needs a national planning and coordination entity such as INAROEE for mine
action. It has also stated, “For better or worse, INAROEE remains the
single most vocal and effective advocate for adherence to the Ottawa Convention
within the Government of Angola. To dismantle it completely would be
‘throwing out the baby with the
bathwater.’”[48]
UNDP has applied for continued funding of $1 million for INAROEE in 2000 and
has submitted two separate but smaller applications for further development of
the mine action data base and the refurbishment of INAROEE's vehicle fleet.
INAROEE’s Director Helder Cruz presented a demining plan for 2000,
requesting $13 million from donors at a conference organized by the UNDP in
Geneva on 20 March 2000.[49]
Helder Cruz hopes that although INAROEE will not be an operator, it will be a
coordinator and trainer of deminers through the ETAM. Cruz hopes that plans to
decentralize by setting up regional and national boards to coordinate and assess
priorities for mine clearance will attract donor
support.[50] Some funds have been
received by INAROEE, but have mainly gone to NPA for taking over a brigade.
INAROEE is waiting for $4.5 million to come through from the Angolan
government. In March, it presented the Minister for Social Assistance Albino
Malungo with a document covering its needs/funds. It is now Malungo's
responsibility to present this document to the Council of Ministers. However,
the Council has not put demining or INAROEE on its agenda since the document
arrived in Malungo's hands. The money from the government is urgently needed to
rehabilitate the training school, ETAM, which Helder Cruz describes as
“the basis of all our work,” and to create an independent brigade
mechanism to demine areas such as the Benguela railway. INAROEE did receive
$400,000 from the government, which has already been spent on payment of debts
and hospital bills.[51]
The Angolan military is also active in demining operations in conflict zones
or areas recently retaken from UNITA control. For example at UNITA’s
former strong hold of Jamba in Cuando Cubango province, military sappers have
been clearing mines but with casualties. A number of these have been
hospitalized in Namibia.[52]
INAROEE has also indicated its desire to also coordinate the Military
Engineering Units of the Angolan Army to carry out humanitarian mine
clearance.[53] However, incidents
such as at Sangondo, Luena where the Engineering Unit missed mines and declared
the area safe, resulting in civilian casualties, raises a question at to whether
the military has the skills to demine to humanitarian standards.
INAROEE-based GIS Landmine Database: The database continues to exist
and is useful. Every minefield surveyed in Angola goes onto the database. Every
time an operator completes a task or survey or discredits a task, a full report
is sent to INAROEE. It also maintains information on the humanitarian priority
of each minefield, coded between one and five in terms of
importance/desperation. Priorities do change, for example in Kuito, when IDPs
moved closer into land contaminated by mines laid in the 1980s or during the
1992-1994 war. The database can generate maps on a scale of 1:1,000,000 in
digital form for all of Angola and also contains geo-referenced information on
minefields, mine clearance, mine awareness programs, and mine accidents.
Commercial Demining
During 1999 and 2000 there has been little
commercial demining activity in the country. The only commercial firm active is
the South African firm BRZ International Ltd, which operates in Angola through
Saracen Angola Lda. and in a joint venture with an Angolan commercial demining
company, Mamboji Lda.[54] BRZ
International reports that in 1999 it conducted clearance and de-bushing work at
Soyo for FINA Petroleos de
Angola.[55]
NGO Mine Action Initiatives
The latest conflict resulted in mine action efforts
being shifted and adjusted to directly support and integrate into the overall
humanitarian emergency relief efforts. This was very evident in the major war
zones around provincial capitals such as Malanje, Huambo and Kuito. The
priority changed from area clearance to surveying for mines and UXO, awareness
building among IDPs and resident populations, elimination of mines and UXO, and
finally area clearance.
Norwegian People's Aid: NPA’s demining operation remains the
largest in Angola. Like HALO Trust, in January 1995, NPA obtained a government
permit to clear mines. It suffered significant reduction in donor support in
1999 as it became difficult to convince donors to keep the funds
flowing.[56] In 1999, its funds
from Norway dropped by ten percent, from Denmark by forty percent, from the
Netherlands by half, and Australia pulled out completely. Overall support has
dropped to about fifty percent of its 1998 funding level. NPA has tried to
maintain its total workforce of some 700 Angolans and twenty expatriate staff
and avoid lay-offs.
NPA’s main role is to open up roads and bridges and to facilitate IDPs
settling into agricultural areas and in camps. Between June 1999 and March
2000, it cleared 3,127,349 square meters of land. In this period, 219 AP mines,
fifteen AT mines, and 101,179 UXO were found and destroyed. NPA sent a survey
team into Malanje city on 4 May 1999 and established a presence until November
1999 when the deminers returned. The NPA team removed eighty-nine UXO resulting
from five months (January to May 1999) of UNITA
shelling.[57]
Highlights of NPA demining/mine action operations during 1999 are:
doubling the area cleared in Angola through consolidation of resources in
the South (Huila, Benguela and Cunene provinces);
temporary shifting of demining programs from areas of conflict, most notably
from Malanje to Ndalatando/Dondo in January 1999;
stopping the systematic Level 1 Survey short of completing the three
remaining provinces (Moxico, Lunda Norte and Cuando Cubango) and redeploying the
teams nationwide to monitor and assess recent mine accidents and record
information of newly reported minefields.
In 2000, its mine action
program consists of six different projects. They are:
The Manual Demining Project: Three manual groups, with a total of 300
manual deminers, deployed in the Malanje, Kwanza
Norte[58] and Huila
provinces;
The Mechanical Verification and Mine Clearance Project: Two Hydrema
and three Aardvark mine clearance machines for verification, area reduction and
mine clearance tasks, currently in Namibe province (on the border with Huila,
doing road clearance for IDPs). In Cunene NPA is working on road clearance and
on some small minefields;
The Mine Detecting Dog Project: Explosive vapor detecting dogs
utilized for verification of air samples collected in suspected mine
contaminated areas by sampling teams, and free running and UXO detecting
dogs;
The EOD/BAC Project: EOD and battle area clearance teams deployed for
the removal and disposal of UXO;
The Landmine Survey Project and Database Collection: The collection,
analysis, management and dissemination of mine and mine-related information for
the effective coordination and organization of a coherent humanitarian mine
action program; and
The Mine Awareness Project: Mine awareness campaigns for the local
population and communities about the danger of mines and UXOs.
NPA
pulled out of Uige on 28 May 2000 because of security worries but may return.
On 1 May 2000, NPA received funding to work in Moxico
province,[59] where it set up an
office and opened a training center. It will take on an INAROEE brigade, some
seventy people from INAROEE and MAG, who will be given a refresher course and
the best people selected to work with NPA.
As noted above, NPA suffered significant reductions in donor support in 1999,
but lay-offs were avoided by halving the number of expatriate advisors and
putting the remainder in low-cost accommodation. Recent cash flow problems were
dealt with by suspending contracts temporarily (January to March
2000).[60]
NPA’s funders over the last two years include: Norwegian Agency for
Development (NORAD) in 1999 and 2000 -- $2 million; the U.S. State Department
from May 2000 to May 2001 -- approximately $2 million; USAID from October 1998
to January 2000 -- $2.2 million; Swedish National Development Agency from
January to December 2000 -- $1.1 million; the Netherlands in 1999 --$592,000,
and in 2000 -- $437,853; Italy in 2000 --$536,544; and Denmark, which in 1999
supported costs of running two mechanical mine clearance machines.
Mines Advisory Group (MAG): British-based MAG's presence dates back
to mid-1992 with the start of a mine awareness poster campaign. It began mine
clearance operations in April 1994 in Moxico province. MAG was forced to
suspend operations in Moxico in mid-1998 and withdrew most staff from that
province in August 1998. At the request of INAROEE, MAG established in January
1998 an operations base in Ondjiva, Cunene province in the south of the country
following an assessment mission in November 1998. This mission confirmed the
need for mine action in the province. MAG recruited and trained local
personnel, with the help of its National Training Team (NTT) brought from the
suspended Moxico operation. MAG's first two mine action teams were deployed in
April 1999, followed by two more in September 1998.
MAG is working in close partnership with other NGOs and government bodies.
It has established a “Sub-committee for Demining” involving local
authorities, police, the provincial governmental humanitarian agency, MINARS
(Ministry of Social Affairs and Rehabilitation), the Army and NGOs to coordinate
mine action and development within the province. MAG has also been working
closely with AICH, a Spanish NGO involved in the rehabilitation of water wells
across the province. It has cleared well access, and existing and new well
sites.
There is also a relationship with the International Federation of the Red
Cross (IFRC), which currently runs a mine awareness program in the province.
IFRC staff pass all reports of mines and UXOs to MAG, which then deals with them
and reports back to the IFRC the actions taken in response to the report. This
positive action creates community confidence and leads to further information.
During 1999 the program trained four mine action teams and has developed them to
the point that they can deploy and manage themselves on a daily basis. In 2000
MAG will further upgrade the NTT's technical and managerial skills in
preparation for handing over the ownership of the program. Due to the large
number of mine and UXO tasks being reported and undertaken by the teams, MAG is
reevaluating (upwards) the community need in the province in response to
requests from INAROEE and from the local authorities in Luena, Moxico province.
MAG is looking to re-start its suspended operations based in Luena initially.
MAG is seeking funding to support the mine action element of an integrated
post-conflict rehabilitation project underway in the town involving medico
international, VVAF and the Trauma Care Foundation.
In 1999 MAG received $1.21 million from the Anti-Landmijn Stichting, Brot fur
die Welt, Comic Relief, Christian Aid, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial
Fund, Misereor and the National Lottery Charities Board. In 2000 (Jan.-Dec.)
support is less, $992,250 of which $549,000 is from the National Lotteries
Charities Board, $54,000 from the Anti-Landmijn Stichting, $287,000 from Brot
fur die WELT and Misereor, and $116,250 from the Diana, Princess of Wales
Memorial Fund. No funds are yet secured for 2001 and MAG is very concerned, as
are other agencies, that the level of funding support currently available from
the international community is no way commensurate to the acute need of the
affected populations.
HALO Trust: The British NGO HALO Trust began operating in Angola in
late 1994. In January 1995, the government through the Ministry of Defense and
the Ministry of Cooperation issued a permit to HALO for demining operations in
Bie, Benguela and Huambo provinces.
HALO is currently operating in Huambo and Bie provinces, and in spite of the
fluctuating security situation, it remained operational throughout 1999. Just
prior to the onset of renewed fighting, HALO withdrew its expatriate monitoring
staff, but the deminers continued working under local supervision and continued
to report their progress by radio. This continued until government forces
attacked Bailundo and the equipment was lost. HALO has shifted its demining
efforts to support humanitarian organizations and their efforts to resettle
IDPs. In the period January to November 1999, 414 AP mines, 96 AT mines, 1,254
items of UXO and 1,731 items of stray ammunition were destroyed. In 1999 HALO
reduced the size of its demining teams in Kuito and Huambo and shifted that
capacity to safer areas around Cubal. At the same time, it continued to demine,
clearing mines around two bridges, a power transmission line and an agricultural
area, all within the Huambo-Caala corridor.
At the request of the provincial government of Huambo, demining efforts were
suspended between 3 March and August 1999; in November 1999, the provincial
governor gave HALO his permission to operate anywhere in the province. On 18
November 1999, the government also handed over thirty-four AP mines to HALO to
destroy and on 25 and 26 November sixty-seven AT mines they had cleared in the
Vila Nova area.[61] Since
November 1999 HALO has started work on opening up some routes to survey villages
further away from Huambo, working with MSF, ICRC and ADPP. In April 2000, it
started demining in Caala, clearing 164 landmines that month in Muangunja suburb
in an area of 935 square
meters.[62] However, it is unable
to demine in any municipalities forty kilometers beyond Huambo because of poor
security. Three of its staff were killed and three injured when three of its
vehicles were ambushed on Quilengues-Vhongoroi road, Huila, on 24 January
2000.[63] HALO asked to work in
Andulo but government forces refused them permission on the grounds that they
could not guarantee security.
In Kuito, HALO has been working close to Kuito and Kunje (within the
perimeter) because of the security situation. Between January and November
1999, the HALO team removed nearly 1,000 UXO, seventeen AT mines and nineteen AP
mines. Four teams are operational using manual and mechanical methods. At a
request of the provincial government, demining activities were suspended from 3
March 1999 to 24 May 1999. In July HALO voiced its concern to the Angolan press
about the increased number of mine accidents in the
province.[64] HALO also initiated
mine awareness efforts during 1999, making appearances at 174 different
localities and reaching a total of 40,000 people during this period.
HALO currently has 300 staff (three of which are expatriates), and its
funding comes mainly from the U.S. government and the EU. From 1 June 1999
through 9 September 1999, the EU gave HALO approximately $400,000, followed by a
$1.12 million funding contract from 1 January 2000. The EU has just asked HALO
for another proposal for December 2000 to May 2001, and it has submitted one for
$600,000. From 1 October 1999 to 31 December 1999, another $120,000 came from
the Dutch Anti-Landmijn Stichting, which helped bridge a funding gap.
In May 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense provided HALO with $400,000 for
six months work, permitting an expansion of fifty people, of which thirty were
recruited in April. All operators in Angola have been asked by the U.S. to put
in bids for funding which will total $3-4 million. HALO has submitted a
proposal for $1.1 million. The Japanese government paid for two land rovers,
with a one-time grant of $82,412 in July
1999.[65]
Care International: Care International funded Greenfield
Consultants,[66] a commercial firm
based in the UK, to field two clearance teams in Cuando Cubango province, and
carry out mine awareness programs in Bie, Cunene, Huila and Cuando Cubango
provinces. These teams were deployed in December 1995. Care terminated its
mine-related work in Bie province in mid-March 1999 because of the increased
fighting between the government and UNITA and because it ran out of funds.
Between February 1998 and June 1999, the project had been supported with a $1.1
million grant from the EU as well as $15,000 from the British-based Rowan Trust
and $39,658 from TRAID. This Care Mine Related Interventions Project (CAMRI I)
had a twenty-one person mine action team working to clear and dispose of mines
and explosives. This project destroyed or clearly marked more than 100
mines.[67]
Care’s teams have also trained almost 5,000 people in mine awareness
and have assessed four campsites and surrounding agricultural land for temporary
but safe resettlement of internally displaced persons. Care has requested funds
in 2000 for a nine-month follow up CAMARI II project from the European
Commission’s DG Dev and a team from European Landmine Solutions visited
Angola in June on an assessment mission.
Menschen gegn Minen (MgM): MgM, a German-based NGO, became
operational in Angola in 1996 when it was awarded a contract from the World Food
Program to clear roads for the internally displaced in Caxito, Bengo province.
Since July 1999, it has cleared fifty-eight hectares of mined land in Libongo,
Bengo province. The project for 1999 was called Bengo X and was dedicated to
unfinished clearance from the Bengo VIII work and clearance of Dembos District
and the village of return for people from Cambambe 2.
Due to the security situation in these areas, MgM relocated to the Libongo
area and completed the clearance of a minefield that Save the Children Fund
(USA) had started but had abandoned after a serious accident, which resulted in
the closing of the program. Other mined areas were also cleared. During this
operation MgM cleared sixty-one AP mines, nine AT mines and 900 pieces of
unexploded ordnance. The bulk of the work was carried out along seventy
kilometers of road, equal to fifty-six hectares; the remaining two hectares were
mined fields. MgM estimates that it has opened up 3,000 hectares of farming
land, which allowed some 56,000 internally displaced persons return home to
Nambuangongo in early
2000.[68]
MgM also hopes to operate in Dembos, in the eastern Bengo province or Cuanza
Sul (depending on which map you look at). They are waiting for the go-ahead
from the military. The governor appears to support the program but the military
is against it. Dembos is still an area of conflict and some 28,000 IDPs are
waiting to go home, presently in IDP camps just outside Caxito. There are also
plans for work in Ambriz, Nambuangongo and Caxito and long-term plans for work
in Moxico, Uige, and Cuando Cubango provinces.
MgM is preparing to work in Cunene province and a base camp and workshop are
ready.[69] The job is to open
feeder roads to Cuando Cubango and at a later stage, into Moxico province. MgM
has roughly doubled its mechanical assets over the past year, employs eighty
Angolans and operates seven dogs.
In 1999, it received $1,780,000 from donors and in 2000, $1,246,000. The
funds have come from the Dutch, German, and U.S. governments; Johanniter
International; Action Medeor; and from individuals.
Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara is also a German-based mine clearance
organization. Like MgM, it became operational in Angola in late 1996. In 1999
it obtained a contract with SBF and the Swedish NGO Swed Relief to clear mines
from twenty-five kilometers of roads and around four bridges in Huila province.
It also cleared road sections and bridge areas in the rehabilitation of a major
road between Matala (Huila province) and Menongue (Cuando Cubango province).
Due to the changing security situation the work has shifted to Cunene province.
This specific project was funded by $450,000. In 1999, it also received $1.21
million from the German Association of the Economy, the German government and
the Swedish government for clearance work that resulted in 10,000 square meters
of farmland near Lubango being cleared during which twenty-five AP mines,
thirteen AT mines and 123 UXO were cleared.
Santa Barbara continues to maintain an operational base in Xangongo and is
working in Huila at Hoque, and Cunene near Xangongo on micro projects with
$350,000 in funding from the Italian government and from the German Association
of the Economy. By mid-June 2000, they had cleared seventeen AP mines and nine
UXOs. It uses detectors, a vegetation cutter, and a Wolf demining vehicle in
its clearance operations.[70]
Humanitarian Medical Development Response (HMD): HMD, an
Irish/British organization, started operations in 1998 rehabilitating a
hospital in Saurimo as part of a three-year $468,000 co-funded project, with
$220,500 from an individual donor. HMD wanted to reduce the number of patients
by branching into mine action (survey and mine awareness work). A second
twelve-month mine clearance project by HMD ended in August 1999 after funding
ran out. HMD had sent forty local deminers for training in mine clearance at
the ETAM in October 1998 and then they cleared mines and UXO in the Saurimo area
when they obtained reports from local people. This project was funded by a
200,000 Euro grant from the EU Food Security Program and $187,000 from an
individual donation.[71]
INTERSOS: An Italian NGO, provided experts from its Humanitarian
Demining Unit (HDU) who operated in 1997/98 as supervisors of a UNAVEM III/UNDP
project clearing mined territory in Cuando Cubango with the 7th Demining Brigade
of INAROEE. In November 1999 an eighteen-month demining project started in
Lubango, Huila province, aimed at supporting IDPs. The project is funded by the
EU and the Italian government. INTERSOS is taking over an INAROEE brigade to do
this work.[72]
Demira: A German NGO that worked on the Cunene river bringing water in
from Namibia but finished operating in Angola in August 1999. Demira never
engaged in formal mine clearance although it cleared a few mines from roads that
it operated on.
Mine Awareness
Since 1995, 1.8 million people in fifteen of the
country’s eighteen provinces have participated in mine awareness programs.
There has been a significant increase in the need for mine awareness in 1999 and
2000 due to the resumption of the war and the large number of IDPs on the move
within Angola. Moving populations are often exposed to unfamiliar areas and the
marking of mine sites and mine awareness programs in IDP camps can reduce
accidents in such areas.
UNICEF has used the Programa de Educação e
Prevenção de Accidentes de Minas (PEPAM) as its mine awareness
program. UNICEF/PEPAM has worked through INAROEE (capacity building and salary
support), with INAROEE mine awareness NGO partners (World Vision, Handicap
International, CARE, MAG, Medico International, and the IFRC in Cunene province)
and various other NGOs.[73] It
also supports the Palanca Negra mine awareness theater group in Malanje. It has
also been instrumental in developing a standardized mine accident registration
system which has been integrated into INAROEE's landmine database.
A UNICEF-sponsored school mine awareness project runs in eleven provinces and
has reached 224 schools and 1,900 teachers. It also worked with CIET
International on “mine smartness” surveys with CIDA/DHA support.
UNICEF has also subsidized INAROEE's remaining provincial coordinators (after
INAROEE brigades were dissolved in April 1999) through salary support, who now
have a coordination function to gather accident data and monitor local mine
awareness projects.
World Vision in Malanje has been the principle provider of mine awareness
services to both IDPs and resident populations. They continued through 1999
despite frequent UNITA shelling. However, their financial support dwindled in
1999, so that three of their six mine awareness instructors had to leave. In
the period February to September 1999 (the period of heaviest fighting) they
reached 11,379 persons.[74] In
September 1999, World Vision requested to expand their work outside Malanje city
in order to pave the way for relocation of IDPs, but the government police did
not approve the request for security
reasons.[75] World Vision,
jointly with Africare, was awarded $1 million from the U.S. Department of State
for mine awareness activities in 2000.
In Huambo and Kuito, GAC (Grupo de Apoio e Criança) is the largest
mine awareness NGO. GAC mine awareness work continued throughout 1999 in
Huambo, except for the days of heavy shelling. They have twelve instructors
(two teams of six) in Huambo and an equal number in Kuito. In November 1999
they estimated that they reached a total of 3,521 people (1,843 children, 423
youths, 738 women and 517
men).[76]
Supported by UNICEF, INAROEE, GAC, and the Ministry of Education, Ajuda de
Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo (ADPP) runs a teacher training program in
Huambo, which in 1999 for the first time included a week-long module on mine
awareness for all future teachers. The ICRC has also been active on the
Planalto. Between January and September 1999, the ICRC conducted fifty-eight
mine awareness sessions for 2,913 primary school pupils in the Planalto
region.[77] UNICEF mine awareness
sessions also reached 2,212 students and 142 teachers in four schools, and 1,100
people in three churches in the same region.
The IFRC runs a mine awareness program based in Benguela. The program
conducts training courses for volunteer instructors and a course for twenty-five
teachers in support of the Ministry of Education initiative to introduce mine
awareness into the school curriculum. It is anticipated that the teachers will
train 1,125 students in 2000. IFRC also works with MAG and NPA.
In 1999, NPA has continued to carry out monitoring and supervising of the
mine awareness programs carried out by Medico International in Moxico province,
UNICEF and the Danish Refugee
Council.[78] Although NPA has
reduced its operational role in mine awareness in Angola, the organization has
the skills and capacity to train mine awareness instructors and design projects
for other organizations. Therefore, NPA has through its partnership with other
organizations played a key role in what has been by far the largest mine
awareness initiative in
Angola.[79]
INAROEE has been involved in nominal mine awareness work. It has also
facilitated landmine committees in locations affected by minefields such as
Huambo's three committees in Bairro Fatima, two in Cainhe, two in Santo
Antonio.[80] Handicap
International (France) has also engaged in mine awareness work in six provinces
with INAROEE, supporting radio programs and working directly in IDP
camps.[81]
Landmine Casualties
Angola has one of the highest rates of landmine
injuries per capita in the world. Out of a population of about nine million, it
has tens of thousands of amputees, the great majority of them injured by
landmines. The government claims that there are 90,000 amputees in the country
although the more widely used figure is 70,000. However, in general an
estimated one in every 415 Angolans has a mine-related injury, and the
proportion of child casualties ranged from 41 percent to 76 percent in the
heavily mined provinces of Moxico, Huila, Bie and Huambo.
A total of 1,004 mine and UXO casualties are officially registered by INAROEE
for the period mid-1998 to January 2000, but the real figure is much
higher.[82] The number of AP
landmine accidents registered by INAROEE went up sharply in 1999: in 1998,
ninety-five mine accidents were registered; in 1999 there were 486 mine
accidents; from January to March 2000 there were twenty-nine mine
accidents.[83]
The situation in Luena is instructive. The number of victims in Luena was 83
in 1995, and dropped to 32 in 1996, but jumped to 103 in 1998 and rose to at
least 185 in 1999 because of the renewed
hostilities.[84] According to the
Jesuit Refugee Service, between January and October 1999 in Luena there were 105
mine victims from sixty-eight AP
accidents.[85] INAROEE reports
that in October 1999 there were twenty-nine mine victims from eighteen mine
accidents around Luena. In November 1999 there were twenty-nine victims from
fourteen mine incidents.
The situation in Luena was not helped by the local representative of the
Ministry of Social Assistance declaring that a field in Sangondo suburb was fit
for settlement by IDPs. On 2 March 2000 a women lost her sight after touching a
mine and two more mines and twenty-four pieces of UXOs were discovered and
destroyed. A month later a women and man were killed by a reinforced
antipersonnel mine.
For over a month, a number of NGOs operating in Luena had contacted the
Ministry of Social Assistance to voice their concern about the dangers of
resettlement on Sangondo but were ignored. Finally they sent an open letter
complaining about this situation to the Provincial Governor and copied it to the
Minister of Social Assistance Albino Malungo in
Luanda.[86] The crisis was only
resolved when the Minister intervened and a meeting was held on 7 April at which
it was agreed that the armed forces would need to clear the mines prior to
continued settlement.[87]
Luena was not alone in seeing new mine victims. In and around the periphery
of Malanje city, 184 mine accidents occurred in the period January-November
1999. While in Andulo, UNITA's former headquarters but under government control
since October 1999, up to ten landmine incidents, mostly resulting in death or
amputations, were reported every
week.[88] According to INAROEE,
twenty people have died and fourteen others have been seriously injured in
eastern Moxico province between January and May
2000.[89]
Landmine Survivor Assistance
Care and rehabilitation of FAA soldiers is the
responsibility of the Serviço de Ajuda Medica-Militar (SAMM) of FAA.
Civilian victim assistance in Angola consists mostly of physical rehabilitation
provided by several international NGOs, but the provision of rehabilitation
services outside Luanda has also been significantly affected by the renewed war
in Angola.
The ICRC runs an orthopedic center at Bombo Alto, near Huambo and a new
center in Kuito. The Swedish Red Cross had run an orthopedic center at Neves
Bendinha, but responsibility for this center was taken over in February 1999 by
the ICRC and it became fully operational in August. The ICRC reports that its
orthopedic activities have been reduced because of security problems. Similarly,
the transportation of amputees from other provinces to the orthopedic centers
had been suspended in 1999 although this program resumed in January 2000. In
1999 the ICRC treated 1,547 patients in its three centers. Of these, 1,237 were
victims of antipersonnel
mines.[90] The ICRC also
manufactures and supplies components for seven prosthetic centers throughout
Angola for the production of 4,000
prostheses.[91] The Dutch Red
Cross has a center at Viana, Luanda Province.
Because of the renewed outbreak of fighting in the Planalto region in
December 1998, the ICRC began a medical assistance program for civilian patients
at Huambo hospital in which all patients arriving for surgical and orthopedic
treatment were supported by the ICRC. In April 2000 the ICRC held a six-week
seminar in war surgery in Huambo
hospital.[92]
By late 1998, Handicap International (HI) operated two orthopedic clinics
outside Luanda in Benguela, Lobito. A center in Negage in Uige province was
turned over to the Ministry of Health in November 1998 and continues to function
to some extent. The two centers in Benguela and Lobito have not been directly
affected by the war, but have experienced a deficit in patients of some ten to
twenty a month due to their inability to safely reach the workshops. HI plans
to start general social reintegration projects related to both workshops, but
limit its activities to the urban centers until the security situation improves
in surrounding areas. HI continues to work at the Viana Center outside Luanda
producing feet for all the physical rehabilitation programs in Angola. Vietnam
Veterans of America Foundation, a U.S.-based NGO, provides physical and social
rehabilitation to mine victims in Luena in Moxico
province.[93] Between September
1997 and 31 March 2000 the Center produced 738 prosthetic limbs, most of them
for mine victims and funded by the War Victims
Fund/USAID.[94] In 2000, the
Italian NGO INTERSOS obtained EU and Italian government funding for a two-phase
project to rehabilitate and open a prosthetics clinic in Menongue in Cuando
Cubango, aimed at servicing the whole
province.[95]
Angola remains a desperately poor country in which few facilities are
available for the physically disabled. Most amputees are reluctant to leave the
relative comfort of rehabilitation centers. Their future will consist of being
cared for by their families, or attempting to earn a living in one of the few
occupations open to them, such as the street trading or--for those with
education--secretarial work. The majority who come from farming backgrounds are
likely to remain a burden on their families for the foreseeable future. Many
have been reduced to begging; amputee beggars are already a common sight in
Angolan towns. Angola will have to live with the human cost of the landmine
wars for many years to come.
[1] Inter Press Service, 19 May
1999. [2] Human Rights Watch interview,
Luanda, 17 December 1999. [3] INAROEE
website at: www.landmine.org/inaroee, date read 6 June
2000. [4] Manual da Conceicao,
“Angola: Parliament ratifies Ottawa Convention on prohibition of
landmines,” Telivisáo Publica de Angola, Luanda, in Portuguese 1930
GMT 25 July 2000, BBC Monitoring, 26 July
2000. [5] Translation from Portuguese to
English provided by the ICBL Coordinator. Statement by Vice Minister of External
Relations, Toko Serrão, to the National Assembly, 25 July
2000. [6] Translation from Portuguese to
English provided by the ICBL Coordinator. Statement by Vice Minister of External
Relations, Toko Serrão, to the National Assembly, 25 July
2000. [7] Panafrican News Agency, 1 March
2000. [8] Norwegian People’s Aid
(NPA), mine action NGO, on its website at:
www.angola.npaid.org/minelist_complete_angola.htm, seen on 15 May
2000. [9] This is according to NPA. On
its website, INAROEE lists the most commonly found AP mine types in Angola as
from Italy, China, the former Soviet Union, Germany, and Romania. However, its
director Gen. Eugénio da Silva Helder Cruz blamed the U.S., Russia, and
South Africa as the countries responsible for mining Angola. "They are the ones
who should give the most funds for demining. South Africa has a big
responsibility.” Interview, Luanda, 16 May
2000. [10] Interview with HALO Trust,
Huambo, 18 May 2000. [11] Human Rights
Watch interview with Angolan military official, Luanda, December 1999. Some of
these mines were South African manufactured
claymores. [12] Text of report on Angolan
TV on 10 June, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, 13 June
2000. [13] Document “Nota O8 DGM
0103,” seen by Human Rights
Watch. [14] Landmine Monitor Report 1999,
pp. 113-114. [15] Human Rights Watch
interview, June 2000. [16] UNITA has been
blamed for the laying of these mines. The rebels have denied this and have
called for an international inquiry. See, Post (Lusaka), 14 April,
2000. [17] NPA email to Landmine Monitor,
7 July 2000. [18] Reuters, 26 November
1999. [19] “Namibia: Angolans face
terror charge,” IRIN, 24 May 2000; journalist Pedro Rosa Mendes obtained
similar accounts from local residents, interview, 6 June 2000; Publico (Lisbon),
10 May 2000. [20] Namibian Police,
“Report on Anti-Personnel Mine Incidents: Kavango Region, January - April
2000,” 10 April 2000. [21]
“Programa Nacional De Acção Humanitária Contra As
Minas Em Apoio A Reabilitação E Desenvolivmento Sócio
Económico Angola,” INAROEE & UNDP/UNOPS, March
2000. [22] In an incident on 12 May 2000,
a HALO armored land rover drove over an antitank mine in Huambo province, at
Liandambi, injuring three people. Local people said the mine had been laid by
the FAA in December 1998. (Interview with HALO Trust, Huambo, 18 May 2000.)
Either the current military forces did not know about the mines in the area,
which would indicate that all mines are not mapped and lifted, or the military
did know and failed to warn HALO. NPA has noted that there are instances of
areas mined in the evening and demined the following morning. But this too can
result in accidents if the soldiers forget where the mines are laid or
oversleep. Such an incident occurred at a military position near Malanje in late
June 2000. (NPA email to Landmine Monitor, 7 July
2000.) [23] Interview with Gen. Eugenio da
Silva Helder Cruz, Director, INAROEE, Luanda, 16 May
2000. [24] E-mail communication from NPA,
7 July 2000. [25] Human Rights Watch
interview, Angola, 16 December 1999; information also provided by an NGO
involved in mine clearance in Angola. [26]
Save the Children, War Brought Us Here: protecting children displaced within
their own countries by conflict, (London: SCF-UK, May 2000) p.
37. [27] Reuters, 26 November
1999. [28] Angop, 24 April 2000. HALO
Trust reports from its work in Huambo and Bie a dramatic increase in AT mines
cleared from nineteen in 1998 to ninety-eight in 1999. By April 2000 they had
cleared thirteen AT mines. [29]
“Angola’s UNITA Rebels Say They Will Go on Harassing Namibian
Civilians,” Republikein (Nambiain Newspaper), BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 6
February 2000. [30] “Angola: New
concerns as fighting rages along southern border," IRIN, 22 December 1999;
“Sergeant killed in UNITA attack,” The Namibian, 22 December 1999;
“Civilian killings spark concern,” The Namibian, 22 December 1999;
“Unita 80 percent destroyed, says Angolan army chief,” The Namibian,
21 December 1999; “Angolan fighting spread into Namibia,” The
Independent Online, 20 December 1999. [31]
Information provided by HALO Trust, 18 May
2000. [32] Email from Santa Barbara
Director Norbert Rossa, 7 June 2000. [33]
U.S. Department of State, Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis, September
1998, p. 19. The report also notes that HALO Trust estimated the number to be
500,000 in 1997. [34] “Programa
Nacional De Acção Humanitária Contra As Minas Em Apoio A
Reabilitação E Desenvolivmento Sócio Económico.
Angola,” INAROEE & UNDP/UNOPS, March 2000. Updated figures provided
by UNOPS Luanda, 21 June 2000. [35]
INAROEE website at:
www.landmine.org/inaroee. [36] The
generally accepted notion that funding decreased significantly from 1998 to 1999
is incongruously not borne out by the reporting coming from donors. For the ten
major donors reporting to the UNMAS Mine Action Investment Database, combined
funding increased significantly from 1998 to 1999: from $9 million to $12.6
million. Two governments stopped contributing, Australia and Belgium (combined
$890,000 in 1998), but two governments also made contributions for the first
time, Denmark and Ireland (combined $1.516 million in 1999). The EU, U.S.,
Norway, and Canada all increased funding from 1998 to 1999; only Germany
reported decreasing funds. The UK had not provided since 1995. Some donors to
mine action in Angola have not reported to this database, including Sweden,
Netherlands, Japan, and Italy. Mine Action Investment Database, accessed
through UNMAS website on 28 July 2000.
http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/mine/. [37]
INAROEE website at:
www.landmine.org/inaroee. [38] Handicap
International et al, “Funding for Humanitarian Mine Action must not be
dependent on Landmines Convention status of mine-affected countries,”
March 2000. [39] A number of operators
have complained that Italy dictates what is cleared and does not provide funds
for overhead. [40] “Programa
Nacional De Acção Humanitária Contra As Minas Em Apoio A
Reabilitação E Desenvolivmento Sócio Económico.
Angola,” INAROEE & UNDP/UNOPS, March 2000. Updated figures provided
by UNOPS Luanda, 21 June 2000. [41] These
UNOPS figures are contradicted by INAROEE's web site, which states that 2.4
square kilometers of high priority areas and 4,429 km of road had been cleared,
removing 17,000 landmines, and that 6,000 minefields have been identified since
1995. [42] “Programa Nacional De
Acção Humanitária Contra As Minas Em Apoio A
Reabilitação E Desenvolivmento Sócio Económico.
Angola,” INAROEE & UNDP/UNOPS, March
2000. [43] In 1999 UNDP sought to raise
$1.2 million for INAROREE. [44] Helder
Cruz blamed UNOPS for this, saying that between 1997 and 1999 UNOPS took
equipment back from the provinces, stopping his brigades from working.
Interview, Luanda, 16 May 2000. [45]
Helder Cruz, “Mine Clearance in Conflict Zones,” paper presented at
The Road Forward: Humanitarian Mine Clearance in Southern Africa conference,
South African Institute of International Affairs, Johannesburg, 7-8 June
2000. [46] Ibid. The handing over of
responsibility for humanitarian demining to the NGOs was announced by Gen. Cruz
on 22 June 2000. See, Jornal de Angola, 23 June
2000. [47] Correct as of mid-June
2000. [48] UNDP, “Mine Action
Update, Country and Global Programs,” 17 November
1999. [49] Angola News, no.66, March
2000. [50] Helder Cruz, “Mine
Clearance in Conflict Zones,” 7-8 June
2000. [51] In the past the government has
been worse, in 1997, 1998 and 1999 the government did not appear to support
INAROEE. [52] South African Press
Association (SAPA), 9 June 2000. [53]
Helder Cruz, “Mine Clearance in Conflict Zones,” 7-8 June
2000. [54] Saracen was originally linked
to the private military company Executive Outcomes, which announced it had
disbanded on 1 January 1999. [55] BRZ
International, “Humanitarian Mine Clearance Profile,” Document: BRZ
302; Doc Edition: B, p. 14. [56] Norwegian
People’s Aid website at: www.angola.npaid.org; interview with Harvad
Hosknes, Luanda, 5 June 2000. [57] Up to
twenty shells per day had been coming into Malanje, and some 10 percent of these
did not explode on impact. In the period May to October, the NPA survey team
deactivated 114 UXOs. [58] Kristian Berg
Harpviken, “A community Study of Landmines and Humanitarian Demining:
Cassua, Kwanza Norte, Angola,” Landmine Memo no.7, International Peace
Research Institute, March 2000. [59]
Angop, 16 May 2000. [60] Interview with
Harvad Hosknes, Luanda, 5 June 2000. [61]
HALO was dealing with junior troops during this period and believes that this
“good behavior” was a result of over-optimism that the war was
over. [62] Angop, 16 May
2000. [63] WFP Report No. 04 of 2000, 27
January 2000. [64] Angop, 9 July
1999. [65] Jornal de Angola, 15 July
1999. [66] Greenfields was taken over by a
German commercial firm in 1999 and renamed European Landmine Solutions. They
claim that since 1995 they have released over 6,000 hectares of land and cleared
more than 3,000 mines and 70,000 major items ordnance. When Human Rights Watch
contacted ELS, Rody Skidmore on 15 May 2000 refused to even acknowledge that
Care had been their client although this information is posted on the Care and
INAROEE web sites. [67] Care website at:
www.care/.../land_mines/lm_landmines0903.html, "Land Mines Continue to Threaten
the Life and Limbs of the People of Angola," 3 September 1999. However, data
provided by Care in a 30 June 2000 e-mail to the Landmine Monitor states that
thirty-two mines were found and destroyed in this project and that 3,906.5 sq.m.
of land was cleared. [68] MgM website at:
www.MgM.org; interview with MgM project manager Kenneth O'Connell, Luanda, May
2000. [69] MgM on 30 May 2000 announced on
the MgM Deming Network that it would distribute a Spanish version of the DC
Comic “Superman” in Cunene to test its suitability as a mine
awareness tool. Member organizations of the ICBL e-mailed MgM on 1 June 2000
questioning the cultural suitability of this
comic. [70] Santa Barbara website at:
www.stiftung-sankt-barbara.de; email from Santa Barbara manager Norbert Rossa, 6
June 2000. [71] HMD website at:
www.hmdresponse.org/Programs/angola.html; interview with program manager Kate
Stanley, London, 7 June 2000. [72]
INTERSOS website at: www.intersos.org. The project has received funding for two
phases, $936,000 from EU-DG Dev followed by a second phase of $655,000 funded
jointly by EU-DG Dev and the Italian
government. [73] GAC in Huambo and Kuito,
Clube de Jovens in Huila province, Trindade Ninho de Infançia in Bengo
province and Grupo Julo nationwide. [74]
This included 2,016 men, 2,551 women, and 6,812 children, over fifty per cent
during relative peace and proportionately more
children. [75] Information provided by
IDRC in May 2000. They are funding a survey of the humanitarian impact of mine
action during conflict in Angola by the Angola-Instituto de Pesquisas (AIP).
AIP will also produce a study, “A Preliminary Evaluation of Mine Clearance
in Angola 1992 - 1999.” [76]
Ibid. [77] International Committee of the
Red Cross, “Fact Sheet: ICRC in Angola,” 26 January
2000. [78] Medico International on 24
March 2000 wrote to the provincial authorities it was closing its mine awareness
program due to lack of funds. Medico hopes to raise funds for further work in a
joint application with MAG. See, www.medico.de, and, Angola: Annaherungen. Das
gemeiwesenorientierte Rehabilitationzentrum von Luena, (Frankfurt: Medico
International, no date). [79] NPA website
at: www.angola.npaid.org. [80] Information
provided by ICRC, May 2000. [81]
“Note Program Handicap International – section France Angola,”
15 June 2000. This project is funded by the Italian government (see table
above). [82] “Programa Nacional De
Acção Humanitária Contra As Minas Em Apoio A
Reabilitação E Desenvolivmento Sócio Económico,
Angola,” INAROEE & UNDP/UNOPS, March
2000. [83] Ibid. This is not only due to
renewed war but also a reflection of better reporting systems at
INAROEE. [84] Reuters, 26 November,
1999. [85] List of victims provided by the
Jesuit Refugee Service, 14 April
2000. [86] “Assunto: Novo campo de
Sangondo,” Luena, 4 April 2000. [87]
Governo da Provincia do Moxico, “Conclusoes Finais,” Luena, 7 April
2000. [88] Africa Analysis, no.346, 5 May
2000. [89] Angop, 26 May
2000. [90] ICRC website at: www.icrc.org,
“ICRC News 00/07,” 2 March
2000. [91] ICRC Update No. 00/1,
“Economic Security Programs in Angola,” 26 January
2000. [92] “ICRC News 00/13,”
13 April 2000. [93] Veterans International
website at: www.vvaf.org. [94] Information
provided by VVAF's program manager, Washington DC, 15 June
2000. [95] INTERSOS website at:
www.intersos.org. The funding is $936,000 from the EU DG Dev for start up and a
second sum of $280,000 split between the EU and the Italian
government.
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