Key developments
since March 1999:Based on information provided by the UNHCR
and others, it appears likely that Burundi has been laying antipersonnel mines
on its border with Tanzania.
Mine Ban Policy
Burundi signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997, but has not yet ratified. In a March 2000 written response to Landmine
Monitor’s request for updated information, Burundi’s Ambassador to
Belgium, Hon. Jonas Niyungeko stated that the issue is currently being
“studied” by the Parliament as a move towards
ratification.[1]
Burundi participated in the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May
1999 with a delegation led by Ambassador S.E. Nicodeme Nduhirubusa of the
Ministry of Foreign Relations and Cooperation. Burundi is not known to have
made any official statements regarding a mine ban in 1999 or 2000. Burundi has
not participated in any of intersessional meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Burundi sponsored UN General Assembly resolution 54/54B which urged rapid
ratification and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, but it was absent during
the vote in December 1999.
Burundi is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons nor is it a
member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
There is no evidence that Burundi has ever produced
or exported antipersonnel mines and officials claim that the mines in Burundi
have been brought in by rebels or foreign
armies.[2] Members of the Forces
Armees Rwandaises (FAR) allegedly escaped into Burundi with 40,000 antipersonnel
mines and 2,000 antitank mines when they fled from the now ruling Rwandan
Patriotic Front in April and May
1994.[3]
In July 1998, a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official then in charge of
landmine policy, Ambassador Jaques Hakizimana, told an UNMAS assessment mission
that implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty should not be a problem, since the
government of Burundi has “never produced, imported, used or
stockpiled” antipersonnel
mines.[4] But the Minister of
Defense, Col. Alfred Nkurunziza, told UNMAS that “limited” stocks
are kept for training purposes.[5]
New evidence that government forces have likely laid mines at the borders would
indicate that Burundi has a significant operational stockpile of AP mines.
Use
In July 1998, the Minister of Defense told the
UNMAS assessment mission that no mines had ever been laid by the
army.[6] It now appears that
Burundi’s armed forces have been laying antipersonnel mines on the border
with Tanzania at least since the beginning of 1999. This assessment is based on
statements made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (responding
to testimony of refugees), as well as on interviews conducted by Human Rights
Watch with UN officials and humanitarian workers, and on press reports from the
region. The Burundi military appears to be using mines both to prevent
thousands of Burundi citizens from fleeing the civil war into Tanzania, as well
as to control cross-border attacks and prevent infiltration by Hutu rebel forces
based in Tanzania.
In January 1999, a UN Security Officer in Bujumbura told Human Rights Watch
that new landmines had been planted along infiltration routes and that he
believed the mines were planted by government
soldiers.[7] In May 1999, a local
aid worker in the Musagara receiving station on the border told Human Rights
Watch that most of the wounded refugees who came across the border were mine
victims and that there had been an increase in victims since September
1998.[8] A local aid worker
interviewed in Kigoma reported the use of landmines near the Kibuye entry point
into Tanzania and told Human Rights Watch that three refugees had died and three
were injured by mines. He believed the mines were laid recently as he had not
heard of any such injuries before January
1999.[9] Another local aid worker
in Kigoma stated that there were “a good number of landmine wounds among
Burundian refugees” and indicated that refugees crossing the border had
stepped on landmines.[10] He also
said that some Tanzanians had stepped on mines and were sent to the Kiberezi
reception center for treatment.
In February 2000, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) stated, “The refugees have reported the presence of
landmines as part of the reason why the numbers [of refugees] have
dwindled.”[11]
In March 2000, the UNHCR stated that it had protested to Burundi authorities
about its mining of the border with Tanzania. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski
said that “the main entry points to Tanzania have been heavily
mined,” preventing refugees from fleeing fighting between government
forces and rebels. He also said that the government maintained the landmines
were a necessary defense against the
rebels.[12] The mining of the
border was reported by a number of
newspapers.[13]
In April 2000, the UNHRC released a statement saying, “UNHCR is
concerned at refugee accounts of use of mines as well as reports of civilians
being caught between rebel forces and recent military reprisals in eastern
Ruyigi and Makamba provinces.” The UNHCR again noted the decline in the
refugee flow, and said that refugees arriving in Tanzania from Burundi cited
landmines, military activity near the border, and rising rivers as reasons for
the drop-off.[14]
In May 2000, the UNHRC said that according to the latest arrivals, there is
“mining by the governmental army of routes to
Tanzania.”[15]
It seems clear that mines have been used, and while Landmine Monitor does not
have direct, incontrovertible evidence that Burundi armed forces are
responsible, that is the conclusion drawn from the available evidence. There
have been no allegations that other parties, such as the Hutu rebels or the
Tanzanian government, might have laid the mines that are claiming new victims,
and there is no evident reason why those parties would use mines in that
fashion.
Landmine Monitor has asked Burundi for official comment on allegations of use
of antipersonnel mines, but had not received an answer as of the end of July
2000.
Though the Mine Ban Treaty has not entered into force for Burundi, 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.
Landmine Problem
According to the Minister of Defense, Col. Alfred
Nkurunziza, the first mine accidents reported in Burundi occurred in
1993.[16] Cibitoke was the first
province to be affected by mine use, but the problem subsequently spread to
Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural, Bururi and
Makamba.[17] This last province
is thought to be the worst affected, due to its proximity to rebel groups
operating out of Tanzania.[18]
Landmines buried in Burundi are of Egyptian, Italian, South African, Russian and
Chinese origin.[19]
There have been no in-depth assessments or surveys of Burundi’s
landmine problem since the 1998 assessment mission. Dr. Barendegere Venerand of
the Kamenge Military Hospital told Landmine Monitor that “the location of
mined areas is not yet well known in Burundi but epidemiologic surveillance is
being conducted now in the Ministry of
Health.”[20]
Mine Action
The United Nations in Burundi conducts mine
awareness for all UN staff in the country. In 1998, UNMAS reported that
according to the Ministry of Defense, mine awareness training was being
conducted for both the military and civilian populations in mine-affected
areas.[21] No updated information
was available on any mine awareness education programs taking place in Burundi.
There is currently no humanitarian mine clearance underway in Burundi.
Landmine Casualties
In a detailed response to Landmine Monitor, Dr.
Venerand indicated that the first cases of AP mine victims appeared in 1995.
Ten amputations were carried at the hospital in 1996 and ninety-six in 1997.
The number of recent landmine casualties is not known, but 316 incidents have
been recorded since 1993 which, resulted in 791 deaths, mostly civilians. The
majority of the victims have come from Cibitoke, Bubanza, rural Bujumbura,
Bururi and Makamba.[22] According
to UN figures, between 1996 and 1998 there were 112 mine incidents, resulting in
364 casualties, about half of which were deaths. Seventy percent were antitank
mine incidents.[23]
Survivor Assistance
According to Dr. Venerand, victim assistance takes
place in the nearest health centers, while Kamenge Military Hospital provides
“specialised services in trauma.” The hospital receives “lots
of cases” of mine victims. About 70 percent of admissions in surgery are
wounded out of which more than 80 percent are war wounded. The hospital is
preparing a survey of the “geographic location of incidents, type of
activities at the moment of incident, morbidity and
mortality.”[24] On 25 March
2000 the Ministry of Reinstallation organized a day of reflection on the
re-organization of medical assistance, with the aim to reduce cost of health
care for victims of the
conflict.[25]
Handicap International (HI) is providing training in physiotherapy and
orthopedics. It is also supporting a number of income-generating projects for
handicapped people. Its main activities are concentrated in Gitega where the
national orthopedics center is located (which has a production capacity of five
prostheses per month). HI also supports other small centers in Makamba,
Kirundo, Muyinga, and Bujumbura which can produce only simple appliances.
[1] Letter from Jonas Niyungeko, Burundi
Ambassador to Belgium, to Landmine Monitor, 2 March
2000. [2] Interview, Amb. Jonathas
Niyungeko, Brussels, 12 February 1999. [3]
Pierre Hublet, “Mission Report in Burundi from the 23rd January to the 1st
February 1999,” Handicap International Belgique, 1998, p.
3-4. [4] United Nations Mine Action
Service, Joint Assessment Mission Report, 27 August 1998, p.
10. [5] Ibid., pp. 6,
10. [6] Ibid., p.
6. [7] Human Rights Watch interview with
UN Security Officer, Bujumbura, 15 January
1999. [8] Human Rights Watch interview
with local aid worker in Musagara, 15 May
1999. [9] Human Rights Watch interview
with local aid worker in Kigoma, 15 May
1999. [10] Human Rights Watch interview
with local aid worker in Kigoma, 14 May
1999. [11] “Burundi Refugee flow
slows, landmines pose threat,” Reuters, 17 February 2000, reported in
Refugees Daily, 17 February 2000. The article is quoting Vincent Parker, UNHRC
spokesperson, in Tanzania. The number of refugees crossing the border into
Tanzania peaked in January 2000 at 23,000, but had dropped to 1,126 by May 2000.
UNHCR Press Briefing Note, 4 May 2000; Refugees Daily, “Thousands
Displaced but Few Leaving,” 5 May
2000. [12] “UN says Mines Cause big
drop in Refugees to Tanzania,” Associated Press, 24 March 2000, reported
in Refugees Daily, 24 March 2000. See also, UNHCR Press Briefing Note,
“Burundi/Tanzania: Border Area Mined,” 24 March
2000. [13] See for example,
“Landmines In Use On Burundi-Tanzania Border?” Guardian (Dar es
Salaam) 28 March 2000, reported by BBC Worldwide Monitoring, 28 March 2000; and
Tanzania Heko Newspaper, 13-19 April 2000, interview with Leone Ndabagaye, Head
of Foreign Unit. [14] UNHCR Press Briefing
Note, “Tanzania: UNHCR concern at mine accounts,” 28 April 2000.
See also, “Mines, fighting, rivers reduce Burundian flight to
Tanzania,” Agence France Press, 4 May 2000; and “Number of Refugees
to Tanzania Dwindling,” IRIN-CEA Weekly Roundup, 5 May
2000. [15] UNHCR Country Updates, Africa
Fact Sheet, May 2000, on UNHCR web site,
http://www.unhcr.ch/news/cupdates/0005afri.htm [16]
Pierre Hublet, “Mission Report in Burundi from the 23rd January to the 1st
February 1999,” Handicap International Belgique, 1998, p.
3-4. [17] UNMAS, Joint Assessment Mission
Report, 27 August 1998, p. 6. [18]
Ibid. [19]
Ibid. [20] Statement faxed to Landmine
Monitor from Dr. Barendegere Venerand, Ministry of National Defense, Military
Hospital of Kamenge, 3 May 2000. [21]
UNMAS, Mission Report, p. 9. [22]
Statement from Dr. Venerand, Ministry of National Defense, Military Hospital of
Kamenge, 3 May 2000. [23] Cited in,
Statement from Dr. Venerand, Ministry of National Defense, Military Hospital of
Kamenge, 3 May 2000. [24]
Ibid. [25] UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs, Humanitarian Operations in Burundi Bulletin, 16-31
March 1999.
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