Key developments
since March 1999:The Mine Ban Treaty entered into force for Chad on
1 November 1999. A Level One Impact Survey is currently underway and mine
clearance is due to begin this year. At least 127 mine and UXO-related
casualties are reported to have occurred from September 1998 to October 1999.
Chad has not submitted its Article 7 report which was due by 29 April 2000.
Mine Ban Policy
Chad signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 6 July 1998 and
ratified it on 6 May 1999. Thus, the treaty entered into force for Chad on 1
November 1999. Chad has not enacted domestic implementation legislation for the
treaty.
Chad attended the First Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May 1999. In
a statement to the plenary, the head of delegation Adoum Hassan Bakhit stated,
“Chad, in spite of all its limited resources, will do everything in its
power to address the source of the problem posed by the presence of mines in its
territory. The probability of success of this program is strongly reinforced by
the visible adhesion of the Government of Chad to the program, by a stable
political environment, the absence of conflict, and long-term engagements to
several international partners. Chad will not succeed alone. This will not
occur without the aid of the international community, which is capable of
constructing an efficient, national demining
program.”[1]
Chad did not participate in any of the treaty intersessional meetings of
Standing Committees of Experts. Chad has not yet submitted its Article 7
transparency report, due by 29 April 2000. Chad voted for UN General Assembly
Resolution 54/54B in support of the Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999.
Chad is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons nor is it a
member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling, Use
Chad is not known to have produced or exported AP
mines. It is believed that Chad has a sizable stockpile of antipersonnel mines,
but no details are available.[2]
There have been reports of rebels, particularly in the mountainous north, using
mines, but Landmine Monitor has not been able to verify these reports. There is
no evidence of government armed forces using antipersonnel landmines.
Landmine Problem
Decades of conflict and the 1973 Libyan invasion
have left Chad with a landmine and UXO problem. Minefield records are close to
non-existent, and there is not yet a comprehensive mine
database.[3] In 1999, the UN
Development Program and Chad’s mine action center, the Haut Commissariat
National au Déminage (HCND) identified the following types of mines:
The Aozou-Bardaï-Wour-Zouar zone in the north is
mine-affected as a result of internal conflict and also from the Libyan
incursion into the Aozou strip. Faya Largeau is also mined due to its position
as the staging point for a military advance upon the capital Ndjamena. In the
east, the Iriba and Guereda areas along the Sudanese border are mined, as are
certain key points inwards towards
Ndjamena.[5] Mined areas generally
include both antipersonnel and antitank mines, but unexploded ordnance is also a
problem, especially in the north and east.
Mine Action Funding
Several meetings have been held to attract donor
support for mine action in Chad, including a July 1998 donor conference in New
York, a round table in Geneva, and another donor conference in New York on 29
October 1999. At the donor conference in New York, the UNDP and HCND indicated
a funding shortfall of $2.425 million for mine action in
Chad.[6]
Contributions for mine action programs have been received from the UNDP ($2
million) Italy ($500,000), Japan ($400,000), Chad ($245,000) and Canada
($66,000).[7] Germany has also
donated forty-two Ebinger mine detectors to Chad. A total of $1.4 million in
funding for the Level One Impact survey has been secured from the U.S.
Department of State and the UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Mine
Action.[8]
Through its fiscal year 1999, the U.S. had provided $1.9 million in
assistance to Chad to support and sustain the training of military engineers as
deminers. In 1999 and 2000, the U.S. was planning to provide $3.5 million in
in-kind and financial assistance for mine
action.[9] This includes for the
rehabilitation of a demining training school in the capital, the establishment
of a regional demining office in the northern part of country, training in mine
awareness education, and the collection of historical data. The
allocation of U.S. funding in 2000 includes $210,000 for the purchase of
vehicles, $11,000 to purchase radios, a $196,000 grant to UNDP to contract
aerial medical evacuation services, $12,000 for repairs to the deminer’s
building in Faya in the north of the country, and $108,000 for the purchase of
spare parts for C-130 aircraft supporting demining
operations.[10]
Mine Action
The UN Development Program has set up a national
mine action center under the Haut Commissariat National au
Déminage.[11] The UN Office
for Project Services (UNOPS) serves as implementer of the
program.[12] The demining program
is described as “one of the few programs, if not the first, which has not
resulted from a United Nations Peacekeeping mission,” meaning that the
program “started with
nothing.”[13]
In October 1999, at the donors conference, the UNDP and HCND presented a
national mine action plan, but it has not been implemented and a new national
plan for mine action for 2000-2001 was due for release in July
2000.[14]
A Level One Impact Survey started in Chad in November 1999, following
pre-testing of survey instruments and training of local staff. Handicap
International is the implementing partner for the survey. An assessment mission
from the Survey Action Center visited Chad in July 1999. In June 2000, a UNICEF
consultant visited Chad to undertake a needs assessment for mine awareness.
Clearance activities in Chad have been sporadic, mostly due to resource
constraints. Some 100-200 Chadian military have been trained in mine clearance.
One priority set by the HCND is mine clearance in a 100-kilometer radius around
Faya Largeau, scheduled to begin in March
2000.[15] In May 2000, the German
demining organization HELP, which won a tender to carry out the demining, was
due to begin operations with additional German government funding. Clearance
will be conducted in conjunction with a wider Islamic Development Bank-sponsored
rural development program in the same
areas.[16]
Landmine Casualties
Reliable and comprehensive information on victims
is hard to come by in Chad. Accidents that take place at great distances from a
medical facility are unlikely to be officially
recorded.[17] But in October 1999,
the HCND reported 127 mine and UXO-related casualties since September
1998.[18] Of these casualties,
approximately one-third resulted in death and another one-third in
amputation.[19] There have been
fifteen reported incidents involving children. Particularly at risk are
adolescent goat and sheep herders who pick up UXO they find in the
fields.[20] UNICEF and HCND report
that in Iriba region, eleven of twenty-five reported mine and UXO casualties
were children.[21] It is not known
how many nomads have been killed or injured by mines or UXO; Chad has a
considerable nomadic population. In addition, forty-seven vehicles were
reported destroyed and a large number of domestic animals upon which local
economies depend.[22]
Victim Assistance
Medical care and rehabilitative services for mine
victims in Chad are generally rudimentary. Lack of medical infrastructure and
evacuation leads to an average of four to five days for a mine or UXO victim to
reach hospital care.[23] The capital
boasts a well-run prosthetics clinic managed by SECADEV, a Catholic development
organization, and supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC). The ICRC plans to locate and transport an estimated 300 mine and UXO
victims from the north of the country in a program beginning in July 2000. This
initiative will later spread to the rest of the country.
[1] Statement by delegation of Chad to the
First Meeting of States Parties, Maputo, 3-7 May
1999. [2] Landmine Monitor was told by local
sources that there could be several hundred thousand mines in stock, but
Landmine Monitor has no means of assessing the accuracy of such a claim.
Likewise, Landmine Monitor was told that some 3,000 antipersonnel and antitank
landmines were destroyed in early 2000, but Landmine Monitor has not been able
to verify that information. [3] The
Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) software has been provided
to the HCND but it is not yet
operational. [4] Republic of Chad, Mine
Action Chad presentation, December 1999. [5]
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and Haut Commissariat National au
Déminage (HCND), “Mine Action Chad: Program Overview,”
prepared for Donors Conference, New York, 29 October 1999, p.
1. [6] UNDP/HCND, “Chad Mine Action:
Program Overview,” October 1999, p.
14. [7] Ibid., p.
9. [8] Ibid. The Survey Action Center lists
the U.S., the UN Foundation, and the United Kingdom as donors. See SAC appendix
to Landmine Monitor Report 2000. [9] U.S.
Department of State, “To Walk the Earth in Safety,” April 1999, p.
8. [10] U.S. Department of State, “FY
00 NADR Project Status,” p. 1. [11]
“CHAD: Mine Action Country Profile,” UNDP website accessed 29 July
2000,
http://www.undp.org/erd/mineaction/. [12]
UNDP/HCND, “Mine Action Chad: Program Overview,” October 1999, p.
1. [13] Ibid, p.
4. [14] Ibid, p.
14. [15] UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for West Africa,
“IRIN-WA Weekly Roundup 5 covering the period 31 January - 4 February
2000.” [16] UNDP/HCND, “Chad
Mine Action: Program Overview,” October 1999, p.
11. [17] Interview with an official from the
Ministry of Territorial Administration, Ndjamena, 21 March
2000. [18] UNDP/HCND, “Mine Action
Chad: Program Overview,” p. 2. [19]
Ibid. [20]
Ibid. [21] Ibid., p.
15. [22] Ibid., p.
2. [23] Ibid.
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