Key developments
since March 1999: Congo-Brazzaville’s parliament has reportedly
ratified the Mine Ban Treaty and the army has reportedly started stockpile
destruction. Much of Brazzaville has been cleared of mines and UXO since
1998.
Congo-Brazzaville is one of just seven non-signatories to the Mine Ban Treaty
in Africa. However, in July 2000, the provisional legislature of
Congo-Brazzaville was reported to have ratified the Mine Ban
Treaty.[1] It is assumed that
this paves the way for formal accession to the treaty. It was also reported
that the Congolese army had decided to destroy its stocks of AP mines because,
according to a military source, “We no longer have a great number of
mines.”[2] In December
1999, Congo-Brazzaville voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B calling
for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. It voted for similar pro-ban UNGA
resolutions in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Congo-Brazzaville did not attend the First
Meeting of States Parties in Maputo in May 1999 and has not attended any of the
treaty’s intersessional meetings. It is not a party to the Convention on
Conventional Weapons, and is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Congo-Brazzaville is not known to have produced or exported AP mines. AP
mines are reportedly stockpiled in the country’s seven military zones; the
army is currently taking steps to destroy the stocks, but no date has been fixed
for completion of the
destruction.[3]
Congo-Brazzaville used AP mines most recently in the 1997 civil war.
Strategically sensitive areas around Brazzaville’s airport and the
city’s main power station were heavily mined, reportedly with both
antitank and antipersonnel mines, and other utilities had unmarked minefields
laid around them.[4] Residential
quarters of Poto-Poto and Mikalou were also affected, although it is thought
this was more by contagion and carelessness than by concerted
deployment.[5]
There is no overall survey of the mine problem in Congo-Brazzaville, but
anecdotal evidence suggests that the problem was at its worst in Brazzaville
itself. Many mines laid in 1997 have now been cleared by army engineers with
French assistance.[6] In late
1998, further clearance work was carried out around the airport, and civilian
access to mined areas was carefully controlled. On 1 September 1999 the
authorities detonated some landmines at the airport as a gesture to attract
international airlines back to the airport, which had refused to fly to
Brazzaville due to security
concerns.[7]
Today landmines are no longer a major concern. A team from Human Rights
Watch visited Brazzaville in July and found no evidence of renewed laying of
landmines or concern about uncleared
mines.[8]
There are no available records on mine-related injuries during or the after
the civil wars. Repeated fighting and artillery damage has wrecked
Brazzaville’s medical infrastructure and has damaged national capacity for
the treatment of landmine-related injuries.
[1] “Congolese army to destroy landmine
stocks,” Agence France Presse (Brazzaville), 27 July
2000. [2]
Ibid. [3]
Ibid. [4] “Congo: finding landmines
proves tougher than laying them,” Inter Press Service, 22 August
1998. [5] Telephone interview, Remy
Bazenguissa, Paris, 31 March 1999. Bazenguissa is a respected analyst of the
various recent battles for Brazzaville and
surroundings. [6] Inter Press Service, 22
August 1998. [7] Airline Industry
Communication, 3 September 1999. [8]
Telephone interview with Human Rights Watch consultant Stephen Ellis, 13 July
2000.