Key developments
since March 1999: Despite continued fighting, Sierra Leoneis not
seriously mine-affected. A bill to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty is currently
before the parliament. UNMAS conducted an assessment mission in February 2000
and concluded that there had been very limited use of mines in the past. It
recommended establishment of a Mine Action Office, but not a nationwide program
of mine and UXO awareness education.
Background
In early May 2000, a fragile peace process in
Sierra Leone collapsed after rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) under the leadership of Foday Sankoh took hundreds of the United Nations
Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) soldiers hostage and for a short while
threatened the capital, Freetown. Fighting between pro-government forces and
the RUF has resumed, re-igniting the civil war that began in 1991 and was
supposedly ended in July 1999 with the conclusion of a peace accord in
Lomé, Togo. In February 1998 Economic Community of West African States
Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) forces entered the country and ejected the military
government and its allies, who had staged a coup in May 1997. Antipersonnel
mines are believed to have been used in this conflict in very limited numbers
and the impact of the mine and UXO problem has been described by the UN Mine
Action Service (UNMAS) as “extremely limited” and consisting more of
UXO and booby traps, than AP and AT mines.
Mine Ban Policy
Sierra Leone signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 29 June
1998. In March 2000, the Minister of Parliamentary and Political Affairs, Abu
Aiah Koroma, submitted a bill to the Parliament on ratification of the Mine Ban
Treaty.[1] The Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Dr. Sama Banya, told Landmine Monitor, “There is no doubt
that the ratification process currently going through Parliament will soon be
concluded. It is a package that will strengthen our implementation of the treaty
in our country.”[2]
Sierra Leone voted in support of pro-Mine Ban Treaty UN General Assembly
Resolution 54/54B in December 1999. It voted for similar UNGA resolutions in
1996, 1997, and 1998.
Sierra Leone did not participate in the First Meeting of States Parties in
Maputo and it has not attended the intersessional meetings of the treaty in
Geneva, but both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and government officials
interviewed by Landmine Monitor stated the government’s unflinching
support for the treaty.[3]
Sierra Leone is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons, and is
not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
A local NGO, SHARE (Save Heritage And Rehabilitate the Environment) has been
active in campaigning for the government to ratify the Mine Ban Treaty and for
no mine use in Sierra
Leone.[4]
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
Sierra Leone is not known to produce or export
antipersonnel mines. It is believed to stockpile AP mines but no details are
available on the size, composition, or countries of
origin.[5] The then-Chief of
Defense Staff, Brigadier-General Khobe told the UNMAS assessment mission team
that he abhorred the use of landmines and was committed to the destruction of
remaining stockpiles.[6] The
UNMAS assessment mission team was shown a Romanian MAI 75 AP mine that ECOMOG
forces claimed to have cleared.[7]
Use
On 26 January 2000, Lt. Col. T.N. Momodu, a Staff
Officer to the Chief of Defense Staff, said that the first Sierra Leonean Army
(SLA) casualties due to landmines were in November 1992 when a mine he said was
laid by the RUF destroyed a SLA tank in Wordu,
Kono.[8] He claimed that there
were “twenty recorded landmines with the RUF supplied by Liberia.”
Momodu alleged that the AFRC-RUF junta “embarked on mine warfare in the
wake of their rule in 1997 and employed anti-tank and anti-personnel mines as a
means of deterring ECOMOG advance toward their position.”
In February 2000 UNMAS conducted a seven-day technical assessment mission in
Sierra Leone.[9] The two-person
UNMAS assessment team met with representatives of the government, the warring
factions, UNAMSIL, UN agencies, the ICRC, and international and local NGOs and
also travelled to Kabala in the north and Kenema and Daru in the east of the
country. UNMAS concluded that the warring factions “had relatively little
recourse to the use of landmines,” both AP and
AT.[10] It noted, “Nuisance
mining took place rather than the laying of protective or barrier mines per
se.”[11] It also noted that
while some weapons, such as unexploded mortar shells, hand grenades, and
possibly RPGs had been handed in at disarmament sites, no landmines had been
handed in.[12]
The Chief of Defense Staff “seemingly conceded” to UNMAS that a
small number of landmines were used but claimed that they were all recorded and
subsequently cleared between February and April
1998.[13] ECOMOG told the UNMAS
assessment mission that other parties to the conflict had used a small number of
mines beginning in 1991, and that there had been further AP mine use in the 1997
invasion and retreat, particularly in the Waterloo
area.[14]
The Civil Defense Forces (CDF) “denies having used landmines” but
their representatives told UNMAS that CDF members had found 28 landmines in
Tonkolili and Moyamba districts in central Sierra Leone, and that seven of these
mines had been handed over to
ECOMOG.[15]
The RUF also “denies having used landmines” and “claimed
that there are no mines planted in areas under RUF
control.”[16] The leader of
the AFRC told UNMAS that “a small number of anti-tank mines were used on
the road to Lungi in 1997/8,” but claimed that these were subsequently
cleared and that no antipersonnel mines had been laid by his
forces.[17]
Since opening its office in Sierra Leone in 1999, Human Rights Watch (HRW)
has attempted to verify whether Sierra Leona has a landmine problem. Its
overall assessment is that most (if not all) the cases HRW has been able to
investigate are a result of either booby traps or unexploded ordnance, not
landmines.[18] In late 1999 and
early 2000, HRW interviewed two cases of combatants injured by
“landmines,” however eyewitnesses say both were injured by booby
traps (a grenade tied between two trees) placed by member of the
ex-SLA.[19] Both the ICRC and
Handicap International told HRW that while they have treated patients injured by
booby traps, they don’t recall ever having fitted a patient for a limb
which was lost due to a landmine
explosion.[20]
Landmine Problem
While access to all areas of the country was not
possible when the UNMAS assessment mission visited, the team determined that
Sierra Leone has a “limited” problem with landmines and UXO. While
it said information received could not be confirmed, UNMAS listed the following
areas as suspected to be mine- or UXO-affected:
Kono district, Kailahun district, the northern part of Moyamba district from
Moyamba town, and the southern part of Tonkolili district from Maburaka town,
and in Bafodia village.... In addition, a small area of land adjacent to a
disused secondary school in Kabala has been identified as highly likely to be
affected by either landmines or booby
traps.[21]
UNMAS reports that landmines and UXO were not having any impact on
peacekeeping operations, on agencies and organizations involved in aid
distribution, on returning refugees and described any socio-economic impact as
“extremely
limited.”[22]
Mine Action
In his public lecture Lt. Col. Momodu stated that
the SLA “endeavoured to keep records and maps of all landmines laid - that
included anti-tank and anti-personnel which were demined by joint SLA and ECOMOG
engineers.”[23] The UNMAS
Assessment Mission reported that a “limited capacity exists within the
armed forces and warring factions to deal safely with uncleared landmines and
items of UXO.”[24] Under
the terms of the peace agreement signed by the government of Sierra Leone and
the RUF in Lomé, Togo in July 1999, all warring factions are expected to
hand over maps of mined areas or areas containing explosive
devises.[25] However, at this
writing no side had complied to this provision and the Disarmament,
Demobilization, and Rehabilitation (DDR) process had all but halted after the
RUF took hostage some 500 UN peacekeepers in May 2000 and the warring factions
again resumed hostilities.
Nine AP landmines were handed over to DDR officials between November l999 and
May 2000, when the DDR process broke
down.[26] These mines, all of
which were destroyed in UNAMSIL supervised exercises during March and April
2000, were of Italian and Czech origin. Ten AP mines (believed to be of
Chinese-origin) were captured along with hundreds of other arms and ammunition
during a UNAMSIL operation to free 220 Indian peacekeepers and 11 unarmed UN
military observers from their RUF captors on 15-16 July 2000 in the Kailahun
District.[27]
UNMAS recommended that UNAMSIL prioritize the establishment of a Mine Action
Office, which has since been set up, including the establishment of the IMSMA
database.[28] It recommended that
this office coordinate mine action within Sierra Leone, “in particular
with regard to mine and UXO survey, detection and clearance, and with respect to
necessary mine awareness education for the UNAMSIL
peacekeepers.”[29] As of 5
June 2000, there were 11,350 UNAMSIL troops in the country, including 254
military observers, under Indian
command.[30]
The UNMAS Assessment Mission reported that “it does not appear that a
nation-wide programme of mine and UXO awareness education is
warranted.”[31]
Landmine Casualties and Survivor Assistance
On 23 November 1999, Jariatu Gbla, aged fifteen,
had her foot amputated at Connaught Hospital after an explosion in the village
of Tonkolili in Mathibo.[32]
SHARE claims Gbla was the victim of a landmine while the UNMAS Assessment stated
that “her injuries suggest that that the device may actually have been an
unexploded hand
grenade.”[33] In February
2000, a twelve-year-old boy lost an eye after an explosion at Yams Farm on the
outskirts of Freetown. Media reported that “he stepped on a
landmine.”[34] But
subsequent investigations by Human Rights Watch indicated that the explosion was
not due to a mine, and was more likely caused by “a bullet lodged in the
tire.”[35]
During the armed conflict, the health infrastructure of the country saw
widespread destruction, including destruction of a reported 70% of the primary
health care centers across the
country.[36] UNMAS noted that
surgical care could be provided to landmine and UXO survivors at Kenema Hospital
in the east of the country, Connaught Hospital in Freetown, and by the ICRC,
MSF-Belgium, MSF-France, and
MSF-Holland.[37] Prostheses for
amputees are manufactured and fitted by HI France and by the U.S.-based NGO Hope
International, which also provides physical
rehabilitation.[38]
[1] SHARE interview with Cecil F. King,
Senior Assistant Clerk of Parliament, Freetown, 18 March
2000. [2] Interview with Dr. Sama Banya,
Foreign Minister, Accra, Ghana, 28 April
2000. [3] SHARE interview with Charles Tom
Kamanda, Senior Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Freetown, 19 March
2000. [4] SHARE press release,
“Where are the Landmines used in the War,” 20 November 1999; SHARE
press release “Landmines to prolong suffering in Sierra Leone,” 26
November 1999; SHARE public lecture on the topic of “Landmines, the
Environment & Sustainable Peace in Sierra Leone,” 26 January
2000. [5] In 1995, Jeremy Harding, an
editor at the London Review of Books, was told by a diamond industry source
that the British military equipment agent, J & S Franklin Limited, had
procured landmines for the Sierra Leone government. Telephone interview with
Jeremy Harding, London, 31 March 1999. [6]
UNMAS, “Sierra Leone Assessment Mission Report,” 7 February 2000, p.
6. [7]
Ibid. [8] He made these remarks at a
public lecture organized by SHARE on the topic of “Landmines, the
Environment & Sustainable Peace in Sierra Leone” to an audience of
civil society organizations, government, armed forces and the international
community at the British Council in Freetown. See, SHARE, Report of a Public
Lecture on the topic: Landmines, the Environment and Sustainable Peace in Sierra
Leone, 26 January 2000. Circulated on icblafrica egroup by ICBL Coordinator, 23
February 2000. [9] See UNMAS, Sierra Leone
Assessment Mission Report, 7 February
2000. [10] Ibid., p.
6. [11]
Ibid. [12] Ibid., p.
7. [13] Ibid., p.
6. [14]
Ibid. [15] Ibid.; see also, Sulaiman
Momodu, “Kamajors Discover 28 Rebel Planted Landmines,” Freetown
Concord Times (Internet Version-WWW) 26 January
2000. [16] UNMAS, Sierra Leone Assessment
Mission Report, 7 February 2000, p.
6. [17]
Ibid. [18] Email from HRW Sierra Leone to
Mary Wareham, HRW, 19 February 2000. [19]
In May 1999 in Mile 91, a “kamajor” lost his leg and in November
1999 in Kabala, one ex-SLA was killed and another injured. Email from HRW Sierra
Leone to Mary Wareham, HRW, 19 February
2000. [20]
Ibid. [21] UNMAS, Sierra Leone Assessment
Mission Report, 7 February 2000, p.
7. [22] Ibid., pp.
7-8. [23] SHARE, Report of a Public
Lecture, 26 January 2000. [24] UNMAS,
Sierra Leone Assessment Mission Report, 7 February 2000, pp.
9. [25] Peace Agreement Between the
Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone,
Lomé, Togo, 7 July 1999. [26] One
Czech AP mine was handed over in Freetown in Nov. 1999, three Italian AP mines
in Hastings, one Czech AP mine in Kenema, and two Italian AP mines were handed
over in Bo. HRW interview with UNAMSIL U.K. Major Mike Godard, Freetown, 26
July 2000. [27] HRW interview with UNAMSIL
UK Major Mike Godard, Freetown, 26 July
2000. [28] UNMAS, Sierra Leone Assessment
Mission Report, 7 February 2000, pp.
9. [29]
Ibid. [30] Human Rights Watch,
“Memorandum on Sierra Leone: Priorities for the International
Community,” 20 June 2000. [31]
UNMAS, Sierra Leone Assessment Mission Report, 7 February 2000, pp.
10. [32] Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell,
Executive Director, SHARE, in Report of a Public Lecture, 26 January
2000. [33] UNMAS, Sierra Leone Assessment
Mission Report, 7 February 2000, pp.
8. [34] “12-year-old Sierra Leonean
loses eye in landmine explosion,” Agence France Presse (Freetown), 3
February 2000. [35] Telephone interview
with doctor who treated the boy. Email from HRW Sierra Leone to Mary Wareham,
HRW, 19 February 2000. [36] UNMAS, Sierra
Leone Assessment Mission Report, 7 February 2000, pp.
9. [37]
Ibid. [38] Ibid.
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