Key developments
since March 1999: South Africa served as co-chair of the Standing Committee
of Experts on the General Status and Operation of the Convention. It continued
to play an important role in promoting universalization and effective
implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. South Africa is emerging as a leader in
the field of mine detection and mine clearance equipment and technology.
Mine Ban Policy
South Africa was the third country to sign the Mine
Ban Treaty on the 3 December 1997. The National Assembly ratified the treaty on
the 5 May 1998, and the National Council of Provinces on the 11 May 1998. On the
26 June 1998, South Africa deposited its instrument of ratification.
Under its Constitution, South Africa is bound by all international agreements
it signs once both the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces
have approved them, at which time the international agreement becomes national
law.[1] South Africa reports that
it is now in the process of developing enabling implementation
legislation.[2]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a “Landmine Coordinating
Committee” in order to “formalize the earlier inter-departmental and
NGO arrangement on the antipersonnel mine issue [and to ensure that] our joint
efforts in co-ordination will assist in clarifying our objectives and factors
that will be involved regarding funding and the organization of actions to be
undertaken.”[3] The South
Africa Campaign to Ban Landmines (SACBL) is now a permanent member of this
Committee.
South Africa’s Foreign Minister, together with those of Austria,
Canada, Mozambique and Norway, issued a joint statement on 1 March 1999
welcoming the entry into force of the treaty. The then Foreign Minister, the
late Alfred Nzo, added that the treaty, “will significantly contribute to
eradicating this scourge from the African continent, thereby assisting the
socio-economic advancement of its people who have been so gravely afflicted by
the use of these deadly
weapons.”[4]
The government sent a delegation to the First Meeting of States Parties
(FMSP) to the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo, Mozambique, in May 1999. At that
meeting it was made co-chair (with Canada) of the Standing Committee of Experts
(SCE) on the General Status and Operation of the Convention. As well as
co-chairing those meetings, it has been an active participant in the all of the
various meetings of the other SCEs designed to foster the implementation of the
treaty.
South Africa submitted its report on implementation measures to the UN as
required under Article 7 on 1 September 1999. It has not submitted a second
report to cover the period 1 September – 31 December 1999.
South Africa cosponsored and voted for the December 1999 UN General Assembly
resolution on the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had with previous pro-ban UNGA
resolutions.
South Africa is a state party to CCW and its protocols, including Amended
Protocol II. It participated in the First Annual Conference of States Parties
to Amended Protocol II that was held in Geneva on 15-17 December 1999. It
submitted its report as required under Article 13 prior to that Conference.
South Africa is a member of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) but does not
believe that any useful purpose would be served by negotiating a transfer ban in
the CD and thus having three international treaties dealing with landmines.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
South Africa is a past producer and exporter of AP
mines.[5] Today it no longer has
an antipersonnel landmine production
capability.[6] Antipersonnel
landmine production stopped in 1995 and the assembly lines have been
stripped.[7] In order to prevent
any further production all moulds of plastic components have been recovered from
outside suppliers.[8]
On 19 May 1997, former Minister of Defense, Mr. Joe Modise informed the OAU's
First Continental Conference of African Experts on Landmines, in Kempton
Park, Johannesburg, that the SANDF had 313,779 antipersonnel landmines of all
kinds on its inventory. The total value of these mines amounted to approximately
47 million rand. The stocks included 238,746 AP mines (HE), 13,038 practice AP
mines, 48,484 Jumping mines (J69); 2,059 practice Jumping mines (J69); and
11,434 foreign mines.
Destruction of these stocks was completed on 30 October 1997. The South
African National Defense Force (SANDF) retained a limited number of AP mines for
training of soldiers to deal with AP mine threats during peacekeeping
operations, as well as for the development of effective demining equipment,
demining research purposes and military/civilian education
purposes.[9]
In 1997, the SANDF transferred 5,000 of its retained mines to Mechem for
“research and training
purposes.”[10] Mechem has
used a total of 170 AP mines for demonstration and training
purposes.[11] As of 1 September
1999, South Africa reported a live antipersonnel mine stockpile for training of
4,830. The South African National Defense Force has also retained 10,992 RPM2
“empty casings...for the training of members of the
SANDF.”[12]
According to South Africa’s Article 7 report, between March 1999 and
September 1999 a further total of 2,586 antipersonnel landmines were destroyed
in controlled explosions by the SANDF. South Africa stated that 140 of those
mines were “part of an illegal arms cache discovered in mid May 1999 in
KwaZulu-Natal Province and immediately
destroyed.”[13]
Operation Rachel
A total of 6,351 antipersonnel mines have been destroyed under a joint South
African-Mozambican program called Operation Rachel. To combat illicit weapons
trafficking being used to fuel crime, the two countries signed an agreement in
1995 allowing their police forces to undertake joint operations to find and
destroy weapons within Mozambique left over from the war. South Africa is
paying the bulk of the costs and is providing expertise on weapons and
explosives disposal and destruction, which happen on
site.[14]
Use
The African National Congress (ANC) is the first
and only liberation movement and now ruling party in government in the world to
publicly apologize and express sincere regret for civilian deaths and injuries
resulting from the use of antipersonnel landmines.
Through South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) a number of
individuals on both sides of the conflict have applied for amnesty from
prosecution for their use of landmines against political activists and innocent
civilians. Individuals who survived landmine incidents were able to tell their
stories and express their feelings about what happened to them and their
families and how they felt about the international ban on antipersonnel
landmines. While former servicemen admitted laying mines in neighboring
countries during successive
conflicts,[15] the former
apartheid government and Defense Forces failed to take any responsibility for
their use of AP mines, both within and outside of the country, and did not
apologize for their use of the weapon.
Mine Action
During the FMSP Jackie Selebi, then
Director-General of Foreign Affairs, announced: “To ensure that South
Africa effectively manages the implementation of the Treaty obligations, a South
Africa Mine Action Centre is in the process of being established under the
auspices of the Department of Foreign Affairs. The objective of the Centre will
be to act as a forum where compliance with international instruments on
landmines will be monitored; to facilitate and identify appropriate mine action
projects; and act as a clearinghouse for all mine action requests received by
South Africa.”[16] As of
July 2000, the center was still in the process of being established by the
Landmines Coordinating Committee.
South Africa, in response to the problem of mines during the border wars,
developed mine detection systems and a range of mine-protected vehicles that are
reputed to be among the best in the world, including the Hyena, Hippo, Buffel,
Casspir, Mamba and the Ribbok – a civilian farm
vehicle.[17]
South Africa’s countermine philosophy is based on these principles:
(1) Mine awareness training before, during, and after clearance operations; (2)
Detection of mines with best equipment available; (3) Marking of detected mines;
(4) The neutralization of mines; and (5) Demining auditing and the protection of
deminers.[18]
It has never had the leading edge on humanitarian demining technology, but
rather in military countermine
technology.[19] However,
according to Ronnie Kasrils, Deputy Minister of Defense from 1994-1999, now that
apartheid has come to an end, "[W]e are grateful that a democratic South Africa
can redress the wrongs of the past and make a major contribution by assisting
countries with mine
clearance."[20]
In 1999, a representative of the South African government attended the Bad
Honeff 2 discussions in Germany; the Bad Honeff guidelines seek to place various
aspects of mine action in the broader context of post-conflict reconstruction
and development.
One of South Africa's pre-eminent companies in the area of mine action is
Mechem Consultants, a specialized engineering division and subsidiary of the
South African state-owned arms company, DENEL. Mechem has been involved in
research and development for over twenty-eight years mainly in the detection of
landmines, the protection against landmine explosions, and clearing of
minefields. It is also linked to the past research, design and development of
antipersonnel landmines for the (previous) South African government and
military.
Mechem has in the past been contracted by UN agencies, government, and
private electrical or road-building companies to conduct demining operations in
various countries including Mozambique, Angola, Bosnia, Croatia, and Northern
Iraq.
In addition to Mechem there are several other South African-based firms
offering mine action services. In 1999, the Pretoria-based BRZ International,
which has been linked to Saracen,[21]conducted mine clearance work in Angola, Croatia, Northern Iraq, Kosovo
and Mozambique. It has also sent assessment missions to Zambia and the
Democratic Republic of Congo.[22]
The regional office of Carlos Gassmann Tecnologias De Vanguarda Aplicadas Lda
(CGTVA) is also located in South Africa and has worked in Mozambique during
1999. TNT De-mining is one of the newest demining companies in South Africa and
focuses mainly on the training of demining personnel at all levels. The
Institute for Military Engineering Excellence in Southern Africa (IMEESA) is
also located on the outskirts of Pretoria and at its center provides amongst
other services, training in demining, mine awareness programs, management of
demining projects and surveying.
Mine Action Research & Development and Technology Transfer
South Africa is emerging as a leader in the field
of mine clearance equipment and believes that it possesses leading demining
technology and expertise as well as medical capability and experience to assist
mine victims. Mechem’s Vernon Joynt is credited with inventing armour able
to withstand the Yugoslav TRMP-6 "tank-killer" mine, which had been a curse to
UN peacekeepers in Bosnia.
[23]
In February 1999, a US interagency team of humanitarian demining experts,
including representatives of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, State
Department, and US European Command, visited South Africa. The purpose of this
visit was to familiarize the team with South African demining research and
development (R&D), and operations; and to conduct meetings on possible areas
of cooperation between the two countries. This initiative was an outgrowth of
the US-South Africa Bi-national Commission (BNC), which is chaired by US
Vice-President Al Gore and South Africa's President Thabo
Mbeki.[24] According to John
Zavales, of the US Office of Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance,
“Given South Africa’s enlightened and progressive efforts at
demining they can clearly make a significant contribution to Humanitarian
Demining. The US trip was a useful first step in expanding cooperation in this
area between the U.S. and South Africa, which hopefully will result in further
combined efforts.”[25]
In 1998, Sweden acquired four South African Mamba mine protected armored
personnel carriers for use in peacekeeping in the Western Sahara. The Mambas
were produced by Reumech OMC to be used by Sweden’s United Nations
troops.[26] In March 1999, the US
Defense Department awarded Mechem a $494,000 contract to field test a mine
sniffing electronic dog’s nose, which is being developed by the
Pentagon’s research agency.[27] Mechem is to supply the Pentagon's Advanced Research Project Agency with
its unique Mechem Explosive and Drug Detection System (MEDDS) and training and
laboratory assistance. The system consists of concentrating explosive or drug
vapors into sample tubes and presenting them to specially trained
“sniffer”' dogs for identification.
In January 1999, South Africa and the Japanese government met at the first
session of the new SA-Japan partnership forum designed to intensify contacts
between Pretoria and Tokyo. Senior officials participating in the partnership
forum agreed on closer cooperation in demining in southern
Africa.[28] In May 1999, DENEL
represented the SA defense industry on a high-profile SA trade delegation visit
to Libya, to pursue a market for SA’s equipment for clearing landmines in
Libya, where thousands of landmines planted during the Second World War pose a
serious problem.[29] Also in
1999, the South African government exported mine protected vehicles to a private
mining company for the protection of personnel in Angola.
Other key South African research and development companies include:
RSD, a division of Dorbyl Ltd, which has produced amongst other items, the
Chubby Mobile Mine Detection and Clearing System;
Reutech Defense Industries (RDI) manufacturers of, for example, the MIDAS -
handheld Mine Detector (PIMD) and the Vehicle Mounted Mine Detector
(VMMD2000);
Vickers OMC (the successor to Reumech OMC) which has produced a range of
Mine Protected Vehicles including the RG-31 Nyala, the Mamba, the Kobra and the
Casspir;
Armscor (marketing, sales as well as being the competent authority which
conducts independent testing of all South Africa Mine Protected Vehicles); and,
The Center for Scientific Information and Research (CSIR) which is currently
researching the possibility of a multi-sensor mine-detecting suite consisting of
ground penetrating radar, infrared and metal detector sensors. Focusing on the
Southern African region, and in particular, on countries like Angola and
Mozambique, the project aims to develop technology to detect landmines, in
particular antipersonnel mines with minimum or no metal content.
Survivor Assistance
The South African Constitution forbids
discrimination based on an individual's
disability.[30] Statistics on
the number of South Africans living with disabilities resulting from landmine
incidents are unavailable. However, research into disability generally estimates
that between five and twelve percent of South Africans are moderately to
severely disabled. Few services and opportunities exist for people with
disabilities to participate equally in society. "The backlog of disability
services is so long and the lack of services so acute that the economic
advantage of providing rehabilitation services might not become apparent for a
number of years."[31]
A research project on assistive devices found that in South Africa there are
little or no policies and protocols to guide service
development.[32]While there are a
large number of Disabled Peoples Organizations (DPO) in South Africa, they are
under-resourced in terms of funding and tend to be concentrated in urban
areas.[33]
Being involved in the wars of liberation, South Africa has built up a unique
experience of the medical aspects of landmine warfare. The South African
National Defense Force's Medical Services (SAMS) believes that it can make a
significant contribution to the medical support of mine clearing operations and
the treatment of the victims of
landmines.[34]
At least one South African Company, Tactical Medical Developments, undertakes
research and develops products specifically designed for use by medical
personnel in a military environment and for mine clearance operations.
South Africa provides a number of international humanitarian organizations,
including the World Food Program, UNHCR, the OAU Refugee Contingency Fund,
UNICEF, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with financial
aid aimed mainly at the SADC region.
The ICRC has received a number of donations specifically for the
rehabilitation of landmine survivors in the SADC region including R400,000
($58,224) for year 1999/2000.
[1] The Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa, Act 108 of 1996, Chapter 14 231(4), (Wynberg: Constitutional Assembly,
1997). [2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7
Report, for the reporting period 1 March 1999-1 September 1999, submitted 1
September 1999. [3] Letter from the
Department of Foreign Affairs to Mr. Noel Stott, SACBL, 17 November
1997. [4] “Anti-Personnel Mine
Convention Enters Into Force,” Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, Press Release No. 46, 1 March
1999. [5] For information on past
production and transfer, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, pp. 83-84; see also,
Alex Vines, “Ethics and Other Considerations for De-mining in SADC,”
paper delivered to an international conference, “Towards Cost-Effective
De-mining: an Evaluation of Experiences and Techniques,” Johannesburg,
April 1998; see also, Martin Rupiya, Landmines in Zimbabwe: a Deadly Legacy,
(Harare: SAPES Books, 1998), p. 25. [6]
Article 7 Report, submitted 1 September
1999. [7] Information Supplied by the
Department of Foreign Affairs, Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Directorate, 5
May 2000. [8]
Ibid. [9] South African National Defense
Force, “Fact Sheet: South Africa's Initiatives on Banning Anti-Personnel
Landmines,” 8 September 1999; see also, Article 7 Report, Form D, 1
September 1999. [10] Article 7 Report,
Form D, 1 September 1999. [11]
Ibid. [12]
Ibid. [13] Ibid., Form
G. [14] M. Chachiua, Arms Management
Programme: Operation Rachel 1996 – 1999, (ISS: Halfway House, 1999) p. 40.
V. Gamba, Small Arms in Southern Africa: reflections on the extent of the
problem and its management potential, (ISS: Halfway House, 1999) p.
66. [15] “Report of the South
African Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” Cape Town: Juta, 1998. In
its final report the TRC found that the ANC landmine campaign in the rural areas
of the Northern and eastern Transvaal in the period 1985-1987 could not be
condoned as it resulted in a gross violation of human rights. The Commission
however also acknowledged the ANC for abandoning its landmine campaign in light
of the high civilian casualty rate. [16]
Jackie Selebi, Director-General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Statement
to the First Meeting of States Parties, Maputo, Mozambique, 3 May
1999. [17] Vernon Joynt, Divisional
General Manager, Mechem Consultants, “Written response to questions tabled
by the South African Campaign to Ban Landmines,” 22 October
1997. [18] Ronnie Kasrils, “South
Africa and a Landmine Free Southern Africa,” address at conference
“Towards Cost Effective Demining: An evaluation of experiences and
techniques,” SAIIA, 22-23 April
1999. [19] Center for Conflict Resolution,
“Demining Workshop Report,” 16 March
1998. [20] Ronnie Kasrils, “South
Africa and a Landmine Free Southern Africa,” address to the conference
“Towards Cost effective Demining, An evaluation of experiences and
techniques,” SAIIA, 22 - 23 April
1999. [21] Saracen was linked to the now
disbanded private military company, Executive
Outcomes. [22] BRZ International Ltd,
“Humanitarian Mine Clearance Profile,” Doc: BRZ302, Edition B,
undated. [23] “Landmines –
everybody’s hidden enemy,” Eurostatry Show, Daily News, 25 June
1996. [24] John G. Zavales, Office of
Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Department of Defense, "United
States Interagency Team Visits South Africa," March
1999. [25]
Ibid. [26] E-mail from Hendrik Ehlers to
MGM people against landmines network, 8 November
1998. [27] Simon Barber, “Mechem to
test Pentagon’s $25 million dog,” Business Day, 4 March
1999. [28] J. Stephen Laufer and Louise
Cook, “Japanese firms still see SA as a trade base,” Business Day,
18 January 1999. [29] “DENEL to
visit Libya and ‘sell SA,’” Business Day, 24 May
1999. [30] South African Constitution,
Section 9. [31] Margie Schneider,
Disability Review (Braamfontein: C A S E,
1997). [32] P. McLaren and S. Philpott,
Assessing Assistive Devices Services: a review of eight provinces in South
Africa (Braamfontein: C A S E, 1998). See also, M. Claassens and M. Schneider,
Services Provided for disabled People by National and Provincial Government
Departments (Braamfontein: C A S E,
1998). [33] R. Morgan and D. Everrat,
Audit of NGOs of and for People With Disabilities (Braamfontein: C A S E,
1998). [34] G. M. Scharf, “The South
African Medical Service's Doctrine, Expertise, Advice and Assistance on Mine
Warfare and the Treatment of the Victims of Mine Warfare,” Paper Presented
to the United Nations' International Meeting on Mine Clearance, Geneva, July
1995.
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