LM Report 2000

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ZAMBIA

Key developments since March 1999: Zambia has established an inter-ministerial National Task Force for the implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. Zambia has told the UN that is has just a small stockpile of antipersonnel mines for military training purposes only. A number of AP landmines appear to have been planted inside Zambia in 1999 and 2000 by Angolan government and UNITA rebel forces. In May-June 2000, the UN Mine Action Service conducted an assessment mission in Zambia.

Mine Ban Policy

Zambia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 12 December 1997 but has not yet ratified it. The government is in the process of ratification. A memorandum has been drafted which must be presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Cabinet for its approval. Foreign Minister Keli Walubita has apparently not made this a priority.^[1] The Canadian Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa David Kilgour met Zambia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Machungwa in Lusaka on 14 July 2000 and was told that Zambia had not ratified because of bureaucratic delays.^[2] The Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines has also obtained the same response.^[3]

Zambia participated as a signatory state in the First Meeting of State Parties in Maputo in May 1999. Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Valentine Kayope said the treaty “stands as a monument to all landmine victims and the millions who live each day in fear of these weapons.... For the Ottawa DOCTYPE clude("../include/app_config.html"); include( "../include/http-headers.html" ); ?>Convention to be fully effective, all countries must stop producing landmines and embrace the Convention. There is therefore an urgent need for the universalization of the Ottawa Convention.... For us in Africa...landmine use is prevalent for the simple reason that it is cheap and deadly.... The battle, therefore is to make the Ottawa Convention banning landmines fully effective not just in intention, but also in implementation.”^[4]

Zambia has attended all of the treaty intersessional meetings of the Standing Committees of Experts. At the March 2000 meeting on Mine Clearance in Geneva, Zambia issued a statement saying that “there is overwhelming political will to support” the treaty.^[5] Zambia in December 1999 voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B calling for the universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty.

The government of Zambia has established an inter-ministerial National Task Force for the implementation of the MBT. The Task Force is headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[6] It has been set up to among other things to conduct a preliminary survey of all the mine-affected areas around the country.^[7]

Zambia is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. It is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.

Production, Transfer and Stockpiling

Zambia is not a known producer or exporter of mines. Zambia has told the UN that is has just a small stockpile of antipersonnel mines for military training purposes only.^[8]

Use

A number of AP landmines appear to have been planted inside Zambia in 1999 and 2000 by Angolan government and UNITA rebel forces. Landmine Monitor interviewed Angolan soldiers who admitted to laying AP mines on Zambian soil in 2000 in order to stop UNITA rebels from obtaining access to suspected rear bases.^[9] There have also been reports that UNITA rebels have laid some landmines in Cahvuma district to depopulate the border areas in order that their activities are not witnessed and to avoid being followed by the Zambian security forces.^[10]

Landmine Problem/Assessment

Landmines have been laid in Zambia since the 1970s and Zambia has a limited landmine problem in six of Zambia’s nine provinces: Western, North-Western, Lusaka, Central, Eastern, and Southern. Deputy Foreign Minister Kayope, upon receiving a UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) Assessment Team, stated that more than 2,500 kilometers of countryside are mine-affected. He also said that the extent of the problem is not fully known because the “devices were planted randomly in what is termed as ‘a nuisance pattern’ at various border areas.”^[11] According to the Zambian government most of the landmines planted in Zambia are TM46 AT and M14 AP landmines.^[12] However, a U.S. military intelligence report states that 30 types of AP mine from ten nations have been found in Zambia.^[13]

In May-June 2000, UNMAS visited Zambia for ten days to ascertain the extent of the landmine problem.^[14] The team had completed a draft report that concludes that although there is a mine problem in Zambia its humanitarian impact is limited and the immediate priority is to invest in mine awareness programs.^[15] UNMAS found that mines and UXO have hampered the progress of two development projects, the Power Rehabilitation Project in Southern Province and the Wetland/Grand Farm located north of Lusaka.^[16]

The U.S. humanitarian demining program authorized an assessment visit to Zambia in March 2000.^[17]

Fieldwork in Chiawa by the Zambian Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1998 established that landmines and UXO continued to be a problem. In the early 1980s AP mines claimed 125 civilians alone and a Japanese-sponsored water project had to be discontinued because of the mines. People in the area have lost their livestock and as the population grows, the safe land area to accommodate the population is getting smaller.^[18] This is not the only area where this is a problem. People in the border area between the Gwembe valley and Luangwa (several hundred kilometers) cannot do any large-scale farming for fear of landmines. Construction of schools and health centers has also been affected.^[19]

In May 1999 an antitank mine destroyed a vehicle killing a World Bank consultant, Denis Berejena, and critically injured two people, including Sinazongwe District Council secretary Patson Chazebuka on Bottom Road in southern province; the other person injured was Walter Illi, a Kenyan national working for Interconsult. Berejena and his team were on an inspection tour of the World Bank-funded Gwembe Tonga Development Project aimed at alleviating the suffering of the people who were displaced when the Kariba dam was constructed. The road was known to have been mined during the 1970s.^[20] The week following this incident five more landmines were cleared in Sinazongwe. This incident drew media attention to Zambia’s landmine problem and forced the government to send out bomb disposal experts to comb the area.^[21] The project was then suspended pending a comprehensive demining program of the area.^[22] By July 2000 no comprehensive survey and clearance work had commenced and the project remained suspended.

Mine Clearance

Zambian Army Engineers have been clearing mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) on an ad hoc basis since the 1970s. Mine clearance has also been conducted by an eleven-person strong Bomb Disposal Unit under the Ministry of Home Affairs. This unit has received U.S. training.^[23] The local Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) offices have cleared over 800 landmines and UXO from 1970 to date.^[24] However, many more are still lying undetected due to financial constraints. A survey by Zambia Army personnel in Mufumbwe district in 1999 discovered eight landmines.^[25]

The government has stated that although human resources are available, “there is no appropriate equipment to undertake effective mine clearance operations.... Zambia needs modern motorized landmine/UXO clearing equipment. In addition, specialised training is required for all those involved in landmine clearance.”^[26]

Several commercial demining firms such as Zimbabwe’s Mine-Tech and South Africa’s GRZ have sent teams to Zambia to assess the commercial viability of clearing landmines.^[27]

Mine Casualties and Survivor Assistance

The Zambia Red Cross estimates that some 10,000 people in Zambia have fallen victim to mines and UXO.^[28] A preliminary survey by the National Task Force indicates a much more conservative estimate: since 1973 some 102 people have fallen victim to mines and UXO, including twenty-one in 1999 and three so far in 2000.^[29]

Zambia has no elaborate victim support program. The government notes, “Very little assistance is available to most landmine victims since most accidents take place in remote areas where medical facilities are not available.”^[30]

There are three or four orthoprosthetic workshops in Zambia, chief of which is at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. All centers have all benefited from ICRC support. The UTH facility fitted 170 prosthetic devices in 1999. The workshop is very well equipped and stocked.

In addition, Zambia has a well-organised base of disabled people's organisations, under the umbrella of the Zambian Federation for Disability (ZAFOD) which has six member organisations. The Zambian National Association for the Physically Handicapped (ZNADPH) and the Zambian National Association for Disabled Women (ZNADWO) both cater for the needs of the mobility disabled, and both have branches throughout the country. The latter has 600 members, but ZNAPH has some 12,000 members. These are self-help organisations that give important support to disabled people.

Under the Persons with Disabilities Act (No 33 of 1996) the Zambian Agency for Persons with Disabilities (ZAPWD) was established. However, it only came into operation in September 1999. It has a wide-ranging role, with powers to gather statistics, register disabled people, plan and deliver services, raise awareness and act as an advocate for disabled people. There is much to be done before it fulfils these roles.

[1] Foreign Minister Walubita in May 1998 – more than two years ago -- told the Landmine Monitor that his country would ratify the MBT “Soon. This is a priority for my government. I represent a constituency that suffers from landmines. I am therefore determined to see this enacted into Zambian law quickly.” Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p.182.
[2] Zambia Daily Mail, 17 July 2000; interview with Canadian High Commissioner Dilys Buckley-Jones, Lusaka, 17 July 2000.
[3] Interview with Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, Lusaka, 17 July 2000.
[4] Statement by the Zambian Delegation to the FMSP, delivered by Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Valentine Kayope, Maputo, 3 May 1997.
[5] “Statement by the Delegation of Zambia to Standing Committee of Experts on Mine Clearance,” Geneva, 27-29 March 2000.
[6] The Task Force is comprised of the ministries of Community Development and Social Services, General Education, Defense, Home Affairs, Information and Broadcasting Services, Lands, Environment and Natural Resources.
[7] “Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance,” 27-29 March 2000.
[8] UNMAS, “Mine Action Assessment Mission to the Republic of Zambia, May-June 2000,” draft dated 6 June 2000.
[9] Interview with Angolan soldiers, May 2000.
[10] AFP, 19 January 2000; AFP, 6 March 2000; Bivan Saluseki, “Chamuva Teachers Flee UNITA Attacks,” Africa News Service, Lusaka, 4 February 2000. “Concern at Reported Border Raids,” IRIN, Johannesburg, 19 January 2000. At least one person was injured by a suspected UNITA landmine.
[11] Pan African News Agency, “Zambia grapples with Landmines in Six Regions,” Lusaka, 30 May 2000; Post, 31 May 2000.
[12] “Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance,” 27-29 March 2000.
[13] U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technology Center, Intelligence Report, “Landmine warfare – mines and engineer munitions in southern Africa (U),” May 1993.
[14] UNMAS, “Mine Action Assessment Mission to the Republic of Zambia, May-June 2000,” draft dated 6 June 2000.
[15] UNMAS, “Mine Action Assessment Mission to the Republic of Zambia, May-June 2000,” draft dated 6 June 2000.
[16] Ibid.
[17] U.S. Department of State, “30 March 2000 Humanitarian Demining IWG Fact Sheet.”
[18] Muleya Mwanayanda, “Field notes,” no date, on file at Afronet, Lusaka.
[19] Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance,” 27-29 March 2000.
[20] Nebat Muenga, Charles Mangwato, and Andrew Lungu, “Landmine Kills Man,” Times of Zambia, 1 June 1999; AFP, 2 June 1999.
[21] Times of Zambia, 6 and 7 June 1999.
[22] Times of Zambia, 15 March 2000.
[23] UNMAS, “Mine Action Assessment Mission to the Republic of Zambia, May-June 2000,” draft dated 6 June 2000.
[24] Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance, 27-29 March 2000.
[25] Times of Zambia, 9 November 1999.
[26] Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance, 27-29 March 2000.
[27] Landmine Monitor interviews with BRZ and Mine-Tech, Johannesburg, 6 June 2000.
[28] Information provided by Zambian Red Cross Society, Lusaka, 18 July 2000.
[29] UNMAS, “Mine Action Assessment Mission to the Republic of Zambia, May-June 2000,” draft dated 6 June 2000.
[30] Statement by Zambia to SCE on Mine Clearance, 27-29 March 2000.