Key developments
since March 1999: Major mine clearance operations started in March 1999.
After a slow, accident-plagued beginning, by mid-July 2000 a total of 3.8
million square meters of land had been cleared. Koch Mine-Safe deminers
suffered twenty casualties between February 1999-July 2000. Zimbabwe has
served as co-rapporteur of the SCE on General Status and Operation of the
Convention. Delays in passage of Zimbabwe’s pending Mine Ban Treaty
implementation bill have held up the start of AP mine stockpile destruction.
There continue to be allegations of use of AP mines by Zimbabwean troops in the
DRC.
Mine Ban Policy
Zimbabwe signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997 and ratified it on 18 June 1998. It participated in the First Meeting of
State Parties in Maputo in May 1999, with the Deputy Foreign Minister leading
the delegation. It its statement to the Meeting, Zimbabwe reaffirmed its
commitment to the AP mine ban, stating that it was “unequivocally
committed both to implementing its own obligations under the convention and to
cooperating with others in finding a lasting solution to the
problem.”[1]
At the FMSP, Zimbabwe was nominated to serve as co-rapporteur (with Belgium)
of the newly created Standing Committee of Experts on the General Status and
Operations of the Convention. After the Second Meeting of States Parties in
September 2000, it will become co-chair of this important body. It has also
attended meetings on victim assistance and mine clearance.
The government submitted its first report as required under Article 7 on 11
January 2000, covering the period from August 1999-January
2000.[2] It reported that
implementation legislation, the “Anti-Personnel Mines (Prohibition) Bill,
1999” is “awaiting clearance from the Law Officers before it is
enacted to effectively incorporate the provisions of the Treaty into
Zimbabwe’s domestic
laws.”[3] The delay in
passage of this legislation, according to officials, has placed limitations on
their actions to fully comply with the treaty, particularly with regard to
stockpile destruction.[4]
Zimbabwe voted in favor of UNGA Resolution 54/54B supporting the MBT in
December 1999. It is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. It
is a member of the Conference on Disarmament, but has not been a noted supporter
or opponent of efforts to begin negotiations on a mine export ban there.
Production, Transfer and Stockpiling
Zimbabwe was not a significant past producer or
exporter of landmines.[5] Its
Article 7 report states that it has a stockpile of 4,792 mines: 446 South
African R2M2 AP mines inherited from the Rhodesian regime and 4,346 PMD-6 mines,
from the former Eastern Bloc. There have been reports that Zimbabwe stockpiled
other mine types.[6]
There is contradictory information in the report on the number of mines that
the army will retain for training. Forms B (on current stockpiles) and G (on
planned destruction) indicate that 700 AP mines will be retained: 500 PMD-6 and
200 R2M2). But Form D (on mines retained for training) indicates 946 mines will
be kept, including all 446 of R2M2
mines.[7]
The destruction of the 3,846 AP mines was scheduled to be completed in 2000,
in two phases. During the first six months, 3,000 type PMD-6 mines were
scheduled to be destroyed, and during next six months the remaining 846 PMD-6 as
well as the 246 R2M2s would have been
destroyed.[8] But this plan has
not been implemented because the implementation legislation has not been passed.
There has been no response to attempts by NGOs to solicit an invitation to
monitor the destruction.[9]
Use
There is concern regarding the involvement of
Zimbabwean troops in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in
support of the government of Laurent Kabila. Landmine Monitor 1999
reported that there had been a number of unsubstantiated allegations of use of
antipersonnel mines in that conflict by Zimbabwe, which the government
vigorously denied.[10] More
recently, according to one source, there were accounts of Zimbabwean troops
planting defensive minefields around Mbuji Maya when they feared that city would
be captured by rebels in 1999.[11]
Landmine Monitor has not seen these accounts and cannot verify them. In June
2000, the Namibia Campaign to Ban Landmines was informed by relatives that two
Namibian soldiers died in the DRC when they stepped on “friendly”
antipersonnel mines allegedly planted by Zimbabwean soldiers.
While there is no concrete evidence of use of AP mines by Zimbabwean forces,
it is clear that antipersonnel mines have been and continue to be used in the
DRC conflict, likely by DRC government forces and possibly by others aligned
with them.[12] (See Landmine
Monitor report on DRC).
The so-called SADC Allies, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, are involved in the
fighting. Angola has publicly admitted to new use of AP mines in the war against
UNITA in its own country. The ICBL has expressed concern that a Mine Ban Treaty
State Party, such as Zimbabwe, may be violating the treaty by virtue of
participating in a joint military operation with another nation, such as the DRC
or Angola, that uses antipersonnel mines in that operation. Under Article 1 of
the Mine Ban Treaty, a State Party may not “under any
circumstance...assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any
activity that is prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.”
Zimbabwe should make clear the nature of its support for foreign forces that
may be using antipersonnel mines, and make clear its views with regard to the
legality under the Mine Ban Treaty of its joint military operations with the DRC
and Angola. As a party to the treaty, Zimbabwe should state categorically that
it will not participate in joint operations with any force that uses
antipersonnel mines.
Landmine Problem/Survey and Assessment
Since the end of the liberation struggle in 1980,
Zimbabwe has lived with a legacy of seven minefields along its borders with
Zambia and Mozambique. Maps of the minefields are in the possession of the
current government. A series of validation exercises have been undertaken since
1980 that have confirmed the general patterns and type of AP mines
laid.[13] The minefields and the
priority that they have been given for clearance purposes are indicated
below:
[15] Mine Tech did not conduct
a Level 1 or Level 2 survey, and did not visit or “survey” the
entire length of the minefields, but did complete the work and handed over a
final report on schedule.[16]
While it contains some significant inaccuracies, the report does present a
broad-brush description of the minefields, and includes maps and diagrams and
broad assessment of likely problems in their clearance.
The survey found that Zimbabwe has an estimated 1.5 million AP mines, 10,000
Ploughshare mines and an unknown number of UXO in the ground. These are still
assumed to be within the general area of the seven border minefields with the
odd mine washed out by floods into the hinterland. (Floods from Cyclone Elaine
have been particularly heavy in the Eastern Highlands bordering Mozambique,
affecting minefields in areas 1-5.)
The cordon-sanitaire minefields consist of a 25m wide strip of ground laid
with three rows of blast antipersonnel mines at a density of around 5,500 mines
per kilometer, this minefield was fenced on both sides by a game fence of three
strands of steel wire supported on thin steel posts set in concrete. Also
attached to the fence was an intruder alarm system linked to control points,
which fed information to patrol teams. By 1997 virtually all this fencing had
been removed by local people or had disintegrated. Mines in the cordon were the
South African R2M2 and the Portuguese
M969.[17] The Italian VS-50 was
also laid. The cordon-sanitaire minefield is backed for most of its length by a
second “Ploughshare” minefield containing three rows of large
fragmentation mines mounted on steel pickets one meter above the ground. The
fragmentation mines are laid with 30 meter-long tripwires and each mine is
protected by three blast mines (see diagram). The mine density in this
minefield is around 100 fragmentation mines and 300 buried blast mines per
kilometer. In some areas, the minefield has been found to run into Mozambique
for stretches up to 8 km in length.
In November 1999, UNMAS and UNDP’s resident representative conducted an
assessment mission of the problem in the
country.[18] In its Joint
Assessment Mission Report issued in February 2000, it was noted that
political attention is not focused on eradicating mines in Zimbabwe. Although
the country possesses a credible local capacity for mine clearance, there is not
a national mine clearance plan, and it lacks a body with a mandate to articulate
and manage mine action. Consequently, current clearance activity is a result of
ad-hoc and sometimes donor-driven initiatives without consultations with the
affected people or groups otherwise associated with the mine problem. The
assessment noted that the government appears to have “no intention of
creating” a national mine clearance coordinating
body,[19] nor has the government
been active in coordinating its landmine problem within the Southern African
Development Community (SADC).
Mine Clearance
Currently, one army engineer platoon of the
Zimbabwe National Army and Koch Mine-Safe, a commercial demining company, carry
out mine clearance operations in the country. In 1999, the army engineer
platoon of 200 soldiers, funded by the US, cleared 6,000 AP mines in Area Six
from a twenty-six kilometer tract that has since been handed over to the
Victoria Falls town council.[20]
However, officials admit that the area cleared is a small percentage of the
problem and predict that at this rate of about 8,000 square meters per day when
adequate logistical support is
available,[21] it would take
“ten years to complete the
work.”[22] Already, the
platoon is operating on a shoestring budget of Z$11 million
(US$285,714).[23] The U.S.
government donated $1.743 million to mine action in Zimbabwe in 1999 and has a
further allocation of US$1.006 million for FY2000. The U.S. has also budgeted
an estimated $1 million for FY
01.[24] Plans to create a second
demining platoon in 2000 are under
consideration.[25]
Clearance is also being carried out by Koch Mine-Safe, which won a European
Development Fund supported contract to clear a top-priority, 359 kilometer-long
minefield in northeastern Zimbabwe on the border with
Mozambique.[26] The contract
tender, issued in late 1997, called for the clearance of ten million square
meters over the length of the minefield, to be completed within eighteen months
and at a fixed price. Additionally, a contract for quality assurance of the
clearance was given to a British company, Bac Tec.
Koch was to begin operations in October 1998, but due to problems in
assembling teams[27] and
logistics, they were not able to deploy personnel (three hundred staff,
including their three self-supporting teams of fifty deminers each) until March
1999, already six months late. Under the Ministry of Defense contract, they are
restricted to three working teams, and mechanical methods were to be allowed
only if the land was checked by normal clearance methods as well and it could be
ensured that environmental damage caused by mechanical clearance was
minimal.
Following a number of early mine incidents, operations were halted to
reassess procedures. Work recommenced in April/May 1999 and clearance moved
slowly for four months. By the end of May, 0.25 percent of the ten million
square meters of land had been cleared, already eight months into the contract.
There were several contributing factors to the slow rate of clearance: a very
high number of false signals;[28]
the abnormally heavy summer rainfall of January and February 1999, which led to
an outbreak of cholera and the closing of the site; and finally Koch had
under-estimated the logistical difficulties of the operation. Also, it had not
been anticipated that they would have to cut and build access roads to the
minefield.
Koch’s operations were roundly criticized for what appeared to be an
unacceptably high accident rate. Between March and June 1999 there were twelve
incidents. Over half of the accidents occurred during excavation in the
minefield, but the primary cause of a third of the accidents could be blamed on
inadequate supervision, poor standard operating procedures (SOPs), or lax
discipline, i.e.: “management error.” Notably serious injuries
happened while handling mines during practice, partly because of using unsafe
SOP.[29] A total of twenty people
were injured in eighteen accidents between February 1999 and July 2000.
Fourteen involved minor injuries. Two of the seriously injured died in the
hospital, one from pneumonia contracted in recuperation. Following the visit of
an EU consultant in May 1999 and the introduction of a manager from the Boskalis
Group, safety and productivity improved greatly.
Soon after deployment in March 1999, Koch explored the potential for
mechanical clearance and based on an environmental impact assessment which
concluded that approximately one-third of the minefield was suitable for
mechanical clearance, purchased a Veilhaben Mine Collector which went into
operation in October 1999. Currently, two of Koch’s teams work as manual
teams, mostly on the Ploughshare minefield, and the third team follows the mine
collector.
In February 2000, seventeen months through the eighteen-month contract, Koch
had cleared less than one-third of their contract area (2.6 million square
meters from a total of 10 million square meters). With agreement from all
parties, the EU and the Ministry of Defense extended the contract to February
2001.
On average (over both the cordon sanitarie and the Ploughshare minefields)
Koch's teams are lifting and destroying one mine per fifty-eight square meters.
In the cordon sanitaire minefield this broad average rises to one mine per
twenty square meters, and the mechanical team working in the center of the
cordon sanitaire clears one mine per twelve square meters on average; spot
densities can be more than twice this figure. The mechanical team currently
processes 20,000 square meters of ground per day; the following team covers
12,000-12,500 square meters per day and destroys over 1,000 mines per day.
Two things characterize the current clearance program: The very high density
of mines and number of mines being cleared. In June 2000, Koch Mine Safe
cleared 421,000 square meters. By mid-July the team had cleared a total of
3,809,281 square meters of land. No “missed mines” have been
reported by BacTec who assess ten percent of land cleared.
Other Zimbabwean Mine Action Firms
In addition to Mine Safe there are a number of other Zimbabwe based companies
offering mine action services.
Mine-Tech: Founded in 1992, Mine-Tech is based in Harare, and
conducted the EU-financed study of the border minefields in 1994 and 1995. It
has not cleared mines in Zimbabwe in 1999 and 2000 although it employs mostly
retired Zimbabwean soldiers; it has conducted mine survey, awareness and
clearance in Mozambique, Somaliland, and Bosnia.
Rom-Tech: This is a small Harare-based firm, which had been
trying to develop a mine resistant vehicle, the Pookie. It has been
sub-contracted by Koch to assist in clearance of the border minefields.
Special Clearance Services: Special Clearance Services has
conducted mine clearance work in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In 2000 it was taken
over by U.S.-based Armor Holdings and relocated to South Africa.
Security Devices: This firm, based at Msasa, Harare, has since
manufactured humanitarian demining equipment, particularly an apron and visor,
since 1997. The U.S. Army, Mine-Tech, MgM in Angola and HI in Mozambique use
the visors.
Landmine Casualties and Survivor Assistance
Since independence in 1980, some 13,000 landmine
incidents have been recorded, but independent research has indicated that these
statistics are understated by as much as forty
percent.[30] Despite the
deterioration and removal of previously protective fencing material along the
minefield, many people know the general location of the mines, which has led to
a decrease in injuries. In the Victoria Falls area, for example, the provincial
hospital had not dealt with any landmine injuries from April through November
1999.[31] As noted above, in the
Koch demining operations, between February 1999 and July 2000, a total of twenty
people have been injured in eighteen accidents.
Landmine survivors are treated by the public health system. There are two
national hospitals that are designated referral centers; eight provincial and
fifty-six district hospitals. The first community based rehabilitation project
was initiated by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society in 1982 and later handed over to
the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. It has gradually expanded to offer
services for people with disabilities in forty-nine of Zimbabwe’s
fifty-five districts. But all medical services are currently under
resourced.[32] Artifical limbs
are expensive and most people in the mine-affected areas cannot afford them (a
prosthetic leg is about Z$8,000/US$210 and an arm, double that). Some NGOs and
the ICRC and local Red Cross have offered subsidies to help victims.
On 28 May 2000, the National Council for the Disabled urged the government to
inform landmine victims to collect their compensation, which is lying
uncollected at the Council’s offices. The council noted that victims from
the 1970’s liberation war had not collected their checks, and its Deputy
Chairperson, Farai Cherera, said, “Over the last seven years, my
organization has been receiving reports of landmine victims who have been
dismissed from the national army. The money is there, but most people entitled
to this compensation are not getting it due to
ignorance.”[33] She has
also called upon the central statistics office to update its records on landmine
victims.
[1] Statement of the Hon. Nicholas Goche,
Deputy Foreign Minister, First Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty,
Maputo, 3 May 1999. [2] Mine Ban Treaty,
Article 7 Report, submitted 11 January 2000, covering August 1999-January
2000. [3] Article 7 Report, Form A, 11
January 2000; telephone interview with Lieutenant Colonel Tom Munongwa,
Engineers Director, Harare, 25 April 2000. It was pointed out that the process
of destroying the AP mines has awaited the passing of the Bill into
law. [4] Interview with Lt. Col Tom
Munongwa, Harare, 26 April 2000. See also Article 7 Report, Form G, which reads:
“The destruction programme is subject to the enactment of the APM
Prohibition Bill which is now nearing submission to Parliament, after which it
will be approved by the Head of
State.” [5] See, Landmine Monitor
Report 1999, pp. 97-99. [6] Article 7
Report, Form B, 11 January 2000. LM Report 1999 cited a Human Rights Watch
interview in 1997 with an Army official, in which the official said Zimbabwe
stockpiled POMZ-2, POMZ-2M, RAP 1, RAP 2, VS-50, M969 and ZAPS antipersonnel
mines. According to Andy Smith, independent mine action consultant, interviewed
on 3 July 2000, the ZDF Engineer School at Pomona Barracks near Harare holds
stocks of M969, R2M, VS50, PMA, PMA2 and
PMNs. [7] Article 7 Report, Forms B, D,
and G, 11 January 2000. Discrepancy on the submission verified with Ministry of
Defense Official, Lt. Col T. Munongwa, 26 April
2000. [8] Article 7 Report, Form G, 11
January 2000. [9] Letters from Martin
Rupiya to Permanent Secretaries of Ministries cited, 18 October
1999. [10] Landmine Monitor Report 1999,
pp. 99-100. [11] Interview with U.S.
intelligence specialist on DRC, London, 23 June 2000.
[12] “Regional Round Up,”
De-Mining Debate, South African Institute of International Affairs, 1-8 July
1999, p. 9. [13] Landmine Monitor Report
1999, pp. 101-103. [14] Priority for the
clearance of the CAPCO minefield has been relegated to the Army Engineers
Squadron when they have built enough capacity, as it is located within an
enclosure that does not necessarily risk the civilian
population. [15] Interview with Chris
Pearce, Director, Mine-Tech, Johannesburg, 6 June
2000. [16]
Ibid. [17] Both mines are classified as
minimum metal mines. [18] The assessment
was conducted with the full support of government over the period 18 November to
26 November 1999 and published in February
2000. [19] UNMAS Joint Assessment Mission
Report: Zimbabwe, UN Mine Action Service and UNDP Resident Representative,
Mission of 18-26 November 1999, p. 3. [20]
Matthew Takaona, “Army and Private Companies clear 26,000
landmines,” The Sunday Mail, 12 March 2000, p.5. There is a discrepancy
in the amount of kilometers of land cleared. On the one hand, during a Landmine
Monitor field survey interview on December 1999, it was reported 26 km had been
cleared. But in a presentation the same month on the problem by Lt. Col.
Munongwa, 21 km were reported as cleared and yet the Sunday Mail report of 12
March 2000 quotes 20 km as having been cleared in Victoria
Falls. [21] UNMAS Joint Assessment Mission
Report, Zimbabwe, p. 10. [22] Lt Col. T.
Munongwa, Acting Director, Zimbabwe National Army Engineers Corps, Presentation
on National Landmines Problem, Victoria Falls camp, 24 December
1999. [23] Current rate of exchange stands
at US$1:38. [24] Human Rights Watch,
“Clinton’s Landmine Legacy,” A Human Rights Watch Short Reort
Vol. 12, No. 3, July 2000, p. 27. [25]
U.S. Department of State, “Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign
Operations, FY2001 – Bureau of African Affairs,” 15 March
2000. [26] In 1997 Koch Munitionsbergrungs
was a former East German defense contractor with experience in clearing ranges
of UXO in Germany; they had no direct experience of clearing minefields or of
work in Africa. All information on its work in Zimbabwe comes from Brian
Mounsor and Temba Kanganga, Project Managers at Koch Mine Safe, Harare, unless
otherwise stated. [27] Koch had problems
assembling their manual teams because initial salaries offered were low. With a
small available pool of experienced deminers in Zimbabwe, ultimately Koch had to
do more training than anticipated, and as a result, there is now a small flow of
Koch Mine Safe -trained deminers joining other
companies. [28] Interview with Temba
Kanganga. Deputy Project Manager of Mine Safe at “The Road forward:
Humanitarian Mine Clearance in Southern Africa,” South African Institute
of International Affairs, Johannesburg, 8 June
2000. [29] Data from Andy Smith, DDIV
database, 4 June 2000. [30] Landmine
Monitor Report 1999, p. 109. [31]
Interview with Dr. Kulkarni and Sister-In-Charge, Ms. Sikosana, Victoria Falls
Hospital, 4-6 December 1999. [32] Apart
from the field interviews with the different hospitals located in the
mine-affected areas, Landmine Monitor also wrote to the Permanent Secretary of
the Health Ministry on 18 November 1999, seeking his comments on victim
assistance, but to date there has been no
reply. [33] “Landmine Victims Not
Collecting Compensation,” Zimbabwe Standard, 28 May 2000.
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