ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT - ISSUE/EDITION Nr 331 - 01/10/1997

ANB-BIA SUPPLEMENT

ISSUE/EDITION Nr 331 - 01/10/1997

CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE


Zambia

Campaign to ban landmines in Africa gains ground

by Felix Kunda, Lusaka, Zambia, August 1997

THEME = ARMS

INTRODUCTION

During the past five years, the campaign to bring about an international treaty to ban the use of landmines, has been gaining ground. This is Africa's experience

"We didn't see her body, we only heard an explosion and the next thing we saw was her clothes flying all over the place". Alphosina Urayaneza gave a moving testimony at the recently concluded one-day Workshop on Public Awareness For Banning Anti- Personnel Mines In The World. She described how her sister was killed in Burundi when she stepped on an anti-personnel landmines.

Miss Urayaneza said that she, her sister and three others, after running for a long time in the bush to escape the genocide in their country, Burundi, thought they were safe. Suddenly, they heard a loud bang. Looking back, they saw dust flying all over the place accompanied by fire from where her sister had been. Of her, there was no trace. Miss Urayaneza and the others, are now refugees in Zambia. They are now following a Journalism Course at Evelyn Hone College of Applied Art and Commerce. They commended the NGOs which are lobbying for a ban on landmines.

The Workshop


Incidents like that are claiming innocent lives everywhere in the world. It is in this context that the Zambian Independent Monitoring Team and Afronet, organised a one-day Workshop, to make people aware of the importance of banning landmines throughout the world.

At the Workshop's official opening, Archbishop Medado Mazombwe of Lusaka said that the Catholic Church will continue to lobby the world, until all agree to ban anti-personnel landmines. He said that the Church disapproves of any devices which bring unnecessary suffering to the people. He reminded his listeners that God created a world where everyone should live and enjoy life until God Himself calls them back to Him.

At the same Workshop, General (Rtd) Kinglsey Chinkuli presented a Paper on: "The policy on the use of landmines in Zambia, in the First and Second Republic". He said that the first incident of landmines in Zambia occurred in 1970, when a lieutenant who was sent to demine the area around Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia, kept a landmine in his room at the Arakana Barracks in Lusaka.

"Up to now, it is not clear what happened. He may have detonated it by accident, but what ever the case, what remained of him was a sorry sight. He was blown into small pieces onto the wall". From then onwards, it was decided to sent army officers for special training in anti-personal mines.

This came at a time when Zambia was surrounded by hostile neighbours because of her continued support for the liberation of Africa. Neighbours such as Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), South-West Africa (present-day Namibia), Mozambique, Angola and South Africa. These enemies could strike at her from different angles and this made it difficult for Zambia to have actively participated in the planting of landmines. General Chinkuli said that Zambia was on the defensive and therefore it never planted any mines along its borders, but he cautioned that mines planted by the "rebels" of that time, could still be there along her borders.

The Red Cross


Professor Kevin Haworth, Chairman of Zambia's Red Cross Society, said that landmines have killed and maimed more people in the world today than nuclear bombs or chemical weapons. He said although it takes as little as three dollars to manufacture a landmine, it could cost 1,000 dollars or more to remove them from the soil. Many countries, especially in Africa, do not follow the International Humanitarian Laws on the use of mines.

Professor Haworth quoted the law which demands that civilians may not be targeted, and that a record should be kept as to where the landmines have been planted, so that when hostilities come to an end, the mines can be cleared. He said that although a machine has been invented for demining, at 300,000 US dollars, it is far too expensive for any African country. Also, results from using this machine cannot be guaranteed 100%.

Where are landmines to be found in Africa? Angola has 29-50 million mines; Mozambique - 2 million; Liberia - 18,000. Rwanda has an unspecified number. According to Professor Haworth, from 1979 onwards, the Zambian Red Cross Society has produced 100,000 artificial legs at a cost of 200 US dollars each; 700,000 wheelchairs; 140,000 pairs of crutches. Medical fees for treating landmine victims can cost up to 1,000 US dollars per person. From January 1995 to March 1997, the Zambian Red Cross Society provided aid to 9,000 new victims.

Organisers of the Workshop are determined that Zambia should fully participate in the world-wide anti-landmine campaign. But Alfred Zulu, president of the Zambian Independent Monitoring Team, said they were disappointed that the government had declined to take part in the Workshop, saying that "notification had been too short". The government had been invited to present a document on the country's landmine policy. Banning landmines, should be everyone's concern!


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CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE


PeaceLink 1997 - Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgement