by Felix Kunda, Lusaka, Zambia, August 1997
THEME = ARMS
"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.
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.
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!
END