Ivor Powell
With an international conference aimed at enforcing a worldwide anti-personnel landmines ban kicking off in Maputo on Monday, questions will have to be asked about how effectively the problem has been addressed to date.
In Mozambique, according to United States Department of State statistics, only 28km of usable land had been cleared of landmine infestation by 1998. This was after three years of systematic clearance under the auspices of the United Nations.
The UN has allocated $2,5-million per year to mine clearance in Mozambique, nearly all of which has gone into making roads landmine free. Larger sums of money have been spent by NGOs.
The extent of the ongoing catastrophe can be gauged by the fact that more than 200 000km2 of potential farmland remains unused in Mozambique. According to official statistics, less than half of that area, around 90 000km2 of arable land, is currently in use.
This follows an inhumane strategy adopted by Renamo guerrillas during the civil war of randomly placing anti-personnel landmines in agricultural fields and along pathways, with the specific aim of preventing peasants from producing food.
Conservatively estimated, the ongoing failure to exploit arable land in Mozambique alone costs the economy more than $1,5-billion per annum. Mozambique remains one of Africa’s poorest countries.
In human terms, the failure of demining agencies to make the land safe has led to more than 10 000 people being either killed or maimed in the country since the signing of peace accords between the Frelimo government and Renamo in 1992
According to the US government’s Hidden Killers report of 1998, the cost entailed in surgical care of and the fitting of prostheses to each landmine survivor stands between $300 and $1000.
In Angola, where both sides in the ongoing civil war continue to lay mines – despite the MPLA government’s accession to international treaties aimed at banning the use, production and stockpiling of anti- personnel landmines – the situation is even worse.
No more than 2,4km2 of land in the entire country have been made safe through demining processes for possible agricultural use – this in a country more than twice the size of South Africa.
UN Office for Project Services landmines specialist in Mozambique, Nico Bosman, says part of the problem lies in the history of demining.
He notes that systematic demining is a relatively new science which was first performed by military engineers using basic military techniques of demining. Metal detectors were used before the mines were manually dug out of the ground. Such techniques are better suited to cutting paths than to clearing areas, such as would be called for in clearing farmland.
It is only since the mid-1990s that mechanical methods have been employed in humanitarian mine clearance.
UN rules, however, continue to specify that, even if mechanical methods are used, manual deminers have to follow in their wake.
According to critics of the status quo, the way things work is essentially protectionist – with demining companies and NGOs looking after their own interests often at the expense of the job they are meant to be doing.
A UN-organised conference in Sarajevo last November provided seeming support for this thesis. It was shown that in the demining of Bosnia around 80% of resources and funding was allocated to NGOs and about 20% to private companies employed on contract.
The NGOs, despite receiving the lion’s share of the funding, effected around one- fifth of the actual demining; the private companies with 20% of the resources, around 80% of the work.
The First Meeting of States Party to the Mine Ban Treaty kicks off in Maputo next Monday and has attracted 700 diplomats. They represent 135 signatories to an international ban on landmines. They will be looking to find ways of enforcing compliance with the terms of the treaty.