A boy playing just 10m from his home in Bubanza province, Burundi, was killed after stepping on a landmine. It happened about two months ago, lamented a representative for one of Burundi’s rebel movements.
The boy is one of hundreds of Burundians who have been accidentally killed by landmines since December 2002, when a ceasefire agreement was signed between the government and the three main rebel groups.
Two years after the ceasefire, a systemic programme to clear landmines is still only an ideal, said Colonel Antoine Nimbesha, Director General of Public Security.
On Monday, his ministry launched a nationwide campaign to raise public awareness of the danger of landmines and how people can protect themselves.
The campaign was organised by the Independent Centre of Research and Initiative for the Dialogue (Cirid) in partnership with the Centre for Alert and Conflict Prevention and other member organisations. The army is also participating, along with Burundi’s main rebel group, CNDD-FDD, led by Pierre Nkurunziza.
Thousands of active landmines are lying dormant, said Déogratias Hakizimana, the head of Cirid.
”Some of the worst areas include Kayogoro in the southern Makamba province, Bujumbura Rural and areas around Kibira Forest,” Hakizimana said.
Mines are hidden under electricity poles, in abandoned homes, under bridges and along footpaths and roads. According to a United Nations Children’s Fund report, of 465 recorded landmine deaths in the two years since the ceasefire, 65 were children.
However, the efforts to keep track of landmine accidents are incomplete, said the CNDD-FDD deputy commissioner in charge of administration, Gervais Rufyikiri.
”Nobody really knows how many Burundians have been killed,” he said.
What is known, said Burundi’s police commissioner, Andre Mbayabaya, is that ”whenever fighting broke out, each side laid landmines to protect [them] against the enemy”.
When the combat units were redeployed, they would ”remove some mines, but often not all”.
Mbayabaya said the danger is highest in the five areas where the civil war was most fiercely fought, which are the provinces of Bubanza, Bujumbura Rural, Ruyigi, Rutana and Makamba.
According to Rufyikiri, the largest number of recorded accidents occurred immediately after the 2002 ceasefire.
”Suddenly many refugees tried to return home and along the way many stepped on mines,” he said.
Many of the accidents, he added, occurred in Makamba near the border with Tanzania.
In Bujumbura Rural, the number of landmine accidents increased by 53% from 2001 to 2002, according to a report issued by the NGO Landmines Observatory.
What to do?
Rufyikiri said his CNDD-FDD group has already revealed the location of all the landmines it placed, to the best of its ability. This is in accordance with the 2002 ceasefire agreement between the government and three main rebel groups.
The CNDD-FDD leadership also ratified the Geneva Act in 2003, which binds non-state armed groups to eradicate landmines. Burundi’s government already ratified the 2003 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty.
Many of the Burundian soldiers who lost legs from landmine explosions are receiving artificial limbs and compensation through the government’s health insurance. A unit has been set up under the Ministry of Public Security to help civilian victims.
Still, despite having the agreements and institutions, government officials and landmine experts acknowledge that Burundi lacks the resources and organisation to tackle the problems effectively.
NGOs have tried to fill the gap. Many victims are receiving artificial limbs and other humanitarian aid from NGOs such as Handicap International, out of Belgium, and the South African-based African Medical Assistance.
Centres for landmine victims have been created in Gitega, Bujumbura and Muyinga to provide training and wheelchairs. The International Committee of the Red Cross and Médécins sans Frontières have been providing medical equipment.
Locating the mines
Various NGOs have begun collecting data on landmines. One of them is Landmine Observatory in Burundi and another, Danish Church Aid, has also begun demining operations in the province of Makamba. The Fondation Suisse de Déminage is due to begin demining soon in Gitega and Ruyigi provinces.
At Monday’s launch of the landmine campaign, Cirid announced that Burundi’s first programme to train local deminers is set to start in January. The participants will be former rebels and soldiers who are currently being demobilised.
Yet, the problem of landmines cannot be solved without the participation of civilians, said Mbayabaya, who besides being Burundi’s police commissioner is also deputy director of the landmine education project, as well as director of the civil protection department in the Ministry of Public Security.
”Civilians must be made to understand the dangers of landmines and be able to identify the devices and protect themselves,” Mbayabaya said.
He said with the awareness raising already undertaken, civilians have started to go to the local army and CNDD-FDD headquarters to tell them about mined areas and request help in marking them.
Need to be more comprehensive
Nimbesha has praised the increasing participation of civilians. Now, many are at least ”aware of the existence of landmines and their dangers”, he said at a recent landmine workshop.
However, Nimbesha said institutional support is lacking.
”A systemic demining programme is not yet in place,” he said. ”A survey has to be carried out to gather all data needed to set up a five-year plan of action.”
He laid out the necessary steps, which include research, awareness-raising and advocacy, then identifying and marking mine areas.
Nimbesha said this could be coordinated by the Mine Action Coordination Centre, a unit within the UN peacekeeping mission in Burundi, along with Cirid and other organisations.
Mbayabaya said the government’s landmine-education programme has employed coordinators for all the worst affected provinces. They, along with local staff, have started cordoning off mined areas and putting up danger signs, as well as identifying and helping victims.
The coordinators have compiled reports on the particular problems in each district they cover. The reports include recommendations on how to eliminate the mines and assist victims and their families. So far, though, few of the recommendations have been implemented. — Irin