by Joseph Ngwawi – SANF 07 No 6
Angola moved a step forward in its programme to rid the country of landmines when it successfully beat a 1 January 2007 deadline to destroy known stockpiles of mines.
A statement by the Angolan government said the country had identified and destroyed more than 114,000 stockpiled anti-personnel mines before the expiry of the four-year deadline provided by the international Mine Ban Treaty.
Under Article 4 of the Mine Ban Treaty all States Parties are required to destroy their stockpile, and all antipersonnel landmines under their jurisdiction or control, within four years of entry into force.
Angola signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 5 July 2002 and became a State Party on 1 January 2003.
The international anti-personnel mine lobby believes that stockpile destruction is critical in that each stockpiled mine destroyed will never find its way into a field or farm, will never harm or kill.
More than 83,500 antipersonnel mines were destroyed between April 2005 and March 2006, according to the Angolan government.
Of this total, 10,866 were “demolished”; 70,179 were “demilitarised” and the plastic and metal parts recycled; while 2,512 will be kept for training purposes under Article 3 of the Mine Ban Treaty.
The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) had destroyed 1,320 OZM 4 mines in the 2003-2004 phase of the programme.
More than 30,000 additional antipersonnel mines were discovered since March 2006 when Angola submitted its recent report.
“By working diligently through to the end of December, Angola ensured that it would be in compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty by destroying all known stockpiles, not just those listed in the Article 7 report,” the Angolan government said.
The country’s Stockpile Destruction Programme cost more than €1,76 million and was jointly funded by the Angolan government, European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme.
It was managed by the National Intersectoral Commission for Demining and Humanitarian Assistance for Mine Victims in cooperation with FAA and the National De-mining Institute.
The destruction of all known stockpiles of landmines is an important step in ridding Angola of mines.
The next stage will be the clearance of mines planted during more than 27 years of war in the country.
Although the exact number of landmines scattered across the country is not known, Angola is considered to be among the countries with the greatest concentration of landmines. It is estimated that the mines problem has rendered a third of this vast country unusable.
Anti-personnel landmines continue to pose challenges in the post-conflict reconstruction and resettlement efforts in some SADC member states, notably Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The region has been working with the EC, which has funded a project that enabled SADC to create and consolidate regional coordination and information sharing through a Mine Action Database and website.
The Mine Ban Treaty (also known as Ottawa Convention) bans the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of antipersonnel landmines and became binding international law on 1 March 1999, faster than any other international treaty in history.
Since the early 1990s, a coalition of more than 1,400 non-governmental organisations in over 90 countries – known as the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – had spearheaded efforts to ban landmines and raise awareness of the problems they cause.
