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Laying Landmines to Rest?
IRIN Web Special on Humanitarian Mine Action
(with special focus on the 2004 Nairobi Summit of a Mine Free World)
RWANDA: Funding shortage retards mine action efforts
Though mostly cleared by deminers in the last decade, landmines are part of the impact of the 1994 genocide still troubling Rwanda.
Credit: IRIN
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Rwanda's civil war and notorious 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, continues to have far-reaching effects on Rwanda's peacetime population. Unexploded mines threaten the innocent who are still unaware of their existence.
Rwandan officials say the former Hutu regime that masterminded and carried out the genocide laid mines in different areas of the tiny country and left behind a multitude of unexploded ordnance (UXO).
Most of Rwanda has already been combed for mines and UXO, but still a significant portion of Rwanda's landscape remains inaccessible to civilians due to the continued presence of mines and other abandoned weapons. Despite almost a decade of peace and years of mine clearance activities, the scourge of the 'hidden killers' and 'eternal sentinels' - as landmines have been called - remains.
The coordinator for the Rwanda demining office, Lt Francis Kabuce, says the minefields have been reduced from 974,673 sq mt to 639,770 sq mt between April 2003 and April 2004, a reduction of only 33.5 hectares.
Sadly, some of the areas still infested with mines are in the most productive parts of the country, says Kabuce. Even the capital, Kigale, is still affected. In June 2004, the demining office cleared the Kanombe minefield, which took up 503,935 sq mt, or just over 50 hectares around the capital.
The lush northwestern province of Gisenyi is riddled with minefields. Much of the population relies on tea production for their livelihoods and yet, two tea plantations, Nyabihu and Kabaya, still remain closed due to the presence of mines and UXO more than a decade after the end of the civil war.
When mines are located, they are not recycled or stored, but are eliminated through controlled explosions. The international community of humanitarian mine clearance agencies, led by the UN, have recently completed a set of international standards to deal with all aspects of mine action.
"We destroy mines discovered during demining operations and this is normally done in accordance with international mine-action standards," Kabuce told IRIN when detailing their procedures in Rwanda.
However, its not just mines posing a threat to civilians. Between April 2003 and April 2004, the Rwandan National Demining Office (NDO) cleared up to 1,198 different items of what are know as explosive remnants of war (ERW). According to official statistics, landmines only make up 1.5 percent of the total number of items cleared over the past year. Increasingly, all over the world, the location and destruction of other abandoned weapons, while in the process of looking for landmines, is included under the activities of mine action because all items - when found close to communities of civilians - pose lethal threats.
IRIN was told that since 1995, a total of almost 30,000 different items of UXOs were located and cleared, but despite these efforts, landmines and other UXOs continue to maim and kill civilians. In 2003, and in the first six months of 2004, mines and UXO's killed five people in the Mutara, Kigali City and Ruhengeri provinces.
Since the war broke out in 1990, to date, Rwanda's northern Byumba province has the highest death toll at 124 people due to mines and UXO's. At the height of the 1994 genocide, 42 people were killed and many more injured. Due to a lack of funds, the NDO does not offer any medical or rehabilitation assistance to mine victims, Kabuce said.
The NDO has a survey team that roves around the country to identifying mine-affected areas. This helps prioritize activities and sets a target date for clearance completion. Minefields are identified based on war history (areas of heavy fighting) and on reports from the communities that have benefited from the mine-awareness campaign. Mined areas are clearly marked and all personnel, and the local population, are made aware of the marking procedures.
Though the NDO has noted an overall success, it is now short of funds and unable to launch awareness campaigns through print or broadcast media. Budget constraints halted regular broadcasting over national radio, television and in newspapers in 2002.
Kabuce told IRIN that Rwanda badly needs additional resources to clear the remaining minefields. Currently, all minefields are cleared manually, but the sheer size of those still to be demined necessitates more efficient technological devices.
"There's need for international assistance in demining activities in order to have a mine-free nation as soon as possible," says Kabuce echoing similar sentiments from all over the world. These same experts are hoping the outcome of the Nairobi Summit for a 'mine-free world' in November 2004 will increase donor commitment to global mine clearance activities. To date, the US has been the only foreign donor to provide aid in funding, equipment, logistical support and explosives training, with a total of US $14.2 million in mine action assistance alone to Rwanda during 1995 to 2000. US funding for Rwanda stopped in 2001.
Rwanda was one of the first to sign the Ottawa 'Mine Ban Treaty' on December 3 1997 - the day the treaty was open for signatories. It was subsequently ratified by Rwanda on 13 June 2000.
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