Malawi

Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Malawi signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997, ratified it on 13 August 1998 and became a State Party on 1 March 1999. Malawi has not enacted domestic implementation legislation. In March 2006, an official told Landmine Monitor that legislation was being drafted by the army legal office and would then undergo interministerial consultations before being submitted to parliament.^[1] Malawi has not reported any progress since that time.

As of end-July 2007 Malawi had not submitted the annual updated Article 7 transparency reports for 2006 (due 30 April 2007) or for 2005 (due 30 April 2006). It has submitted three previous reports.^[2]

Malawi attended the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2006, as well as the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in April 2007, where it presented plans to fulfill its Article 5 obligations on mine clearance.^[3] It did not participate in the Standing Committee meetings in May 2006.

Malawi has not engaged in the discussions that States Parties have had on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1, 2 and 3. Thus, Malawi has not made known its views on issues related to joint military operations with states not party to the treaty, foreign stockpiling and transit of antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes or antihandling devices, and the permissible number of mines retained for training.

Malawi is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Malawi has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced or stockpiled antipersonnel mines.^[4] As of May 2005, Malawi had 21 dummy landmines for training purposes held by the Combat Support Battalion of the Malawi Defence Force in Mvera.^[5]

Landmine and ERW Problem

Malawi is contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of conflicts in neighboring Mozambique. The full extent of this contamination is not known, although the government believes that crossing points on the 1,000 kilometer border with Mozambique and routes to these points on both sides of the border were mined by all parties in order to disrupt movement of opposing forces.^[6] Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) conducted an assessment mission in September 2006 which concluded that the border with Mozambique may be mined but there is no indication that the border with Tanzania is mined and there are “very few indications” of a mine problem on the Zambian border.^[7]

The precise extent of socioeconomic impact from explosive ordnance remains unquantified. Previously, it has been reported that farmland and resettlement areas in the southeast and southwest near the Mozambican border are unused because of mine/unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination. Malawi faces pressures for increased land use in line with its national development plans.^[8]

Mine Action Program

The National Committee for Landmines, created in 2003, is composed of relevant ministries and NGOs, but had not met since May 2005 owing to lack of funding for mine action projects. In 2007 it met twice, in January and April.^[9]

A National Mine Action Office was established in 2003, within the armed forces, ostensibly responsible for coordinating mine action at the operational level. Although it was reported in April 2006 that the National Mine Action Office might be placed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this had not occurred as of April 2007.^[10] Efforts were still being made to “fully establish” it, after which it would be responsible for ensuring that mine action operations are conducted to agreed standards and for implementing a quality assurance regime.^[11]

The National Mine Action Office does not use the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database.^[12] All relevant information is said to be accessed through the Malawi Police Force’s Explosives Office.^[13]

Malawi’s mine action bodies were not established through formal legal procedures, but national legislation was considered a prerequisite for the involvement of an international demining NGO. No such legislation had been adopted as of the end of May 2007, although work was said to be ongoing.^[14] Malawi was previously not using the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) in its mine action program.^[15]

Strategic Mine Action Planning

A five-year Action Plan (2005-2009), developed in 2004, required revision by early 2007 as it was severely behind schedule. An impact survey of all known mined areas due to have been conducted by the end of 2005 in order to set clearance priorities was initiated in May 2007. At the April 2007 Standing Committee meetings, Malawi presented its new multi-year strategic plan, for the years 2007-2009 (but also mentioning implementation in 2007-2012). In the presentation, it was noted that Malawi intended to “clear/mark” affected areas by 2009 but that “a request for extension will be based on events in this report.”^[16]

Demining

The Malawian Army is the only body that has conducted demining in the country. Previously, it had been reported that the Danish Demining Group (DDG) intended to assist Malawi with its demining program. In September 2006, however, NPA conducted an assessment mission and planned to transfer some of its demining capacity from Mozambique where it had closed down operations.

Identification, Marking and Fencing of Affected Areas

A general survey was conducted around the 33 Malawi Young Pioneers camps and some areas along the Mozambican border in 2005 but no contamination was discovered.^[17] Following its 2006 assessment mission, NPA planned to carry out a nationwide survey of suspected hazardous areas. The survey was expected to take six months and cost around US$600,000, funded by the UN Development Programme and Norway.^[18] It began in May 2007 and was due to be completed by the end of October.^[19] By mid-July, two mined areas in Mwanza and Chikwawa districts along the border with Mozambique had been identified.^[20]

There are no reports of any marking or fencing of affected areas during the reporting period, although the Ministry of Defence had sought to raise $25,000 to conduct marking of affected areas.^[21]

Mine/ERW Clearance

No mine clearance took place in 2006, although the police reported carrying out unspecified explosive ordnance disposal operations in Salima in late 2006.^[22]

Summary of Efforts to Comply with Article 5

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Malawi must destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 March 2009.

In October 2006, at the Mine Action Technical Committee meeting of the Southern Africa Development Community in Harare, Malawi declared that it might not be able to comply with the 2009 deadline it had set “due to the lack of progress on mine action.” As a result, it was stated that the government had tentatively set 2012 as a new target.^[23] In April 2007, at the Standing Committee meetings, the Ministry of Defence stated that it was still feasible to achieve Malawi’s vision to be free of the threat of landmines and UXO by 2009, “with donor support forthcoming from NPA.”^[24] But the new multi-year strategic plan for 2007-2009 also mentioned implementation in 2007-2012.^[25]

Malawi had no projects seeking funding in the UN’s 2007 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects, and sought no funds via the 2006 Portfolio.^[26]

Landmine/ERW Casualties

No new mine/ERW casualties were reported in Malawi in 2006 and January-May 2007. The last reported mine incidents occurred in 2003, when four children were injured in two separate landmine incidents.^[27]

A program has been developed for a comprehensive survey of mine/ERW casualties.^[28] The police, Ministry of Health, and some local and international organizations provide information on incidents and casualties.^[29] By April 2007, 192 mine/ERW casualties had been identified, although details of the incidents were not recorded. The survey is ongoing.^[30]

The police and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR), in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, continued to develop plans to collect and compile data for all mine/ERW casualties.^[31]

It was reported that landmines had killed at least 41 people and injured around 1,000 others between 1986 and 2003, but it is believed that the true figure could be higher.^[32]

Survivor Assistance

Malawi lacks the capacity to provide treatment for major trauma-related injuries, including landmine/ERW injuries. Health, rehabilitation and socioeconomic reintegration programs are limited and lack expertise and equipment.^[33] Survivors of landmine/ERW incidents receive the same services as other people with disabilities and were provided with assistive devices when necessary.^[34]

The Ministry of Health is responsible for medical care and physical rehabilitation for people with disabilities, while the Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Social Development and People with Disabilities are in charge of psychological support and socioeconomic reintegration.^[35]

Malawi’s five-year (2005-2009) plan of action for assistance to people with disabilities includes the objective of improving victim assistance.^[36] Toward that end, the Ministry of Social Development and People with Disabilities created a micro-credit scheme for rural people in 2006, including landmine survivors and other people with disabilities, through the Malawi Rural Development Fund (MARDEF).^[37]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sponsored one technician from the Queen Elisabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre for prosthetic and orthotic training from 2006 to 2009.^[38]

Other organizations working for people with disabilities are the Malawi Council for the Handicapped, the Federation for People with Disabilities, Feed the Children Malawi, Malawi against Physical Disability and the Sue Ryder Foundation.^[39]

As of May 2007, Malawi was not a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities or its Optional Protocol, although Malawi reported that it began consulting stakeholders so that the government would be better advised on the Convention.^[40]

Funding and Assistance

International support for mine action in Malawi was limited to NPA programs as of mid-2007. At the 2007 Standing Committee meetings Malawi attributed the absence of other funding to, in part, “the time taken for the Government of Malawi to come to terms with the complexities of mine action.”^[41] Malawi has stated its commitment to mobilizing national funds for mine action and that it had delegated unspecified government departments to this task.  It identified as potential donors those countries contributing to mine action in the southern Africa region, NGOs and other funding mechanisms such as the UN Portfolio process.^[42] As of June, Malawi had no project appeals listed in the 2007 Portfolio of Mine Action Projects.