Key
developments since May 2001: Landmine victims continued to arrive in
Tanzania refugee camps from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Tanzania has not submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report, which was
due on 28 October 2001.
MINE BAN POLICY
Tanzania signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997 and ratified it on 13 November 2000. The treaty entered into force for
Tanzania on 1 May 2001. Tanzania has apparently not adopted any national
implementation measures, as required by Article 9 of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Tanzania has not, as required by Article 7 of the Mine Ban Treaty, submitted its
initial transparency report due on 28 October
2001.[1]
While the government participated in the First Meeting of States Parties in
Maputo, Mozambique in May 1999, it did not attend the two subsequent Meetings of
States Parties in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 2000 and in Managua,
Nicaragua in September 2001. Tanzania has never participated in the
intersessional Standing Committee meetings, including those in January and May
2002. In November 2001, Tanzania cosponsored and voted in favor of UN General
Assembly Resolution 56/24M promoting the Mine Ban Treaty.
Tanzania is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). It
did not attend the third annual meeting of States Parties to Amended Protocol 11
of the CCW or the Second CCW Review Conference, in December 2001.
PRODUCTION, TRANSFER, STOCKPILING AND USE
Tanzania is not believed to have produced or
exported antipersonnel mines, although it has not made any public declarations
to that effect. Tanzania remains one of the only State Parties that has not
publicly revealed whether it has a stockpile of antipersonnel mines.Based on reports of past use of antipersonnel
mines,[2] Landmine Monitor
regards it as likely that Tanzania has a stockpile, but in the absence of its
required Article 7 transparency report, the number and types of antipersonnel
landmines in its stockpile remain unknown. Tanzania is one of the few State
Parties that has not begun stockpile destruction. The treaty requires Tanzania
to complete destruction of all stockpiled antipersonnel mines by 1 May 2005.
Landmine Monitor field research along the Tanzania-Burundi border in January
2002 did not find evidence of new use of antipersonnel mines on the Tanzanian
side of the border.
LANDMINE PROBLEM AND MINE ACTION
Tanzania’s main link to the landmine problem
is the refugee population entering from neighboring countries. Although there
is no evidence that mines are planted inside Tanzania, mine victims from Burundi
and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are found in Tanzania. There are no
known mine risk education programs for the refugees who enter Tanzania from
these mine-affected countries.
Because Tanzania is not mine-affected, there are no mine clearance
programs. However, research funded by the Belgian government is being conducted
on the use of biosensors (rats) in humanitarian mine clearance operations. The
Belgian government has dedicated US$441,073 for this
project.[3]
LANDMINE CASUALTIES
In 2001 and 2002, there were no reported landmine
incidents on Tanzanian territory. While data on landmine survivors entering
Tanzania is not collected in a systematic or comprehensive manner, the available
information gives an indication of the problem. Landmine Monitor field surveys
showed that civilians suffering landmine casualties continued to enter Tanzania
in 2001, while escalation of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo saw
new mine victims arriving from
there.[4]
Survivors arriving from the DRC
Information on landmine casualties from the DRC
was not previously available to Landmine Monitor. According to Dr. Niels Oster,
a surgeon at Heri Mission Hospital in Tanzania, most of the patients admitted
with landmine injuries are from the DRC; this observation was confirmed by Dr.
Jonathan Newkrik, Director of the Kigoma Baptist Mission Hospital, where he is
also a surgeon.[5]
In 2001, Tanzania received a stream of refugees from the Democratic Republic
of Congo.[6] Upon arrival, the
refugees are held at the NMC reception center awaiting transfer into the refugee
camps. Landmine Monitor was shown the records of three Congolese landmine
survivors, two men and one woman, injured in the DRC in September
2001.[7]
Landmine Monitor interviewed some new arrivals who said mines are laid on the
roads from Baraka and Muyega Hills in the DRC to keep away the Mayi Mayi rebels.
One of the new arrivals reported seeing two people being brought in for medical
assistance after stepping on a landmine at Bwali. They said that other mined
areas included Sebele, Kazimiya and the road to Fizi.
Information was also provided by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) on
landmine casualties from the DRC who had been referred to the Kigoma Baptist
Mission Hospital. Seven landmine casualties were recorded between August and
October 2001, including five men, one woman, and a three-year-old
boy.[8]
Survivors arriving from Burundi
At the Heri Mission Hospital, Landmine Monitor
talked to a person who had stepped on a landmine in Rumonge commune, Burundi on
7 September 2001. Rumonge commune is on the border with Tanzania and many of the
landmine survivors in Tanzaniacome from
here.[9]Most of the
refugees have farms across the border and occasionally leave Tanzania to tend
their crops. It was on one such trip that the survivor interviewed was injured.
The Heri Mission Hospital showed Landmine Monitor records on thirteen male
landmine survivors from Burundi. Most of the incidents occurred between January
and September 2001, while two incidents occurred in 1999 or 2000.
At Manyovu Way Station an official said a number of refugees arrive with
injuries due to hand grenades and
landmines.[10] The officials
admitted that when recording information they do not differentiate whether the
injuries are from landmines or from hand grenades and refugees will mostly say
that the injuries are from “mabomb,”’ which is a rough
translation of the Swahili word for “landmine.” Of the 174 cases
that came through the station between October 2000 and 9 January 2002 (date of
interview), the official estimated that about 48 cases were classified as
“bomb” cases. According to the doctor at Kigoma Baptist Mission
Hospital, most of these “bomb” cases were actually landmine
incidents.[11]
Landmine survivors were also interviewed at Kasangenzi Reception Center. A
survivor from Kayogoro in Makamba, an area very close to the border, was injured
in August 2001 and taken to the Heri Mission Hospital. Government soldiers
control that area. In another incident, a civilian from Butanganzo in Ruyigi
was injured on 16 September 2001 while fleeing to Tanzania. He sustained his
injuries at Rutana, another commune bordering Tanzania. He stepped on the mine
and survived, but a male companion died on the spot. Tanzanian traders took him
to the Kigoma Baptist Mission Hospital.
SURVIVOR ASSISTANCE
Public health facilities and services available
for landmine survivors along the Tanzania-Burundi border are sparse and
under-funded. Tanzania has no specific funding for landmine survivor assistance.
Survivors are treated in local hospitals, mostly mission hospitals in the border
area. The Heri Mission and Kigoma Baptist Mission Hospitals are not specifically
equipped to handle landmine cases.
The only assistance given at Heri Mission Hospital is immediate medical
attention: medication, surgery, and dressing of wounds. The hospital operates
on donations and is unable to provide prostheses. Dr. Oster has been the only
surgeon at this hospital for the last nine years. He said that the length of
time it takes for survivors to get medical help complicates their situation as
they arrive with serious wounds. Some patients stay at the hospital for as long
as a year, depending on injuries sustained and the length of time before medical
attention becomes available.[12]
In March 2001, the ICRC provided first aid training for Red Cross volunteers,
rural health workers, local leaders, and other medical teams in
Kigoma.[13] The ICRC provides
material and financial support to three hospitals, in Kigoma and along the
border with Burundi, for war-wounded refugees in
Tanzania.[14] The ICRC provides
material and financial support to hospitals in Kigoma, Heri, and Kibonda and
nine dispensaries, and assists with the transfer of war-wounded refugees,
including mine/UXO casualties, from reception centers to the
hospitals.[15]
Dr. Muhammed Qassim of UNHCR explained that the ICRC has always provided
medical assistance at no cost for the treatment of any injured
refugee.[16] All patients are
treated equally. Those who require specialized treatment are taken to Dar es
Salaam, with the logistical support of UNHCR. However, no landmine cases were
transferred to Dar es Salaam during the reporting period.
[1] Efforts by Landmine Monitor to obtain
information on the status of the Article 7 report and implementation measures
were unsuccessful; there were no responses to a telephone inquiry to the High
Commission in the UK and an email to the Acting High Commissioner and copied to
the Defense Attaché, 1 April 2002.
[2] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001,
p. 155, regarding use in 1979 and
1986-88. [3] Ellen van Krunkelsven, a
research biologist working on the project, told the BBC, 7 June 2001; see
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_318674.html?menu=news.quirkies. See also,
Mine Action Investment Page, UN Mine Action, at
http://webapps.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/mai/frameset.asp/. [4]
The first field survey was carried out in February 2001 and the second field
survey was carried out from 7-14 January
2002. [5] Interview with Dr. Niels
Oster, Heri Mission Hospital, and Dr. Jonathan Newkrik, Director and Surgeon at
Kigoma Baptist Mission Hospital, 9 January 2002. Landmine Monitor was unable to
visit the government-funded Kigoma Regional Hospital because a special permit
was unexpectedly required. [6]
According to UNHCR statistics, there are more refugees crossing the border from
the DRC than from Burundi. [7] The
three entries were recorded at the NMC reception center for refugees arriving
from the DRC. The International Rescue Committee is in charge of this center.
After the arrival of refugees at the border point IRC informs UNHCR, who send a
boat and transports refugees to transit center or to the hospital if they are
injured or unwell. [8] The information
came from Kibirizi 1, where arriving refugees have their details taken and are
then moved on to various holding centers, or to hospitals if medical assistance
is needed. The agency in charge is the IRC, which keeps records of all medical
cases, including where injuries occurred and whether caused by bullets,
landmines or hand grenades. [9]
Interview with mine survivor, Heri Mission Hospital, Tanzania, 9 January
2002. [10] Interview with Caritas
Muduga, a clerk with Caritas on 9 January 2002. Caritas is the implementing
agency for the UNHCR at Manyovu. [11]
Interview with Dr. Jonathan Newkrik, Director and Surgeon at Kigoma Baptist
Mission Hospital on 9 January 2002. [12]
Interview with Dr. Niels Oster, Heri Mission Hospital, 9 January
2002. [13] Interview with senior ICRC
official on 15 February 2001; email from Landmine Monitor researcher, 24 July
2001. [14] ICRC Annual Report 2000, p.
95. [15] ICRC (Geneva), Special Report,
Mine Action 2001, July 2002, p. 22. [16]
Interview with Dr. Qassim, Senior Health Coordinator for UNHCR, 11 January 2002.
Dr. Qassim gave his personal views and not those of the UNHCR.
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