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Landmines in Southern Africa
Laurie H. Boulden and Martin Edmonds, The Politics of De-mining: Mine Clearance in Southern Africa (Johannesburg, South African Institute of International Affairs, 1999), 190 pp., ISBN 1-874890-92-7.
Martin Rupiah, Landmines in Zimbabwe: A Deadly Legacy (Harare, SAPES Books, 1998), 87 pp., ISBN 1-77905-065-8.
Southern Africa is the most mine-affected region in the world. For over 30 years, landmines have been killing and maiming civilians throughout the region. The first known mine casualty occurred in northern Angola in 1961. By year 2000, ten of the twelve countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) had recorded landmine incidents. Landmine warfare continues today in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. All of SADC's countries signed the 1997 Ottawa Landmine Ban Treaty except the DRC.
The use of antipersonnel landmines has been widespread in the colonial and post-colonial wars that have plagued much of southern Africa for the last three decades. During this period many millions of landmines were imported into southern Africa, while a smaller number were manufactured there. At least two countries in southern Africa have produced and exported antipersonnel landmines - South Africa and Zimbabwe. In 1997, both nations pledged no further production or export. Namibia may also have been a producer according to US military assessments.
Not all landmines have reached southern Africa through open, legal channels. In the case of the former Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa, landmines were purchased in contravention of UN sanctions. South Africa also used stocks of landmines captured in its invasions of Angola in the 1980s to supply insurgent forces in Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, as well as the illegal Rhodesian regime. The US supplied landmines to UNITA rebels in Angola until 1991. The provenance of landmines transferred to southern Africa can be complex. For example, in the l970s, French landmines removed from the ground in Algeria were later sold to Mozambique.
According to Human Rights Watch, mines have claimed some 250,000 victims...