The Somaliland Coalition against Landmines

 

 The Menace of Landmines in the Horn of Africa

 

 

Proceedings of a workshop held in Hargeisa

November 23-24, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Institute for Practical Research and Training

Table of Contents

 

            List of Participants                                                                                             2-4

            Welcoming Remarks, Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Yusuf

                        Chairman of the Guurti                                                                           5

            Opening Remarks

 Ahmed Mohamed Adan, Speaker of the House of

                                    Representatives                                                             6

                        Bashir Haji Hassan Geileh, Vice Minister, MRR&R                                    7

            The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Ahmed H. Esa

                        The Institute for Practical Research and Training                                     8-10

            Assitance to Mine-Affected Comunities in the Light of Bad

                        Honnef Guidelines, Abdilkadir Jirdeh, Deputy Speaker of

                        The House of Representatives                                                                 11-13

           

Landmines in the Horn of Africa

 

                        Landmines in Djibouti, Dahir Osman Omar, L’Association

                        De Soutien Aux Victimes de Mines (ASSOVIM/Djibouti)                            14-16

                       

                        Landmines in the Sudan, Hagir Mohamed Kheir Mussa,

                        Sudan Campaign to Ban Landmines                                                        17-18

           

                        Landmines in Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mohamoud Issa

                        Somali Campaign to Ban Landmines                                                       19-28

 

            Presentation by International NGOs Involved in Mine Clearance in

                        Somaliland

 

                        Care International, Jonathan Karanja                                                      29-32

                        Danish Demining Group, Mohamed Ali Ismail                                           33-36

                        HALO TRUST, Matthew Hovell                                                                 37       

 

            Victim Assistance

           

                        SOYAAL Mine Victim Assistance Program                                               38-40

Handicap International/Action Nord Sud                                                  41-42

HAVAYOCO Mine Awareness Program                                                   43

 

Mine Awareness in Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamed Madar, SORRA                      44-45

 

The Socioeconomic Impact of Landmines, Mohamed Abdi Dhimbil,                  

            Consortium of Somaliland NGOs                                                 46-48

 

Working Group Proceedings

            Group 1: Press Release of the working group on cooperation among         49-50

                        Horn of Africa campaigns

            Group 2: The proceedings of the working group on mine action

coordination in Somaliland                                                          51-56

 

Annex: Resolution of the House of Representatives on landmines

Passed on March 1, 1999                                                                      57-58   

                                                List of Participants

 

 

 

Hagir Mohamed Kheir Mussa

Sudan Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Ahmed Mohamed Adan

Speaker of the House of Represenatatives

 

Abdikadir Jirdeh Ali

Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives

Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Ed Malcik

Deputy Chief of Mission

US Embassy Djibouti

 

Mohamed Abdi Dhinbil

COSONGO NGO umbrella, Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Ahmed Mohamed Madar

The Somali Relief and Rehabilitation Association

Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Saed Shukri

Chairman, SOOYAAL, The Somaliland War

Veterans Association, and the Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Ali Jama

Action Nord Sud / Handicap International

Hargeisa

 

Karen Perrin

Action Nord Sud / Handicap International

 

Florence Thun

Action Nord Sud/Handicap International

Horn of Africa Regional Officer, Lyons, France

 

Mohamed Ali Ismail

Danish Demining Group

Hargeisa

 

Greenfields Associates

 

Bo Bischoff

Danish Demining Group

Copenhagen, Denmark

 

Erik Willandsen

Danish Demining Group

Hargeisa

           

Jonathan  Karanja

Care International

Nairobi

 

Mohamed Nuh

Care International and

The Somaliland Campaign to Ban Landmines

Hargeisa

 

Mohamed Abdilahi Gardaf

Care International

Hargeisa

 

Bashir H. Hassan Geileh

Vice Minister, MRR&R

 

Abdillahi Omar Hassan

Director General, MRR&R

 

Ismail Hashi Madar

Director, NDA, MRR&R

 

Ahmed Ali Kahin

Legal Advisor, House of Representatives and Consultant to MRR&R on Landmine Policy

 

Hussein Abdilahi Dualeh

Consultant, MRR&R on Landmine Policy

 

Matthew Hovell

HALO Trust

Hargeisa

Abdirahman Mohamed Sh. Ibrahim

HALO TRUST

Hargeisa

 

Nick Bateman

HALO TRUST

UK

 

Mohamed Osman

HALO Trust

Hargeisa

 

Mohamed Hassan (Jidhif)

SMAC

 

Mohamud Issa

Santa Barbara Foundation

Somali Campaign to Ban Landmines

 

Dr. Romanus Mkerenga

Officer in Charge, UNICEF

 

Abdi Farah Elmi

UNICEF, Focal person on landmines

 

Jab Swart

UNDP Somali Civil Protection Program

 

Sahra Ibrahim Hussein

UNDP, Somali Civil Protection Program

 

Dahir  Osman Omar

President,  Association de Soutien aux Victimes de Mines, Djibouti

 

Peter Fuyane

Santa Barbara Foundation

Hargeisa

 

Brian Barnes

Saint Barbara Foundation

Hargeisa

 

Joe Anzuino

Terra Nuova

 

Francis Simba

Kenya Rural Enterprises Programme (K-REP)

 

Mohamed Ibrahim Odawa

Mine Information and Social Awareness (MISA)

 

Abdikarim Omar Odawa

Mine Information and Social Awareness

 

Osman Mohamed

Minsitry of Interior

 

Nasir Ahmed Ismail

Mine Risk Education

 

Frank Krause

UNHCT/HABITAT

Hargeisa

 

Patrick Mwale

UNHCT/HABITAT

 

Abdikarim Ahmed Mogeh

HAVOYOCO, Hargeisa

 

Ahmed Aw Gedi

HAVOYOCO, Hargeisa

 

Ahmed Yassin

Action Nord Sud/ Handicap

Hargeisa

 

James D. Megill

Canadian Association for Mines and Unexploded Ordnance Security, Montreal, Canada

 

Ibrahim Abdillahi Hassan

Ministry of Interior

 

Hassan Abdillahi Jama

Ministry of Planning

 

Hassan Adan Ali

UNICEF

Ali Ahmed Ismail

FRANSO

^{IPR STAFF}

Ahmed H. Esa

Omar Ali Abdi

Khadar Ahmed

 

 

^{Welcoming Remarks: Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Yusuf Sheikh Madar, Chairman, GUURTI (Upper House of Parliament)}

 

 

 

^{Opening Remarks by Ahmed Mohamed Adan (Speaker of the House of Representatives)}

^{Opening Remarks by Bashir Haji Hassan Geileh, Vice-Minister, Ministry of Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (MRR&R).}

Honorable guests, dear ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, good morning and thank you for all being here, especially those of you who have traveled from long distances just to participate in this workshop.  I would also like to thank and congratulate Dr. Ahmed Hussein Esa of IPR and the Honorable Abdilkadir Jirdeh and their colleagues who have contributed to this workshop and made it possible.

The Ministry of Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (MRR&R) is mandated by our government to formulate policy and guide mine action in Somaliland.  The ministry has subsequently established a National Demining Agency with the responsibility for all activities in Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA).

The NDA’s responsibilities are as follows:

¨  to implement policies guidelines formulated by the ministry

¨  coordinate activities and setup strategic plans of action

¨  evaluate and monitor the financial aspects of all HMA activities

The Somaliland Mine Action Center (SMAC) was also established as a technical organ to assist NDA in its role in coordination, evaluation and monitoring, standardization and quality assurance.  SMAC is also hoped to provide in-puts relevant to the strategic planning and to perform the following activities:

¨    support activities of data collection and compilation

¨    Setting up of a data center and HMA database including such elements as accident statistics, survey and mapping data, mine awareness training and victim assistance programs.

To put these issues together and make it functional has been very difficult for the ministry as the ministry currently has no resources and since our government cannot at this stage provide financial or human resource support. Therefore, we are kindly requesting from the international communities, UN and international non-governmental organizations to assist us with the provision of technical assistance, human resource development and institutional strengthening.

For your information, our previous experience with the UN or international agencies on donor provided capacity building has been that those funds were not properly utilized, and therefore, I hope in the future there will be better transparency and accountability. Finally I would like to say thank you for both helping us in the process of policy formulation and assistance with the restructuring of NDA/SMAC.  I would also like to thank CARE International for their assistance to us to cover the cost of technical assistance.

 

^{The International Campaign to Ban Landmines}

Overview:  Ahmed H. Esa, The Institute for Practical Research and Training

 

 

               Throughout human history war has been a constant.  Every civilization has witnessed war and man’s cruelty to mankind.  While waging war, however, combatants have often recognized certain limitations on the conduct of war.  Today, these limitations are rooted in customary humanitarian practices that date to the medieval era[1].  The customary humanitarian principle that military requirements must be counter balanced with humanitarian considerations was first formalized in the St. Petersburg declaration of 1868, which stated “that there are limits at which the necessities of war ought to yield to the requirements of humanity.”

 

Under Customary Law three principles are generally recognized:

 

·       Parties in conflict are not unlimited in the way they conduct war.

·       Military needs must yield to humanitarian considerations.

·       Combatants must strive to protect civilians from the effects of hostilities, and therefore, are required to employ means of combat that discriminate between civilian and military targets.

 

In the Geneva Convention of 1949, the need to protect civilians in times of war was codified in  international treaty.  Last year, the world celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Geneva Convention with the reaffirmation that “EVEN WAR HAS LIMITS”. 

 

In subsequent protocols to the Geneva Convention (Protocol I and Protocol II), protection of civilians in both international and non-international conflicts and the principle of proportionality were re-emphasized.  In these additional protocols, the world affirmed “ the principle of proportionality by prohibiting the employment of weapons that cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or “methods of combat” that do not distinguish military objectives and civilians”.

 

Well before the Ottawa Convention and international efforts towards a total ban of landmines, the world community had realized the special nature of landmines and the havoc they pose in many parts of the world.  In 1980, Protocol II (the landmines protocol) was annexed to the United Nations Convention on the Prohibition on the use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) which may be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to have Indiscriminate Effects[2].  Protocol II of the CCW (Protocol on the Prohibition or Restrictions of the Use of Mines, Booby Traps and other Devices) was modified in 1996 to prohibit the use of mines in a way that “may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”.    

 

 

Landmines, unlike other weapons, lie dormant waiting for a vehicle, a person, or an animal to explode it.  They cannot discriminate between the foot of the soldier in battle or that of a small child wandering in the woods many years after the conflict has passed.  They kill and maim, and the mutilations they cause cannot be corrected or masked by medical intervention.  The use of landmines violates international humanitarian law.  They are indiscriminate weapons.

 

In spite of the international treaties and protocols designed to restrict the use of landmines according to tenants of international humanitarian law, landmines have been used widely throughout much of the world in the past four decades.  Today, the world faces a landmine crisis.  There may be as many as 100 million unexploded mines buried in countries around the world, including Angola, Mozambique, Cambodia, Somaliland, Vietnam, Afqanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, parts of the former Yugoslavia, El Salvador, and the Democratic Republic of the Gongo.

 

Mindful that the landmine crisis cannot be addressed by measures short of a total ban on the use of landmines, a handful of international NGOs banded together in 1992 to lobby and actively work for a total ban.  The handful of NGOS that started the International Campaign to Ban Landmines have now been joined by more than 1400 other NGOs throughout the world, including the Somaliland Coalition against Landmines.  The work of the ICBL was immensely advanced by several like- minded governments such as Canada and. As you all may know, On Dec 2, 1997, 122 countries gathered in Ottawa to sign the Mine Ban Treaty (Ottawa Convention) on the Prohibition on the Use, Production, Stockpiling and Transfer of Landmines. Today, 140 countries have signed the Ottawa Convention and 80 countries have ratified it through local legislation.  It entered into force on March 1, 1999, after 40 countries had ratified it.  In 1998, the world honored the ICBL and its coordinator, Jody Williams, by awarding them the Nobel Peace Price. 

 

The ban on landmines has been effective thus far.  A number of major countries, including the United Kingdom and France, have already destroyed all their stockpiles of landmines.  Ukraine has started destroying some of its 11 million landmines.  Other countries, including non-signatories, have instituted moratoria or total ban on transfer of mines to second parties. 

 

The Ban Treaty has certain deficiencies that must be addressed.  It does not ban anti-tank mines or anti-handling devices.  It does not bind non-state actors and some of the major landmine producers such as China, the United States, Russia and Pakistan have not joined the ban.

 

One of the reasons that the Ban Treaty has been so successful has been the conclusion by many military experts that landmines were not particularly useful weapons.  Studies by the ICRC, which covered some 26 conflicts between 1940 and 1995, concluded that use of landmines did not change the outcome of the conflict[3].   Several studies commissioned by the US Defense Department also came to the conclusion that landmines were only marginally useful.[4]^,[5]

 

Landmines are, however, extremely useful as weapons of terror.  In deed, the landmine crisis we face today is largely due to the use of landmines as weapons to terrorize civilian populations.  They have been used in fields, around water reservoirs, inside cities and villages, on farmland.  In Somaliland, landmines were used by army of the regime of Siyad Barre essentially to harm the local population.  In 1991, refugees coming back to their homes after three years in refugee camps found almost every house booby trapped and mined.  Casualties mounted quickly.  Between November 1990 and April 1991, two to three landmine victims were being brought every day to Hargiesa Group Hospital alone.  The casualty rate has significantly diminished now, thanks in part to some demining work, but primarily because people have learned to live with landmines, knowing where to avoid.

The problem is, however, far from over.  While we advocate for more funds for demining and mine action, we ought to realize the importance of eradicating this “terror” once and for all.  The Somaliland community must show the world that it is also willing to do its part by joining the world and committing to the total non-use of landmines and destruction of all stocks.  It is important to remember, that in the 1994-1995 civil conflict, it was not an enemy force that planted landmines in the streets of Burao, but members of our community.

 

It is heartening that the government of Somaliland and the Somaliland Parliament have both shown a willingness towards a sensible policy on landmines and a willingness to join the world community in a total ban.  I know that Somaliland, as a country not recognized diplomatically cannot sign the treaty, but are heartened by its willingness to do so unilaterally as evidenced by a letter the President of Somaliland wrote to Mr. Llyod Axoworthy, the Foreign Minister of Canada, on November 26, 1997 on the eve of the Ottawa Convention signing ceremony.

 

While almost all the countries of the Horn of Africa face severe landmine crisis, only Djibouti and Uganda have signed and ratified the treaty.  Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia have signed but not ratified the Ban Treaty.  There are allegations of new use of landmines in a number of countries.  It is very important and critical for the Horn of Africa communities to join the rest of the world community and work towards a mine-free world.  It is also important for the ICBL to focus on the Horn of Africa, where more than 155 million people face the daily threat of landmine explosions.

 

^{Assistance to Mine-Affected Communities in the Light of Bad Honnef Guidelines}

 

Abdilkadir Jirdeh, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and member of SCAL

 

            Bad Honnef guidelines presented for aid progarmmes addressing the threat by mines are based on the experience gathered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at project level. Until recently mine action has meant mine awareness, surveying, marking and demining mine-infested areas.  Subsequently, this term was expanded to include mine victim assistance and long-term development. Mine Action programmes, as they are called here, consist of the following components:

 

¨     Mine awareness, surveying marking and demining.

¨     First aid and physical rehabilitation for the injured.

¨     Socio-economic and psychological rehabilitation of individuals and families.

¨     Reconstruction and development of mine-affected communities.

¨     Empowerment and training of local workers to carry out the progammmes.

 

There are three sets of issues that will have to he addressed first:

 

a)                The impact of  landmines on the community 

b)                The community in the mine action process

c)                The organization of humanitarian mine action

 

            The Bad Honnef guidelines are based on the conviction that improved assistance to mine-affected communities must start with a deeper understanding of local responses to landmines.

 

Rather than viewing people in those communities as passive victims it acknowledges their importance as active subjects. The implications are far reaching; lasting results are most likely to come form a combination of outside assistance that is sensitive to local capacities with empowerment of the mine affected in their relation with technical and relief organizations.

 

            A          The Community Impact of Landmines  

 

While there is general perception that landmines have a severe community impact, this is not very well documented. Existing documentation based on survey data establish individual level effects but do not examine how landmines affect the social fabric of communities, although it is clear that an understanding of the inter-related social dynamics would be vital for any successful intervention. Similarly it is important to look into the extent that mine clearance triggers local social and economic development.

 

Communities build their own capacities to cope with landmine problems, for example by developing informal information channels to risks related to landmines, through economic adaptation to the mined environment or even undertaking their own mine action. Such local capacities should by no means be seen as a justification for withholding external assistance, and in some instance the self-help activities are so risky that they should be discouraged. Nevertheless it remains imperative for the design of intervention that community capacities are properly understood. It is common knowledge from disaster research that the degree to which external interventions build on local capacities is decisive for their long-term success.

 

Living with landmines means living with risk. This is the core concern for landmines policy. Mine clearance progammes must seek to minimize the risk to the civilian population in mined areas while ensuring local involvement and responsibility. This is important because we know from other disaster situations that the most effective coping mechanisms develop locally.

 

Simultaneously, it remains imperative that the best possible security conditions be maintained for those  engaged professionally in mine- action.

 

The aim to empower those who are “hosting” mine action progammes poses new challenges for risk management as well as for technical and humanitarian aid policy.

 

b)               The community in the mine action process

 

The slow pace of mine action is cause for increasing frustration among donors, deminers and mine-affected communities .So far the search for solutions has largely concentrated on more and more advanced technology. However a different approach to increase mine action capacity has entered the agenda. This explores the ways local communities can be involved in the operation. One moderate form of community involvement, currently applied is the use of local informants in the survey process.

 

A far-reaching community involvement would, like in all other relief or development projects, enhance sustainability.

 

There have been instances, where demined communities in Southern Somalia laid new mines, in order to attract another mine action exercises with all its support functions. People who have spent years in war can develop a large tolerance for arms and danger, perhaps their participation is one way of preventing new mine use. The challenge is to propose ways in w