Landmine threat to civilians reported

Landmines allegedly planted by the army are posing a threat to civilians in war-torn areas of the country, according to NGO sources cited in a report by the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) on Wednesday. “Civilians have once again become victims of landmines, recently planted in the rural areas of Bujumbura frequented by the rebels,” it quoted them as saying.

One of the areas involved was Tenga, 15 km north of the capital, where civilians had keenly felt the effects, JRS said. “More and more, mines are planted close to houses, so residents do not dare enter their own homes. They flee empty-handed,” it quoted an NGO source as saying. Some 10,000 people were isolated, without food and adequate shelter, the report said.

The zone surrounding the airport also appeared to have been mined following the shooting of a Sabena airlines plane in early December, it added. Another worrying trend, according to JRS sources, was the forced recruitment of young men by the army to strengthen military positions situated along the road of the coffee plantations.

The former president of Mali, General Toumani Toure, was in Bujumbura this week carrying a message from Boutros-Boutros Ghali, Secretary-General of La Francophonie (the organisation of French-speaking countries), on the ratification of the Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines, the Burundi news agency ABP reported.

The ‘Landmine Monitor Report 2000’ of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines expressed concern at credible reports, from UNHCR among others, of the use of anti-personnel mines by the Burundi government, a treaty signatory.

An August 1998 report by the UN Mine Action Service considered that mines did not, as of then, pose a major humanitarian and/or socio-economic problem in Burundi, but that there was serious concern that the situation could rapidly deteriorate should the political and military environment worsen in Burundi and the Great Lakes Region. All warring parties in Burundi seemed to have used both anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, UNMAS stated.