By Wallace Mawire
Zimbabwe has hosted a three day national stakeholders dialogue running from 18 to 20 February, 2025 to enhance its initiatives and seek funding to complete its demining exercises meant to remove landmines and other explosive devises planted during the country’s Liberation war in the 1970s.
The Zimbabwe’s national stakeholder Dialogue is running under the theme humanitarian demining and assistance to mine victims, the path forward. It is being convened by the government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Defense, the European Union Delegation in Zimbabwe (EU), the Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC) and the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
The organizers said that Zimbabwe has suffered the devastating effects from the use of anti-personnel mines placed in the country in the 1960s and 1970s.
They said that Zimbabwe was among the world’s first countries to join the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and Their Destruction also known as the Anti-personnel Mine Bank Convention or Mine Bank Treaty.
In a statement, the organizers of the Dialogue said that by joining the Convention, Zimbabwe undertook to implement various obligations including Article 5,which calls on the State Party to undertake to destroy or ensure the destruction of all anti-personnel mines in lined areas under its jurisdiction or control along with other preventive measures.
The country is also mandated to provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation including social and economic reintegration of mine victims and mine awareness programmes as enshrined in Article 6.3.
According to the Conversation, the concept known as victim assistance (VA) is a rights based approach that sees its implementation being attached to a State Party’s wider efforts to meet its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the rights of all persons with disabilities.
Within the Convention ‘s framework, Zimbabwe has until 31 December 2025 to finalise clearance operations.
The organizers said that while the milestone is at the fingertips, remaining barriers prevent the State Party from fulfilling the Article 5 obligation within the time frame.They said that the country has to present a request to extend its mine clearance deadline.
It is added that by decision of the State Parties, such requests should take into consideration feedback from stakeholders, including from mine affected communities and their representative organizations including partners.
The country is starting to devise a plan for what it needs to do to address any residual mine contamination post completion of the demining programme.
The Zimbabwean Mine Action Centre and the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) under the Ministry of Defense are the national structures for implementing aspects related to Article 5.
Victim Assistance implementation is carried out by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. The national agencies are jointly hosting the national dialogue. Technical support for the dialogue has been provided by the Convention’s Implementation Support Unit (ISU), while financial support has been provided by the Council of the European Union (EU), which adopted Decision 2021/257 in the Framework of the European Security Strategy and in accordance with relevant decisions of the international community to support implementation of the Convention.
The dialogue focused on discussions on lessons learnt and challenges in addressing the socio-economic impact of anti-personnel mines, the road map ahead, understanding victim assistance obligation and disability rights,national implementation progress and challenges, integrating victim assistance and disability into broader frameworks data collection, Uganda’s experience in sustaining assistance to mine victims past mine clearance completion, rehabilitation and assistive technology, reaching out to victims in communities including cooperation and assistance.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence,Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri said that the dialogue is part of Zimbabwe’s efforts to mobilise enough resources for the mine action programme in pursuit of the quest for a mine free country and by extension,the entire world.
She said that in Zimbabwe,minefields were planted by the Rhodesian colonial forces at the height of the armed struggles in the 1970s,with a view to inhibit the movement of freedom fighters to and from neighbouring countries of Zambia and Mozambique.
Kashiri said the minefields transcended six provinces of the country namely Matebeleland North,Mashonaland West,Mashonaland Central,Mashonaland East,Manicaland and Masvingo,covering an area of 310 650 square kilometres.
She said the funding gap as at September, 2024 and completion of mine clearance in Zimbabwe by 2028 was $23,79 million.
Jobst Von Kirchmann,Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Zimbabwe said that the block fully supports the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.He said that this is the second activity sponsored for Zimbabwe under the current EU support. He said a similar dialogue on stepping up mine clearance was organized two years back.
British Ambassador to Zimbabwe,Pete Vowles said that the United Kingdom as a leading funder since 2016,has committed $29 million,almost $4 million this year alone.
He said that this makes Zimbabwe the second largest United Kingdom’s mine action commitment globally after Ukraine.
Vowles said the United Kingdom will continue to fund Zimbabwe’s mine clearance efforts through to the end of March,2026.
