Human Rights Watch called on all the members of the Organization of African Unity and Morocco to declare themselves a landmine-free zone.
A summit of the OAU Heads of Government begins this week in Burkina Faso. A majority of African governments have already signed the December 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction. But thirteen African countries still have not signed: Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Thirty-nine African governments have signed the treaty, and two have ratified (Mauritius and Djibouti). Another four governments have passed ratification legislation, but have not completed the full ratification process (Guinea, Mali, South Africa, Zimbabwe).
"Africa is the most mine-affected continent in the world," said Alex Vines, researcher at Human Rights Watch. "That's one reason Africa has taken a lead in the global march to ban antipersonnel mines _ and must continue to do so."
Mr. Vines today presented Human Rights Watch's findings on landmines and Africa at an inter-African seminar on landmines in Ouagadougou, hosted by the Burkina-based Union Internationale des Droits de L'Homme and the Nobel-prize winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
Guinea Bissau, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe used to produce antipersonnel landmines, but have stopped and have signed the ban treaty. Egypt remains Africa's only landmine producer and continues to refuse to sign the convention banning antipersonnel mines.
Over forty African countries have suffered from landmine incidents. The most heavily infested are Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, Mozambique, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Human Rights Watch has received reports of antipersonnel landmines being newly laid in 1998 in conflicts in Angola, Djibouti, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.
Human Rights Watch calls on all African countries to ratify the ban treaty, which comprehensively bans all antipersonnel mines, requires destruction of stockpiled mines within four years, requires destruction of mines in the ground within ten years and urges extensive programs to assist the victims of landmines.
