Mozambique Strides Confidently Into New Mine-Free Era

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Mozambique, once one of the most heavily land-mined countries in the world, is declaring itself free of the deadly scourge.

In 1992, as it emerged from 16 years of civil war, Mozambique was considered — along with Angola, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cambodia — one of the five most heavily mined nations on Earth.

Now, no later than early 2015, Mozambique will be the first of the five to be declared “impact-free.”

Minefields were the deadly legacy of the bloodshed that killed a million people in fighting between the Frelimo liberation movement and anti-communist Renamo rebels. The mines also were lingering scars of long-forgotten conflicts including the 1964-1975 war of independence with Portugal and hostilities along the border with then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

Experts feared clearing tens of thousands of buried weapons would take 50 to 100 years. Instead, it took just more than 20 years.

This rare success story has been achieved thanks to cooperation among the government in Maputo, nongovernmental organizations and international donors such as Britain, Sweden and the United States.

Demining experts talk of the resilience and courage of villagers who have carved paths through these fields of death by hurling boulders into them to serve as a series of stepping stones.

The United States is the largest single donor to humanitarian demining programs, spending $2.3 billion across 90 countries since 1993 — or 30 percent of the global total. Of that, $53 million has gone to Mozambique.

The toll in Mozambique has been heavy. Exact figures are unknown, but the National Demining Institute recorded 2,145 casualties up to 2001 without breaking down the figure between injuries and deaths. In recent years, the number of annual accidents has slipped to single digits.

About 182,000 land mines have been cleared since 1993, of which about 150,000 were safely removed by the HALO Trust, the British NGO championed by the late Princess Diana.

Mozambique also has benefited from some pioneering cutting-edge technology, including sophisticated metal detectors, that helped speed up the work. Perhaps the most unusual innovation is the use of rats. Rats are trained to detect TNT beneath the ground in return for a treat. They can scour an area much faster than humans.