Minefields found in Kitgum district

Mar 11, 2007

TWO mine fields containing hundreds of mines have been discovered in Kitgum district, along the Uganda-Sudan border.

By Alfred Wasike

TWO mine fields containing hundreds of mines have been discovered in Kitgum district, along the Uganda-Sudan border.

According to AVSI, an Italian NGO and the Ngomoromo internally displaced people’s camp commandant, Michael Otim, the minefields stretch from Lomwoko hills to Lomwoko Primary School in in Agoro sub-county and run through Apuk and Yoke villages in Ngomoromo sub-county.

“There are minefields in Agoro and ngomoromo,” said Rossini Marcos, the mine risk education programme manager of AVSI.

“We estimate that there are hundreds of mines. It is a very dangerous situation. We have reported it to the Mine Action Centre.”

The mines were discovered last January by Micheal Otim, the camp commandant of Ngomoromo, which houses over 2,500 people.

“We have received information about the minefields from a camp commandant and from other sources,” said Vincent Woboyi, national coordinator of the Uganda Mine Action Centre.

‘We are liaising with the army to clear them.”

According to the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), the mines were planted by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as part of their terror campaign and to slow down pursuit by the army.

“The LRA planted mines along village paths, water wells and other places frequented by the wanainchi (residents) as part of their scare tactic,” said UPDF spokesperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye.

“UPDF has never planted mines as we know the danger they pose to the population. Uganda is a signatory of the Ottawa Treaty which bans the production and application of those explosives.”

Clearing anti personnel mines is a time-consuming, costly and dangerous exercise, as the land needs to be searched inch by inch.

“It costs on average at least $1,000 to clear one mine,” says Woboya of the Mine Action Centre. “In Uganda, it is done manually by UPDF and Police, using metal detectors.”

Besides mines, unexploded ammunition has been found in Kitgum, Pader, Lira, Amuru and Gulu districts.

These include aircraft bombs, shells from mortars, bullets and shells from rocket-propelled grenades.

Facts on Land mines

There are more than 100 million land mines, located in 70 countries around the world.

Since 1975 land mines have killed or maimed more than one million people.
An international ban on the production and use of anti-personnel mines, known as the Ottawa Treaty, came into force on March 1999.

The Ottawa Treaty was the result of an international campaign to ban land mines, launched in 1992. The campaign and its leader, Jody Williams, won the Nobel Prize in 1997.

Signatories of the Ottawa Treaty agree that they will not use, develop, manufacture, stockpile or trade in anti-personnel land mines. It does not include anti-tank mines or cluster bombs, shells that eject multiple smaller bomblets.
As of November 2006, 155 countries had signed the treaty, including Uganda. Forty are yet to sign, among them the US.

The following countries have been identified as manufacturing land mines: Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Mynmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam. None are signatories to the Ottawa Treaty.

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