Five-Year Review: Non-signatoryZimbabwe supports the convention and has expressed its interest in joining, but has not taken any steps toward accession besides consultations. Zimbabwe has participated as an observer in most of the convention’s meetings. Zimbabwe produced, exported, and imported cluster munitions in the past and is believed to stockpile them, but it is not clear if Zimbabwe has ever used cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Zimbabwe has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Zimbabwe has expressed its support for the convention and interest in joining, but has not taken any steps toward accession.[1] In May 2012, a government representative said Zimbabwe was conducting “consultations with relevant stakeholders on the country’s accession to the Convention on Cluster Munitions” that it hoped to soon conclude.[2]

Zimbabwe participated in two regional meetings held during the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and expressed its support for a comprehensive ban without exceptions.[3] It was absent from the Dublin negotiations in May 2008 and Oslo signing conference in December 2008.

Zimbabwe has participated as an observer in three of the convention’s Meetings of States Parties (2010, 2012, 2013). It has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva since 2012. Zimbabwe has participated in regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Lusaka, Zambia on 17–18 June 2015.[4]

Zimbabwe is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

It is unclear if Zimbabwe has ever used cluster munitions.[5]

Zimbabwe is not known to have produced or exported cluster munitions since its independence, but it likely still stockpiles cluster munitions.

Jane’s Information Group has reported that the Alpha bomblet developed for the South African CB-470 cluster bomb was produced in Rhodesia and that “Zimbabwe may have quantities of the Alpha bomblet.”[6] In 2010, an official informed the CMC that Zimbabwe still possessed cluster munitions that remained from the former Rhodesia’s arsenal.[7]

Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paolo reported in 2012 on declassified Ministry of Defense documents showing that Brazil transferred 104 BLG-250K and four BLG-60K cluster bombs and various components for BLG-500K, BLG-250K, and BLG-60k cluster bombs to Zimbabwe between January 2001 and May 2002.[8]

Zimbabwe also possesses RM-70 122mm surface-to-surface rocket systems, but it is not known if these include versions with submunition payloads.[9]

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 January 2018
(Not on track to meet deadline) 

Recommendations for action

• Zimbabwe should revise estimates on the size of remaining mine contamination on the basis of ongoing survey efforts and set a target for completion of all mine clearance.
• Continued efforts should be made to ensure all operators are using appropriate land release methodologies and standards.
• Greater efforts should be made to improve the quality of national reporting and the Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC) should respond to requests for data from the international mine action community.
• Zimbabwe should ensure an appropriate administrative framework for clearance operations is in place.
• Zimbabwe should develop a resource mobilization plan and clarify how financial resources will be used to fulfil its extension request targets.

Contamination

At the end of 2014, the Republic of Zimbabwe had 199 confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) containing mines, covering just under 63km², across six locations (see table below).[1]

Contamination by location as of end 2014[2]

Zimbabwe’s mine contamination, the overwhelming majority of which is antipersonnel, originates from the laying of minefields in the late 1970s during a conflict of decolonization. At the time of its independence in 1980, Zimbabwe was left with six distinct major mined areas along its borders with Mozambique and Zambia, laid by the Rhodesian Army.[4] Initially, antipersonnel mines were laid in very dense belts (reportedly 5,500 mines per kilometer of frontage) to form a “cordon sanitaire.” Over time, this cordon sanitaire was breached or subject to erosion and so, in many sections, a second belt of “ploughshare” directional fragmentation mines protected by antipersonnel mines were laid “inland” of the cordon sanitaire.[5] Antivehicle mines were used extensively by insurgents but most were detonated by vehicles or have since been cleared.[6]

In its fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline extension request, submitted in December 2013, Zimbabwe reported remaining contamination of almost 209km².[7] This was reduced to a total of under 63km² of contamination remaining at the end of 2014, largely on the basis of a significant amount of land release by non-technical survey during that year and previously by international NGOs that began operating in 2013.[8] As of April 2015, remaining contamination comprised five minefields, referred to as: Musengezi to Rwenya,[9] Sango Border Post to Crooks Corner, Rusitu to Muzite Mission, Sheba Forest to Beacon Hill, and Lusulu. The Burma Valley minefield was completed in February 2015 and a former suspected hazardous area, at Kariba, was cleared of improvised explosive devices in June 2013.[10] 

Zimbabwe has reported that the population most at risk from the remaining mine threat are rural subsistence farmers and communities close to the Musengezi to Rwenya and Sango Border Post to Crooks Corner minefields.[11]

HALO Trust and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), the two NGOs conducting mine action in Zimbabwe, have reported that the mined areas are located close to populated areas and have considerable humanitarian, social, and economic impacts on communities.[12] In March 2015, HALO reported that in areas where it operates in the north-east of Zimbabwe, mines continue to block access to residential land, inhibit cross-border trading, deny small-scale farmers access to agricultural land, and separate communities from primary water sources, adversely affecting sanitation and livestock production.[13] The threat to livestock is particularly severe and with a heavy socio-economic impact as livestock is a major investment commodity in rural mine-affected areas in Zimbabwe. HALO estimated on the basis of a socio-economic survey that $55,000 worth of livestock had been lost due to mine accidents by just 10% of households along a 10km stretch of border minefield alone, prior to HALO’s clearance of the area.[14]

Zimbabwe has reported that clearance of mined areas will generate opportunities for commercial farming, business, and tourism, and construction of schools and clinics. Clearance will also enable safe border-crossing routes and allow for the return of more than 250 households in 13 communities that have been displaced and relocated to Mozambique as a result of the mine threat.[15]

Program Management 

The National Mine Action Authority of Zimbabwe (NAMAAZ) is a policy and regulatory body on all issues relating to mine action in Zimbabwe. ZIMAC was established in 2000 within the Ministry of Defense as the focal point and coordination center of all mine action in the country. ZIMAC is mandated to report to NAMAAZ.[16]

In 2012, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Zimbabwe to train ZIMAC personnel and to provide metal detectors, protective equipment, and trauma kits.[17] ZIMAC subsequently developed a joint strategy with the government of Zimbabwe and the ICRC as a follow-up to the 2012 cooperation agreement, which was extended to the end of 2014. In 2014, the ICRC continued its support to ZIMAC, to build its capacity to manage mine action operations, implement national mine action standards, strengthen demining operations, train demining instructors, and facilitate the provision of risk education. The ICRC also continued to organize workshops and train dozens of ZIMAC staff, particularly in quality assurance and information management.[18]

Under its latest Article 5 deadline extension request, Zimbabwe again pledged to relocate ZIMAC outside of military installations once the Ministry of Defense has secured the necessary funds.[19] The ICRC reported that at the end of 2014, ZIMAC was still housed within military premises; however ZIMAC’s mine clearance unit had benefited from donations of basic equipment, it said.[20]

ZIMAC, and, since 2013, HALO and NPA, conduct land release. Under its current extension request, Zimbabwe has reported that its remaining mined areas will be surveyed and cleared with support from HALO and NPA, with HALO tasked to survey and clear the Musengezi to Rwenya, Rushinga, and Mukumbura mined areas; NPA assigned survey and clearance of the Rusitu to Muzite Mission, Sheba Forest, and Burma Valley mined areas; and the Zimbabwean Armed Forces’ National Mine Clearance Squadrons (NMCS) responsible for survey and clearance of the Sango Border Post to Crooks Corner and Lusulu mined areas.[21]

In 2014, HALO deployed 10 manual demining sections and one survey team in its operations.[22] NPA increased its operational capacity from 20 to 30 deminers in 2014 as a result of increased donor funding.[23] ZIMAC reported that the NMCS had a capacity of three troops of 120 deminers as of April 2015.[24]

Strategic planning

In April 2015, Zimbabwe reported that it was in the process of developing a national strategic plan, which would be completed upon submission of NPA’s final survey reports of two minefields.[25] The ICRC reported that, with its help, ZIMAC had prepared a plan of action for increased demining operations on the Mozambican border in 2014. A cross-border demining cooperation agreement between Zimbabwe and Mozambique had also been drafted with assistance from the ICRC, but had not been finalized by the end of 2014.[26] Mozambique declared completing clearance of all antipersonnel mine contamination on its territory in September 2015.[27] 

Standards

National mine action standards took effect in July 2013.[28]

Land Release

The total mined area released by clearance and technical survey in 2014 was approximately 0.5km² (the various figures provided by Zimbabwe are inconsistent, as discussed below),compared to almost 0.8km² in 2013.[29] A further 151km² was cancelled by non-technical survey, resulting in significant overall land release.[30]

At the time of submission of its latest extension request in December 2013, Zimbabwe reported that since independence in 1980, a total of more than 101km² of contamination had been “cleared” with the destruction of 208,338 antipersonnel mines.[31]

Survey in 2014

Survey of remaining contaminated areas was expected to be completed by September 2014 under Zimbabwe’s current extension request.[32] As of December 2014, Zimbabwe reported that survey operations had been completed in Rusitu to Muzite Mission, Sheba Forest to Beacon Hill, Sango Border Post to Crooks Corner, and Burma Valley minefields.[33] In April 2015, ZIMAC reported that remaining non-technical survey had been completed in the Musengezi to Rwenya minefield as of February 2015.[34]

HALO and NPA released a total of just over 151km² of mined areas through survey in 2014. Nearly all was cancelled through non-technical survey, the majority by HALO, while 114,823m² was reduced by technical survey.[35] An additional 48.5km² was confirmed as mined by technical survey (see table below).[36] NPA and HALO began survey in 2013.[37]

HALO reported that as a result of its survey activities in 2014 in Mashonaland Central and East, it was able to cancel 80% of the previously estimated contaminated area. This was due to better definition and narrowing of minefield boundaries rather than cancelling entire tasks.[38] NPA reported that only half of its survey task had been completed at the end of 2014, but stated that based on survey results, existing estimates of the total size of contamination would be significantly reduced.[39] 

Survey in 2014[40]

Note: *N/R = not reported.

Clearance in 2014

According to its Article 7 report for 2014, Zimbabwe states that a total of 1.1km² or, alternatively, 0.41km² of mined areas was cleared in 2014,[42] compared to 0.8km² in 2013. Given the inconsistencies, NPA has taken the clearance figures directly from the two international operators and added the reported clearance by the NMCS. The Article 7 report acknowledges the support of the ICRC, including its provision of demining equipment, training assistance, and information management hardware to ZIMAC, and the commencement of mine action operations by HALO and NPA in 2013.[43]

In 2014, a total of 0.34km² was cleared by HALO and NPA with the destruction of 3,863 antipersonnel mines, as set out in the table below.[44] HALO reported that the significant increase in its own clearance figures in 2014 compared to 2013 was due to the fact that its clearance operations only commenced in late 2013, so figures for 2014 are its first for a full year’s work.[45] NPA stated that its increase in area cleared in 2014 compared to 2013 was due to the introduction of systematic technical survey methodology and an increase in daily productivity rates as deminers gained greater experience in the field.[46]

Mine clearance in 2014[47]

Note: *N/R = not reported.

Article 5 Compliance

In June 2014, Zimbabwe was granted an Article 5 mine clearance deadline extension of three years, until 1 January 2018. Since its initial Article 5 deadline expired on 1 March 2009, it has submitted three previous extension requests, the last of which expired on 1 January 2015. The current extension until 1 January 2018 is to enable further survey and clearance, but Zimbabwe is not committing itself to complete its clearance obligations within the requested period, nor will it manage to do so.

Under the current three-year extension, Zimbabwe is undertaking “to clarify the remaining challenge, understand what progress will be possible once partners operate at full capacity and once additional support has been identified, produce a detailed plan, and submit a subsequent request for fulfilment of its Article 5 obligations.”[52] The purpose of the extension period is also to complete survey of all remaining areas and to clear approximately 4km² of mined area.[53] Zimbabwe intends to meet the following milestones: clearance of 1.23km²[54] and the development of a national strategic plan on the basis of survey results in 2015; clearance of 1.28km² in 2016; and clearance of 1.51km² and the submission of a new clearance plan in 2017.[55]

Zimbabwe has claimed that three primary factors have prevented it from implementing its Article 5 obligations since becoming a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty: inadequate funding for demining from the government, insufficient demining equipment, and the impact of sanctions “imposed by some potential donors.” However, Zimbabwe reported that many of these conditions no longer affect it in 2014 in light of the support it is currently receiving from international organizations.[56] In its latest extension request, Zimbabwe enumerated possible risks and assumptions that could impede it from achieving future extension request milestones, including heavy rains, difficult terrain, metal contamination in ploughshare minefields, administrative delays, and lack of funding.[57]

In 2014, HALO reported receiving in-kind support from the government of Zimbabwe in the form of the duty-free importation of goods.[58] NPA reported receiving assistance from the government, which provided explosives for mine destruction, while it was in the process of obtaining its own license to procure explosives, a long and complicated process in Zimbabwe. It also reported that government authorities had pledged to provide mechanical assets such as bulldozers if required to service or open access routes.[59] 

Zimbabwe forecast that activities planned over the course of its three-year extension request will cost a total of US$12.97 million, with $2.875 million to be provided by the government of Zimbabwe and more than US$10 million to be sought from international donors through partner organizations.[60] In granting the extension request, States Parties urged Zimbabwe to develop a resource mobilization strategy at the earliest possible date.[61]

In October 2015, HALO was optimistic that Zimbabwe was now on track to meet its 1 January 2018 extension request targets for further survey and clearance, in light of the significant amount of area cancelled through non-technical survey since the start of 2014.[62] Neither HALO nor NPA, though, expressed confidence as to when Zimbabwe, based on present operational capacity and productivity rates, could fully complete antipersonnel mine clearance unless significantly more funding is made available to all operators. NPA estimated that with sufficient funding, Zimbabwe might be able to complete its Article 5 clearance obligations within five years and emphasized that increased donor funding would facilitate far greater achievements.[63] HALO reported that there were too many unknowns, particularly with respect to funding, to predict when Zimbabwe might achieve full completion of mine clearance.[64] In 2015, HALO claimed that it would need to expand its present capacity of more than 150 staff “by a factor of 5 or 6 in order to get the job done in 10 years.” It added that the inclusion of mechanical assets could improve productivity in areas with high metal contamination and/or deeply buried mines.[65]

In 2014, three donors contributed US$2.2 million toward clearance operations in the Republic of Zimbabwe, about the same as in 2013.[1]

In April 2015, the United States (US) announced it would provide another $1 million to assist HALO Trust and Norwegian People’s Aid in conducting demining activities.[2]

International contributions: 2014[3]

Between 2010–2014, the government of Zimbabwe contributed more than $3 million to its mine action programme, or 35% of its total mine action budget.

Since 2012, when Zimbabwe received international assistance for mine action for the first time, international contributions have totaled more than $6 million. In December 2013, Zimbabwe submitted its fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline Extension Request, in which it estimated a total of $12,965,125 would be needed to clear some 4km² between 2015 and January 2018, of which $2.9 million would be provided by Zimbabwe. The remaining $10 million would need to be sought from other sources, which implies that Zimbabwe’s capacity to address its mine contamination largely depends on adequate and steady international funding.[4]

Summary of contributions: 2010–2014[5]

Action points based on findings

• Develop a national victim assistance plan and ensure participation of survivors and their representatives in the coordinating body.
• Update disability policies and align them with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
• Ensure sustainability of prosthetic and orthotic services.
• Provide economic inclusion opportunities for survivors and persons with disabilities.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Zimbabwe is responsible for a significant number of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) survivors who are in need. Zimbabwe has made commitments to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Zimbabwe ratified the CRPD on 23 September 2013.

Casualties Overview

For 2014, the Landmine Monitor identified nine mine/ERW casualties. Three were boys, three were civilian men, and three were deminers. All casualties were caused by antipersonnel landmines. Of the six civilian casualties, five were recorded as the result of tampering with the mines and the other occurred during the herding of cattle. The three deminer casualties all took place during the course of landmine clearance.[1] Zimbabwe Mine Action Centre (ZIMAC) has stated for many years that incidents in remote areas go underreported.[2] Many documented animal casualties due to landmines have also been reported, indicating the extent of contamination and its impact on communities.

Since 1980, 1,602 casualties have been reported by ZIMAC.[3] In a 1998 study of the impact of landmines in Zimbabwe, the number of landmine casualties was estimated at 470, with 70 killed and 400 injured.[4]

Cluster munition casualties

There have been at least three cluster munition casualties reported in Zimbabwe, dating to the period of the 1970s liberation war. In an incident documented by a former Rhodesian soldier in his memoirs, two children were killed and a third injured when they found an unexploded Alpha-type unexploded submunition and threw it against a large rock.[5]

Victim Assistance

Victim assistance since 1999

In 1998, there was a lack of sufficient emergency medical assistance and rehabilitation care for survivors in the Mukumbura region. The local clinics lacked the surgical wards to address traumatic amputations and had no rehabilitation or prosthetic facilities. Surgical and rehabilitation needs could be met at the referral hospital in Mount Darwin or the national hospitals in Harare.[6]

Prosthetic services in 1998 were available from a government-approved facility in Bulawayo. At the time, prosthetic legs cost Z$8,000 (~US$430) and prosthetic arms Z$15,000 (~US$800). Survivors were expected to cover 15% of the cost of the limbs, which made them prohibitively expensive for many.[7]

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR), was first introduced in Zimbabwe in 1982, and the country  was for many years hailed as an international model. With the support of the ICRC, Zimbabwe established rehabilitation villages and provided rehabilitation services to beneficiaries. With the economic collapse in Zimbabwe in the early 2000s, these services were mostly discontinued except in limited areas where Jairos Jiri, a national NGO, continued to provide CBR with support from external donors.[8]

The Local Rehabilitation Workshop (LOREWO) was founded in 1999 to meet the needs of persons with disabilities for wheelchairs. Based near the Mpilo referral hospital in Bulawayo, LOREWO transitioned from international management to national management in 2001 and has produced chairs and mobility devices with support from the governments of Norway and the United States. In 2015, support from the Norwegian government will conclude and LOREWO will be expected to support itself independently through sales of assistive devices.[9]

Disability issues are coordinated by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, while emergency assistance is led by the Victim Friendly Unit. Responsibility for surveying survivors needs and other assistance to mine/ERW survivors is centralized through ZIMAC,  the national mine action center.[10]

The ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD) provided support to the Parirenyatwa group of hospitals until 2013 when the SFD ended that support as part of an expected phase out, finding that the hospitals had reached a satisfactory level of autonomy.[11] ICRC SFD assistance to the Bulawayo Rehabilitation Center had been phased out by the end of 2012, as planned.[12]

Victim assistance in 2014

Assessing victim assistance needs

The HALO Trust, in the course of its survey of suspected hazardous areas in its working area, identified 134 landmine survivors, including 16 who had been injured in 2013 and 2014.[13]

In 2013, the Ministry of Health and Child Care, with financial and technical support from UNICEF, conducted a nationwide household survey to assess the living conditions of persons with disabilities and develop recommendations to address their needs. The survey, whose results were published in 2015, compared known households with one or more persons living in them to households that were expected to have no persons with disability living in them as a control group. Based upon the survey, the Government of Zimbabwe estimates the prevalence of disability, as defined by the report, at 7% of the population.[14]

These findings have been challenged by the disability-rights community, which pointed to the WHO’s estimated global prevalence for disability of 15% and expressed concern that the 7% figure would be used to limit resources allocated to programming for persons with disabilities.[15]

Victim assistance coordination[16]

N/A = not applicable

Participation and inclusion in victim assistance

In the absence of a coordinating mechanism for victim assistance or a formal plan for victim assistance activities, survivors are unable to participate in the formulation of victim assistance strategies. There is a strong community of disability-rights actors in Zimbabwe including disabled persons’ organizations and service providers who could contribute to a coordinating mechanism. Some of the organizations expressed concern that they were not consulted in the development of the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s survey of needs for persons with disabilities in 2013.[17] Survivors and persons with disabilities are employed by LOREWO and Jairos Jiri in the manufacture of wheelchairs and assistive devices.[18]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

Victim assistance activities[19]

Emergency and continuing medical care

Emergency medical and surgical services are available at the national referral hospitals. In case of an incident, HALO sends its staff to the Karanda Mission Hospital, a private facility about two-hours’ drive from the minefields.[20] Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA) used the Mutare Provincial Hospital, one of the national referral hospitals, for this purpose.[21]

Physical rehabilitation including prosthetics

Since the end of support by the ICRC SFD in 2013, Zimbabwe’s national rehabilitation centers have been unable to procure the supplies necessary for the manufacture of assistive devices.[22] The centers still provide rehabilitation services;[23] Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust offers physical rehabilitation for children with disabilities;[24] and LOREWO plans to introduce rehabilitation and occupational therapy services.[25]

Three facilities, two commercial firms, and a national NGO produce prosthetic and orthotic devices. The Jairos Jiri Prosthetic Workshop, on the outskirts of Harare, sells wheelchairs and manufactures customized orthotic and prosthetic devices.[26] Otto Bock runs the commercial firm in Harare and Cassim’s Prosthetics, the other commercial prosthetic firm in Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo. Cassim’s produces arm and leg prosthetics and also maintains a remote capability, providing prosthetic devices to customers throughout the country.[27] In 2014, HALO identified several survivors in need of prosthetics and contracted with Cassim’s to measure, build, fit, and deliver prosthetic limbs.[28]

In addition to Jairos Jiri, LOREWO imports and manufactures wheelchairs. Motivation UK provides wheelchairs for LOREWO to distribute for little or no cost; manufactured chairs are sold at cost.[29]

Mercy Corps had run a large program focused on facilitating support for children with disabilities, but the project came to an end in early 2015.[30]

Economic inclusion

With only 15% of the population engaged in formal employment, few opportunities for meaningful work exist in Zimbabwe. LOREWO and the Jairos Jiri Prosthetic Workshop operate as sheltered workshops for persons with disabilities. The Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe Trust operates an access to livelihoods program for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities receive vocational training and are then encouraged to form manufacturing groups to produce products that are likely to produce a profit in the marketplace.[31]

Psychological support and social inclusion

Few, if any, psychological services are available for survivors and persons with disabilities in Zimbabwe.[32] Disabled Women’s Support Organization (DWSO) provided peer counseling to persons who had recently suffered disabling injuries through hospital visits. Support for these activities has discontinued, although the capacity remains.[33]

Educational opportunities for persons with disabilities were constrained after the government suspended subsidies for children with disabilities under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), which had provided $600 per student per year.[34]

Laws and Policies

Zimbabwe has several national policies, including the Disabled Persons Act, the War Victims Compensation Act, the Social Welfare Assistance Act, and the State Service (Disabled Benefits) Act, related to victim assistance and disability. The Disabled Persons Act was hailed as a major milestone when it was passed in 1992, but has since been superseded in international policy by the CRPD. Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution recognizes the rights of persons with disabilities and requires the government to provide mechanisms for the realization of those rights with an the problematic caveat action is contingent upon available resources.[35]

Discrimination by educational institutions toward children with disabilities and the lack of government resources devoted to training and education severely hampered the ability of persons with disabilities to compete for already scarce jobs.[36]

Legislation prohibited discrimination against persons with disabilities but was not widely known or implemented by government institutions, and discrimination remained prevalent. The law stipulated that government buildings be accessible to persons with disabilities, but implementation was slow.[37]

Zimbabwe ratified the CRPD in September 2013, but has yet to domesticate the law and revise existing legislation in accordance with the convention.[38]