Mozambique
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Mozambique signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 25 August 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 March 1999. Prior to 2012, Mozambique reported that draft implementing legislation was submitted to parliament for analysis and discussed by the Council of Ministers, but in 2012 changed the statement in its Article 7 transparency report to state that the government concluded that existing national legislation was sufficient to enforce the convention. It has not provided details about which specific components of existing legislation are applicable.
Mozambique regularly attends meetings of the treaty, most recently the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018, where it provided general comments in support of the convention, as well as a statement on victim assistance.[1] Mozambique also attended the intersessional meetings of the treaty in Geneva in May 2019.
Mozambique served as President of the Third Review Conference in Maputo in June 2014. It has also served on the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance (2013–2014) and the Committee on Victim Assistance (2017–2018).
Mozambique is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons. Mozambique is party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
Production, transfer, use, stockpile destruction, and retention
Mozambique has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines.[2] Throughout the civil war, antipersonnel mines were imported from many countries and used by different parties to the conflict. Landmines produced in the following countries have been found in Mozambique: USSR, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, China, Italy, Belgium, France, UK, Portugal, US, South Africa, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, and Austria.[3] Mozambique completed destruction of its stockpile of 37,318 antipersonnel mines on 28 February 2003, a few days before its treaty-mandated deadline.[4]
Mozambique retains 900 mines for training and research purposes.[5] It has previously reported up to 1,963 mines retained, though the numbers have been reported inconsistently.[6]
Mozambique has not yet provided details on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties at the First Review Conference in December 2004.
[1] Statement of Mozambique, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018; and statement of Mozambique, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 27 November 2018.
[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2006), Form E, and earlier Article 7 reports.
[3] Human Rights Watch, “Still Killing,” undated, pp. 74–75.
[4] For more details see, Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 580; and Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2008), Form B. Mozambique initially reported that it destroyed 37,818 mines, but later changed the figure to 37,318.
[5] Mozambique retains 100 each of the following types: PMD-6, PMN, PMN-2, POMZ-2M, POMZ-2, OZM-72, MON-50, OZM-4, and MON-100. All mines are held by the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces (FADM).
[6] In 2008, Mozambique cited a total figure of 1,963 mines in the Form D table, but the actual total of the mines listed within the table adds up to 2,088. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2008), Form D. This surpasses the 1,265 antipersonnel mines last reported at the end of 2006, and the numbers cited in prior reports. Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2006), Form D. For details see, Landmine Monitor Report 2007, p. 530. Mozambique’s first three Article 7 reports stated that no antipersonnel mines would be retained for training or development purposes.