Focus Media (Kigali)
Timothy Kisambira
12 November 2008
In the 14 years after the war, many people have been killed or injured by forgotten landmines or cluster ammunitions. One association is now campaigning on behalf of those victims.
It happened one sunny afternoon in 1994, shortly after the genocide, when then 24-year old Francis Karangwa of Kaborogota in Nyagatare was sitting under a mango tree with friends, chatting and watching over the cows.
"I sat on a stone with my legs crossed. Suddenly, when I shifted my legs, there was an explosion," Karangwa recounts. "I fell backwards, not realizing what had happened. When I got back to my senses, I looked at my leg, which hurt, and saw that my foot had been shattered to pieces."
The remains of the foot had to be amputated at Kanombe military hospital. It was later discovered that Karangwa had become the victim of sub-munitions of a cluster bomb. These are made up of a big container which opens in mid-air, dropping hundreds of smaller sub-munitions, or "bomblets", across a wide area. Many of the bomblets do not explode upon impact, and can remain hidden long after the war is over, until an unfortunate person such as Francis Karangwa steps on them.
"Cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians all over the world during the last 40 years," Karangwa says. "One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of casualties are injured while going about their daily activities."
After the war in the country, he explains, many explosives and landmines were left behind, and the people were not aware of it. He knows many other cases in Kaborogota of people becoming victim of these weapons, because the places where they herd their cattle are full of them.
"They often get buried under the ground, but the movement of the cows unearths them and they become de facto landmines," he says.
Treaty
Realizing that they were not alone in their plight, Francis Karangwa and other victims of landmines or cluster munitions have set up the Association of Land Mine Survivors and Amputees of Rwanda, which today counts some 200 members. They are now planning to carry out a national census of land mine and similar ammunition survivors.
"We are also seriously urging the government to attend the signing ceremony of the Oslo treaty banning the use of cluster munitions, that is scheduled to take place on December 3 in Norway," Karangwa remarks.
This ceremony will be the culminating point of the Oslo process, which was started by the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), set up in 2003. Last May, 109 countries agreed on the final text of the treaty, which would ban current designs of cluster bombs.
During a conference early October in Kampala, 40 African countries pledged support to the treaty, among them Rwanda. The treaty will be open for signature on December 3 in Oslo and will enter into force six months after the thirtieth country has ratified it.
However, major world military powers such as the United States, China, Russia, India, Pakistan and Israel have so far refused to join the campaign, claiming such munitions are highly useful on the battlefield. In Africa, the absentees to the convention are Ethiopia, South Africa, Egypt and all other north African countries.
People with rights
His accident has not only made Francis Karangwa a campaigner against cluster bombs, but also a fervent defender of the rights of the handicapped.
"Many people think that the handicapped are worthless, but this is wrong. We have rights, and our association is sensitizing people to realize that we are not beggars," he says.
"People should know that we deserve rights, and that when the government is planning something we should be taken into account. For example, many handicapped people cannot climb stairs, so whoever constructs a multi-storey building should also think of them."
Additional information from Agencies
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