The 2nd national meeting with demining Operators deployed in Mozambique was held in Nampula city on 30th and 31st August, 2001. This meeting took place in the framework of the decision taken at Chimoio meeting in August, 2000 in which it was settled down that IND should convene meetings with all demining operators, on annual basis. This meeting was honored with the presence and participation of H E the Governor of the Gaza province who moved to Nampula to take part in this meeting. The meeting was also attended by provincial Directors of Support and Control of the provinces of Inhambane, Gaza, Maputo, Manica, Tete and Zambézia. 

This was a review meeting. The demining operators presented their progress reports since July of 2001 when the previous meeting took place and CIDC reported back on the outputs of Landmines Impact Survey, that they conducted. As a way of ensuring that the themes could be fully debated, specific commissions were created for that purpose, to monitor the discussion in plenary. The meeting also made a reflection on the future Mine Action in Mozambique, the development of the national capacity of Mine Action, the proposal on the need of creation of National Mine Action Fund and the analysis on the National Demining Norms.

The items on agenda were as follows: Briefing by IND on Mine Action in Mozambique; Progress reports by Demining operators. Briefing by CIDC on the outputs of the Survey of the economic and social impact of the anti-personnel mines; Reflection on the future Mine Action in Mozambique -Need for creation of National Mine Action Fund; Analysis of the National Demining Norms .

The proposed agenda of the second national meeting with the demining operators was presented by National Director of IND having been approved unanimously by the participants. The chairman of this meeting, Director of IND, invited his Deputy Director to present the statement of IND on the Mine Action in Mozambique. 

The meeting began with briefing by IND that highlighted the fact that the prevalence of anti-personnel mines in Mozambique is one of the negative factors to the government's efforts in the fight against absolute poverty, towards the economic and social development of the country bearing in mind that any investment in the rural areas requires information about the existence or not of mines and sometimes, clearance is required for subsequent implementation of important projects for the livelihood of the local populations and for the society in general. 

The actions that precede the implementation of any project in the rural areas require the expenditure of significant financial material and human resources and sometimes that could be channeled to relief immediately the poverty. The presented report makes reference to the results of the landmine impact survey conducted by CIDC (Canadian International Demining Corps) as having identified 1,364 suspected mined areas, 791 villages and 125 districts in an approximate extension of 562,000,000.m2 in the whole national territory affecting directly a million and five hundred thousand inhabitants. This survey by CIDC is important for the development of the National Plan and it will allow the government to define with certain accurateness Mine Action priorities in the country. 

The Mine Action activity in Mozambique is mainly performed by foreign NGO's whose financial support is provided by the international donor community with sharing of the Mozambique State.

Considering that Mine Action requires expenditure of bulky financial resources there is a need for designing future Mine Action in the country and, to guarantee the sustainability of this process the creation of National Mine Action Fund is revealed of extreme importance determined by the Government through the Resolution No 17/99, of 10th June, of Council of Ministers. 

National Mine Action Fund, to be institutionalized would serve as "instrument for collection and administration of the use of available financial resources for the support of the Mine Action activity" and this seems as indispensable and necessary condition for the implementation of the "Strategy and Policy of Mine Action" defined by the government. 

In keeping with Action Plan developed by IND in coordination with the provincial governments priority areas were defined for clearance based on the impact of the presence of mines in the vicinity of populations and the existing capacity, declared by the demining operators. 

At the beginning of this year, sixty eight areas were defined as high priority for Mine Clearance five operators were involved in this task namely ADP, The Halo Trust, MgM, NPA and Handicap International. The above NGO's used about 831 deminers. These NGO's achieved the following outputs:

5,641,251 square meters of cleared area; 
114 kilometers of roads cleared; 
3,938 AP mines removed; 
1,545 AG mines; 
30 AT mines; 
2,172 UXO's; 
45,033 SAA.

Mine Victims in the period between 1997 and 2000:

Men: 640;
Women: 161;
Grand Total: 801.

It must be remembered that from July, 200 to July, 2001 about 5, 653, 633.2 square meters of areas were cleared; 113,733 kilometers of highways and 1,547,331 of ordnance among AG; AP; AT mines; UXOS; SAA and Metals. 

The report of IND makes an enumeration of several Mine Clearance operations that are underway in several Areas of the country standing out the following ones: Sena Railways Line; Chokwé; Limpopo Railways line; Matalane and Temane Pipeline. 

The information of IND provides other relevant achievements during the period of from August, 2000 to 2001 among the ones related to the emergency program, strenghthening of the institutional capacity of IND, institutionalization of the National Mine Action Fund, the creation of database in the regional delegations and the professionalization of IND employees, completion of staff and the reform of the current structure. 

The demining operators who attended this meeting presented broadly their progress reports.

Out of the interventions made, one of the operators - ADP referred that in their program of Mine Awareness they also take advantage of the occasion in the lectures to talk about HIV-AIDS sensitizing people to prevent this disease. According to the speaker he said that the HIV-AIDS Awareness is conducted firstly among the deminers themselves. 

Some operators suggested that apart from this meeting IND should convene another meeting of technical nature which could be for technical information sharing. This meeting could, if necessary, take place simultaneously with the national meeting of IND with the demining operators. 

One of the operators referred that it is of extreme importance the coordination between the demining partners and the provincial governments in the identification and definition of priorities of areas for Mine Clearance. 

The Hallo Trust reported the information on the survey level 1 that conducted in the four provinces of the northern Mozambique of which results of the impact will be published shortly. The representative of The Halo Trust advanced some data, although temporary, on the outputs of the survey conducted in the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Niassa and Zambézia. In Cabo Delgado the survey indicates the existence of 34 suspected mine areas representing about 300,000 square meters. These areas are located in the common border with the Republic of Tanzania. Cabo Delgado province, according to the data of the survey, is the most mined among the four provinces of the northern Mozambique and the removal of mines will last more or less about six years of intense tasks of Mine Clearance. 

The survey outputs in the Nampula province shows that 56 sites are considered mined and that it is considered the second mined province of the northern Mozambique. However, the minefields in Nampula are relatively small areas identified and consequently easy of being cleared. In Niassa province 26 suspected mine area were identified and according to the operator - The Hallo Trust - who said judging that the remaining areas didn't need humanitarian Mine Clearance since in his understanding, they didn't have any socio-economic impact. 

In Zambézia 36 remaining suspected mine areas were identified, and of these areas about 7% are considered priority while 27% don't have any impact for the communities. The representative of The Halo Trust to conclude with, he stated that in the four provinces where the survey level 1was conducted there were about 162 remaining minefields and for their clearance a financing for the next six years would be necessary. It was also referred that the provinces of Zambézia and Niassa were the least mined and of which Mine clearance tasks would need about two years. 

The representative of The Halo Trust referred that the current project would finish in Marco, 2003 when the Organization will leave Zambézia. Some demining operators were unanimous in stating that in the country an effort is being developed for the national capacity building for effective and sustainable demining in order to guarantee the future of this area when foreign NGO's will leave. 

The example that the country is moving towards the national mine clearance capacity building was given by RONCO and the Empresa Moçambicana of Desminagem who stated that have Mozambican deminers who cooperate in removal of AP mines in KOSOVO. Informed of this theme, the Director of IND, appealed to the demining operators deployed in the country to hire local labor because, according to him, demining also is to solve the unemployment problems in Mozambique and, therefore "it is not good that they import foreign cooks because we have cooks and deminers". 

The Director of IND called up foreign NGO's who operate in the country to get informed on Mozambican legislation about the recruiting of the foreign labor. 
Another referred aspect was that the Quality Assurance of the tasks performed by several demining operators is of the exclusive competence and responsibility of IND. 
As a matter of fact, IND is organizing itself so that can lead this process through training of staff and acquisition of technical assets for doing so. 

It was also presented the information on the results of the impact survey conducted by CIDC to begin with it was said that the summary of the results of the survey was available for everyone who was interested. The objective of this anti-personnel mines impact survey is to set demining priorities and, therefore, the impact values cannot be definitive. 

IND created formats for reporting by demining operators in February this year but still disparities are verified in the filling of the reports, in fact, there are operators who make reports on cleared areas without, apparently, having conducted survey in those areas.

The operators were called up to use correct grids so that they can avoid discrepancy among the names of the villages and Administrative Posts entered into database of IND. For that purpose, the official national toponymy should be used. 

The fact that this survey conducted by CIDC was not preceded by a consultation or coordination with the administrative authorities of the sites that were targets was criticized. 

The participants of this national meeting with the demining operators when discussed on the future of demining in Mozambique, they concluded that it is time for the government to materialize the idea of the creation of National Mine Action Fund provided for in the Policy and Strategy for Demining approved by the Resolution n°. 17/99, of 10th June, of Council of Ministers. 

The Director of IND referred that " certain renowned demining operators enjoying their influence they manage to mobilize funds for demining Mozambique and that is positive and they should continue to do so but what is bad is work in default of IND and without any quality assurance". 

With regard to coordination some participants expressed their concern stating that still there is no effective coordination among all the stakeholders in the Mine Action process so that foreign NGO's up grade their Mozambican congenerous so that in the future they can assure continuity of Mine Action when those will leave. 

Apart from the problem of the deficient coordination it was said that not rarely the Accelerated Demining Program-ADP gets confused with IND because in some other cases this is treated as Program of National Execution and in other like UNDP. 

It was explained to the participants at this meeting that ADP is extension of ONUMOZ because it was establish under General Peace Agreement in 1992 and that the government from Mozambique is endeavoring to transform ADP in a local ONG.

As far as the mandate and competences of IND area concerned they are clear in the Decree No. 37/99, of 10th June. 

The participants assumed the position that the creation of National Mine Action Fund today seems as one of the best measures to be taken by Mine Action Center to discipline the Mine Action activities in Mozambique. 
The topic on the national norms was discussed in the perspective of making the international Mine Action norms compatible with the national norms on the matter and to verify what in the current phase, in the case of Mozambique, can be applicable. On this matter, the participants identified as obstacles to the integral execution of the current "national mine action norms": 

a) Lack of the regulation of the Mine Action activity in Mozambique; 

b) Non standard application of the Mine Action norms for all of the operators; 

c) Deficient and irregular reporting; The floods that devastated the southern and central Mozambique in 2000 and 2001, respectively, shadowed the work of survey level 1 that had been carried out already in some areas, being suspected that even the areas that they were considered already free from mines, today, no longer one can state the same safely, once the waters of the floods can have dragged mines for other areas. 

Final remarks 

Out of the discussion held during the meeting consensus were reached that worth to mention. 

It was understood as positive the idea of the creation of National Mine Action Fund, but according to the operators, this process should not harm the funds pre-destined to the humanitarian operators. The operators were still of opinion that out of the budget attributed to a certain humanitarian operator, a certain percentage, to be determine should be directed to this found. It was still reiterated the need of involvement of provincial Governors, in technical meetings, at regional level to discuss subjects merely linked to Mine Action. This measure was understood as a way of keeping systematically in touch with the provincial authorities who are in better position on knowledge of the minefields within their jurisdiction. 

The licensed operators for the works of execution of Quality Assurance and Quality Control made a point on usual 10% used for their works, having affirmed that is a derisive value to cover a qualified and independent work. They requested that IND should intercede the donors and operators as way of allowing that at least the percentage reaches 33%. The operators were still of the opinion that new Standards of Mine Action, are of great importance, given that a part from giving greater authority to IND for a better coordination, they create conditions for the exercise of a transparent and independent activity. 

RECOMENDATIONS 

As conclusion of the discussions among the stakeholders at this meeting, it worth mentioning the following recommendations: 

To involve the provincial governments in the planning and setting of the priorities of the sites to be cleared. 

The operators should introduce themselves to the local administrative authorities before they begin both survey and actual mine clearance and they should hand over the areas already cleared. 

IND in partnership with the Operators should, from now on, set up technical meetings to discuss subjects of operational nature. The quality assurance is a subject of national sovereignty therefore it is of the exclusive responsibility of IND to carry out this task. 

The suspected mine areas should be isolated with appropriate marking to avoid anti-personnel mine accidents. The participants at this meeting, moved by the need of guaranteeing the sustainability and effectiveness of mine action in the future, they recommend the creation of National Mine Action Fund.