KIM BOLAN
Copyright 1995 Pacific Press Ltd.
Singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn is pretty blunt about his reasons for going to Mozambique to observe a country in transition after 15 years of civil war.
My job is an attention-getter," Cockburn said in an interview Monday. "That's the skill I can offer."
Cockburn is now on a cross-country tour to talk about the desperate situation of land mines still plaguing the poorest country in Africa.
"When you step on a land mine -- it depends on which kind it is -- it either rips you to shreds or it takes your legs off," he said.
There are an estimated two million land mines in the countryside of Mozambique, many of them unmapped, even since the democratic elections of October 1994.
Now groups such as the Canadian non-governmental coalition Cooperation Canada-Mozambique (Cocamo), which sponsored Cockburn's trip, are helping raise awareness and cash to deal with the land- mine crisis.
As 4.5 million refugees return from inside and outside Mozambique, they are attempting to go back to farmland that may still be deadly, though the war is over, Cockburn said.
"Now you can travel around the country, but you have to watch where you put your feet," Cockburn said.
"The cities are still full of displaced people and many of them have missing parts."
Mozambican musician Chude Mondlane is on tour with the famous Canadian and addressed a public meeting with Cockburn at the Vancouver public library Monday.
Mondlane said the mine problem is slowing the economic recovery of the country.
"It does impede not only the returning refugees, but also family farming -- there might be a corn field right next to a field full of mines," Mondlane said.
"The war is over, but you can't go about life normally."
Cocamo is pushing Ottawa to support a United Nations effort to ban land mines. But Monday, Defence Minister David Collenette said Canadian soldiers need land mines for training purposes. Canadian forces experts often remove land mines in war-ravaged countries after hostilities cease.
The Canadian coalition is also working with a Canadian organization in Cape Breton that is training people to remove the mines. While it costs just three dollars to make a mine, it takes about $ 300 and a trained expert to detonate one.
"It's so slow," Cockburn said. "They have to find everything by hand. It's very dangerous work and very costly work."
Cockburn said that despite the land-mine problem, Mozambicans are looking forward to building a better future.
"The people were optimistic, but there is also a real sense of uncertainty because the economy is so screwed up," he said.
It is not the first time Cockburn has lent his name, and sometimes his music, to popular struggles in the developing world.
Throughout the 1980s, he visited Central American countries in conflict. He also travelled to Nepal and made his first trip to Mozambique in 1988.
His experiences have sometimes led to song lyrics about death squads and rocket launchers.
But Cockburn said he doesn't do his travelling specifically to get inspiration for his music. "You don't go on these trips looking for songs per se, but you always go with your eyes open," he said. "It would be pretty cynical to go to Mozambique looking for songs, but I'm happy when they come."