Mine Ban Policy

The Republic of Nicaragua signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 30 November 1998, becoming a State Party on 1 May 1999. Legislation to enforce the antipersonnel mine prohibition domestically, Law 321, was enacted on 7 December 1999 and includes penal sanctions.[1]

Nicaragua hosted and was President of the Third Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in September 2001. Nicaragua has twice served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration (2000–2001, and 2004–2005).

Nicaragua participated in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010, and attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings held in June 2011. 

 On 31 December 2010, Nicaragua submitted its eleventh Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, covering the period to 31 December 2010.[2]

Nicaragua is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons and its Amended Protocol II on landmines.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Nicaragua has always reported that it has never produced antipersonnel mines and it is not known to have ever exported mines. Nicaragua destroyed its stockpile of 133,435 antipersonnel mines between 12 April 1999 and 28 August 2002.

In 2010, Nicaragua reported a total of 448 antipersonnel mines retained for training and stated that 515 mines were destroyed on 18 June 2010.[3] In 2009, Nicaragua had indicated that it would prepare a plan for reducing the number of mines retained for training following the completion of its demining program.[4] From 2007–2009, Nicaragua reported a total of 1,004 antipersonnel mines retained for training.[5] In previous years, Nicaragua reported consuming some of its retained mines.[6] 

Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Nicaragua signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 2 November 2009. It was thus among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Nicaragua submitted its initial Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 7 report on 28 April 2011, for the period from 1 August 2010 to 28 April 2011. Under national implementation measures, Nicaragua lists the 2009 decree approving ratification of the convention.[1] In May 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official informed the Monitor that Nicaragua has taken “legal and administrative measures at the national level” to implement the convention, which it notes has legal effect both “in and out of Nicaragua.”[2] In addition, the Arms, Ammunition and Explosives Act (Law 510) includes a prohibition of cluster munitions and Nicaragua’s Penal Code “provides for a series of restrictive norms and prohibitions regarding the use of such munitions.”[3]

Nicaragua played an active and positive role in the Oslo Process that created the convention.[4] Nicaragua continued to show strong interest in the convention in 2010 and 2011. It attended the First Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2010, but did not make any statements. Nicaragua did not attend intersessional meetings of the convention in Geneva in June 2011.

In a May 2011 response to the Monitor, Nicaragua made known its views on important issues related to interpretation and implementation of the convention. In relation to military cooperation by States Parties, Nicaragua “considers that assistance in prohibited acts performed in joint military operations is not permitted to the States Parties.” On the prohibition on transit, Nicaragua said that the convention states that States Parties may not “assist, encourage or induce anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party,” including transfer.[5]

Nicaragua has not made its views known on the need for retention of cluster munitions and submunitions for training and development purposes.

Nicaragua is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It has not engaged in the CCW deliberations on cluster munitions in recent years.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

The Article 7 report states that, “the government of Nicaragua does not use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer cluster munitions.”[6] Nicaragua has stated on several occasions that it has never used, produced, or stockpiled cluster munitions.[7]

Contamination and Impact

Nicaragua was contaminated by mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of armed conflict between 1979 and 1990.

Mines

In June 2010, Nicaragua announced it was in full compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, having cleared all known mined areas.[1] Mined areas had been reported in 105 communities[2] in 74 municipalities, in 14 of the 15 departments, and in the two autonomous regions.[3] By the time mine clearance was completed in April 2010, a total of 179,790 of mines had been found and destroyed in 1,029 mined areas, across a total of 11.92km².[4] The original estimates of contamination were 135,643 mines in 991 minefields.[5]

There may, however, remain a residual threat from antipersonnel mines. On 11 October 2010, a mine exploded in the hand of a 17-year-old boy while he was handling a metal container he had found in a forest in Jinotega district near the Honduran border. The boy lost his fingers on his left hand and received multiple shrapnel wounds on his upper body, though his injuries were not considered life-threatening. The site of the accident was approximately 2km from the nearest previously recorded mined area, which had been cleared eight years ago. As a result, the Organization of American States (OAS) considers the accident an isolated event and did not conduct any survey or clearance of the area.[6] The area was unmarked and the boy had not received mine/ERW risk education (RE). Since Nicaragua’s declaration of compliance with its Mine Ban Treaty clearance obligations RE has been limited to areas where ERW has been reported.[7]

Explosive remnants of war

Nicaragua has a residual ERW problem throughout the country. According to Nicaraguan Demining Commission (Comisión Nacional de Desminado, CND), the ERW problem is impossible to document on a national level.[8] With the completion of mine clearance, reports of ERW contamination are only received as a result of the RE program.[9] In 2010, RE teams received 125 reports that led to the destruction of 62 mines and 838 items of unexploded ordnance in 77 communities. From April 2010 to February 2011, the Army Engineering Corps, with training, logistics support, and quality assurance from the OAS, surveyed 522,650m² and destroyed 395,917 various types and sizes of small arms ammunition in Las Palomas in northern Nicaragua.[10]

An example of ERW contamination is Las Palomas in Matagalpa, a poor rural community of approximately 750 people, which was heavily contaminated with ammunition and munitions remaining from the war. The land was given to former resistance soldiers (Contras) as part of the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Resettlement program. According to a community leader, however, the land in the area was difficult to farm because explosives were “everywhere.” Nonetheless, for several years until accidents began to occur, the sale of ERW and small arms ammunition as scrap metal provided income for the community. On 9 May 2007, an accident injured four people. The CND and the OAS were aware of the ERW problem in the village, but clearance was considered low priority because clearing mines in the country was more important.[11]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

Prior to June 2010, when Nicaragua declared it was in full compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, the CND had been responsible for formulating national mine action policy, assisting, and coordinating implementation of the National Humanitarian Demining Program (Programa Nacional de Desminado Humanitario, PNDH), managing international funds for mine action, and conducting RE.[12] With Nicaragua in compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty; however, CND’s role has diminished, as managing funds and conducting RE are the sole responsibility of OAS, and the future of CND remains unclear.[13]

The Nicaraguan Army Engineer Corps is responsible for the clearance of ERW.[14] The OAS is committed to continuing RE and community liaison until September 2011.[15] It is not clear what will happen after this date.Currently, the OAS also manages the mine action database and provides victim assistance.[16]

Land Release

Over a 17-year period, Nicaragua cleared almost 12km² of mined areas, destroying in the process just under 180,000 mines at an estimated total cost of US$82 million.[17]

 Mine clearance in 2010

In June 2010, when Nicaragua announced it was in compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, it reported it had cleared 1,029 mined areas, of which the final 20 were cleared between 1 January 2009 and 30 April 2010, with the destruction of 6,246 antipersonnel mines.[18]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the one-year extension request granted in 2008), Nicaragua was required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 May 2010. In June 2010, Nicaragua announced it had cleared all known mined areas in time and was in full compliance with Article 5.[19]

Quality management

The Mine Clearance Assistance Mission in Central America (Misión de Asistencia para la Remoción de Minas en Centro América, MARMINCA) conducted quality control on all completed clearance tasks.[20] In May 2010, with formal demining operations completed, MARMINCA completed its monitoring mission and left Nicaragua.[21]

Other Risk Reduction Measures

In 2010, one RE team with three persons under the OAS Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (Programa de Apoyo al Desminado en Centroamérica, PADCA) visited 57 communities and provided RE to some 25,000 people.[22]

Casualties

Casualties Overview

In 2010, five civilian casualties were reported in Nicaragua in three separate mine/explosive remnants of war (ERW) incidents. One man was killed, two boys and one girl were injured in two separate ERW incidents, and another boy was injured by an antipersonnel mine.[1]

The five casualties identified in 2010 marked an increase from the two casualties reported in 2009[2] and the three casualties reported in 2008[3], but remained lower than the 15 casualties reported in 2007.[4]

As of November 2010, 1,285 mine/ERW casualties (92 killed; 1,193 injured) were recorded in Nicaragua, including 42 deminers (five killed; 37 injured).[5]

Victim Assistance

There were at least 1,188 mine/ERW survivors in Nicaragua as of November 2010.[6]

The Nicaraguan Demining Commission’s (Comisión Nacional de Desminado, CND) Sub-Commission for Medical Assistance and Rehabilitation of Mine Survivors is the victim assistance coordination mechanism and the Ministry of Health is the focal point. Both have been largely inactive in years.[7]

By the end of 2010, 1,160 of the 1,188 registered mine survivors had received support from the Organization of American States (OAS) to access physical rehabilitation and/or economic reintegration assistance.[8] Ongoing attention is available through the Ministry of Health, as for all persons with disabilities.[9]

Nicaragua ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 7 December 2007.

In 2010, international contributions towards mine action in Nicaragua totaled US$416,116.[1] Norway and Italy both made their contributions through the Organization of American States (OAS) for mine clearance and victim assistance activities.

The government of Nicaragua contributed $1,000,000 per year toward its mine action program from 2005–2009, and $100,000 in 2010 to complete demining.[2]

In June 2010, Nicaragua reported it had cleared all known mined areas and was compliant with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty.[3] Norway’s 2010 contribution included NOK93,000 ($15,384) to the Nicaraguan Ministry of Defense for a  ceremony recognizing the country’s new mine-free status.[4]

At the Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2010, Nicaragua reported it had spent $82.19 million from 1989–2010 to clear 1,029 mined areas covering 11.92km², including $42.29 million received through the OAS, $24.9 million through bilateral assistance, and $15 million from the government.[5]

International contributions: 2010[6]

Summary of contributions: 2006–2010[7]