Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Chile signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 16 December 2010, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 June 2011.

Under national implementation measures, Chile has declared its 2010 ratification law and draft victim assistance legislation. It has also reported that the Ministry of National Defense is establishing a body “to centralize, coordinate and execute the operational and administrative tasks” required by the convention.[1]

Chile submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions in September 2012 and provided an updated annual report in September 2013.[2]

Chile participated in the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and was a strong advocate for the most comprehensive convention possible.[3]

Chile has continued to engage actively in the work of the convention since 2008, hosting an international conference on the convention in Santiago in June 2010 and regional conferences in December 2013 and September 2009.

Chile has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, including the Fourth Meeting of State Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013, where made a general statement. Chile also attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014, where it made statements on universalization as well as cooperation and assistance.

Chile hosted the Santiago Regional Workshop on Cluster Munitions on 12–13 December 2013, attended by representatives from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states, including non-signatories Argentina, Belize, Cuba, Saint Lucia, and the United States (US). Members of the CMC from Chile, Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Mexico, and Venezuela also participated in the meeting. States attending the workshop adopted the “Santiago Declaration,” which calls for “joint action to ensure the protection of civilians through the prohibition and total eradication of cluster munitions.”[4] Elements of a regional action plan for a cluster munition-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean were also discussed at the meeting.[5]

Chile has voted in favor of UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s use of cluster munition, including Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at Syria’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[6] As a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, Chile endorsed Security Council Resolution 2155 on 27 May 2014, which expressed concern at the use of cluster munitions in South Sudan and called for “all parties to refrain from similar such use in the future.”[7]

Chile has not yet provided its views on certain important issues relating to the interpretation and implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the prohibition on transit, the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, and the prohibition on investment in production of cluster munitions.

During the Oslo Process, Chile was not in favor of including language on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions) in the convention.[8] In 2012, a Ministry of National Defense official informed the Monitor that the convention’s Article 21 language does not prevent Chile from conducting military training exercises with states not party, but emphasized that Chile would require that states participating in exercises not use cluster munitions in the exercises (and would communicate this requirement via a written order sent to officials involved).[9]

Chile is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. Chile is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, and transfer

Chile is not known to have used cluster munitions in a conflict situation. In 2011, the Ministry of National Defense informed the Monitor that Chile stopped using cluster munitions in training exercises in 2008.[10]

During the Oslo Process in September 2007, Chile stated that it no longer produced cluster munitions and did not intend to produce the weapon in the future.[11] In the past, Industrias Cardeon SA and Los Conquistadores 1700 were reported to have produced at least eight types of air-dropped cluster bombs: CB-130 bomb, CB-250K bomb, CB-500 bomb, CB-500K bomb, CB-500K2 bomb, CB-770 bomb, WB-250F bomb, and WB-500F bomb.[12]

In the initial Article 7 report, Chile indicated that information in the section on measures taken to dismantle its cluster munition production facilities was in the process of being verified.[13] It stated that when the time the report was filed, it was not possible to present a complete accounting of “models manufactured, their total amount or destination of transfer.”[14] The updated report provided in September 2013 provides no additional information on past production or transfer of cluster munitions.

However, in 2012 Chile’s Ministry of National Defense provided the Monitor with a detailed accounting of Chile’s past transfers of cluster munitions. One document shown to the Monitor details Chilean exports of cluster munitions in the period from 1991 to 2001 to the following five countries:[15]

·         Brazil in 1999 and 2001 (various types);

·         Colombia in 1994 (55 250kg cluster bombs, four air-dropped 250kg cluster bombs, and one fin stabilizer for a CB-250kg cluster bomb) and in 1997 (132 250kg cluster bombs);

·         Turkey in 1996 (four CB-250 cluster bombs);

·         United Arab Emirates in 1998 (four “empty” [vacías] CB-500kg cluster bombs and two CB-500 cluster bombs filled with lead shot);

·         US in 1991 (one 250kg cluster bomb and one 500kg cluster bomb).

In a May 2012 document provided to the Monitor, the director-general of National Mobilization, Brigadier General Roberto Ziegele Kerber, stated that there were “no other applications or new exports authorizations for these devices” after the year 2001.[16] This data accounts for cluster munitions exported from Chile in the period after 1980, but it does not provide any information on exports in period from 1980–1991.[17]

PM-1 combined-effect submunitions delivered by bombs produced in Chile have been found in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Sudan.[18] Colombia reported the destruction of its stockpile of 41 Chilean CB-250K bombs in March 2009.[19] A number of CB-250 bombs were found in the arsenal of Iraq by UN weapons inspectors, who noted that the bombs had been modified by Iraq to deliver chemical weapons in the submunitions.[20]

Stockpile destruction

In its initial Article 7 report provided in 2012, Chile declared a stockpile of 249 LARS-160 surface-launched rockets equipped with MkII cluster munition warheads containing 25,896 submunitions.[21]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chile was required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control no later than 1 June 2019.

At the convention’s Fourth Meeting on States Parties on 11 September 2013, Chile announced the completion of the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions and in “the spirit of cooperation that guides the convention” offered to share its experience and provide technical assistance to countries requesting support for their stockpile destruction efforts.[22]

Chile provided the Fourth Meeting on States Parties with a detailed presentation on the destruction of its stockpile that was carried out by the Army’s Fabrica y Maestranza del Ejercito (FAMAE) in Arica Parinacota in the north of the country.[23] According to the Article 7 report provided September 2013, the stockpile was destroyed between 17 June and 12 July 2013.[24] The Minister of Defense has signed a decree certifying that the inventories of the Chilean Army no longer hold cluster munitions.[25] In both the presentation and 2013 Article 7 report, Chile details the step-by-step process used to destroy the stockpile by demilitarization, including dismantling various components and destroying the submunitions by controlled detonation.

In previous years, Chile destroyed other stocks of cluster munitions. According to a Chilean Air Force document dated 23 June 2009, “the air force originally had 48 cluster munitions in stockpile in 2003 of which 42 cluster munitions were consumed for training purposes at sites in the north of Chile in 2007, two more cluster munitions were consumed in 2008, and the remaining four cluster munitions were consumed in 2009.[26]  

Retention

Chile has declared the retention of 12 CBK-250 cluster munitions and 240 inert PM-1 submunitions for research and training purposes. The reports list the locations where the munitions are stored.[27]

Contamination and Impact

Overall Mine Action Performance: AVERAGE[1]

The Republic of Chile is affected by antipersonnel and antivehicle mines as well as, to a very limited extent, by explosive remnants of war, which may include cluster munition remnants.[2]

The mines were laid on Chile’s borders with Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru during the Pinochet regime in the 1970s. The mined areas are generally difficult to access and mostly in unpopulated regions. Some minefields in the north are located as high as 5,000m above sea level, although the vast majority of the mines are located in two of the remaining five mine-affected regions.[3] As of December 2013, 98 confirmed mined areas remained across the four regions of Arica y Parinacota, Tarapacá, Antofagasta, and Magallanes y Antártica Chilena, containing an estimated 61,402 mines.[4] A further 9,512 mines are located within suspect hazardous areas (SHAs, termed “danger areas” by Chile) in Arica y Parinacota, Antofagasta, and Valparaiso regions. As of December 2013, total contaminated area was estimated to cover 13.93km².[5]

Confirmed mined areas in Chile[6]

Cluster munition remnants

Chile has identified four areas contaminated with cluster munition remnants. The four areas are located at military training bases in three regions where all types of ammunition have been used during routine training exercises. The 96.88km² of contaminated area represents the total size of the training area where cluster munitions were used.[7] The precise extent of cluster munition contamination within the training area may be smaller than initially reported (see table below) and will be determined through technical survey and clearance. Chile has not reported on any efforts at clearance of these areas.

Cluster munition contamination[8]

Mine Action Program

The National Demining Commission (Comisión Nacional de Desminado, CNAD) is responsible for mine action in Chile. Its main functions are to advise the President, mobilize resources, coordinate demining with state agencies, and develop plans for implementing the Mine Ban Treaty. CNAD is chaired by the Minister of Defense and Chile’s mine action program is executed under the auspices of the Ministry of National Defense.[9]

Demining is conducted by the Army Corps of Engineers, Navy Peace and Demining Division (POMTA).

Land Release

Chile reported in December 2013 that they had cleared more than 40% of recorded mines (77,415 of the original estimate of 181,814 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines and 9.3km² of the 23.2km² of contaminated area). This leaves 13.9km² and 104,399 mines to clear by March 2020.[10]

In 2013, Chile reported clearance of just 0.4km² of area in the Arica y Parinacota and Magallanes y Antártica Chilena regions in 14 mined areas, destroying in the process 15,470 mines.[11] Chile did not report area cleared for the Antofagasta region but indicated that three mined areas had been released. In addition, it was indicated that the POMTA has continued demining operations on Isla Picton in the Magallanes region, but no details were provided. Chile reported that several areas in Antofagasta collapsed due to snow and severe rainfalls in 2013, causing demining units to be moved to work in other areas and stopping demining efforts for some months.[12]

By February 2014, CNAD indicated that a further 2,070 mines had been destroyed, bringing the total to 79,485, or almost 44% of emplaced mines. No additional land release was reported between December 2013 and February 2014.

However, certification of the “extraordinary operations” clearance activities reported in the Laguna Figueroa sector of the Magallanes y Antártica Chilena region[13] has been challenged in the courts as the local population did not accept the validity of the demining activities in the area.[14]

In 2013, Chile’s demining capacity comprised five survey teams, five units of deminers, and five explosive ordnance disposal teams in addition to three mechanical teams, with a total capacity of 145 people dedicated to clearance operations.[15]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the eight-year extension request granted by States Parties in 2011), Chile is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2020.

In its March 2011 extension request, Chile cited bad weather, remote mined areas in high altitudes, the difficult terrain, and the different types and conditions of the mines as the main reasons for needing additional time.[16]

In response to the Analysing Group of States Parties’ query regarding the need for an eight-year extension for such a proportionately small area of contaminated land, particularly with regard to the possibility of applying new land release methodologies, Chile cited the difficult terrain, weather, and logistics involved in demining operations in the country.[17] Due to the weather conditions in Chile, clearance activities can only be conducted in October through March each year. Based on the remaining area and number of mines, it is calculated that Chile needed to clear approximately 2km² and destroy 16,000 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines per year to be able to meet its Article 5 obligations by 2020.

Despite the achievable yet conservative targets set, Chile’s clearance record since being granted its extension request has demonstrated that it is already falling behind its annual benchmarks with a shortfall of more than 1.6km²,achieving just 46% of its target to date. Nevertheless, CNAD officials have stated that Chile will meet its Article 5 obligations by its 2020 deadline:[18] “We have a rate of 10% per year in the number of mines destroyed, which allows us to think that we will meet the goal of liberating all the territory by 2020 and get certified as free of landmines.”[19]

In March 2013, Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia, accused Chile of failing to comply with its clearance obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty, stating that the Chilean government had “paralyzed” clearance operations along their shared border.[20] Chile and Bolivia are embroiled in a border dispute following Bolivia’s appeal to the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding its demands for a corridor of access through Chile to the Pacific Ocean.[21]

Clearance of cluster munition remnants

Chile has not reported conducting any clearance in 2012 or 2013 of the four areas contaminated with cluster munitions since its first Article 7 report.

Compliance with Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Chile is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 June 2021.

Support for Mine Action

According to Chile’s Article 5 deadline extension request, Chile intended to cover the full cost of meeting its Article 5 obligations, which was estimated to be more than US$61 million.[22] Since 2003, the government of Chile has provided almost all funding towards its own mine action program, having not received international funding since 2007. Chile has contributed more than $4 million each year since 2008 and an estimated $40 million since 2003. In March 2014, the Executive Director of CNAD, Col. Juan Mendoza, said: “We manage a budget of four million dollars annually for this work, as well as some international donations.”[23]

Recommendations

·        Chile should increase its pace of land release significantly, applying all relevant methodologies to ensure annual targets are met.

·        Chile should improve its reporting of progress by disaggregating clearance more clearly in terms of square meters cleared per annum, types of mines found and destroyed, and number of mined areas released.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Chile is responsible for survivors of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Chile has made a commitment to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Casualties Overview

In 2013, the Monitor identified two casualties by antipersonnel landmines, both in the Arica and Parinacota region of Chile.[1] Both casualties were adult men, injured while crossing Chile’s border with Peru. One of the men wounded was a Peruvian national; the second was a Colombian national.[2]

The two casualties reported by media in 2013 represented a decrease compared with 2012; a total of five casualties were identified through media reports in 2012. Two of the casualties recorded in 2012, a Peruvian man and a military deminer, occurred in the same region of Chile as the two casualties identified in 2013. Prior to 2012, the last casualty reported in Chile was in 2007 when a man was killed by an antipersonnel mine while crossing the border with Peru.[3] The Monitor has identified 37 casualties (five killed and 32 injured) between 1999 and December 2013. As of March 2013, Chile recorded 140 people (28 killed and 112 injured) as victims of mines/ERW, of which 56 were civilians and 84 were military.[4] However, in 2009 Chile had confirmed a total of 181 casualties (60% military and 40% civilian) since 1970. Sixty-eight were caused by antipersonnel mines, 57 by antivehicle mines, 20 by ERW, and 36 by unknown explosive devices.[5]

Victim Assistance

As of March 2013, there were 112 mine/ERW survivors registered by the National Humanitarian Demining Commission (Comisión Nacional de Desminado Humanitario, CNAD).[6]

CNAD is the victim assistance focal point and is responsible for maintaining and updating the registry of mine/ERW victims that was developed between 2009 and 2012.[7] In developing the registry, CNAD conducted a needs assessment of identified victims, visiting their homes and working with local governments to register the victims with the social insurance system.[8] There is no formal victim assistance coordination mechanism.

In 2013, CNAD signed an agreement with the health commission of the Chilean Army to provide comprehensive assistance to military landmine survivors.[9] Most civilians with disabilities, including civilian landmine survivors, qualify for free healthcare through the National Health Fund and social support managed by the Ministry of Planning. However, in 2009 the government recognized that in “many civilian cases” survivors have problems accessing services because of their poverty or remote location.[10]

The Group of Mine and Munitions Victims (GMMV), a national survivors’ network, actively advocates for increased attention to the needs of mine and ERW survivors and their families.[11] In May 2012, with financial support from local authorities, a local chapter of the GMMV was founded in Caldera in Northern Chile, expanding the geographic coverage of the network.[12]

In September 2013, the President of Chile introduced the draft victims’ law to the national congress. The law is designed to provide reparations to mine/ERW victims as a means to comply with Chile’s international commitments under the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons.[13] Representatives of various government ministries and civil society, including a representative of the GMMV, were involved in developing the draft law.[14] In August 2014, survivors provided testimony to the Human Rights Committee of the National Congress as part of the congressional review of the draft law.[15]

The law defines a victim as someone who has been wounded by a mine/ERW explosion or the family members of someone killed by such an explosion. Family members of survivors are not included in the definition or as beneficiaries. Benefits drafted under the law include one-time financial payments as reparations as well as reimbursements for medical care and rehabilitation. Article 5 of the law refers to assistance for social and economic inclusion, but there are no specific provisions within the law regarding how victims would access this assistance.[16] The draft law does not include a monthly pension for survivors, although that was something that the GMMV proposed and saw as a priority.[17]

On 20 October 2014, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet issued a letter calling for “urgency” in the review and processing of the draft victims’ law.[18] However, as of 10 December 2014, the draft law continued to pass through the review process of the National Congress.[19]

Chilean law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and the government actively enforced the law in 2013. However, persons with disabilities still experienced some discrimination. The law provides for universal and equal access to buildings, information, and communications. However, most public buildings did not comply with legal accessibility standards. In 2012 and 2013, TranSantiago, the main system of public transportation within Santiago, instituted changes to improve compliance with the law, including new ramp systems and elevators at certain metro stations.[20]

Chile ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 29 July 2008.

The Republic of Chile is one of the few states that completely fund their own mine action program.[1] Chile has not received international support since 2007.

Since 2008, the government of Chile has provided more than US$23.8 million toward its own mine action program. In its Article 5 deadline extension request, Chile estimated it would provide approximately $60 million through 2020 in order to complete the clearance of all known mined areas.[2] In 2012, the government of Chile provided $5.2 million.

Summary of national contributions: 2008–2012[3]