Commitment to the Convention on Cluster Munitions

Policy

The Republic of Peru signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008, ratified on 26 September 2012, and the convention entered into force for the country on 1 March 2013.

Under national implementation measures, Peru has declared its ratification law as well as a 10 June 2011 directive on the standardization of weapon disposal procedures.[1] It is not known if Peru will enact specific legislation to enforce the provisions of the convention.

Peru submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 1 August 2013 and provided an annual updated report on 7 May 2014.[2] As one of the small core group of nations that took responsibility for the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Peru hosted an international conference on cluster munitions in Lima in May 2007.[3]

Peru has continued to engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, except the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. Peru has attended all of the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including in April 2014. Peru attended a regional workshop on cluster munitions in Santiago, Chile in December 2013.

Peru has voted in favor of recent UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions condemning the Syrian’s government’s use of cluster munitions, 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.”[4]

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

Use, production, and transfer

Peru is not known to have ever used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.

Stockpiling and destruction

In the initial Article 7 report provided in August 2013, Peru declared a stockpile of 675 cluster munitions of three types and 86,200 submunitions, as listed in the following table.[5]

Cluster munitions stockpiled by Peru (August 2013)[6]

Previously, in May 2007, Peru’s Minister of Defense publicly disclosed that the Peruvian Air Force possesses stocks of BME-330 cluster bombs of Spanish origin and RBK-500 cluster bombs of Russian/Soviet origin as well as CB-470 cluster bombs of South African origin.[7]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Peru is required to declare and destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible but not later than 1 March 2021.

In April 2014, Peru expressed its commitment to destroy the stockpile by the deadline provided by the convention and said it has requested international cooperation and assistance from countries that have undergone a similar process, as well as support from regional and international organizations and NGOs.[8] Peru stated that it is studying the resource needs for the planned destruction of the stockpiled cluster munitions.

In the 2013 Article 7 report, Peru states that it is committed to begin the process of stockpile destruction, in accordance with existing national regulations and lists the Peruvian Air Force as the institution responsible for the stockpiled cluster munitions and their destruction.[9]

Retention

In the 2013 Article 7 report, Peru declared no cluster munitions or submunitions retained for training.[10] Previously, it expressed its intent to retain cluster munitions for the purposes of training in detection, clearance, and destruction techniques, but said it had not yet identified the number of cluster munitions or submunitions to be retained.[11]

Contamination and Impact

Overall Mine Action Performance: POOR[1]

Mine contamination in the Republic of Peru is the result of internal armed conflict in the 1980s and 1990s, and a brief conflict between Peru and Ecuador in 1995 over a longstanding border dispute.[2] During this conflict, part of the two states’ common border was mined, affecting four departments in Peru: Amazonas, Cajamarca, Piura, and Tumbes. The most heavily mined section was an area known as “Cordillera del Cóndor” (the sparsely populated Amazonas department), which was at the center of the conflict.[3] In April 2014, Peru reported remaining contamination was 438,254m²(0.4km²) across 135 mined areas and containing 10,313 recorded mines.[4]

In February 2012, Peru suffered further mine contamination along its border with Chile following mine displacement caused by torrential rains and floods in the Arica-Parinacota region in northern Chile. The floods caused mines laid in the 1970s to surface near the main highway linking Arica (Chile) with Tacna (Peru) in an area called Quebrada de Escritos.[5] Peru and Chile commissioned Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to clear the mines,[6] which it completed in December 2012, destroying some 300 mines in the process.[7]

Mine Action Program

Chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peru’s national mine action authority, the interministerial Executive Council of the Peruvian Mine Action Centre (Centro Peruano de Acción contra las Minas Antipersonal, CONTRAMINAS) is responsible for setting strategy and priorities in addition to plan and budget approval.[8] CONTRAMINAS is responsible for overall management and day-to-day coordination of mine action activities.

At the end of 2013, the Organization of American States (OAS) concluded its program of technical and financial assistance to Peru’s mine action operations, which it initiated in May 2001 through its Assistance Mission for Mine Clearance in South America (Misión de Asistencia a la Remoción de Minas en América del Sur, MARMINAS).[9] The OAS has continued to support a victim assistance project, which was due also to close in late 2014.[10] RONCO Consulting concluded its work with CONTRAMINAS in March 2013.

In April 2013, under the Binational Cooperation Program established in 2000 Peru and Ecuador issued a Binational Manual for Humanitarian Demining with a view to unifying the demining procedures of both countries in accordance with the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).[11] In December 2013, the joint Ecuador-Peru Binational Humanitarian Demining Unit conducted its first demining exercise in Morona Santiago in Ecuador. A second exercise was planned to be conducted in Peru during the course of 2014.[12]

In 2013, Peru reported demining capacity of some 150 deminers, five explosive ordnance disposal personnel, six mine detection dogs, and one mechanical excavator.[13] As of March 2014, transfer of demining units from the specialized unit of the national police under the Security Division of CONTRAMINAS (División de Seguridad, DIVSECOM), planned for 2012, had not yet occurred, although it was due to occur “very soon.”[14]

Regarding additional mined areas identified in 2012, Peru noted that clearance would require “a substantial increase in the resources of the Peruvian State to provide greater capabilities to humanitarian demining process in order to comply with the obligations assumed before the Convention and finish the cleanup and destruction of mines in the territory national before March 1, 2017.”[15]

Land Release

Clearance on the border areas with Ecuador has been under the responsibility of the Directorate General for Humanitarian Demining Army of Peru.[16] As of April 2014, Peru reported that a total of 107,304m² had been cleared since 2007 in the Cordillera del Cóndor with the destruction of 8,718 mines.[17]

Mine clearance in border area in 2009–13 (m²)[18]

Mine clearance in 2013

Peru reported clearance of 16,017m² in the Cenepa river area in 2013, with the destruction of 2,391 antipersonnel mines. Clearance occurred during 11 work periods of 20 days each.[19] This represents an increase of 2,226m² from the 13,791m² cleared in 2012[20] when the exceptionally low output was attributed to the high elevation of the river area that had required building a new camp, transport of equipment, and construction of bridges and heliports for demining.[21] The small increase in mined area cleared may be attributable to an increase in deminer capacity from 60 in June 2013[22] to the 150 reported in March 2014, in addition to use of (as yet unexplained) new mechanical and manual demining techniques.[23]

Demining in the Cordillera del Condor has been described as a challenging endeavor due to its topography as a mountainous jungle prone to heavy rain for much of the year, and reaching heights of 2,900m which means that it is only accessible by a two-hour helicopter flight.[24]

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 2008), Peru 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 2017.

On 29 February 2012, Peru’s Minister of Defense, Alberto Otárola, said the border with Ecuador “would be free of landmines by 2016.” He continued, “I think in 2016 or 2017 we can say that our borders will be free of mines, as all the boundaries of democratic countries that respect the right to life of its citizens, must be.”[25] In May 2012, at the Intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, Peru said they would clear all remaining mined areas “as quickly as possible.”[26] In 2014, the Coordinator General of CONTRAMINAS stated: “We are still working according to our deadline.”[27]

It is unclear, however, if Peru can indeed meet its Article 5 deadline in 2017.[28] The 48 mined areas found to be in Peruvian territory rather than in Ecuador in 2012 increased significantly the area and number of mines to clear. In combination with Peru’s low clearance rate in recent years, whether Peru can clear the remaining areas by 2017 with current capacity is seriously in doubt.

It its statement to the Standing Committee meeting on mine clearance in April 2014, Peru stated that the additional mined area meant that Peru needs a “substantial increase in resources” to expand demining capacity in order to comply with its Article 5 clearance obligations by the March 2017 deadline.[29] CONTRAMINAS reports having reviewed its operational plans in light of the additional mined areas from Ecuador and created a new draft national plan.[30] As noted above, the content of the plan has not yet been disclosed publicly.

Support for Mine Action

Peru contributed the equivalent of US$1.6 million to its own national mine action program in 2013, less than in 2012. In addition, the US Department of State allocated $1 million to Peru for the period October 2012–April 2013.

Peru estimated a budget of $26 million would be needed to complete clearance in its revised Article 5 deadline Extension Request in 2008, of which $17.8 million would be provided by its national budget in 2008–2017 with the remaining $8 million to be sought from external sources. To date, Peru has raised $22 million of the projected total needed. These figures, however, do not take into account the need for increased resources due to additional mined areas identified. Peru has not provided a projection of the extra financial resources needed to complete clearance, nor indicated how it intends to raise those funds.

Recommendations

·         Peru should urgently increase its national clearance capacity, specifically by deploying police demining units to the border areas with Ecuador as soon as possible.

·         Peru should share with States Parties its revised national clearance plan to account for the 48 additional mined areas inherited from Ecuador.

·         Peru should inform states of its exact needs for assistance and resource shortfall, and provide a clear plan on how Peru intends to raise the additional funding needed.

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Peru is responsible for a significant number of survivors of landmines, including survivors of victim-activated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and explosive remnants of war (ERW) who are in need. Peru has made a commitment to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty.

Casualties Overview

No new casualties were identified in Peru in 2013.[1] In 2012, in the region of the River Apurímac, River Ene valley, and Mantaro (VRAEM), one incident involving a victim-activated IED, also referred to as a “homemade mine,” caused four casualties among the soldiers from the antipersonnel mine deactivation unit of the Peruvian army.[2]

Since 2007, when the last confirmed casualty caused by factory-made mines was recorded,[3] most casualties identified have been caused by victim-activated IEDs, in areas of coca cultivation.[4]

In 2013, a Peruvian citizen was injured by a landmine when crossing the border to enter Chile.[5] In 2012, a Peruvian was killed while crossing the border from Peru to Chile when his car hit an antivehicle mine.[6]

The total number of mine/IED and ERW casualties identified in Peru since 1991 is 460 (62 people killed and 398 injured).[7]

Victim Assistance

As of the end of 2013, there were 398 mine/ERW survivors in Peru.[8]

Victim assistance in 2013

In 2013, some efforts were made to increase access to physical rehabilitation and to register mine/ERW survivors and other persons with disabilities in government social programs such as medical insurance and pensions. However, access to services remained difficult for survivors throughout the year because most were living in extremely remote and rural areas. In December 2012, with the approval of the General Law on Persons with Disabilities, Peru started the adaptation of national legislation in line with the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Implementing regulations of the disability law were passed in April 2014.

Assessing victim assistance needs

In 2013, the Peruvian Center for Mine Action (Centro Peruano de Acción contra las Minas Antipersonales, CONTRAMINAS) maintained regular communication with landmine survivors and conducted workshops and discussions, in order to verify and update information on mine/ERW survivors and their needs. During the year, CONTRAMINAS visited the regions of Junin, Huancavelica, and Tacna to update information about survivors already registered and to identify any other mine survivors who remained unregistered.[9]

Victim assistance coordination[10]

CONTRAMINAS held several bilateral victim assistance coordination meetings which included other government ministries and relevant actors such as the European Union and the Organization of American States (OAS), the National Disability Council (CONADIS), victim assistance service providers such as the National Institute of Rehabilitation (Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación, INR) and the Polus Center, as well as survivor associations.[11]

In April 2013, CONTRAMINAS and CONADIS co-hosted a national victim assistance meeting with support from the Mine Ban Treaty’s Implementation Support Unit. The meeting brought together mine victims, persons with disabilities, and their representative organizations, along with government and NGO participants from rural and remote areas of Peru to ensure the explicit inclusion of mine victims and their perspectives in Peru’s Plan for Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.[12] Three regional meetings were held in Tacna, Junín, and Huancavelica bringing together survivors, local authorities, and representatives of CONTRAMINAS.[13]

In 2013, CONTRAMINAS and the Polus Center continued implementing Peru’s national victim assistance work plan, developed in 2010.[14] The plan’s objectives include providing individualized support for socio-economic reintegration for all registered survivors and strengthening local healthcare and rehabilitation facilities in mine affected areas.[15]

Peru provided updates on victim assistance and disability policy at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in December 2013.[16] Peru provided information on progress in victim assistance through its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report.[17]

Inclusion and participation in victim assistance

Survivors and other persons with disabilities participated in the national victim assistance meeting in April 2013 and in regional victim assistance meetings.[18] The Association of Victims and Survivors of Minefields (Asociación de Víctimas y Sobrevivientes de Campos Minados, AVISCAM) has been inactive since 2012.[19]

Service accessibility and effectiveness

As in previous years, medical facilities and the country’s main rehabilitation center were centralized in the capital, while most survivors were based in rural communities. The time and expense of traveling to these services prevented most survivors from accessing them.[20] The national Transportation Development Plan included consideration of the needs of persons with disabilities and actions to gradually address these needs. The National Rehabilitation Institute and other hospitals had begun implementing some actions from the plan as of early 2014.[21]

CONTRAMINAS continued to assist survivors in securing medical assistance and in applying for national health insurance and/or disability pensions.[22] Many survivors found the application process for national health insurance and pensions to be complicated and the coverage itself very limited.[23]

Physical rehabilitation, including prosthetics

In January 2013, the INR officially opened the newly built national rehabilitation center offering comprehensive rehabilitation services, including prosthetics, occupational therapy, and psychological support. The construction of new facilities was financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) with a national contribution from Peru. The National Rehabilitation Institute offers a comprehensive rehabilitation program including physical and psychological care. However, the new center located in Lima remained inaccessible to most survivors living in rural, remote areas.

CONTRAMINAS, with support from the OAS and the ICRC Special Fund for the Disabled (SFD), facilitated access to rehabilitation services for mine survivors at the INR, National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital Daniel A. Carrión de Huancayo.[24]

In early 2013, the Polus Center began a multi-year training course at the INR to increase the staff capacity through periodic modular trainings.[25] The ICRC SFD continued to support the training of staff at the INR to improve the quality of physical rehabilitation in Peru.[26]

Economic Inclusion

Through May 2013, CONTRAMINAS continued to work jointly with the Polus Center in the implementation socio-economic inclusion projects for civilian and military victims. These include education and training and/or micro-finance to start small businesses. By May, 108 civilian victims had received support for income-generating projects, approximately one-third of all registered survivors.[27] In the first quarter of 2013, CONTRAMINAS and the Polus Center monitored the results of the economic inclusion projects and found that 98% were successful.[28]

The Polus Center strengthened the capacity of the regional employment center in Junin, providing equipment, tools, and materials for vocational training courses. It also provided training to the center in adapting courses and occupational counseling for persons with disabilities and established a quota of 15% of its spaces for persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors.[29]

Laws and Policies

In April 2014 the implementing regulations for the national Law for Persons with Disabilities were approved.[30] The law establishes budgetary requirements and quotas for various government ministries to ensure the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities.[31] It mandates that all public spaces must be accessible, though few efforts were made in 2013 to remove barriers to access.[32]

The pilot program Accessible Tumbes (Tumbes Accessible), launched by CONADIS in 2012, aims to improve the lives of persons with disabilities by providing a regional census, visiting them, assessing their needs and the obstacles they face in accessing services, as well as providing immediate attention as needed.[33] The outcomes of the pilot program are to be used to develop regional disability policies.[34] In early 2014, the program was replicated in the regions of Huánuco and Piura. [35]

Peru ratified the CRPD on 30 January 2008.

In 2012, Norway, Belgium, a regional development bank Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF),[1] and the United States (US) contributed a combined total of US$2,025,490 to mine action activities in the Republic of Peru, of which $1,009,379 was allocated to clearance activities and $1,016,111 dedicated to victim assistance. In 2012, the US also allocated $800,000 for victim assistance in Peru.[2]

The CAF contributed $500,000 to Peru’s mine action program in both 2011 and 2012.

The government of Peru contributed $2 million in 2012 to the mine action program.[3]

International contributions: 2012[4]

Summary of contributions: 2008–2012[5]