Contamination and Impact

Mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination in Peru are the result of internal armed conflict and a border war with Ecuador in the 1990s.

Mines

Peru has had two distinct mine problems, although a third arose in 2012 as a result of torrential rains in Chile. The first threat is located in the Condor Mountain Range in the sparsely populated Amazon basin, where, in 1995, antipersonnel mines were placed along the border in the departments of Amazonas, Cajamarca, Piura, and Tumbes during an armed conflict with Ecuador.[1] Since May 2010, Peru and Ecuador have been exchanging additional information about mined areas on their common border. In its Article 7 transparency report covering 2010, Peru included reference to 13 mined areas located in Ecuador (see mine action section of the Ecuador country profile) and 10 previously unreported areas located in Peru in the districts of Cahuide, Chiquieza, and Pacahacutec.[2]

After officially handing over to Ecuador details of 13 suspect hazardous areas (SHAs) containing 12,292 antipersonnel mines that were found to be in Ecuadorian territory in 2010, and adding 10 SHAs identified on the border with Ecuador but which fall within its territory, Peru revised its remaining contamination down from 34 to 31 SHAs covering a total of 307,000m² in Achuime, Cenepa, and Santiago sectors of Amazonas department, containing an estimated 13,700 mines.[3]

The second mine problem was located in the center of Peru where, in the 1980s, mines were planted to protect infrastructure against attacks from non-state armed groups.[4] In total, 2,518 electricity pylons, three antenna transmitters, one electricity substation, three high-security prisons, and two police bases were mined.[5] In April 2012, the national police finished clearing the two police bases in Santa Lucia and Tulumayo, which represented completion of clearance of all mined infrastructure.[6]

Although Peru’s primary mine problem is on the northern border with Ecuador, in early 2012 a mine incident shifted attention to its border with Chile in the south and the impact of mines planted by Chile close to the border with Peru in the 1970s. In February 2012, torrential rains and flooding in the Arica-Parinacota region in northern Chile caused antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from the 1970s to surface near the main highway linking Arica, Chile, with Tacna, Peru, in an area called Quebrada de Escritos. In response, Chile closed the road near the border in order to clear the mines, stranding thousands of people on both sides of the border.[7]  The Chilean army reportedly destroyed four mines at the location. But according to Ximena Valcarce, the Mayor of Arica and Parinacota, more than 200 mines were also found near the Las Machas beach. Consequently a three-mile nautical exclusion zone was also put into place, to prevent the arrival of people or boats into the area by sea. CONTRAMINAS, the Peruvian Center for Mine Action, organized risk education for people located near Peru’s border with Chile.

In April 2012, Peru and Chile agreed that an international company should clear the beach of mines. In early June, the two countries announced they had reached agreement with Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to clear the mined area.[8] NPA planned to conduct an assessment mission by early August 2012 to determine the exact scope, time, cost, and methods required to clear the designated area.[9]

There may also be a threat from improvised mines. In April 2012, two police officers were wounded after stepping on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in La Convención, near the jungle in VRAE (the valley of the rivers Apurimac and Ene, in central Peru). The officers were injured while searching for two police officers who had been kidnapped while they themselves were searching for 38 oil workers taken hostage by the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso), a non-state armed group fighting against the government.[10]

Explosive remnants of war

In 2009, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, Peru said that it was fighting the Shining Path in rural areas, and that Shining Path was using explosive devices or booby-traps to protect coca harvests.[11] A media report in May 2011 said home-made booby-traps were affecting the government’s coca eradication program in Upper Huallaga Valley in San Martín.[12]

Mine Action Program

Key institutions and operators

The national mine action authority is the CONTRAMINAS Executive Council, comprised of representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Education, Health, Interior, and the National Council for the Integration of Disabled Persons (Consejo Nacional para la Integracion de las Personas con Discapacidad, CONADIS). The Executive Council, which is chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sets strategy and priorities, and also approves plans and budgets.[13] Under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Peruvian Center for Mine Action (Centro Peruano de Acción contra las Minas Antipersonal, CONTRAMINAS) coordinates planning and operations to meet Peru’s Mine Ban Treaty obligations, including clearance.[14]

CONTRAMINAS is responsible for overall management and day-to-day coordination of mine action activities. The Organization of American States (OAS) has assisted Peru in mine clearance since May 2001. The Assistance Mission for Mine Clearance in South America (Misión de Asistencia a la Remoción de Minas en Suramérica, MARMINAS), established by the Inter-American Defense Board in May 2003 to support mine clearance in both Ecuador and Peru, provides technical advice to the OAS and monitors demining operations. The OAS provides observers to support the Peruvian army’s clearance operations.[15]

US funding through RONCO has provided training and equipment to CONTRAMINAS and refurbished the National Humanitarian Demining Training Center (Centro Nacional de Capacitación en Desminado Humanitario) at Chiclayo, where both police and army deminers are trained, including Ecuadorians. Located between Lima and the border, Chiclayo is a transit city for demining teams.[16]

Land Release

The Peruvian Armed Forces General Directorate of Humanitarian Demining (Director Ejecutivo de la Dirección General de Desminado Humanitario del Ejército de Perú, DIGEDEHUME) is responsible for clearance of the border with Ecuador.[17] With the completion of mine clearance of the infrastructure in April 2012, it was planned that national police deminers from the specialized unit of the national police, the Security Division of Contraminas (División de Seguridad, DIVSECOM), would be transferred to the border operations to work with the army deminers.[18]

Five-year summary of clearance[19]

Mine clearance in 2011

In 2011, Peru cleared 46,572m² and destroyed 1,495 antipersonnel mines in mined areas close to the border with Ecuador. This almost doubled the output of 2010 in terms of area cleared, and was the best annual clearance output that Peru has ever achieved. The increased output can be attributed to the overcoming of earlier logistical and planning shortcomings, the purchase of new mine detectors, adjustments to operational procedures and the addition of mechanical assets and mine detection dogs (MDDs), and the increase of annual working shifts for clearance teams from five to 12. (Each shift consists of 20 days.) In April 2012, clearance capacity consisted of 40 deminers from the army and 40 from the national police.[20]

In 2011, the national police completed clearance of the prison in Huacariz, Cajamarca city, and in Huanuco department in April 2012 it completed clearance at the two remaining police prisons.[21]

In January–April 2012 Peru cleared 10,817m² in Cahuide, Chiqueiza, Huascar, Pachahutec, and Sanchez Racho.[22]

Compliance with Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the eight-year extension request granted 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, it was reported that Peru’s Defense Minister 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.”[23] In May 2012, at the Intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva, Peru said they would clear all remaining mined areas “as quickly as possible”.[24]

Although Peru doubled its productivity in 2011 and planned to increase it further in the coming years, with more than 300,000m² remaining at the end of 2011, it will still be a challenge for Peru to meet its Article 5 deadline in 2017.

Quality management

CONTRAMINAS conducts quality control on all completed clearance tasks.[25]

Risk Education

In 2011, the Ministry of Education delivered risk education in the area surrounding Santa Lucia and Tulumayo where the two remaining mine-affected police bases are located, and in the Putumayo region near the border with Colombia. CONTRAMINAS implemented risk education activities with indigenous people at La Poza and Galilea on the Santiago river and in Huampami on the Cenepa river, both near the border with Ecuador.[26]