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Colombia
Mine Ban Policy
Commitment to Mine Ban Treaty
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Mine Ban Treaty status |
State Party |
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National implementation measures |
Law 759; in effect since 25 July 2002 |
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Transparency reporting |
30 April 2010 |
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Key developments |
Colombia hosted the Second Review Conference in Cartagena in November–December 2009 |
Policy
The Republic of Colombia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified on 6 September 2000, becoming a State Party on 1 March 2001. National implementation legislation, Law 759, came into effect on 25 July 2002.[1]
Colombia submitted its tenth Article 7 transparency report on 30 April 2010, covering the period from 1 January 2009 to 31 March 2010.[2] Under national implementation measures, Colombia lists its “main operational results” against non-state armed groups (NSAGs) during 2009 (for example, the number of demobilizations and captures), and says these should be considered as official measures to prevent activities prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty.[3]
From 29 November–4 December 2009, Colombia hosted the Second Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Cartagena. A total of 128 governments (108 States Parties, one signatory, and 19 states not party) participated in the conference, also known as the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, including over 40 high-level political representatives and, for the first time, the United States.[4] The ICBL delegation of 419 participants from 73 countries included 171 Colombian campaigners and survivors. More than 35 events were held parallel to the Second Review Conference, including field visits to affected areas, a quad rugby match, and a Youth Leaders Forum.[5]
Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón presided over the opening ceremony of the Second Review Conference, delivered Colombia’s speech in the high-level segment, and participated throughout the week of events. Ambassador Clara Inés Vargas Silva of Colombia was designated Secretary General of the conference. Colombia made statements on victim assistance, cooperation and assistance, and mine clearance.
Throughout 2009, Colombia played a central role in meetings held to prepare for the Second Review Conference. It spoke at formal preparatory meetings held in Geneva on 29 May and on 3–4 September 2009. Colombia co-convened a special event at the UN in New York on 23 October 2009.[6] Colombian officials also attended regional meetings held in Managua, Nicaragua (24–26 February 2009), Bangkok, Thailand (1–3 April 2009), Pretoria, South Africa (9–11 September 2009), and Tirana, Albania (7–9 October 2009).[7]
During the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in June 2010, Colombia served as co-rapporteur of the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Mine Action Technologies. It also made statements on mine clearance, and cooperation and assistance.
Colombia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. Colombia has never submitted an Article 13 annual report. Colombia is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.
The Colombian Campaign against Mines (Campaña Colombiana contra Minas, CCCM) operates a network of local coordinators in 22 departments and was heavily involved in the Second Review Conference, as were the Colombian Center for Integrated Rehabilitation (Centro Integral de Rehabilitacion de Colombia, CIREC) and other NGOs. CCCM has continued to promote the end of landmine use by Colombian NSAGs and, in 2009, became involved in a new project on humanitarian demining.[8]
In 2009, the Ottawa Working Group (Grupo de Trabajo de Ottawa, GTO-14), a group of NGOs who work on the landmine issue, was established to ensure coordinated civil society activities around the Second Review Conference and to help bring about a mine-free Colombia.[9]
Production and transfer
Colombia’s State Military Industry (Industria Militar, INDUMIL) ceased production of antipersonnel mines in September 1998, and destroyed its production equipment on 18 November 1999.[10]
The government of Colombia is not known to have ever exported antipersonnel mines. There have been past reports of mines transferred as part of illegal weapons shipments destined for NSAGs in Colombia, but Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor knows of no reports since 2003.
NSAGs in Colombia are expert in the production of explosive devices. Colombia’s Article 7 reports contain information on mines produced by NSAGs by type, dimensions, fuzing, explosive type and content, and metallic content, and also include photographs and additional information. Twelve different design types are manufactured, which include antipersonnel, antivehicle, and Claymore mines, as well as improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The military states that the mines are sometimes fitted with antihandling devices.[11] Both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC) and the National Liberation Army (Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) manufacture antipersonnel mines and IEDs.
Stockpile destruction and retention
Colombia reported completion of the destruction of its stockpile of 18,531 antipersonnel mines on 24 October 2004.[12]
Colombia retained 586 MAP-1 mines for training purposes as of April 2010, the same number as reported since 2007.[13] In March 2007, the coordinator of the Antipersonnel Mines Observatory (Observatorio de las Minas Antipersonal) said that Colombia had made a decision in 2006 to destroy all of its antipersonnel mines previously retained for training.[14] A total of 300 retained mines were destroyed in three separate events in 2006, but Colombia has not destroyed any, or consumed any in training activities, since that time.[15] Colombia has never reported in detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties at the First Review Conference in 2004 and again at the Second Review Conference in 2009.
Use
There have been no allegations of mine use by government forces in 2009 or early 2010. An allegation of possible antipersonnel mine use by government forces in La Florida, Valle del Cauca municipality in June 2008 was refuted by the government in August 2009.[16]
Use by non-state armed groups
FARC and ELN continue to use antipersonnel mines and IEDs on a regular basis. In the past decade, paramilitary forces have also used antipersonnel mines, most notably the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia until its disbandment in 2006.[17]
According to a demining expert in Colombia, NSAGs mainly lay mines near their campsites or bases, on paths that lead to areas of strategic importance (such as paths to their bases, or paths to main transit routes along mountain ridges), and to protect caches of explosives, weapons, medicine, and clothing.[18]
In a growing problem, NSAGs also plant antipersonnel mines in or near coca fields to prevent eradication efforts.[19] According to the Presidential Program for Mine Action (Programa Presidencial de Acción Integral Contra Minas Antipersonales, PAICMA), of the 240 civilian mine victims recorded in 2008 and 2009, 123 were manual coca eradicators. They came from 12 municipalities, and in seven of these (namely Puerto Asís, Valle de Guamez, Tarazá, Anorí, Puerto Libertador, and Tibú), they made up between 75% and 100% of all recorded civilian mine victims.[20]
The Colombian army has frequently reported on the use of antipersonnel mines by and the recovery of antipersonnel mines from FARC and ELN, as well as on the destruction of explosives factories. One study asserts that NSAGs have laid more than 50,000 antipersonnel mines, but the precise number is not known.[21]
FARC
FARC is probably the most prolific user of antipersonnel mines among rebel groups anywhere in the world. FARC Commander Alfonso Cano has reportedly defended FARC mine laying as “the best way to stop the advance of military operations.”[22] In April 2010, the army reported that two former FARC combatants had provided information on their activities in the construction and laying of mines.[23]
On 2 July 2010, Panama’s Minister of Public Security told media that landmines had been found on the Panama side of the border with Colombia, in the remote, densely forested province of Darien. Two Panamanian border police were injured in a mine blast there the previous week. Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who was visiting Panama at the time, said FARC was responsible for planting the mines.[24]
From mid-2009 to mid-2010, the Colombian army reported recovering mines in military operations against FARC forces in the departments of Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca, Guaviare, Meta, Putumayo, Tolima, and Valle.[25] Most notably, in December 2009, the army reported recovering 2,700 antipersonnel mines from a FARC camp in Tolima.[26] This is one of the largest seizures of mines ever reported by any State Party.
In September 2009, the army reported the recovery of 18 antipersonnel mines from a FARC combatant in Valle,[27] and nine antipersonnel mines from a FARC camp in Putumayo.[28] In May 2009, the army reported the recovery of 194 antipersonnel mines from arms caches belonging to FARC in Guaviare.[29]
ELN
From mid-2009 to mid-2010, the army reported recovering mines in military operations against ELN forces in the departments of Boyacá and Nariño.[30]
In June 2009, the army blamed the ELN for a civilian mine casualty in the municipality of Samaniego, Nariño department, near the border with Ecuador.[31] In May 2009, a military spokesperson claimed the ELN was responsible for planting mines that injured a teenaged girl and her daughter and killed four soldiers in Catatumbo, Norte de Santander department, close to the border with Venezuela.[32]
[1] See Article 7 Report, Form A, 6 May 2005; and Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 255, for details on penal sanctions and other aspects of the law.
[2] The reporting period overlaps by three months the previous reporting period that ended 31 March 2009. Previous reports were submitted on 30 April 2009, in April 2008 and April 2007, and on 29 June 2006, 6 May 2005, 11 May 2004, 27 May 2003, 6 August 2002, and 15 March 2002.
[3] “Tal como se ha señalado en los informes anteriores, Colombia cuenta con todos los mecanismos jurídicos para prevenir y reprimir el empleo, producción, comercialización, cesión y almacenamiento de minas antipersonal por personas particulares. De otro lado, y en el entendido que son los miembros de los GAML [grupos armados al margen de la ley] quienes hacen un uso continuo y sistemático de dichos artefactos para atacar a la Fuerza Pública colombiana e intimidar a la población civil, el Estado colombiano considera que las operaciones conducentes a desarticular dichas estructuras criminales deben ser consideradas como medidas oficiales para prevenir las actividades en cuestión. Al respecto, la Tabla 1 relaciona los principales resultados operacionales contra las GAML en 2009.” See Article 7 Report, Form A, 30 April 2010.
[4] UN, “Final Report, Second Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction,” Cartagena, 30 November–4 December 2009, APLC/CONF/2009/9, 17 June 2010. See also ICBL, “Report on Activities: Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World, 29 November to 4 December 2009,” May 2010, www.icbl.org.
[5] Second Review Conference, “Cartagena Action Plan adopted by international community,” Press release, 4 December 2009, Cartagena, www.cartagenasummit.org.
[6] ICBL, “Campaign urges hold-out states to ban landmines,” Press release, 23 October 2009, New York. See Landmine Monitor Report 2009, p. 288–325 for additional events.
[7] For more information on these meetings see www.cartagenasummit.org.
[8] Email from Camilo Serna Villegas, Operations Coordinator, CCCM; and email from Alvaro Jiménez Millán, National Coordinator, CCCM, 6 August 2009.
[9] GTO-14 members: CCCM, CIREC, Fundación Restrepo Barco, Fundación Retorno y Vida, Fundación Mi Sangre, Fundación REI, Handicap International, Pastoral Social, la Asamblea Permanente Por la Paz, Colombian Red Cross, United For Colombia, British Council, Mercy Corps, and Moviment Per la Pau. gto14.org.
[10] Interviews with Eng. Sergio Rodríguez, Second Technical Manager, INDUMIL, 5 July 2000 and 24 July 2001. As of 2001, INDUMIL was still producing Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines. Colombia has stated that these mines are used only in command-detonated mode, as permitted by the Mine Ban Treaty. However, Colombia has not reported on steps it has taken to ensure that these mines are used only in command-detonated mode.
[11] Presentation by the Colombian Armed Forces, “Desarrollo Compromiso con la Convención de Ottawa” (“Development Commitment with the Ottawa Convention”), Bogotá, 6 March 2006. Antipersonnel mines and IEDs manufactured by armed groups are constructed out of everything from glass bottles to plastic jerry cans. The explosive used is normally ANFO (made from fertilizer), but sometimes is a conventional explosive such as TNT. The mines are initiated by pressure-activated syringe fuzes (chemical initiation), or by battery-operated fuzes and electric fuzes activated by both pressure and trip-wires. These mines often have high levels of metal fragmentation in them.
[12] In addition to these 18,531 mines destroyed, the government has reported three other destructions of a total of 3,404 antipersonnel mines. Over the years, there have been many inconsistencies and discrepancies in Colombia’s count of stockpiled mines and their destruction. The Ministry of Defense sent a letter to Landmine Monitor in September 2005 to clarify many of the problems. For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 2006, p. 302.
[13] Article 7 Report, Form D, 30 April 2010. See also, Form D of Article 7 reports submitted in April 2009, April 2008, and April 2007.
[14] The coordinator said the decision was made primarily because the majority of mines laid in the country are of NSAG design and do not correspond to the MAP-1 mines used for demining instruction. Interview with Luz Piedad Herrera, Coordinator, Antipersonnel Mines Observatory, Bogotá, 16 March 2007.
[15] In 2003 and 2004, Colombia reported it retained 986 mines for training. It reduced that number to 886 in 2005 when it decided the larger number was not necessary. It destroyed 300 more mines in 2006 (100 each in March, September, and December), but the number has not changed since December 2006. See Landmine Monitor Report 2007, pp. 267–268; and Landmine Monitor Report 2006, pp. 302–303.
[16] Letter OF109-00090099/AUV 33500 from Andrés Dávila Ladrón de Guevara, Director, PAICMA, , 27 August 2009. For more information, see Landmine Monitor Report 2009, p. 299.
[17] Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor has not seen reports of mine use by paramilitaries since 2006. See Landmine Monitor Report 2006, p. 300; Landmine Monitor Report 2005, p. 264; and Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 324.
[18] Email from Matthew Hovell, Programme Manager, HALO Trust, 14 April 2010.
[19] See, for example, Chris Kraul, “Land mines take a toll on Colombia's poor,” Los Angeles Times, 6 March 2010, articles.latimes.com.
[20] Ulrich Tietze, Technical Advisor, “Anti Landmine Action Concept – Data Analysis, IMSMA 2008-2009 to identify ideas for focussing PAICMA’s work in 2010-2014,” PAICMA, Bogotá, 22February 2010.
[21]Organization of American States (OAS), “National Profile (Colombia), OAS Humanitarian Demining Projects 2009–2010,” www.oas.org.
[22]María del Rosario Arrázola and Juan David Laverde, “La nueva estrategia de ‘Cano’” (“New Strategy of ‘Cano’”), El Espectador, 27 September 2008, www.elespectador.com. See also Landmine Monitor Report 2009, p. 300.
[23] Republic of Colombia Army, “Testimonios Fugados” (“Testimonies of the Escaped [former combatants]”), February and April 2010, www.ejercito.mil.co.
[24]Sean Mattson, “Colombian rebels planting landmines in Panama: government,” Reuters (Panama City), 2 July 2010, www.reuters.com. FARC reportedly has turned increasingly to overland routes across the porous border with Panama to smuggle cocaine to the US as more sea and air police patrols cut off traditional smuggling routes northward.
[25]Media monitoring of news announcements on Emisora del Ejército de Colombia (army radio) website between May 2009 and June 2010, www.emisoraejercito.mil.co.
[26] The mines were reportedly found in a rural area outside the city of Rovira, along with documents belonging to the Cajamarca Unit of the FARC. “Army finds thousands of landmines in southern Colombia,” EFE News Service (Bogotá), 3 December 2009, www.laht.com.
[27]“Operaciones Contundentes contra las FARC en Valle y Cauca” (“Intensive operations against the FARC in Valle and Cauca”), Emisora del Ejército de Colombia (army radio), 24 September 2009, www.emisoraejercito.mil.co.
[28]“Colombian army destroys two FARC camps,” Xinhua News Agency, 15 September 2009, www.encyclopedia.com.
[29] “Ejército destruye más de 80 minas en el Guaviare” (“Army destroys more than 80 mines in Guaviare”), Emisora del Ejército de Colombia (army radio), 27 May 2009, www.cuartadivision.mil.co.
[30]Media monitoring of news announcements on Emisora del Ejército de Colombia (army radio) website between May 2009 and June 2010, www.emisoraejercito.mil.co.
[31]“Labriego nariñense muere al caer en minado del Eln” (“Nariño farmer dies after falling on ELN mine”), Emisora del Ejército de Colombia (army radio), 11 June 2009, www.ejercito.mil.co.
[32] “4 Soldiers killed, 2 civilians wounded in Colombia mine field,” EFE News Service (Bogotá), 17 May 2009, laht.com.
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