“We have many problems, and we have to
grapple with several things at the same time,” the President of Honduras,
Carlos Flores, told a delegation of the Organization of American States and the
International Campaign to Ban Landmines, including the Nobel Laureate Jody
Williams, in Tegucigalpa on 8 January 1999. While thousands of landmines still
threaten Honduras, the country also suffered the worst damage of any Central
America nation last fall from Hurricane Mitch.
The delegation saw Mitch’s devastating impact first hand across the
Honduran border in Nicaragaua along the Rio Coco at the site of the Anastasio
Somoza bridge. While the river’s flow had since been reduced to a trickle,
Mitch’s flood line was still marked near tree tops by hanging, dried
straw. Mitch caused a devastating U.S.$2.1 billion worth of damage to Honduras
which, before the storm, had a Gross National Product of about U.S.$10
billion.[1]
Only the vertical steel girders of the Anastasio Somoza bridge remained.
Three months later, in January, a helmeted Nicaraguan soldier stood near one of
the girders not far from a sitting Weimaraner dog. On command, the dog walked
alone on a path between yellow markers, while sniffing in the sand. The dog and
the soldier were searching for mines and unexploded ordnance that might have
been deposited there by Mitch. The soldier and the dog had been trained together
by the Inter-American Defense Board at its regional demining base in Danli,
Honduras.[2]
While Mitch set back all of Honduras for years, it only set back the
Inter-American Defense Board’s demining efforts there by about three
months, its experts say.[3] (In
Nicaragua, the same experts expect Mitch to set back its demining efforts a full
year.)
Mine Ban Policy
Honduras signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997. It deposited its instrument of ratification with the United Nations in
New York on 24 September 1998. Honduras has not yet passed domestic legislation
implementing the ban treaty.
Knowing too well the tragedies of mines, Honduras has fully supported efforts
to ban the weapon. Honduras first endorsed an immediate, comprehensive ban on
antipersonnel mines in April
1996.[4] In September 1996,
Honduras joined with other Central American nations in declaring the region a
mine free zone in a joint statement signed by each nation’s foreign
minister, committing to no production, trade or use of antipersonnel mines.
During the Ottawa Process, Honduras endorsed the pro-ban treaty June 1997
Brussels Declaration, and was a full participant in the Oslo negotiations in
September. Honduras also voted in favor of the pro-ban U.N. General Assembly
resolutions in 1996 and 1997, as well as the pro-ban resolutions of the
Organization of American States (OAS).
Honduras is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and
it is not a member of the Conference on Disarmament.
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use
The government of Honduras has never produced or
exported antipersonnel landmines. It has imported a very small number of
antipersonnel and antitank mines from the United States, but it is not known if
it has purchased AP mines from other sources as
well.[5] In response to a
questionnaire from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in April 1996,
the Honduran government stated that it had imported, stockpiled and used
antipersonnel mines only in “very limited quantities for military training
purposes only.”[6] Since
the end of Nicaraguan war in 1990 and of the El Salvador war in 1992, there is
no evidence that any party of any nationality in Honduras has used
landmines.
On 8 January 1999, the ICBL delegation asked President Flores whether his
country still possessed antipersonnel mines. The President frankly told the
delegation that he did not know, but that he would find out. Landmine Monitor,
on 24 February 1999, asked Honduras’ military attache in Washington, D.C.
the same question.[7] No
response has been received to date.
Landmine Problem
The irony of Honduras’ present landmine
dilemma, as Honduran officials today are quick to point out, is that the mines
that still affect the country were not planted by
Hondurans.[8] Instead most of
the country’s mines were planted by foreign combatants fighting over
Nicaragua in the 1980s. After the fall of the dictator Anastasio Somoza in July
1979, Sandinista revolutionaries took power. By the mid-1980s, anti-Sandinista
rebels known as the Contras established military bases in southern Honduras.
Both the Contras and the Sandinistas relied exclusively on Eastern bloc
landmines, including Soviet-made PMN blast mines and Czechoslovakian-made
PP-MI-Sr-11 “Jack-in-the-box” mines. Other mines discovered in
Honduras include the Czechoslovakian-made PP-MI-1 antipersonnel mine along with
the Soviet-made PMN-2 blast mine and the Soviet-made PMD-6 antipersonnel
mine.[9]
Throughout the conflict, both the Contras and the Sandinistas mined either
side of the Honduran/Nicaraguan border. While the bulk of mines still lay in
Nicaragua, up to 20,000 landmines were once believed to threaten Honduras. This
initial estimate, however, appears to have been grossly exaggerated. Today,
Inter-American Defense Board experts say that there are probably only about
3,000 landmines which still pose a threat in
Honduras.[10]
FMLN guerrillas, based in El Salvador, laid several thousand landmines in
Honduras. But unlike the factory-made, long-lasting mines widely deployed by
both the Contras and the Sandinistas, the FMLN used only homemade devices
dependent upon flashlight batteries, which rapidly deteriorate in tropical
climates.[11]
The most heavily mined area of Honduras is the El Paraiso province along the
Nicaraguan border. Choluteca province, to the southwest of El Paraiso and
contiguous to it, is also heavily mined. Within them, the Honduran military
identified potentially mined areas including 95 square kilometers in the Las
Trojes region, 76 square kilometers in the Las Limas region, 63 square
kilometers in the Las Difficultades region, 38 square kilometers in the El
Portillo del Gobernador region, 29 square kilometers in the Cerro de Jesus
region, 24 square kilometers in the Bocay region, 12 square kilometers in the
Tierra Colorado region, 7 square kilometers in the Palo Verde region, 5 square
kilometers in the Mojon Amatillo region and 200 square kilometers in the Las
Vegas Salient region.[12]
In Honduras along its border with El Salvador, the FMLN planted homemade
landmines mines in both the La Paz and the Lempira departments. The Hondurans
identified 52 square kilometers of potentially mined territory in the La Virtud
region and 120 square kilometers of terrain in the Naguateria
region.[13]
Mine Clearance and Clearance
Honduras and the Organization of American States
began negotiations over how to jointly address the country’s landmine
problem back in June 1992. In July 1993, Honduras requested assistance in mine
clearing from the Organization of American States to carried out by the
Inter-American Defense Board. Six U.S. Army Special Forces officers or
non-commissioned officers led the training. They initially trained nine military
personnel from Brazil, four military personnel from Colombia and five military
personnel from Honduras in demining
techniques.[14] These
instructors then trained four platoons with 17 Honduran deminers each from
October 1994 through June 1995. Along with support personnel, the total number
of Honduran trainees was 130 men. They marked areas for demining in mid-1995. On
18 September 1995, they began mine clearing
operations.[15]
The Inter-American Defense Board’s efforts in Honduras now includes the
presence of helicopters near the mine clearing sites in case of accidents.
Before, wounded deminers were transported by whatever means were available. From
9 March 1996 through 10 January 1997, three Honduran soldiers and two officers
were injured during mine clearing
operations.[16]
The Inter-American Defense Board program also provided for limited
rehabilitation and fitting of prostheses for war victims, fitting approximately
200 civilian amputees. The Inter-American Defense Board program included some
efforts of mine awareness through radio and television ads as well as
posters.[17]
One consistent criticism of the Inter-American Defense Board’s efforts
in Honduras as well as in other Central American countries is that it has made
little effective effort to incorporate civil society groups into its mine
clearance and awareness campaigns. In Tegucigalpa, President Flores admitted
this shortcoming to Williams and other delegation members and he said that his
government is seeking to find better ways for civil society groups to
participate in the process.
Nonetheless, the Inter-American Defense Board’s demining activities go
on in Honduras. The Board’s regional efforts began in Honduras in 1995
before they were expanded to other Central American countries in 1998. Fifteen
demining platoons, each comprised of approximately 25 deminers, are involved in
the regional operation, whose total annual budget in 1998 was $3
million.[18]
The Inter-American Defense Board’s regional operation is being carried
out under the auspices of the Organization of American States’ Working
Group on the Demining Problem in Central America, Document No. GT/PDCA-7/97 rev.
1, “The Organization of American States Demining Assistance Program in
Central America: Responsibilities of Participants,” 15 September 1997. The
operation is also responsive to the Inter-American Defense Board’s own
guidelines as stipulated in Document No. C-2964, “Directive of the
Inter-American Defense Board to the Program of Assistance for Demining in
Central America,” 19 February 1998. The operation is being assisted by a
private consulting firm, RONCO, which has previously assisted in demining
efforts in Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovenia and Croatia. The center of operations or
“The Mission of Assistance for the Removal of Mines,” known as
MARMINCA, is currently based in Danli, Honduras, though by next year the base is
expected to be moved to Managua, Nicaragua.
Though the demining efforts in Honduras began in 1994 with the participation
of military officers from Brazil, Colombia, Honduras and the United States,
military officers from El Salvador and Venezuela were incorporated into the
program by 1996. In January 1999, Argentinian military officers joined the
effort.[19] Today, a total of 28
military personnel from six Latin American countries are participating in
demining efforts in Honduras as well as elsewhere in Centeral America. The
United States is continuing to provide additional training and logistical
support for the regional effort. Moreover, in late 1998, the Board increased the
number of Mine Detection Dogs available for deployment to 12. The dogs along
with their Honduran handlers have been trained by RONCO at MARMINCA, and they
will be deployed in Honduras as well as in Nicaragua and Costa
Rica.[20]
By August 1998, before Hurricane Mitch, the Inter-American Defense Boards
efforts had detected and 2,100 mines in Honduras, sifting them from 39,583 metal
objects which the joint human/canine demining teams had found. By August 1998,
234,542 square meters of Honduran land was
cleared.[21] Since Hurricane
Mitch, by the end of 1998, the Boards efforts had detected and destroyed two
more landmines out of 39,867 metal objects detected, clearing 248,202 square
meters of land.[22] The
Inter-American Defense Board estimates that the clearing of over 240,000 square
meters of Honduran land has opened up a total of 5.54 million square meters of
land for planting or other
purposes.[23]
The Inter-American Defense Board’s mine and unexploded ordnance
clearance programs in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica are being
financed by nations including Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Norway,
the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United
States.
Landmine Casualties
Honduran officials estimate that over 200 civilians
have been killed in landmine accidents since
1990.[24] However, Honduras,
like most other Central American countries, has yet to conduct a comprehensive
assessment of its casualties resulting from mines or other artefacts of war.
From September 1994 through August 1995, the Inter-American Defense Board
recorded six mine accidents, some involving children, in Honduras near the
Nicaraguan border.[25] From
March 1996 through September 1997, the Inter-American Defense Board recorded
five mine accidents involving civilians in
Honduras.[26]
Survivor Assistance
Honduras, like most other Central American
countries, has only made minimal efforts in either addressing the needs of its
war wounded or providing them with adequate treatment. Honduras has yet to even
assess the total number of Hondurans who have been injured from landmines. Now,
however, the Pan-American Health Organization is helping Honduras deal with both
problems. On 11 January 1999 in Mexico City, representatives of Canada, Mexico
and the Pan-American Health Organization signed a Memorandum of Understanding on
a Joint Program for the Rehabilitation of Mine Victims in Central
America.[27] The initiative
includes a comprehensive effort by the Pan-American Health Organization, which
is being financed by an initial grant of 3.5 million Canadian dollars, to assess
the needs of war victims and to begin to address them in Nicaragua, Honduras and
El Salvador. According to Hernan Rosenberg of the Pan-American Health
Organization, the program will unfold in each country in four stages: assessing
the number of victims; assessing individual’s specific prosthetics and
rehabilitation needs; providing for treatment and rehabilitation; and promoting
victims reincorporation back into the
workforce.[28]
[1] “A Preliminary
Assessment of Damages caused by Hurricane ‘Mitch,’” prepared
by the United Nations Development Program and the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean, p. 4.
[2] ICBL delegation
observations at the Rio Coco in Ocotal, Nicaragua, 7 January 1999 and LM
Researcher interview with an Inter-American Defense Board expert in Washington,
D.C., 24 February 1999.
[3] LM Researcher interviews
with Inter-American Defense Board experts, Danli, Honduras, 7 January 1999, and
Washington, D.C., 17 February 1999.
[4] Letter from Honduran
Ambassador to the U.S., Roberto Flores Bermudez, to Human Rights Watch, in
response to ICBL questionnaire, 22 April 1996.
[5] U.S. Defense Security
Assistance Agency, “U.S. Landmine Sales by Country,” March 1994,
indicates nine AP mines and 210 AT mines were provided to Honduras.
[6] Letter from Honduran
Ambassador to the U.S., Roberto Flores Bermudez, to Human Rights Watch, in
response to ICBL questionnaire, 22 April 1996.
[7] LM Researcher fax to the
Honduran military attache to the United States, Colonel Rafael Rivera, at the
Honduran Embassy in Washington, D.C., 24 February 1999.
[8] LM Researcher interviews
with Honduran officials, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, 8 January 1999.
[9]U.S. Department of
State, Hidden Killers: The Global Problem With Uncleared Landmines, July
1993, p. 99.
[10] LM Researcher interview
with Inter-American Defense Board expert, Washington, D.C., 17 February
1999.
[11] Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America: Conflict and post-conflict, International Committee of
the Red Cross, Geneva, January 1996, p. 15.
[12]U.S. Department of
State, Hidden Killers: The Global Landmine Crisis, December 1994, p.
99.
[13] Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America, p. 14-15.
[14] Fuerzas Armadas de
Honduras: Equipo de Tarea Conjunto “Alfa”, “Historia del
Desminado en Honduras,” compiled with information as late as September
1997.
[15] Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America, p. 15-16.
[16] Oranizacion de los
Estados Americanos, Junta Interamericana de Defensa, Mision de Asistencia para
Remocion de Minas en Centro America, “Cuadro Demostrativo de Los
Accidentes Ocurridos al Personal Militar Participante en La Mision de Asistencia
para la Remocion de Minas en Centro America,” as of January 1997.
[17] Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America, p. 16.
[18] Inter-American Defense
Board of the Organization of American States, “Demining Assistance Program
in Central America,” August 1998.
[19] Organization of American
States, Inter-American Defense Board, Washington, D.C., “Demining
Assistance Program in Central America,” 21 August 1998.
[20] Interview with
Inter-American Defense Board expert at Washington, D.C., 24 February 1999.
[21] Organization of American
States, Inter-American Defense Board, Washington, D.C., “Demining
Assistance Program in Central America,” 21 August 1998.
[22] Organizacion de Los
Estados Americanos, Junta Interamericana de Defensa, Washington, D.C., “El
Programa de Asistencia al Desminado en Centroamercia,” 4 February
1999.
[23] Organizacion de Los
Estados Americanos, Junta Interamericana de Defensa, Mision de Asistencia para
La Remocion de Minas en Centroamerica, “Informe Mensual de Las Operacions
de Desminado en Centroamerica, Mes Enero 1999.
[24] United Nations landmine
country report for Honduras, September 1995.
[25] Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America, p. 16.
[26] Organizacion de Los
Estados Americanos, Junta Interamericana de Defensa, Mision de Asistencia para
Remocion de Minas en Centro America, “Cuadro Demostrativo de Los
Accidentes Ocurridos al Personal Civil que Vive en Las Areas Rurales de La
Republica de Honduras,” as of September 1997.
[27] Carta de la Mision
Permanente de Mexico y la Mision Permanente de Canada al Presidente del Consejo
Permanente de la Organizacio de los Estados Americanos, Washington, D.C., a 3 de
febrero de 1999. This letter builds upon the Organization of American States
resolution, AG/RES. 1568 (XXVIII-O/98), “Support for the Mine-Clearing
Program in Central America,” adopted on 2 June 1998.
[28] LM Researcher interview
with Hernan Rosenberg, Pan-American Health Organization, Washington, D.C., 18
February 1999.
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