Twenty-six
of the thirty-five countries in the Americas region are States Parties to the
Mine Ban Treaty. In this reporting period (since March 1999), ten nations
became States Parties. Eight of those ratified between March and May 1999
(Costa Rica, Dominica, Guatemala, St. Lucia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, and
Antigua and Barbuda), while Argentina did so in September 1999 and the Dominican
Republic in June 2000.
There are seven signatories that have not ratified: Chile, Colombia, Guyana,
Haiti, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Uruguay. Colombia is in
the final stages of the ratification process. Cuba and the United States remain
the only two countries in the Americas region that have not signed the Mine Ban
Treaty.
Only Canada, Guatemala, and Nicaragua have enacted domestic implementation
legislation. Trinidad and Tobago is in the process of passing an implementation
bill. México has said that independent legislation is not necessary
because international treaties are incorporated into domestic law.
While ten countries have submitted their Article 7 transparency measures
reports, fourteen countries are late in submitting their reports: Bahamas,
Barbados, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala,
Jamaica, Panamá, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and
Venezuela.
Twenty-two countries sent delegations to the First Meeting of State Parties
in Maputo in May 1999. Cuba was one of twelve observer delegations. The United
States attended informally, without even observer status.
Thirty-two of thirty-five countries in the region voted in favor of UN
General Assembly resolution 54/54B on 1 December 1999. Ecuador was absent. Cuba
and the United States were among the 20 governments that abstained.
Sixteen countries of the region attended at least one meeting of the five
Intersessional Standing Committees of Experts, including Cuba and the U.S.
Canada has served as co-chair of the SCE on General Status and Operation of the
Convention, México as co-chair and Nicaragua as co-rapporteur of the SCE
on Victim Assistance, and Perú as co-rapporteur of the SCE on mine
clearance.
Countries of the region continued to support Organization of American States
(OAS) pro-ban resolutions in 1999. Nine countries of the region signed the
“Declaration of San José” on 5 April 2000 that contained a
pro-ban element. On 6 June 2000, at the 30th OAS General Assembly held in
Windsor, Canada, member states voted in favor of two pro-ban resolutions. At the
Grupo de Río meeting held in Colombia in June 2000, nineteen countries of
the region signed the “Cartagena Declaration,” which contained a
call for ratification of the treaty and increased assistance to victims.
Canada continued to exercise a lead role internationally in promoting
universalization and effective implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. It played
a crucial role in the success of the First Meeting of States Parties and the
intersessional work program.
Use
Colombia remains the only
country in the region where there is evidence that landmines are currently being
used. Two rebel groups, the FARC-EP and UC-ELN have used landmines in the past
year. The United States reserved the right to use antipersonnel mines during
the Kosovo conflict, but never did.
Production and Transfer
It is believed that Cuba
continues to produce antipersonnel mines. Cuba continues to state that it does
not export AP mines, but has not adopted a formal moratorium or ban. The United
States has not produced antipersonnel mines since 1996, but the stockpile cap
announced on 17 January 1997 does not preclude the production of new mines. Law
has banned the export of antipersonnel mines from the U.S. since 1992. The U.S.
spent $21 million on its landmine alternatives program in fiscal year 1999 and
expects that to increase to $94 million in fiscal year 2001. The U.S. is
pursuing two “alternatives” that would be prohibited under the Mine
Ban Treaty.
In November 1999, Colombia’s antipersonnel mine production facilities
were destroyed, but it is still producing a Claymore-type directional
fragmentation mine. Two of Colombia’s guerrilla groups produce homemade
antipersonnel mines.
On 26 April 1999, Chile imposed a unilateral moratorium on the production,
export, and new use of antipersonnel mines.
Stockpiling and Destruction
Thirteen countries in the
region have stockpiles of antipersonnel mines: Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador (271,802), Honduras (9,439), Guyana, Nicaragua (91,813),
Perú (334,756), United States (11.2 million), Uruguay (2,338), and
Venezuela. A Chilean diplomat told the ICBL that Chile’s stockpile
numbered 22,000 and a Colombian government report indicated a stockpile of at
least 18,000 AP mines, but Landmine Monitor has not been able to confirm those
figures.
Paraguay and Panamá have stated for the first time that they do not
have a stockpile of antipersonnel mines. It remains unknown if Suriname has an
AP mine stockpile. Canada, El Salvador and Guatemala had previously reported
destruction of their AP mine stockpiles.
Canada is retaining 1,668 antipersonnel mines for training and development
purposes. Honduras intends to retain 1,050 AP mines, Nicaragua 1,971 AP mines,
and Perú 9,526 AP mines. It is expected that the 170,344 figure provided
by Ecuador for mines retained for training purposes will be significantly
revised at the Second Meeting of States Parties. Uruguay plans to retain only
inert mines for training.
Destruction of stockpiles is underway in several countries. Ecuador reports
that it destroyed 101,458 antipersonnel mines between April 1999 and March 2000.
Nicaragua reports that 40,000 antipersonnel mines have been destroyed as of
April 2000. Perú reports that it destroyed 3,916 mines in 1999. Uruguay
reports that the destruction of the approximately 2,338 antipersonnel mines in
its stockpile is underway. More than 2,000 antipersonnel mines were destroyed
from Colombia’s stockpiles. The U.S. finished the destruction of 3.3
million non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines in 1998.
States Parties that have not yet begun destruction include Argentina, Brazil,
Honduras, and Venezuela. Honduras has made plans for destruction.
Landmine Problem
Nine countries in the
region are known to be mine-affected: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Perú, as well as the
disputed Falkland/Malvinas Islands. There have been no comprehensive Level One
Impact Surveys in the region, and none are planned. UNMAS and the OAS conducted
independent assessment missions in Ecuador and Perú in August and
September 1999.
Information collected by the Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas (CCCM)
indicates that at least 135 of Colombia’s 1,050 municipalities in
twenty-three of the country’s thirty departments are mine-affected. In
Chile it is estimated that there are between 500,000 to one million mines laid
along the country’s borders with Argentina, Bolivia and Perú.
Ecuador stated that there are more than 90,000 mines on its side of the border
with Perú, and the Perúvian government estimated that there are
approximately 120,000 mines on its side of the border with Ecuador, along its
border with Chile and in areas near critical infrastructure. The Nicaraguan
government reported that there were still 81,536 mines planted in 476 sites. In
the disputed territory of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands, the U.K. estimated
that 16,600 mines remained in November 1999.
Mine Action Funding
From this region, the
biggest contributors to mine action globally are the United States ($63.1
million in fiscal year 1999) and Canada ($15 million in fiscal year 1999/2000).
The OAS Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (PADCA) involves
mine and UXO clearance programs in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Costa
Rica. In 1999 the annual budget for the whole OAS regional demining program was
$6 million and in 2000 it was $7.6 million, financed by Canada, Denmark, France,
Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S.
and the U.K. Since July 1999, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have contributed personnel to PADCA.
The U.S. will provide about $10.5 million in funding for humanitarian
demining programs in Central America, Ecuador, and Perú in its fiscal
years 1999 ($4.84 million) and 2000 ($5.64 million). Canada provided about $1.9
million in its fiscal year 1999/2000 for the Americas region for mine clearance,
mine awareness, and victim assistance programs in Colombia, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Perú. Brazil estimates that it
contributes $1 million each year to the OAS MARMINCA program with in-kind
contributions and operational costs, including eleven demining experts.
Mine Clearance
Humanitarian mine
clearance activities are underway in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, and Perú. In Nicaragua, by the end of 1999, 1.291 square
kilometers of land had been cleared and 54,107 AP mines destroyed from 524
sites; it is expected to complete mine clearance by 2004. The Honduran mine
clearance program, which was set back in late 1998 by Hurricane Mitch, is now
due to be completed by the end of 2001. In Costa Rica, the suspended mine
clearance program has resumed; it is now expected to be completed in 2002. Mine
clearance in Ixcán, Guatemala was completed and the demined lands were
handed over for the first time to the local communities in January 2000.
Ecuador and Perú have made significant progress in mine clearance
along the border. In April 1999, the “Program for Demining Assistance in
Ecuador/Perú” was established by the OAS. In September 1999,
Ecuador established a National Demining Center. More than 30,000 landmines were
cleared and destroyed in 1999 and early 2000 in Perú.
In Chile, on 25 November 1999, the Army released plans for an eleven-year
mine clearance program for 293 minefields with 250,000 mines along Chile’s
borders. It has begun to demine its border with Bolivia. The Colombian Army
cleared 35 minefields, in military operations, in 1999.
The U.S. completed removal of mines from around its Naval Base at Guantanamo
Bay in Cuba in 1999. The U.S. said that it had removed 250 metric tons of debris
in the last two years in the Panamá Canal Zone, but noted that it was
impossible to remove all the UXO without tearing down the rain forests and
threatening the canal’s watershed. Talks have been held between the UK and
Argentine governments on the removal of landmines still present in the
Falklands/Malvinas.
Mine Awareness
There are mine awareness
activities in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and
Panamá. There apparently are no official programs in Chile and
Perú, despite the need. UNICEF and the governments of Colombia and
Canada signed an agreement in October 1999 to implement a mine awareness program
in Colombia. UNICEF is carrying out the second year of a “Child to Child
Prevention In Nicaragua” project in 2000. Mine awareness materials
produced by DC Comics and featuring Superman and Wonder Woman continue to be
supplied by the U.S. and distributed by the Ministry of Education in Nicaragua.
The ICBL, among others, has raised concerns about the cultural appropriateness
and technical flaws of these materials.
Mine Casualties
New landmine casualties
have been reported in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Perú.
Colombia appears to suffer from the greatest number of landmine casualties in
the Americas region. The Colombia Campaign identified 63 victims in 1999, and
35 in the first half of 2000. In Nicaragua, the number of victims appears to be
declining. The Army reported that there were thirty-one mine casualties in 1999,
and five in the first four months of 2000. The Nicaraguan Red Cross has
estimated that there were about fifty mine casualties every year in the past.
Survivor Assistance
Governmental assistance
to mine survivors in the Americas region is generally of poor quality. In
Central and South America, for the most part resources (of varying quality) are
available to military and police personnel, but resources for civilian victims
are non-existing or inadequate. This situation is compounded by an urban bias
in health care resource allocation. Health care facilities and resources are
concentrated in urban centers and capital cities, while rural areas –
where most landmine victims are found – have minimal health care
infrastructure and services available.
On 11 January 1999 in México City, representatives of Canada,
México and the Pan-American Health Organization signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on a Joint Program for the Rehabilitation of Mine Victims in
Central America. The initiative includes a comprehensive effort by the
Pan-American Health Organization, which is being financed by an initial grant of
CDN$3.5 million to assess the needs of war victims and to begin to address those
needs in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. According the Pan-American Health
Organization, the program in each country will unfold in four stages: assessing
the number of victims; assessing individual’s specific prosthetics and
rehabilitation needs; providing for treatment and rehabilitation; and promoting
victims re-incorporation into the workforce.
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