Key
developments since March 1999: The Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission
approved Mine Ban Treaty ratification legislation on 15 December 1999. On 26
April 1999, Chile imposed a unilateral moratorium on the production, export, and
new use of antipersonnel mines. On 25 November 1999, the Army announced plans
for an 11-year mine clearance program for 293 border minefields with 250,000
mines at a cost of $250 million. The Army began mine clearance along the
border with Bolivia in December 1999.
Mine Ban Policy
Chile signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997
but has yet to ratify it. Ratification legislation was approved by the House of
Deputies on 6 October 1998, and was sent to the Senate via Official Decree 2150.
The Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission approved the ratification
legislation on 15 December 1999, and then sent the legislation to the
Senate’s Revenue Commission for review of the costs and potential funding
sources for compliance with the treaty. According to Senator Carlos Ominami,
President of the Revenue Commission of the Senate, the review was to be ready in
June 2000.[1]
A new government assumed power in Chile on 11 March 2000 and it has not made
any statements regarding the landmine issue.
Chile attended the First Meeting of State Parties in Maputo in May 1999.
Chile has participated in four of the ban treaty intersessional meetings in
Geneva – one for each of the Standing Committees of Experts, except
Technologies for Mine Action.
Chile voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B supporting the Mine Ban
Treaty in December 1999, as it had for similar resolutions in 1997 and 1998. A
Chilean representative said during the debate at the General Assembly’s
First Committee (Disarmament) that “[I]t was essential for the First
Committee to restore shattered concepts in international security, including a
total prohibition of anti-personnel landmines, protection of civilians in
conflicts, and prohibitions on small
arms.”[2]
On 16 June 2000, at the meeting of the Grupo de Río held in Cartagena
de Indias, Colombia, Chile was one of 19 countries of the region that signed the
Cartagena Declaration.
Chile is not party to CCW and did not attend the first annual meeting of
states parties to Amended Protocol II in December 1999. Chile is a member of
the Conference on Disarmament but has made no recent statements regarding
landmines in this venue.
Production, Stockpiling, Transfer, Use
On 26 April 1999 in an official declaration signed
by Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariano Fernández Amunátegui, Chile
imposed a unilateral moratorium on the production, export, and use of new AP
mines.[3] According to the
Foreign Ministry, Chile has not produced or exported AP mines since
1985.[4] Chile has produced at
least six different types of AP mines in the
past.[5] AP mines were
manufactured by both the Army’s Fabricaciones Militares (FAMAE) and
Industrias Cardoen, a private
company.[6]
The size and composition of Chile’s AP mine stockpile is not clear. In
February 2000, Chile’s Ambassador to the United States, Dr. Mario Artaza,
told the ICBL that Chile’s stockpile numbered 22,000, and that the
estimated cost of destruction was
$850,000.[7] The stockpile
number is surprisingly low and the destruction costs surprisingly high, but
Landmine Monitor has not been able to get confirmation of either figure from
other official sources.
In August 1999, in an official communiqué, reported in a newspaper
article, Vice-Admiral Hernán Couyoumdjian, Chief of Staff of National
Defense, stated that “the government has resolved to destroy its
stockpiles, beginning the process with the destruction of one lot in the coming
months, at a military training camp that is yet to be determined.” The
communiqué added that the AP mines situation in the country was one of
the priority tasks of the Office of the Chief of Staff of National
Defense.[8] It is not known if
any mine destruction has taken place.
The Army proposes destroying all AP and AT mines and replacing them by
improved technologies, such as laser rays, “or smart or self-destructing
mines.”[9]
There is little information on the amounts and recipients of AP mines
produced and transferred by Chile. However, because of the Mine Ban
Treaty’s transparency regime, some details are beginning to emerge.
Ecuador declared in March 2000 that it stockpiles 101,458 Chilean AP
mines.[10]
Landmine Problem
In September 1997, a Defense Ministry Official said
that Chile had planted nearly one million AP and AT mines on its borders with
Argentina, Bolivia, and
Perú.[11] Other
estimates have ranged between 500,000 and one million
landmines.[12] In a newspaper
article, Eduardo Santos, policy analyst at the Ministry of Defense, noted in
November 1999 that there were at least 500,000 landmines along the borders with
Argentina.[13]
According to a statement at a seminar in November 1999 by Vice-Admiral
Hernán Couyoumdjian, Chilean minefields are marked throughout the
country.[14] However at the
same seminar, Dr. Nicolás Larenas, father of a UXO victim in the north of
the country, stressed that these markers are in a bad state and need to be
repaired.[15] Other newspaper
articles have reported on the poor state of minefield markers in Chile, as well
as the effects of climate and erosion that displace landmines. For example, in
a ravine north of Arica, winter floods carried landmines towards the Pacific
coast.[16]
According to a June 1999 newspaper report, a private gas company, Gas
Atacama, had an unspecified accident involving landmines during construction of
pipelines in the second region. According to the company, they subsequently had
talks with the Army, which responded that “it did not have maps of the
location of the mines and could not do anything about the matter.” Gas
Atacama reportedly then hired the services of a national demining company that
checked the course of the proposed pipeline route for
mines.[17]
The landmine problem affects two leading-edge astronomical radio-telescope
projects in the Atacama highlands: the Millimeter Array (MMA) project of the US
National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and the Large Southern Array (LSA)
of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), now united under the single Atacama
Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) project. According to a June 1999 newspaper
report, Edward Hardy, General Manager of the MMA project, requested information
from the Chilean Foreign Ministry about the presence of landmines on Llanura de
Chajnantor. The Foreign Ministry had previously confirmed from the Army that
there were no landmines in the sector. Hardy noted that according to his
conversations with Senator Carmen Frei, once Chile ratified the Ottawa Treaty, a
mine clearance program in the zone would necessarily lead to a more accurate
assessment of the landmine
problem.[18]
Mine Clearance
Aside from the Army, there is no national agency
that focuses on the landmine problem. The argument most often used by Chilean
politicians for delay in ratifying the Mine Ban Treaty is the cost of clearing
minefields in the country. The cost has been estimated at $300 and $400 million
at various times.[19] In August
1999, Vice Admiral Hernán Couyoumdjian, stated that the “political
will of the Chilean government in eliminating the antipersonnel landmines laid
in our frontiers and noted that advances would be made on this as needed
economic resources were made
available.”[20]
On 25 November 1999, the Army released plans for a mine clearance program for
293 minefields with 250,000 mines along Chile’s borders. The estimated
cost was $250 million, and estimated time period of eleven years to complete.
According to a newspaper article, “the plan would be implemented once the
Congress ratified the Ottawa
Treaty.”[21]
On 13 May 2000 it was reported in the press that a “Mine Clearance
Programme had been approved by the Ministry of Defense but it is was not clear
what percentage of mines would be cleared, taking into account topographical
variations and the fact that thousands are made of
plastic.”[22]
The Argentinean and Chilean governments held talks on mine clearance during
former Argentinean President Menem’s visit to Santiago in August 1999.
Argentina offered technical assistance but the Chilean military reportedly
declined that option.[23]
Nonetheless, Vice Admiral Couyoumdjian announced that engineering plans were
being developed for the first mine clearance activities in the south of the
country. According to an official communiqué, these mine clearance
activities were already financed and would be carried out in Cabo del Hornos
Island in the Wollaston
Archipelago.[24]
At the 34th Conference of American Armies, held in November 1999 in the
Bolivian capital La Paz, General Ricardo Izurieta, the Commander in Chief of the
Chilean Army, announced that Chile would clear its minefields along the borders
with Peru, Bolivia, and
Argentina.[25] General Izurieta
said, “in the briefest timeframe we’ll clear minefields along the
borders with Bolivia, Perú and Argentina – within the year –
as a demonstration of our concrete and frank intention to strengthen ties with
all our neighbours and in particular with the Bolivian
Army.”[26]
On 1 December 1999, the Chilean Army announced in Santiago the launch of the
program to clear mined areas and specified that it would begin immediately along
the border with Bolivia: around Tambo Quemado, between Chile's First Region
(Primera Región de Chile) and the Bolivian zone of Charana, at an
altitude of some 4,000 meters in the
Andes.[27] On 9 December 1999,
it was reported that deminers had cleared an area of 13,500 square meters in
Portezuelo de Tambo Quemado near the Bolivian border, destroying 250 M-14
antipersonnel mines and 27 M-15 antitank mines. The mines were found at a
distance of 15 to 150 meters from the international highway linking Arica with
La Paz, Bolivia. A team from the “Azapa” 6th Engineers Regiment,
based in Arica, carried out the clearance
operation.[28] At the time, the
Chilean Army estimated that it would take approximately three months to demine
this area,[29] but the mine
clearance was still underway as of May 2000.
Mine Awareness
There are no official mine awareness programs in
Chile. In November 1999 the Fundación Nacional por los Derechos del
Niño (FNDN) [National Foundation for Children’s Rights], presided
by Senator Mariano Ruiz-Esquide, held a seminar on landmines in Chile attended
by landmine victims, mayors of affected communities, the Chief of Staff of
National Defense, and the UNICEF representative for Chile. The FNDN
subsequently held a press conference on the landmine problem. The FNDN press
release called for the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Senate to ratify the
Mine Ban Treaty, for the government to begin a mine prevention program, and for
the Chief of Staff of National Defense to collaborate in the identification,
marking, and reporting on Chilean
minefields.[30]
Landmine Casualties
There are casualties to landmines every year in
Chile but the exact number is hard to determine. According to a newspaper
report, the Chief of Staff of the Corps of Engineers of the Army stated that
between 1976 and 1999 there have been twenty-six civilians injured and seven
killed by landmines. This includes seven wounded and three killed Peruvian
citizens engaged in drug-smuggling across the mined border areas. Fifty Chilean
military personnel have been injured and five killed in the same
period.[31] Colonel Bernardo
Castro Salas, Chief of Staff of the Engineers Command of the Army, stated in
November 1999 that “while Army minefields were ‘registered,’
those laid by the subversive guerrilla forces were unregistered, and to this he
attributed the death of twelve persons and the wounding of seventy-six others
during 1976-1999 in
Chile.”[32]
The national media continue to report on landmine casualties. In one case in
September 1999 a Peruvian entered Chile illegally and walked into a marked
minefield.[33] In November 1999
a newspaper article reported that an Army conscript from the “Azapa”
6th Engineers Regiment was seriously injured while putting minefield
warning signs near the Chilean-Peruvian border, only 500 meters from the
Panamerican highway to Tacna. The conscript apparently stepped on a landmine
that was outside the perimeter he was
marking.[34] On 4 May 2000 it
was reported that a conscript of the “Carampangue” 5th Infantry
Brigade was wounded by an AP Mine while jogging outside Fort
Baquedano.[35]
In January 2000 a landmine victim filed a legal case against the Chilean
government, asking for $500 million pesos(approximatelyUS$933,000)in damages. According to a newspaper article, the
individual was on an international road to Argentina in the region of
Antofagasta when he was seriously injured by a landmine on the side of the road,
losing both hands, an eye and hearing in one ear. The lawyer who has filed the
lawsuit is quoted as saying, “The case is against the government, [since]
it has responsibility to safeguard citizens from landmines which have not been
eradicated.”[36]
Victim Assistance
Military personnel who are injured by landmines
receive care in military hospitals.There are no specific services
available from the national health service, private health institutions, or NGOs
for civilian landmine victims in Chile. The Fondo Nacional de Discapacitados
[National Fund for the Disabled] provides social assistance for the disabled,
but there are no specific programs for landmine victims. An NGO, Andes Sur
Action Team, has recently requested funding for a victim assistance program from
the Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation, through the Swiss Embassy in
Santiago. The intended beneficiaries, the Survivor Network of Atacama Desert,
are cooperating in the project.
[1] Interview with Senator Carlos Ominami,
President of the Senate’s Revenue Commission, Valparaíso, 3 May
2000. [2] Statement by Juan
Larraín, UN General Assembly First Committee debate, GA/DIS/3140, 11
October 1999. [3] Declaraci∴n
Ofici<l del Gobierno de la Repδblica de Chile, “Moratoria
Unilateral en la Producci∴n, Exportaci∴n, Importaci∴n e
instalaci∴n de Nuevas Minas Terrestres Antipersonal,” Santiago,
Chile, 26 April 1999. [4] Response to
Landmine Monitor questionnaire by the Foreign Ministry of Chile, through its
Ambassador to Uruguay, Augusto Bermúdez Arancibia, 2 February
1999. [5] See Landmine Monitor Report
1999, p. 290 for details and types. [6]
Jane’s Mines and Mine Clearance, on-line update, 19 November
1999. [7] ICBL (Jody Williams and Liz
Bernstein) meeting with Ambassador Mario Artaza, Washington, DC, 7 February
2000. See also follow-up letter from Williams to Artaza, dated 8 February
2000. [8] Constanza Bornhorn,
“Comienza retiro de minas,” Las Últimas Noticias, 19 August
1999. [9]
Ibid. [10] Ecuador’s Article 7
Report, Form B on Stockpiled AP mines, 29 March
2000. [11] Interview published by La
Tercera (Santiago newspaper), 8 September 1997, and reproduced in Clarín
(Buenos Aires newspaper), 8 December
1997. [12] See for example, Agence
France Presse (Arica), 18 July 1998 and Agence France Presse (Antofagasta), 21
June 1998. [13] José Higuera,
“Desminado fronterizo: La atrevida promesa de Izurieta,” El
Metropolitano, Santiago, 20 December
1999. [14] Statement by Vice-Admiral
Hernán Couyoumdjian, Chief of Staff of National Defense, at the
“Análisis de Riesgo y Prevención en Zonas Minadas”
(Analysis of risks and prevention in mine-affected zones) Seminar held in the
Chilean Senate, Valparaíso, 15 November
1999. [15] Statement by Dr.
Nicolás Larenas at the Seminar held in the Chilean Senate,
Valparaíso, 15 November
1999. [16] “11 Años
tomará el retiro de minas,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 26 November
1999. [17] Jordi Berenguer,
“Campos minados podrían atrasar realización del
proyecto” and “64 ojos verán el universo,” La
Nación, 7 June 1999. [18]
Ibid. [19] “Statement by the
President of the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Commission,” Press Release
of the Chilean Senate, 15 December 1999; Marcela Ogalde, “US$400 millones
cuesta desactivar minas antipersonales,” La Nación, Santiago, 18
November 1999. [20] Constanza Bornhorn,
“Comienza retiro de minas,” Las Últimas Noticias, 19 August
1999. [21] “11 Años
tomará el retiro de minas,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 26 November
1999. [22] “Senado solicitó
al Gobierno informe presupuestario para desminado,” El Mercurio, 13 May
2000. [23] Constanza Bornhorn,
“Comienza retiro de minas,” Las Últimas Noticias, 19 August
1999. [24]
Ibid. [25] José Higuera,
“Desminado fronterizo: La atrevida promesa de Izurieta,” El
Metropolitano (Santiago), 20 November
1999. [26] “Izurieta
anunció retiro de minas antipersonales en zones fronterizas,” La
Segunda (Santiago), 18 November 1999. “Chile announces the demining of its
borders,” Agence France Presse (La Paz), 18 November
1999. [27] “Chile begins the
demining in the border with Bolivia,” Agence France Presse (Santiago), 1
December 1999; “Army Begins To Dismantle Mine Fields,” El Mercurio,
(Chilean national newspaper), 1 December
99. [28] “Concluyó Primera
Operación de Desminado,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 4 December 1999.
Both mines are of U.S. origin. See also, “277 Landmines Destroyed,”
MISNA, Tambo Quemado, Chile, 9 December
1999. [29] “Chile begins the
demining in the border with Bolivia,” Agence France Presse (Santiago), 1
December 1999. [30] Fundación por
los Derechos del Niño, “Acuerdo de Compromiso y Tareas para la
Prevención y Asistencia en Comunas con Zonas Minadas,”
Valparaíso, 15 November
1999. [31] “11 Años
tomará el retiro de minas,” El Mercurio, (Santiago), 26 November
1999; “Ejército confirma intención de retirar minas
antipersonales,” La Hora (Santiago), 25 November
1999. [32] “11 Años
tomará el retiro de minas,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 26 November
1999. [33] Mauricio Silva, “Un
Muerto al Estallar Mina Antipersonal,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 22
September 1999. [34] “Conscripto
herido al estallar mina,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 28 November
1999. [35] Narciso Donoso,
“Soldado pisó explosivo,” El Mercurio (Santiago), 4 May
2000. [36] “Víctima de mina
antipersonal demanda al estado por $500 millones,” La Hora, 13 January
2000.
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