Key developments
since March 1999: Mine clearance in Ixcán was completed and demined
lands were handed over for the first time to the local communities in January
2000. Guatemala has not submitted its Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report, which
was due by 27 February 2000.
Mine Ban Policy
Guatemala signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December
1997 and ratified on 26 March 1999. Guatemala had passed domestic legislation
to ban landmines as early as 1996, with Decree Number 106-97 prohibiting the
production, purchase, sale, importation, exportation, transit, use or possession
of AP mines or explosive artifacts or their composite parts. It is believed
that this law now serves as the implementing legislation for the Mine Ban
Treaty.
Guatemala has not yet submitted its Article 7 transparency report, which was
due by 27 February 2000. Director-General of Multilateral Relations of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arturo Duarte told Landmine Monitor in March that
an office move had resulted in key files being misplaced, but he said, “We
have everything in order now and we are working as fast as we can to get the
report as soon as
possible.”[1] When asked
at the end of April for an update, he said, “We are finalizing the report
and it will be delivered very
soon.”[2]
Guatemala voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 54/54B in support of the
Mine Ban Treaty in December 1999, as it had on similar resolutions in 1997 and
1998. It has also supported the pro-ban resolutions of the Organization of
American States (OAS). It was one of nine countries that signed the
“Declaration of San José” in Costa Rica on 5 April 2000,
which includes an article promoting the Mine Ban Treaty.
Guatemala’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, H.E. Dr. Gabriel Aguilera
led the country’s delegation to the First Meeting of States Parties in
Maputo in May 1999. In a statement to the plenary, he described the mine
clearance program in Guatemala and in Central America as “a model that
Central America would like to share with the rest of the
world.”[3]
Guatemala has participated in some of the intersessional meetings of the
treaty in Geneva, including the March 2000 meetings of the Standing Committee of
Experts on Mine Clearance and on Victim Assistance.
Guatemala is a state party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons but has
not yet ratified Amended Protocol II on landmines. Director General Duarte told
Landmine Monitor that Amended Protocol II is being considered by the Legal
Department, and that he personally did not think it would be ratified within a
year.[4]
Production, Transfer, Stockpiling and Use
The government of Guatemala states that it did not
use landmines during its long-running internal war, and there is no concrete
evidence to the contrary. The guerrillas of the Guatemalan National
Revolutionary Union (URNG) made relatively limited use of crude, homemade mines
and improvised explosive devices during the war. The government states that it
has not produced or imported AP mines, and has no
stockpile.[5] Since the
conflict ended in 1996, officials state they have no reason to believe that any
new mines have been
planted.”[6]
Mine Action Funding
The Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) coordinates
the OAS Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (PADCA). This
involves mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance programs in Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, with fifteen demining platoons, each
comprised of approximately 25 deminers. Guatemala currently contributes
personnel to PADCA.[7] In 1999
the annual budget for the OAS regional 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.[8]
Landmine/UXO Problem
Estimates vary as to the extent of both the
landmines and UXO problem in Guatemala. General Otto Perez Molina, who
represents the Guatemalan military on the IADB, says that today probably only
hundreds, not thousands, of landmines still pose a threat in
Guatemala.[9] Indeed the UNHCR
and the ICRC both estimate that before the end of the war, in the mid-1990s,
there were no more than 1,500 landmines in
Guatemala.[10]
The mines were laid in many regions including the Playa Grande region of Alta
Verapaz province, along with the bordering region of Ixcán in
Quiché province.[11]
Other mined areas include the northern Petén province along
Guatemala’s border with Mexico, the Tajamulco volcano in San Marcos
province, and the Atitlan volcanoes in Solola province. Mines were also used
near San Mateo in Huehuetenango province, as well as in mountainous regions of
Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango and Escuintla
provinces.[12]
Unexploded ordnance remains a far greater problem than landmines. In 1997,
the government estimated that there were between 5,000 and 8,000 pieces of
unexploded ordnance in Guatemala, in the same areas listed
above.[13]
Mine/UXO Clearance
On 5 June 1997, Guatemala passed Decree 46-97,
which established the Executive Coordinating Unit or ”Unidad Coordinadora
Ejecutiva” (UCE). In November 1997, the unit prepared a “National
Plan for Demining and the Destruction of Unexploded Ordnance.” It is
under the auspices of this plan that the IADB is now assisting Guatemala with
its demining and UXO clearing efforts.”
The civilian Association of Volunteer Firefighters plays a key role in mine
action, with more than 100 people engaged in activities including mine awareness
education, obtaining information from the community on suspected mined areas,
investigating and locating mines and other explosive artifacts. They mark the
mines and UXO and the Army comes and destroys
them.[14] Future plans for the
Association of Volunteer Firefighters include development and maintenance of a
database on mine-affected areas and mine clearance, with the logistic support of
the PADCA-OAS.[15]
The IADB began training Guatemalan personnel in demining efforts in June
1998. Hurricane Mitch, which swept Central America’s Atlantic Coast in
November 1998, did not delay demining activities in
Guatemala.[16] In December
1998, mine clearance started in Ixcán, Quiché Departments. The
Association of Volunteer Firefighters located 145 explosive artifacts that the
Army destroyed.[17] Mine
clearance in Ixcán was completed and demined lands were handed over to
the community in January
2000.[18]
In February 2000 clearance in the Ixil Triangle started, including Nebaj,
Chajúl and Cotzalm, the three regions most affected by the war. By the
year 2002, the plan is to complete mine clearance in all of
Quiché.[19]
Mine Awareness
The Association of Volunteer Firefighters conducts
mine awareness education through TV, radio, and press, with support of the OAS
and some logistical and financial support by the government.
In the mid-1990s, UNHCR, which was facilitating the repatriation of war
refugees from Mexico back to Guatemala, embarked on a landmine and UXO awareness
program which trained Guatemalan civilians among the repatriating community both
in mine detection and mine awareness.
Landmine Casualties
According to the Association of Volunteer
Firefighters, about 15 people have been hurt by landmines and UXO since 1994;
before that there are no
records.[20] There have been no
new reported mine casualties since publication of Landmine Monitor Report
1999, but officials caution that they cannot be certain “because
sometimes people go to hospitals but do not give the information to
us.”[21]
Survivor Assistance
Guatemala has yet to make any comprehensive effort
to treat war wounded. There is no special program for landmine survivor
assistance, except for the Army through the Centro de Atención al
Desacapacitado del Ejercito de Guatemala
(CADEJ).[22] It appears that
little or no treatment is currently available in Guatemala for prosthetics
fitting, rehabilitation or workplace reincorporation. Partly because the
overall need for such programs is considered to be far less in Guatemala than in
other Central American nations, the Pan-American Health Organization is not
undertaking such efforts in Guatemala. One official noted, “Everybody
keeps talking about the mines and nobody is talking about the ones hurt by
them.”[23]
In April 2000, the Center for International Rehabilitation published a
“Rehabilitation Resource Directory for Central America,” which
includes information on services available in Guatemala. This information was
collected and provided to the directory by a local NGO, Guatemalan
Rehabilitation Association
(AGREL).[24] The Center for
International Rehabilitation is also designing and implementing short-term,
upgrade training courses for Guatemalan professionals providing rehabilitation
services, including training
manuals.[25] Thirty-five
professionals have been trained, in coordination with PAHO, in Health
Information Systems.[26]
[1] Interview with Arturo Duarte, General
Director of Multilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Guatemala
City, 13 March 2000. [2] Telephone
interview with Arturo Duarte, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 April
2000. [3] Statement of Vice Minister of
Foreign Affairs Gabriel Aguilera Preralta at the First Meeting of States Parties
to the Mine Ban Treaty, Maputo, 3 May 1999, p.
3. [4] Interview with Arturo Duarte,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 March
2000. [5] Interview with General Otto
Perez Molina, the Guatemalan military’s representative to the IADB,
Washington, D.C., 19 February 1999. [6]
Interview with Arturo Duarte, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 March
2000. [7] Email from Jhosselin Bakhat,
Organization of American States, 20 June
2000. [8] Ibid.; “Demining”
section of the Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, Organization of American
States,
http://www.oas.org/upd/demining/demining.htm [9]
Interview with General Perez Molina, IADB, Washington, D.C., 19 February
1999. [10] UNHCR estimated that there
were 1,000 to 1,500 landmines in Guatemala in the mid-1990s, according to the
United Nations landmine country report on Guatemala. See
http://www.un.org/Depts/landmine/country. The ICRC reported in 1996 that the
total number of mines “is probably under 1,500.” Antipersonnel Mines
in Central America, p. 19. [11] UN
landmine country report for Guatemala, 3 March
1997. [12] ICRC, Antipersonnel Mines in
Central America, p. 18-19. [13] Republic
of Guatemala, Legislative Commission for Peace Studies, Executive Coordination
Unit, “National Plan for Demining and the Destruction of Unexploded
Ordnance,” November 1997. [14]
Interview with Officer Sergio Vasquez, Public Relations Officer for Mine
Clearance, Voluntary Fire Department, Guatemala City, 10 March
2000. [15]
Ibid. [16] Organizaci∴n de Estados
Americanos, Junta Interamericana de Defensa, “El Programa de Asistencia al
Desminado en Centroamerica,” 4 February
1999. [17] Interview with Guillermo
Pacheco, OAS Desminado, Guatemala City, 16 December
1999. [18] See OAS contribution to
Landmine Monitor Report 2000. [19]
Interview with Guillermo Pacheco, OAS Desminado, Guatemala City, 16 December
1999. [20] Interview with Officer Sergio
Vasquez, 10 March 2000. [21] Telephone
interview with Officer Sergio Vasquez, 3 April
2000. [22] Interview with Guillermo
Pacheco, OAS Desminado, Guatemala City, 16 December
1999. [23] Interview with Arturo Duarte,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 13 March
2000. [24] Center for International
Rehabilitation, “Central American Rehabilitation Resource Directory
published by the Center for International Rehabilitation,” Press Release,
12 April 2000. [25] “Partners:
Guatemala” section of the web site of Center for International
Rehabilitation,
http://www.worldrehab.org/partners/guatemala.htm. [26]
See UNICEF contribution to Landmine Monitor Report 2000.
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