Key
developments since May 2000: For the first time, the Armed Forces has told
Landmine Monitor that El Salvador has a stockpile of 5,657 antipersonnel mines.
Although the government has declared itself “mine-free,” the
International Demining Group, and its partner organization CORDES, identified 53
mine- and UXO-affected sites in Chalatenango, Cabañas, Cucatlán
and Usulután departments. A mine action project, including demining, by
IDG was scheduled to start in late 2001. El Salvador has not submitted its
initial Article 7 transparency report, due 27 December 1999.
El Salvador signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4
December 1997, the National Assembly approved ratification on 25 November 1998
and the instrument of ratification was deposited on 27 January
1999.[1] The treaty entered
into force on 1 July 1999. El Salvador has not enacted national legislation to
implement the ban treaty.
El Salvador has not submitted its initial Article 7
transparency report, due 27 December 1999, or the annual updated reports, due 30
April 2000 and 30 April 2001. In May 2001 the Director of Security and Defense
at the External Relations Ministry, Francisco González, told Landmine
Monitor that he would, “take the appropriate steps so as to send both
reports to the UN Secretary General in June
2001.”[2]
El Salvador
attended the Second Meeting of States Parties in September 2000. It did not
participate in intersessional Standing Committee meetings in December 2000, but
did attend in May 2001. In November 2000 representatives from El
Salvador’s Ministry of External Relations and Ministry of Defense attended
the Regional Seminar on Stockpile Destruction in the Americas, in Buenos Aires.
Also in November, El Salvador voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution
55/33V, supporting the Mine Ban Treaty.
Landmine Survivors Network (LSN) is
implementing a Landmine Survivors Advocate Training Program, focusing on the
Americas region for
2000-2001.[3] Landmine
survivors from five countries of the region, including El Salvador, participated
in the first training session, held in Geneva in May 2001, at the same time as
the intersessional Standing Committee meetings. A second training session will
be conducted during the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua in September
2001.
El Salvador is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons
(CCW) and did not attend the Second Annual Conference of States Parties to the
CCW Amended Protocol II in December 2000.
Production, Transfer and Use
El Salvador is not known to have produced or
exported antipersonnel mines, but imported considerable quantities of mines,
including M-14, M-26, and M18A1 Claymore mines from the United
States.[4] The guerrillas of
the Farabundo MartR National Liberation Front (FMLN) made significant numbers of
homemade antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive devices. Both sides used
mines throughout the 1980-1992 internal conflict.
Stockpiling and Destruction
The government had previously reported that from
March 1993 through January 1994, the Division of Arms and Explosives (DAE,
División de Armas y Explosivos) of the Civil National Police (PNC, La
Policía Nacional Civil) destroyed all remaining antipersonnel mines that
were in the stocks of the Salvadoran Armed Forces. El Salvador reported the
destruction of these mines to the Secretary General of the Organization of
American States (OAS) in April
1997.[5]
However, in a
detailed response to Landmine Monitor sent in May 2001, the Chair of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of El Salvador, General Alvaro Antonio
Calderón Hurtado, reported that El Salvador has a stockpile of 5,657
antipersonnel landmines, including 4,937 M-14 and 720 M-26 antipersonnel mines,
stored in different parts of the
country.[6]
In the response
to Landmine Monitor, the Salvadoran Armed Forces also provided information on a
stockpile destruction plan, which has three
phases.[7] In the first phase,
from 1 July to 31 August 1999, landmines held by military units were transferred
to the CALFA War Materials battalion. In the second phase, from 1 September to
31 December 1999, the mines were checked for their operational state and
classified accordingly. In the third phase, the stockpiled mines will be
destroyed, starting in January 2000 and slated for completion in July 2003. The
first mines to be destroyed were those classified as type “C”
(“deterioradas” or unserviceable condition). Although the General
indicated that destruction was to begin in January 2000, no destruction has been
reported in the media or to other States Parties through the Standing Committee
on Stockpile Destruction.
While making no mention of the stockpile
destruction in 1993 and 1994 reported to the OAS, the response to Landmine
Monitor states that even before the Mine Ban Treaty came into being, the
Salvadoran Armed Forces destroyed 1,010 M14 antipersonnel mines in 1996 under
Operation
“Borbollón.”[8]
On 10 May 2000 an explosion at a munitions storage site rocked the capital
San Salvador, seriously injuring more than 15 people at the storage site, 50
people in the vicinity, and damaging some 700
houses.[9] The munitions were
stored beneath a barracks located in a residential zone of San Salvador, at the
Special Brigade of Military Security (BESM), formerly the headquarters of the
National Guard. Military spokesmen reportedly told media that the arsenal at
BESM included M67 and M90 grenades, rockets, and
landmines.[10] Following
criticisms of the Army’s handling of munitions and the use of urban depots
to store explosives, authorities said that 12 other urban arsenals would be
moved to less populated areas. The former Minister of Defense, General Humberto
Corado, acknowledged that the Armed Forces lacked the resources to securely
store munitions.[11]
Concerns have been expressed that some stockpiles of antipersonnel mines
could exist outside of the control of the government. According to the UK-based
International Demining Group (IDG), following the 1992 peace accords some FMLN
combatants did not hand in all of their weapons, and many weapons remain in
civilian hands in illegal weapons depots, known as
“tatus;”[12] these
depots could contain landmines or “explosive artefacts which could be
modified to be used as landmines or improvised explosive
artefacts.”[13]
Landmine/UXO Problem
In the past a number of government officials have
declared El Salvador
mine-free.[14] In May 2000 a
government official told Landmine Monitor, “We have been given a
certificate where we declare that El Salvador is a mine-free zone. Of course
there is always a margin of error, but we haven’t had an
accident.”[15] In May
1999, Vice Minister Rene Eduardo Dominguez told the First Meeting of States
Parties, “Today proudly we are able to say that we are a mine-free
country.”[16]
Between
March 1993 and January 1994, a Belgian company, International Danger and
Disaster Assistance (IDAS), cleared a total of 9,511 mines at 19 sites, covering
428 square kilometres of
land.[17] IDAS guaranteed 97
percent of the mines were cleared, but a government official acknowledged that
the IDAS mine clearance operation only dealt with identified minefields and did
not address unexploded ordnance (UXO), “which requires another
process.”[18] Lt. Col.
Jose Ernesto Alas Sansur of the Armed Forces told Landmine Monitor, “IDAS
did not guarantee us complete mine clearance, so that El Salvador has three
percent of mines in those identified minefields whose removal and destruction is
complex.”[19]
In May
2001, a media report noted that several departments are still at risk from
landmines and UXO, including San Salvador, Cabañas, San Vicente,
Usuluatán, Morazán, and
Chalatenango.[20] Marcos
Alfredo Valladares, then Attorney General in the Office for Human Rights (PDDHH,
Procurador para la Defensa de Los Derechos Humanos), told media, “Many
have concluded that the country is mine free, but that is in contrast with
reality.”[21] According
to Valladares, in addition to the physical danger, there is an economic impact
because peasants are afraid to cultivate a field once an explosive has been
found there.[22] Valladares
noted that one of the reasons for the “forgotten theme of demining”
in El Salvador was that the media hardly cover incidents involving mines and
UXO.[23]
Since 1998, the
International Demining Group (IDG) has carried out assessment and survey
missions in El Salvador to investigate the presence of hitherto unrecognized
minefields and UXO-affected
areas.[24] According to IDG,
landmines are “effectively obstructing the process of social and economic
reconstruction in rural areas of the
country.”[25]
Together with its Salvadoran NGO partner, the Foundation for Cooperation and
Community Development (CORDES, Fundación para la Cooperación y el
Desarrollo Comunal de El Salvador), IDG has identified 53 sites that are mine-
and UXO-affected, which were either previously not known or not registered. The
total area covered is an estimated 150 square kilometres in the departments of
Chalatenango, Cabañas, Cucatlán and Usulután. IDG
identified these sites by visits, inspection, and removal of landmines. In
addition to antipersonnel mines, IDG found booby-traps (trampas explosives),
hand grenades, mortar cartridges and rockets,all of which were in a
functioning or operational state, but the fuses had deteriorated in some of the
explosives, making them unstable. In May 2001, the explosives were given to the
Division of Arms and Explosives of the Civil National Police, in the presence of
an official from the Attorney General’s Office for Human Rights and a
journalist.[26]
Mine Clearance
According to the Salvadoran Armed Forces, after the
war the Army cleared all mines from around military bases and vital economic
centers, destroying a total of 8,590 antipersonnel
mines.[27]
The
International Demining Group has coordinated closely with the Attorney
General’s Office for Human Rights (PDDHH), which, according to IDG, is the
governmental agency responsible for compliance with the Mine Ban
Treaty.[28] In 1999, the
Attorney General’s Office obtained aviation support from the Salvadoran
Air Force for IDG field visits and survey
missions.[29] In April 2001 IDG
signed a mine clearance cooperation agreement with the PDDHH, and a six-month
survey element of a pilot project is scheduled to begin in late
2001.[30]
In cooperation
with CORDES, the pilot project will be implemented in three rural communities in
Cabañas and Chalatenango departments in northern El Salvador, which were
selected by CORDES as high
priority.[31] The pilot project
includes a renewed level one survey, mapping and marking of suspected mined
areas, mine clearance, and community-based mine awareness. Mine awareness
education will be targeted toward children, women, community leaders and
farmers, using methods including national and local radio
stations.[32] According to IDG,
mine action teams (MATS) capable of mine clearance, mine awareness and survey
and assessment activities will be
deployed.[33] The MATS will be
integrated into CORDES, providing a direct link between mine clearance and
community development within the institution, while the Catholic and Lutheran
churches will help by participating in the data gathering process for
assessments of the landmine problem in the pilot
areas.[34] According to IDG,
this will allow the institution and CORDES to develop future operational
programs once the pilot project is completed.
According to a May 2001 media
report, the Inter-institutional Committee on International Law (CIDIH-ES), the
Salvadoran Red Cross, and members from the External Relations Commission of the
national legislature met to discuss an initiative for legislation regarding mine
clearance in El Salvador.[35]
El Salvador contributes to mine clearance efforts in Central America.
According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, ten Salvadorans currently
participate in the OAS PADCA program in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and
Nicaragua.[36]
Landmine Casualties
It is difficult to get an accurate picture of the
number of landmine and UXO casualties in El Salvador; few sources agree on the
number and trend. According to the Salvadoran Armed Forces, no information is
available on civilian casualties to antipersonnel
mines.[37]
A Legislative
Assembly deputy told Landmine Monitor that there are approximately two incidents
per month in rural areas because of UXO, and that in 2000 there were 25 victims
from incidents involving antipersonnel mines or
UXO.[38] In December 2000, IDG
stated that, based on data collected by CORDES, mine and UXO fatalities had
increased.[39] The El Salvador
program of the Landmine Survivors Network says that mine/UXO incidents are seen
as isolated cases, but in fact are
frequent.[40] According to LSN
there were recent incidents in Morazán, Usulután, San Vicente and
Chalatenango.
The Association of War Disabled (ALGES, Asociación de
Lisiados de Guerra de El Salvador) does not keep a registry of people disabled
by landmines or UXO.[41] In May
2001, the Association of Disabled People (ASALDIG, Asociación
Salvadoreña de Descapacitados) told Landmine Monitor that it did not
attend to any mine or UXO victims in 2000 or
2001.[42]
Information on
landmine and UXO victims can be gathered from media reports. On 30 October
2000, two farmers were killed by a 81mm mortar grenade they found in Cerro El
Pedrenal near the town of San Antonio Los Ranchos, in Chalatenango
department.[43] The victims
were reportedly returning from work when they found the mortar grenade (commonly
called “papaya” because of its shape) and, believing it to be
inactive, the mortar exploded as they took it home.
On 27 February 2001 three
children were killed by an unidentified explosive while looking for crayfish in
El Carrizal canton, San Simón, in the department of Morazán in the
east of the country.[44] The
incident occurred in the El Caracol ravine, where the children often played, and
only meters from the home of two of them.
On 26 May 2001 one peasant was
killed and another wounded by what was reported to be a “military
grenade,” in Cantón Piedra Grande Arriba in northern
Zacatecoluca.[45] The two had
reportedly found the grenade while working the fields, and had brought it back
home where it exploded when they tried to open it.
Survivor Assistance and Disability Policy and Practice
The Executive Director of the Association of the
Organization of Disabled of El Salvador (PODES, Asociación Promotora de
la Organización de Discapacitados de El Salvador) told Landmine Monitor
that according to the 1992 census, there were 81,721 persons with disabilities
in El Salvador in that year.[46]
PODES has been producing prosthetic and orthotic devices since 1993, and
currently has 22 employees, including 16 war
disabled.[47] As of May 2001,
PODES had assisted a total of 1,416 people, including 890 war disabled.
Sixty-five percent of its patients were disabled by antipersonnel mines. In
addition to its workshop in San Salvador, PODES has smaller workshops in
Morazán, Usulután, Cabañas, Cuscatlán, Chaltenango
and Santa Ana. PODES is currently seeking additional funding support for a
social fund to assist poor disabled persons. The Vietnam Veterans of America
Foundation (VVAF) provides annual financial and training assistance to PODES.
In 2000, VVAF provided $80,000 to support their
activities.[48]
Landmine Monitor Report 2000 listed a number of other
institutions that provided prosthetic assistance, including Fundación
Teletón, the Army’s Centro de Rehabilitación, the
government’s Instituto Salvadoreño de Rehabilitación de
Invalidos, Don Bosco University, the Asociación de Lisiados de las
Fuerzas Armadas, and others.[49]
The Army has an institution for war wounded, which includes a prosthetic
clinic. While at first assistance was only provided to soldiers, it has since
been made available to
civilians.[50]
The US-based
Landmine Survivors Network recently established a program in the country and its
budget for 2001 for El Salvador is
$145,000.[51] LSN seeks to
improve the quality of life of landmine survivors through counselling, and using
the existing resources in the country before supporting a survivor directly. It
coordinates with hospitals, health centers, and NGOs on the provision of
assistance.
Canada has contributed Can$750,000 (about US$500,000) to the
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 1999 as part of a five-year, Can$3.5
million (about US$2.34 million) victim assistance initiative in Nicaragua,
Honduras and El Salvador.[52]
This tripartite project involves PAHO, Canada (through Queen’s University
International Centre for Community Based Rehabilitation), and México.
According to CIDA, the project consists of developing rural rehabilitation
services, long-term sustainable community-based rehabilitation programs,
regional prosthetic and orthotic development, and the socio-economic
reintegration of landmine victims. In 2000, the program supported a planning
mission of the economic reintegration team to El Salvador as well as Honduras
and coordinated the development of a health information system.
The Sierra
Club in British Columbia, Canada, has received Can$125,000 (about US$84,000)
through CIDA’s “Tapping Creativity” program for a victim
assistance initiative in El
Salvador.[53] The initiative
trains mine victims in the development of environmentally friendly technologies.
Canada had contributed $325,000 (about US$218,000) to this project since
1998.
On 18-19 June 2001, prosthetics technicians from El Salvador attended
the First Regional Conference on Victim Assistance, Rehabilitation and
Technologies, organized by the OAS and the Center for International
Rehabilitation (CIR), in Managua,
Nicaragua.[54]
[1] Response to Landmine
Monitor questionnaire by General Alvaro Antonio Calderón Hurtado, Chair
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Armed Forces of El Salvador, 8 May
2001.
[2] Interview with
Francisco González, Director of Security and Defense, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, San Salvador, 28 May
2001.
[3] Landmine Survivors
Network, “Report: Raising the Voices Landmine Survivor Advocate Training
Program,” 5-12 May
2001.
[4] The US State
Department has reported that from 1982-1990, the US provided to El Salvador
4,140 M-14s, 720 M-24s and 47,244 M18A1s. Fact Sheets, “US Landmine Sales
By Country” and “Foreign Military Sales of US Mines,” received
by Human Rights Watch on 23 February 1994.
[5] See Landmine Monitor
Report 2000, p. 269. It is not known if Claymore type mines were included
in the destruction.
[6]
Response to Landmine Monitor questionnaire by General Alvaro Antonio
Calderón Hurtado, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Armed Forces of El
Salvador, 8 May 2001.
[7]
Ibid.
[8]
Ibid.
[9] “Salvadoran
munitions store blows up injuring 44,” Agence France-Presse (San
Salvador), 10 May 2000; “Caos por explosión de arsenal Fuerza
Armada,” La Prensa Gráfica, 11 May 2000; Leonel
Hernández, “¿Existe control de arsenales?” El Diario
de Hoy, 12 May 2000; “Negligence to blame for explosion at army
arsenal,” Inforpress Centroamericana, 2 June
2000.
[10] Rosemarie Mixco
and Alberto López, “Incendio fue contingencial,” El Diario
de Hoy, 11 May 2000. One week later, an explosives specialist from the
National Police, and a Major Colonel of the Engineers Command of the Armed
Forces (CIFA) were killed when eleven mortar grenades exploded at a military
installation in Tapalhuaca, San Juan Noualco, in La Paz department. The
incident, which also wounded a number of soldiers and journalists, happened when
personnel were trying to destroy ammunition left over from the explosion at
BESM. Jaime García, “Tragedia por explosión,” El
Diario de Hoy, 18 May 2000; “Las últimas palabras de una
víctima,” El Diario de Hoy, 18 May
2000.
[11] Jaime
García, “Tragedia por explosión,” El Diario de
Hoy, 18 May 2000; “Las últimas palabras de una
víctima,” El Diario de Hoy, 18 May 2000.
[12] International Demining
Group, “Pilot Programme: A proposal for community-based humanitarian mine
action and development,” December 2000, p. 7. Emailed to Landmine
Monitor (MAC) from Graeme Goldsworthy, Director, IDG, 8 June 2001.
[13] Graeme Goldsworthy and
Frank Faulkner, “This Hard Land: a renewal of humanitarian mine action in
El Salvador,” p. 4. Article (in Spanish) emailed to Landmine Monitor (MAC)
from Graeme Goldsworthy, Director, IDG, 8 June 2001. Published (in English) by
James Madison University’s Mine Action Information Center, Journal of
Mine Action, June
2001.
[14] Interview with
Mauricio Granillo Barrera, Ambassador of El Salvador to the OAS, Washington DC,
16 February 1999.
[15]
Interview with Colonel Sidney Redón, Embassy of El Salvador in Guatemala,
Guatemala City, 9 May
2000.
[16] Statement by
Vice-Minister of External Relations Rene Eduardo Dominguez to the First Meeting
of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, Maputo, 4 May 1999. Translation by
Landmine Monitor.
[17]
Response to Landmine Monitor questionnaire by General Alvaro Antonio
Calderón Hurtado, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Armed Forces of El
Salvador, 8 May 2001; Ana Lidia Rivera, “La Muerte a flor de
tierra,” Vértice, El Diario de Hoy (San Salvador), 20
May 2001.
[18] Interview with
Lt. Col. Jose Ernesto Alas Sansur, Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces,
San Salvador, 18 May
2001.
[19]
Ibid.
[20] Ana Lidia Rivera,
“La Muerte a flor de tierra,” Vértice, El Diario de
Hoy, 20 May 2001.
[21]
Marcos Alfredo Valladares, PDDHH, in Ana Lidia Rivera, “La Muerte a flor
de tierra,” Vértice, El Diario de Hoy, 20 May
2001.
[22] Ana Lidia Rivera,
“La Muerte a flor de tierra,” Vértice, El Diario de
Hoy, 20 May 2001.
[23]
Ibid.
[24] International
Demining Group, “Pilot Programme: A proposal for community-based
humanitarian mine action and development,” December 2000, p.
2.
[25] Ibid, p.
1.
[26] Graeme Goldsworthy
and Frank Faulkner, “This Hard Land: a renewal of humanitarian mine action
in El Salvador,” p. 9. Included were 28 homemade antipersonnel blast
mines, two IED, an improvised hand grenade, a missile, a 64mm mortar, and two
homemade command detonated fragmentation mines, all of which were active. See
Ana Lidia Rivera, “La Muerte a flor de tierra,”
Vértice, El Diario de Hoy, 20 May
2001.
[27] Response to
Landmine Monitor questionnaire by General Alvaro Antonio Calderón
Hurtado, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Armed Forces of El Salvador, 25
January 2001.
[28] Graeme
Goldsworthy and Frank Faulkner, “This Hard Land: a renewal of humanitarian
mine action in El Salvador,” p.
7.
[29] International
Demining Group, “Pilot Programme: A proposal for community-based
humanitarian mine action and development,” December 2000, p.
5.
[30] Email from Graeme
Goldsworthy, IDG, to Landmine Monitor (MAC), 31 July 2001; see also, Ana Lidia
Rivera, “La Muerte a flor de tierra,” Vértice, El
Diario de Hoy, 20 May
2001.
[31] International
Demining Group, “Pilot Programme: A proposal for community-based
humanitarian mine action and development,” December 2000, p.
9.
[32] Ibid, p.
10.
[33] Ibid, p.
5.
[34]
Ibid.
[35] Ana Lidia Rivera,
“La Muerte a flor de tierra,” Vértice, El Diario de
Hoy, San Salvador, 20 May
2001.
[36] Interview with
Francisco González, Director of Security and Defense, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, San Salvador, 18 May
2001.
[37] Response to
Landmine Monitor questionnaire by General Alvaro Antonio Calderón
Hurtado, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Armed Forces of El Salvador, 25
January 2001.
[38] Interview
with Deputy Pablo Parada Andino, Legislative Assembly, San Salvador, 28 May
2001.
[39] International
Demining Group, “Pilot Programme: A proposal for community-based
humanitarian mine action and development,” December 2000, p.
10.
[40] Email to Landmine
Monitor (MAC) from Jesús Martínez, Director, Landmine Survivors
Network/ El Salvador, 23 July
2001.
[41] Telephone
interview with Concepción Marroquín, ALGES, El Salvador, 18 May
2001.
[42] Telephone
interview with Porfirio Figueroa, ASALDIG, El Salvador, 18 May
2001.
[43] Ana Lidia Rivera,
“La Muerte a flor de tierra,” El Diario de Hoy, 20 May
2001.
[44]
Ibid.
[45] Mauricio
Bolaños, “Un Muerto y un herido al explotar ‘granada
militar’,” La Prensa Gráfica (San Salavdor), 29 May
2001.
[46] Email to Landmine
Monitor (MAC) from José Leonidas Argueta Roldán, Executive
Director, PODES, 24 May
2001.
[47]
Ibid.
[48] Email to Landmine
Monitor (HRW) from William Brown, Deputy for Administration, Vietnam Veterans of
America Foundation, 23 July
2001.
[49] Letter from Wanda
Amory, PODES, to Wendy Batson, Director if Humanitarian Affairs, VVAF, 17 July
2000.
[50] Interview with
Colonel Sidney Rendón, Embassy of El Salvador in Guatemala, Guatemala, 9
May 2000.
[51] Email to
Landmine Monitor (MAC) from Jesús Martínez, Director, Landmine
Survivors Network/ El Salvador, 23 July
2001.
[52] Canadian Foreign
Affairs “Safelane” web site, Report on Central America, published 29
June 2000, last modified 27 March 2001. See
www.mines.gc.ca/IV_D_ii-e.asp.
[53]
Ibid.
[54]
“Ayudarán más a víctimas de minas antipersonales.
Primera conferencia regional de rehabilitación y
tecnología,” El Nuevo Diario (Managua), 19 June 2001.
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