The Mine Action Program of the Organization of American States (OAS), known
formally as “Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines”
(AICMA for its initials in Spanish), continues to function under a series of
General Assembly mandates concerning mine action throughout the Americas and
maintains its support for a wide range of mine action activities in Six Member
States, including:
Support for humanitarian demining activities, including survey, mapping,
marking and clearance;
Mine risk education for people living in affected areas;
Victim assistance, including physical and psychological rehabilitation and
the socioeconomic reintegration of cleared zones;
Supervision and assistance for the destruction of stockpiled mines;
Development of mine action databases; and
Support for a total ban on use, production, stockpile, sale, or transfer of
antipersonnel mines.
Demining Activities
During 2004, with the support of the AICMA program, a total of 14,430 mines
and unexploded ordnance were destroyed and a total of 513,968.50 m2 cleared in
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Peru. The AICMA also supported a
short-term assistance mission in the Republic of Suriname. Military trainers
and other technical experts provided by the IADB conducted training courses for
national deminers from mine-affected countries benefiting from the program.
Noteworthy activities in each recipient country include:
In Guatemala, demining activities have been completed in six departments
considered to be high-risk zones, with work underway in the last remaining
high-risk departments, as the Guatemalan program moves toward completion by the
end of 2005.
Demining operations in Honduras concluded in June 2004. The country was
formally declared mine-safe by the Honduran Government in November 2004, joining
Costa Rica as the second OAS Member State to conclude its mine clearance
program.
During 2004, Nicaraguan demining units destroyed nearly 14,000 mines and
cleared more than 480,000 square meters of land, as the Nicaraguan program
reached 80 per cent completion of the clearance of more than 135,000 mines that
were originally emplaced. Nicaragua is projected to complete mine clearance
work by the end of 2006, with a significantly reduced effort subsequently
planned until mid-2007.
Along the Peru-Ecuador border, demining operations were concluded in the
Ecuadorian Province of Loja in 2004. Peruvian and Ecuadorian authorities have
developed a plan to execute reconnaissance operations in the area of
“Cordillera del Condor” in the near future.
In 2005 OHMA supported an assistance mission in the Republic of Suriname
employing members of the Honduran Army who carried out initial humanitarian
demining and trained Surinamese military deminers, enabling Suriname to complete
its national humanitarian demining program in April 2005.
Mine Risk Education
The mine risk education programs supported by the AICMA continue to reduce
the risk of death and injury by promoting safe behavior and facilitating
solutions to the high risk behavior that is observed in some of the affected
communities. Mine risk education campaigns have been carried out through
community visits, a variety of national radio messages and school programs. In
each of the recipient countries, these campaigns are closely coordinated with
demining operations.
Victim Assistance
The Program has assisted over 800 landmine victims since it was established
in Nicaragua with the assistance of the Government of Sweden in 1997. To
address the specific needs of affected communities, the Program has provided
victims with transportation from their communities to the rehabilitation center,
lodging, meals, prostheses, therapy, and medications. In collaboration with the
National Technological Institute of Nicaragua, the AICMA program has developed
an innovative project for training and job placement for landmine victims in
trades including auto mechanics, computer skills, carpentry, shoemaking,
tailoring, and cosmetology. In Ecuador and Peru, the Program has developed a
database in order to identify all victims of landmine related accidents. Thus
far, the Ecuadorian program has provided 5 victims with prostheses and surgical
care and has provided partial funding for the training, in El Salvador, of an
Ecuadorian mine victim to become a prosthetics technician. In Peru, the Program
began collecting data on about 300 landmine victims and provided funds for one
victim to travel to Colombia for specialized eye surgery.
Stockpile Destruction
The AICMA program continues to support the elimination of stockpiled
antipersonnel mines in OAS Member States. The program provided technical and
financial assistance to the governments of Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador,
Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru in becoming stockpile-free countries prior to the
First Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention. To date more than one million
stockpiled antipersonnel mines have been destroyed in coordination with AICMA,
supported largely through contributions from the Government of Canada.
Mine Action Data Base
The Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) database has been
established for each of the beneficiary countries with the help of national
AICMA coordinators and technical support from the Geneva International Center
for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD). During the second half of 2004, the GICHD
trained AICMA and national personnel in Ecuador and Peru on the use of an
integrated global positioning system / direction finder with the objective of
enhancing the efficiency of minefield survey activities and ensure accurate data
is entered into IMSMA.
Advocacy for the Landmine Ban
The AICMA program continued to promote the interest expressed in OAS General
Assembly Resolutions to make the Americas a landmine-free zone. As a key
element in Hemispheric coordination and cooperation on mine action issues the
AICMA Program sponsors annual region seminars with the most recent held during
2004 in Quito, Ecuador, in preparation for the First Review Conference of the
Convention which took place in November 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya. The AICMA
program has also continued to participate in various meetings related to the
Convention in order to share practical achievements and lessons learned with
other global mine action programs, as well as strengthen contacts with
international donors.
Coordination with International Entities
Cooperation with international entities over the past year, has improved the
efficiency and effectiveness of mine action programs throughout the Hemisphere
by marshalling available resources from these organizations, particularly in the
fields of preventive education and victim assistance. The Program has
maintained close and productive relationships with:
United Nations, primarily through the U.N. Mine Action Service and the U.N.
Children’s Fund;
Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining;
Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University;
World Rehabilitation Fund;
Physicians for Human Rights.
South Florida Landmine Action Group; and the
Achilles Track Club.
Resource Mobilization
The OHMA employs various media to inform the international community of
program achievements as well as its outstanding needs which include profiles of
the national programs as well as the financial requirements for future
implementation. The international donor community has generally responded
favorably to meeting program requirements. As mine action activities conclude
in Central America during the course of the next twelve to eighteen months, the
OHMA anticipates that the overall need for budgetary resources will remain
relatively constant for the next four to five years, as program emphasis shifts
to Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
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