United States Helping To Coordinate Mine-Clearing in Colombia

I just received this release from our friend John Stevens at the US Department of State.

United States Helping To Coordinate Mine-Clearing in Colombia

By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Officials from the U.S. government, including the U.S. Department of State, the Department of Defense and the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command visited Colombia May 2 and 3 to coordinate with the Organization of American States (OAS) on a mine-clearing operation in the Andean nation.

An official with the OAS said in an interview that the operation began April 24 in the Cerro de la Pita region of Colombia's province of Bolivar. This is the second such operation carried out in Colombia under an agreement the Colombian government and the OAS signed in March 2003.

Two officials from the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA) went to Colombia to help coordinate the mine-clearing operation.

In 2004, the United States granted the OAS General Secretariat $75,000 for mine removal operations in Colombia. In October 2004, the United States welcomed Colombia's destruction of nearly 7,000 "persistent" land mines from its stockpile of such explosive devices. The WRA said it applauded Colombia's "destruction of a batch of its stockpiled land mines that were not needed for its defense."



The State Department defines persistent land mines as munitions that remain lethal indefinitely, affecting civilians long after the cessation of military conflict. (See related article.)
Anti-personnel mines are said to be having a severe effect on the civilian population in Colombia, where the use of those mines is reported to be on the increase and the country's ongoing armed conflicts make it difficult to clear the weapons. The average land mine is said to cost $1 to make, but an average of $1,000 to remove. News reports said that with a rough estimate of 100,000 mines across Colombia, the total removal cost is $100 million.
Some 170 land mines remain in Colombia's Cerro de la Pita region, the OAS official said. In all, Colombia has 33 mine fields, the official said.
According to the OAS, land mines affect 31 of Colombia's 32 departments (provinces) and one of every two municipalities. As of July 2005, some 944 people have been killed in Colombia by land mines, with 2,961 wounded. Since 2002, an average of two people per day have fallen victim to land mines in Colombia. A Geneva-based nongovernmental group, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, reports that globally, Colombia had the third-highest number of land mine victims in 2004 after Cambodia and Afghanistan.
A previous operation to clear land mines and destroy unexploded ordnance was completed in December 2005 at a site called Mamonal (near the city of Cartagena), also in Colombia's Bolivar province, the OAS said.
The physical work of removing the land mines in Cerro de la Pita is being carried out by a 28-member Colombian military contingent. In addition, three representatives from Brazil and two from Honduras are monitoring the work. The OAS said the Cerro de La Pita operation is expected to last two months. The OAS-backed efforts against land mines in Colombia are coordinated by Colombia's National Anti-personnel Landmines Observatory, the country's highest national authority on mine action.
The OAS covers training and life insurance for the personnel as well as logistical support and international oversight of the operations. The organization also is assisting with psychological and physical rehabilitation for 20 land mine victims in Colombia, who were chosen by the Landmines Observatory in consultation with the Bogot�ased Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center of Colombia, which provides rehabilitation services to amputees and other people with disabilities.
The OAS coordinates humanitarian mine-clearing activities in Colombia and elsewhere in Latin America through its Comprehensive Mine Action Program, with technical assistance provided by an OAS agency called the Inter-American Defense Board. That board advises the OAS on military and defense-related issues.
To raise money for children victimized by anti-personnel mines, a concert called "Colombia Without Mines" will be held May 24 in Los Angeles, featuring music by Latin artists. The concert is supported by the United Nations Children's Fund, among other groups.
In addition to Colombia, the OAS program for mine removal has operated in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Suriname.
For more information on U.S. efforts to address the world's land mine problem, see the State Department electronic journal, Protecting Lives, Restoring Livelihoods: The U.S. Program To Remove Landmines.
Additional information about the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, which provides assistance to countries suffering from the presence of persistent land mines, is available on the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)