Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 March 2021
(Not on track to meet deadline)
State Party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions 

(note: clearance obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions to be detailed in 2016 update)

Recommendations

• Colombia should take advantage of the peace treaty with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) to significantly accelerate clearance of remaining mined areas in accordance with its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty.
• Colombia should elaborate, in consultation with its demining partners, national mine action standards on land release.
• Colombia’s mine action program authorities urgently need to improve data management and planning procedures.

Contamination

The Republic of Colombia is contaminated by antipersonnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and other unexploded ordnance (UXO). The extent to which is it affected by cluster munition remnants is unclear.

Mine contamination

Colombia’s mine problem is the result of decades of conflict with non-state armed groups (NSAGs). The precise extent of contamination remains unclear, though the national database contains information that at least 30 of the 32 departments may have a mine threat. As of end 2013, the most affected departments were believed to be Antioquia, Arauca, Caquetá, Cauca, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, and Tolima.[1] According to the HALO Trust, Colombia is one of the most mine-affected countries in the world.[2] 

Colombia has stated that all existing mines and minefields laid by Colombian armed forces prior to entry into force of the Mine Ban Treaty were cleared before its initial Article 5 deadline of 1 March 2011.[3] The remaining contamination is due to mine-laying by NSAGs, whose continued and irregular use of improvised rather than factory-produced mines makes it very difficult to obtain an accurate picture of contamination.[4] Grant Salisbury, then HALO Trust’s program manager for Colombia, reportedly commented in 2013 that “Colombia is the first country that we’ve worked in, indeed the first country that I know of, where all the mines used are improvised [explosive devices] – every other country where we work, the vast majority of mines come from state factories.”[5]

The Organization of American States (OAS) had affirmed that no mined areas have been found in Colombia that could be considered as high- or medium-density minefields. So-called “nuisance mines” have been found in schools, water sources, pathways, and stream crossings.[6] In fact, the pilot project of Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), described further below, has found mines in patterns and of medium density.[7]

On 7 March 2015, negotiators for the Government of Colombia and the FARC announced that an agreement had been reached on demining.[8] According to a joint statement, the government and the FARC will select a number of pilot zones with the highest level of threat from antipersonnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), UXO, or other explosive remnants of war (ERW). NPA will oversee non-technical survey of suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) and technical survey and clearance of confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs).[9] This will give a much better picture of the mine and ERW threat.

Cluster munition contamination

The extent to which Colombia is affected by cluster munition remnants is unclear. In May 2009, Colombia’s Minister of Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, acknowledged that the Colombian Armed Forces had used cluster munitions in the past “to destroy clandestine airstrips and camps held by illegal armed groups” but noted the submunitions sometimes did not explode and “became a danger to the civilian population.”[10] In 2010, the Ministry of National Defense said that the Colombian Air Force last used cluster munitions on 10 October 2006 “to destroy clandestine airstrips belonging to organizations dedicated to drug trafficking in remote areas of the country where the risk to civilians was minimal.”[11]

In November 2012, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights found that Colombia had violated the rights to life and to physical, mental, and moral integrity by using a United States (US) World War II “cluster adapter” to disperse fragmentation bombs during an attack on the village of Santo Domingo in December 1998.[12] A helicopter dropped an AN-M1A2 cluster munition containing six submunitions, killing 17 civilians, including six children, and injuring a further 27 civilians, including nine children, and displacing the village’s inhabitants. Colombia sought to attribute the deaths to a bomb placed by FARC guerrillas.[13]

Program Management

Established on 30 July 2002 under Law No. 759/2002, the National Interministerial Commission on Anti-personnel Mine Action (Comisión Intersectorial Nacional para la Acción contra Minas Antipersonal, CINAMAP) is the National Mine Action Authority responsible for implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, including development of a national plan, policy decisions, and coordination of international assistance.[14] Two new key actors for mine action in Colombia are the Victims Unit and the Land Restitution Unit, neither of which existed when CINAMAP was created. Changes to the law are needed in order for them to become full members of CINAMAP.[15]

The Presidential Program for Comprehensive Mine Action (Programa Presidencial para la Acción Integral contra Minas Antipersonal, PAICMA) previously served as the technical secretary of CINAMAP. It was responsible for coordinating implementation of the 2009–2019 Integrated Mine Action Plan, whose aims were to minimise the socio-economic impact of mines, IEDs, and ERW, as well as to implement sustainable development programs in affected communities.[16] In September 2014, however, Decree 1649 modified the structure of the Presidency’s Administrative Department, creating the Directorate for Comprehensive Mine Action (Dirección para la Acción Integral contra minas Antipersonal, DAICMA) to replace PAICMA.[17] The DAICMA has retained the same mandate and functions as PAICMA; the only change being that the DAICMA is now supporting the Minister-Advisor for Post-Conflict, Human Rights, and Security and the Minister-Advisor’s office in the strategic management of the national mine action program.[18]

The Interagency Humanitarian Demining Group (Instancia Interinstitucional de Desminado Humanitario), commonly referred to as the Instancia Interinstitucional , is the government’s decision-making body for humanitarian demining, comprising the director of the DAICMA, the Minister of Defence, and the Inspector General of the army.[19] It approves accreditation, national standards, tasks, and clearance priorities. The OAS and UNMAS have served as advisors to the Interagency Group on accreditation and national standards.[20]

HALO Trust has stated that lengthy bureaucratic processes interfere with efficient operational planning of mine action. According to HALO’s program manager, Nick Smart, Colombia “has a clear and pressing need for demining but up until now the government’s response to the issue has been slow. For example, the assignation of a municipality for demining can take up to six months to process. Streamlining routine procedures such as municipality assignation, the deployment of teams to minefields and the submission and monitoring of operational reports would mean that Colombia’s severe mines problem could be addressed in a more rapid and effective way.”[21]

The OAS serves as the monitoring body for humanitarian demining in Colombia.[22] The OAS is responsible for managing and implementing a national monitoring system on behalf of the Interagency Group.[23] The OAS has been serving as an advisor to the Interagency Group on accreditation of NGOs in Colombia,[24] but it was planned to transfer all of its responsibilities to the DAICMA by the end of 2017.[25]

Since 2010, UNMAS has been advising the DAICMA on a legal and technical mine action framework to allow NGOs to conduct mine clearance. UNMAS has also assisted the DAICMA in accreditation and monitoring procedures as well as management processes.[26]

Strategic planning 

Colombia’s Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline extension request projected that all mined areas would be released by 2020.[27] Colombia’s 2011–2013 operational plan was to address 6,000 dangerous and mined areas in 14 of 660 mine-suspected municipalities covering an estimated 15km².[28] Colombia did not reach its targets.

Colombia was due to submit an operational plan for 2014–2020 at the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2013, but did not do so. Colombia did present a demining “action plan” for 2014–2016 at the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference in Maputo in July 2014.[29] The plan foresees a first phase of mine action in 91 municipalities and steadily increasing national army demining capacity to 54 units as well as the number of non-technical survey teams to 15 by 2016.[30]

Standards

National mine action standards were said to have been developed based on the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS),[31] but as of late 2015, new standards were being elaborated for adoption in early 2016.[32] Through a July 2014 resolution, Colombia adopted standing operating procedures for humanitarian demining.[33]

HALO has noted, however, that the current interpretation of the national standards for demining is that once a municipality has been surveyed, the operator is obliged to clear any known minefields within that area. As a result, operators are often required to clear low-priority minefields, running the “risk that higher priority areas may not be addressed in a timely manner. A simple but much-needed reform would be to allow operators to prioritise areas for clearance according to the greatest humanitarian need, allowing donor resources to be more effectively employed.”[34]

Information management

Poor information management has been a feature of Colombia’s mine action program since its inception. While a lack of access has undoubtedly played a role in this, efforts to verify and consolidate meaningful mine action data have proved inadequate. HALO has found that the information stored on the national IMSMA database is largely inaccurate; over the course of operations in five municipalities since September 2013, HALO’s survey teams have discredited 84% of IMSMA “events” investigated, while 91 of the 106 minefields identified (86%) were not registered on the national database at all.[35]

Government decree 1649 of 2014 assigned to the DAICMA responsibility for maintaining the IMSMA database and to “compile, systematise, centralise, and update relevant information” to serve as a basis for program planning.[36] This remains a central challenge for the program.

Operators

The Armed Forces Humanitarian Demining Battalion (Fuerzas Armadas del Batallón de Desminado Humanitario, BIDES) has been conducting humanitarian demining since 2005, when it began clearance of 35 military bases. It completed the clearance in 2010.[37] At the end of 2014, BIDES comprised 482 staff including 392 soldiers.[38]

In September 2013, HALO Trust became the first NGO to conduct demining in Colombia when it began clearance operations at the El Morro minefield, Nariño municipality, in Antioquia department.[39] In 2014, HALO continued its operations in Antioquia, “a region of particular interest for HALO, since it is the most mine-affected department in the country, accounting for 22% of the 11,202 mine casualties registered in Colombia to date.”[40] In 2014, HALO employed 21 survey staff and 81 demining staff.[41] In 2015, HALO reported that it was seeking to expand from 200 to 800 deminers over the following five years to support Colombia’s implementation of its Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 obligations.[42]

NPA formally initiated a mine action program in April 2015, having participated as an observer in the peace talks that concerned demining. The first step in the process of implementing the agreement on demining was the conduct of non-technical survey of contamination in the departments of Meta and Antioquia.[43] NPA will largely operate in territory controlled by the FARC.[44]

Land Release

Survey in 2014

HALO Trust conducted non-technical survey in 2014 in the municipalities of Carmen de Viboral, La Union, Nariño, San Rafael and Sonsón. HALO cancelled 60 "events" recorded by the national authority, which indicate a potential mine threat.[45] At the same time, HALO confirmed 43 areas as mined, totalling 105,144m².[46] 

HALO has observed that the “irregular nature of the conflict in Colombia has meant that mines have often been laid sporadically and without any kind of set pattern…which presents challenges for survey teams when defining minefields. The collection of information can also be difficult in areas where the population has been displaced during the conflict years, resulting in a lack of knowledge about the history of minelaying. Furthermore, local communities are often afraid to share mine information for fear of retribution from armed groups.” By recruiting and training people from the mine-impacted communities, HALO has sought to build trust among the local population while ensuring that its survey teams possess a thorough knowledge of the areas in which they work.[47]

HALO also conducted technical survey in two areas during 2014, reducing 1,776m² of mined area. No mines or ERW were destroyed in the process.[48]

Clearance in 2014

Mine clearance in 2014[49]

Note: * Colombia has not disaggregated items destroyed for 2014 so all have been listed as UXO; N/R = not reported

HALO has reported that “[d]emining in Colombia presents a unique set of challenges to both operations and logistics. Minefields are frequently inaccessible by paved road, which creates difficulties when setting up remote camps and delivering supplies. HALO has adopted the local solution of using mules, and sources building materials and supplies locally wherever possible in order to minimise logistical requirements. This not only increases efficiency but also means that additional donor funding is remitted to the local population…The conditions on minefields themselves also pose challenges to HALO’s operations: mines containing minimum metal, highly mineralised soil, thick vegetation, dense root structures, and wet and stormy weather conditions all have an impact on deminers’ productivity.”[50] 

There are no reports of any submunitions being destroyed during demining operations in 2014.

Progress in 2015

In 2015, HALO has been working in south-east Antioquia, in the municipalities of Abejorral, Carmen de Viboral, La Union, Nariño, San Rafael, and Sonsón. HALO was aiming to complete and hand over the municipalities of La Union and Nariño by the end of the year. HALO also planned to operate in two new departments before the end of 2015.[51]

Article 5 Compliance

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty (and in accordance with the 10-year extension granted by States Parties in 2010), Colombia is required to destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2021. It is not on track to meet this deadline.

In its statement to the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference, Colombia stated that it would not be able to free the country of landmines by 2025.[52] The ongoing survey combined with the successful implementation of the peace agreement should allow Colombia to give an estimated timeframe for fulfilment of its Article 5 obligations before the expiry of its 2021 deadline.