Casualties and Victim Assistance

Victim assistance commitments

The Republic of Chile is responsible for survivors of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW). Chile has made a commitment to provide victim assistance through the Mine Ban Treaty and Protocol V of the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Casualties Overview

In 2012, the Monitor identified five mine/ERW casualties in Chile.[1] Four of the five casualties were men; the fifth was a boy. Four were civilians, including a Peruvian national. There was one demining casualty.

In March 2012, a male civilian was injured by ERW in Antofagasta, in northern Chile, near the city of Calama.[2] The device that caused the incident was initially reported to be an antipersonnel mine, but an investigation conducted by the Police’s Special Operations Group (GOPE) indicated that the incident was caused by unexploded ordnance.[3] In May, a Peruvian man was killed when his car hit an antivehicle mine in the Arica and Parinacota region, on the border with Peru.[4] In the same region, a military deminer was injured in August while clearing mines that had been displaced during flooding earlier in the year.[5] In October, a boy and a man were injured within the Santiago metropolitan area by an explosive believed to have been abandoned by the Chilean military.[6]

Casualties continued in 2013; in August a Peruvian man was injured by an antipersonnel mine, also in the Arica and Parinacota region, near the border with Peru.[7]

Prior to 2012, the last casualty reported in Chile was in 2007, when a man was killed by an antipersonnel mine while crossing the border with Peru.[8] The Monitor has identified 35 casualties (5 killed and 30 injured) between 1999 and December 2012. As of March 2013, Chile recorded 140 people (28 killed and 112 injured) as victims of mines/ERW of which 56 were civilians and 84 were military.[9] However, in 2009 Chile had confirmed a total of 181 casualties (60% military and 40% civilian) since 1970. Sixty-eight were caused by antipersonnel mines, 57 by antivehicle mines, 20 by ERW, and 36 by unknown explosive devices.[10]

Victim Assistance

As of March 2013, there were 112 mine/ERW survivors registered by the National Humanitarian Demining Commission (Comisión Nacional de Desminado Humanitario, CNAD).[11]

CNAD is the victim assistance focal point and is responsible for maintaining and updating the registry of mine/ERW victims that was developed between 2009 and 2012.[12] In developing the registry, CNAD conducted a needs assessment of identified victims, visiting their homes and working with local governments to register the victims with the social insurance system.[13] There is no formal victim assistance coordination mechanism.

Military survivors receive medical and social care from the army. Most civilians with disabilities, including civilian landmine survivors, qualify for free healthcare through the National Health Fund and social support managed by the Ministry of Planning. However, in 2009 the government recognized that “many civilian cases” have problems accessing services because of their poverty or remote location.[14] As of December 2012, Chile was developing a program to address the medical and rehabilitation needs of approximately half of registered victims, those deemed to have the greatest socio-economic need.[15]

The Group of Mine and Munitions Victims (GMMV), a national survivors’ network, actively advocates for increased attention to the needs of mine and ERW survivors and their families.[16] In May 2012, with financial support from local authorities, a local chapter of the GMMV was founded in Caldera in Northern Chile, expanding the geographic coverage of the network.[17]

In August 2013, the President of Chile introduced the draft “victims” law to the national congress. The law is designed to provide reparations to mine/ERW victims as a means to comply with Chile’s international commitments under the Mine Ban Treaty, the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), Protocol V.[18] Representatives of various government ministries and civil society, including a representative of the GMMV, were involved in developing the draft law.[19]

The law defines a victim as someone who has been wounded by a landmine/ERW explosion or the family members of someone killed by such an explosion. Family members of survivors are not included in the definition or as beneficiaries. Benefits drafted under the law include one-time financial payments as reparations and reimbursements for medical care and rehabilitation. Article 5 of the law refers to assistance for social and economic inclusion, but there are no specific provisions within the law regarding how victims would access this assistance. [20] The draft law does not include a monthly pension for survivors, although that was something that the GMMV proposed, and saw as a priority.[21]

Chilean law prohibits discrimination against persons with disabilities and the government actively enforced the law in 2012. However, persons with disabilities still suffered some discrimination. The law provides for universal and equal access to buildings, information, and communications. However, most public buildings did not comply with legal accessibility standards. Public transportation did not adequately provide accessibility for persons with disabilities, though there were some improvements in Santiago in 2012.[22]

Chile ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 29 July 2008.