Contaminated by: landmines (heavy contamination), cluster munitions (extent unclear, but likely to be minimal), and other unexploded ordnance (UXO). 

Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline: 1 March 2021
(Not on target to meet deadline) 

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 deadline: 1 March 2026
(Extent of contamination unclear)

The precise extent of contamination from mines remains uncertain, but the national action plan 2016–2021 is based on a national estimate of 51.24km² of mined area. Thirty-one of the Republic of Colombia’s 32 departments may be affected.[1] Colombia’s agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) gave momentum to its demining planning efforts in 2015. 

The extent to which Colombia is affected by cluster munition remnants is unclear. Colombia ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 10 September 2015. In August 2016, Colombia reported that it was in the process of establishing the location and extent of any contamination.[2] Colombia may be able to declare full completion of its Article 4 obligations once the assessment and survey have been conducted.

Recommendations for action 

• Colombia should take advantage of the peace process with the FARC to conduct a baseline survey of contamination and to significantly accelerate clearance of remaining mined areas in accordance with its obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty.
• As part of this process, Colombia should elaborate, in consultation with its demining partners, national mine action standards on land release.
• Colombia should finalize the assessment of the extent of cluster munition remnants contamination as soon as possible, including through the conduct of survey.
• Colombia’s mine action program authorities urgently need to improve data management and planning procedures. Colombia should ensure its national mine action database disaggregates data on unexploded submunitions and other explosive remnants of war (ERW).

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 very uncertain, though 31 of Colombia’s 32 departments may have a mine threat.[3] As of end 2015, Colombia still lacked a baseline for contamination, although its new strategic plan for 2016–2021, which is based on a national estimate of 51.24km² of mined area, aims to elaborate a national baseline.[4]

Its Article 7 transparency report for 2015 reported that 671 suspected mined areas were recorded between 1990 and the end of 2015.[5] Of these, more than 100 were in Antioquia, believed to be the most affected department. It attributed 5,000m² to each “confirmed hazardous area.”[6]

Improvised mines were planted in isolated rural areas by NSAG factions to protect strategic positions; often coca cultivations that were used to fund operations. When the groups moved on, the mines were left behind, blocking access to roads, paths, schools, and other civilian infrastructure, preventing productive use of land.[7]

According to the HALO Trust, mines “continue to have a huge effect on the civilian population, causing physical harm, preventing farming and affecting livelihoods.” HALO affirms that if “more areas were assigned for demining it would prevent needless accidents, allowing life to return to normal and creating safe conditions for people to come home.”[8] Land restitution claims are unable to be processed if land is deemed to be dangerous. By declaring municipalities free from a mine threat, HALO observes that clearance provides the “fundamental first step” towards facilitating the safe return of the displaced.[9]

Cluster Munition Contamination

In August 2016, Colombia said it was in the process of establishing the location and extent of any cluster munition contamination.[10]

The extent to which Colombia is affected by cluster munition remnants is presently 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.”[11] 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.”[12]

In November 2012, the Inter-American Court of 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.[13] 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. The action also resulted in the displacement of the village’s inhabitants. Colombia sought to attribute the deaths to a bomb placed by FARC guerrillas.[14]

The impact of any cluster munition contamination is believed to be minimal. HALO Trust has not encountered or received any reports of unexploded submunitions,[15] nor has Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA).[16]

Colombia is also affected by other UXO.

Program Management

Established on 30 July 2002 under Law No. 759/2002, the National Interministerial Commission on Antipersonnel Mine Action (Comisión Intersectorial Nacional para la Acción contra Minas Antipersonal, CINAMAP) is the National Mine Action Authority responsible for implementing the Mine Ban Treaty, including development of a national plan and policy decisions, and coordination of international assistance.[17] This body is also expected to be responsible for Convention on Cluster Munitions implementation.

In September 2014, Decree 1649 created the Directorate for Comprehensive Mine Action (Dirección para la Acción Integral contra minas Antipersonal, DAICMA) to replace the earlier mine action body, the Presidential Program for Comprehensive Mine Action (PAICMA).[18] DAICMA effectively serves as the national mine action center.

On 7 March 2015, negotiators for the government of Colombia and the FARC announced that agreement had been reached on demining.[19] According to a joint statement, the government and the FARC would select a number of pilot zones with the highest level of threat from antipersonnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), UXO, or other ERW.

The Organization of American States (OAS) serves as the monitoring body for humanitarian demining in Colombia. The OAS planned to transfer its responsibilities to DAICMA by the end of 2017.[20]

Since 2010, UNMAS has been advising DAICMA (and its predecessor). Its aims for 2016 were threefold: to increase the capacity of the authorities to manage, coordinate, and regulate the mine action sector; to develop the sector to support peace and development initiatives (“particularly ensuring that civilian and humanitarian demining organizations are operating under an adequate quality management framework”); and to support the peace process.[21] The UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS) is developing a transition plan to develop the capacity of the national authority to take national ownership over monitoring of demining operations conducted by the OAS.[22]

Strategic planning 

Colombia’s Mine Ban Treaty Article 5 deadline extension request projected, improbably, that all mined areas would be released by 2020.[23] 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.[24] Colombia did not reach its targets.

Colombia presented a demining plan for 2014–2016 at the Mine Ban Treaty Third Review Conference in Maputo in July 2014.[25] The plan foresaw 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.[26]

Subsequently, Colombia developed a 2016–2021 strategic plan, with support from UNMAS.[27] Among the primary aims set out in the plan are consolidation of the mine action sector and the elaboration of a detailed baseline of contamination.[28] The plan aims to “clear 199 highly contaminated municipalities by 2021, representing 60% of the area where mines are found in the country.”[29]

Standards 

New national mine action standards were being elaborated as of late 2015. HALO Trust has complained that the current interpretation of national standards 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.”[30]

Operators 

The Armed Forces Humanitarian Demining Battalion (Fuerzas Armadas del Batallón de Desminado Humanitario, BIDES) has been conducting humanitarian demining since 2005.[31]

In 2015–2016, HALO Colombia was conducting survey, mine clearance, risk education, and some victim assistance. Operations were taking place in eight municipalities across three departments: Antioquia, Meta, and Tolima.[32]

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 to conduct non-technical survey (NTS) of suspected contamination in the departments of Meta and Antioquia. The parties chose two pilot projects, one in the village of El Orejón (Antioquia) and a second in the village of Santa Helena (Meta). NPA’s role has been to lead and supervise a mine clearance project as a trust-building exercise between the government of Colombia and the FARC. The Colombian army has been conducting the mine clearance as such, and NPA has provided verification with two detection dog teams, while the FARC has given information on contaminated areas.[33]

Land Release (Mines) 

Colombia cleared less than 0.36km² of mined area in 2015, a decrease on output in 2014 that amounted to 0.59km². Operations in 2015 included the destruction of 173 antipersonnel mines.

Survey in 2015 (mines) 

In 2015, HALO teams conducted survey in southeast Antioquia, and in November it began community liaison in San Juan de Arama in Meta and Ataco in Tolima. In Antioquia, 121,726m² of land was confirmed as mined area.[34]

NPA’s NTS in El Orejón resulted in the identification of seven confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) of which four, totaling 14,518m², were cleared along with the destruction of 32 improvised antipersonnel mines. Three other areas totaling 45,546m² were identified for permanent marking. The NTS conducted in Santa Helena resulted in the identification of seven CHAs of which four totaling 20,874m², were cleared in February to May 2016, resulting in the destruction of 19 improvised antipersonnel mines and one item of UXO (a hand grenade). Two CHAs were permanently marked covering a total of 3,191m² and one previously identified CHA was canceled (13,880m²).[35]

Clearance in 2015 (mines) 

Colombia reported clearance of 355,432m² in 2015 across three departments: Antioquia, Bolivar, and Santander. Half of all clearance by area occurred in Antioquia.[36] Of this, HALO Trust reported clearing 44 hazardous areas covering 96,961m² in southeast Antioquia, destroying in the process 90 antipersonnel mines.[37]

Land Release (Cluster munition remnants) 

In August 2016, Colombia said it was in the process of establishing the location and extent of any cluster munition contamination.[38]

Mine Ban Treaty 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 target to meet the deadline.

It remains to be seen how the peace process will lead to an enabling environment for demining.

Convention on Cluster Munitions Article 4 Compliance 

Under Article 4 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Colombia is required to destroy all cluster munition remnants in areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 March 2026. Colombia may be able to declare full completion of its Article 4 obligations once its assessment and survey are completed.

The Monitor gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the Mine Action Review supported and published by Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), which conducted mine action research in 2016 and shared it with the Monitor. The Monitor is responsible for the findings presented online and in its print publications.