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Cuba and the USA remain the only countries in the Americas region that have not yet joined the Mine Ban Treaty. Cuba’s position has not changed since its Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided Landmine Monitor with a detailed policy statement in June 2000.[1] That statement indicated that Cuba fully “understands and shares the humanitarian concerns caused by the indiscriminate and irresponsible use of antipersonnel landmines” and described its full support for “humanitarian efforts made by the international community to prevent or mitigate the effects of the indiscriminate use of this kind of weapons.”[2]
A delegation from the ICBL accepted an official invitation to visit Cuba in September 2001.[3] Cuba viewed the invitation as an expression of Cuba’s humanitarian concern, but government officials continued to state that Cuba will not join a treaty that it “cannot comply with.”[4] The visit included a tour of Cuban mined areas surrounding the US Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, as well as meetings with the officials of the Directorate of Multi-lateral Affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and representatives of the Cuban Association of Physically Disabled People (ACLIFIM) and the Centre for the Study of International Humanitarian Law.
Cuba participated as an observer in the Third Meeting of States Parties in Managua in September 2001. A representative from Cuba’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva attended the January and May 2002 Mine Ban Treaty intersessional Standing Committee meetings. As it had done in previous years, Cuba in November 2001 abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M, calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Cuba is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its original Protocol II on landmines, but has not yet ratified Amended Protocol II. The ICBL delegation to Cuba was informed by the Multi-Sector Committee on Disarmament, that the process for ratification was ongoing, but had been delayed by the need to ensure that Cuba could fulfill all of its obligations and because a number of possible amendments to Amended Protocol II were being discussed in the lead-up to the Second Review Conference.[5]
Cuba participated as an observer in the third annual meeting of States Parties to Amended Protocol II and also participated in the Second CCW Review Conference, both in December 2001. Regarding the proposal for a new protocol on explosive remnants of war, Cuba stated that it shared the humanitarian concerns, but believed that further clarification and political, technical and legal discussion were needed; it supported the establishment of an open-ended intergovernmental group of experts with a broad mandate on the issue.[6]
Cuba’s state-owned Union of Military Industries (Unión de las Industrias Militares, UIM) is believed to continue production of antipersonnel mines.[7] In April 2001, Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro, told the media: “We manufacture them [landmines] of all types, but we never export them, nor are we going to.”[8]
Since 1996, Cuba has maintained that it does not export antipersonnel mines.[9] This was reiterated by government representatives during the ICBL visit in September 2001. The ICBL delegation raised the need for Cuba to establish a formal moratorium or prohibition on the export of antipersonnel mines to formalize these statements and government representatives indicated they would investigate whether a more formal and legal ban could be imposed.[10]
No official information is available on the size and composition of Cuba’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but based on information in the military trade press, it appears that Cuba has OZM-4, POMZ-2, and POMZ-2M mines.[11]
Both the US and Cuba planted landmines around the US Naval Base at Guantánamo in the southeast of Cuba. Cuban officials in charge of the military base at Guantánamo told the ICBL delegation that they could not provide ICBL with details on the number and types of mines laid on Cuban territory, but they stated that fragmentation mines are not used.[12]
Cuban authorities have stated that the Cuban minefields are duly “marked, fenced and guarded” to ensure the protection of civilians, as stipulated by the CCW's Amended Protocol II.[13] During the ICBL visit to Guantánamo this was confirmed and it was evident that the minefields were well maintained.
Clearance by the US of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from the US minefields around Guantánamo began in September 1996 and was completed in 1999.[14] Three verification stages were then carried out, with the final phase completed in May 2000.[15] It is not known if the US maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines at the US Naval Base in Guantánamo.
In 2001, two mine incidents were reported in which one person was killed and three others injured.[16] No incidents were reported in the first six months of 2002.
Representatives of the Cuban Association of Physically Disabled People (ACLIFIM), a membership group of 50,000 people that provides a support network for people with disabilities, told ICBL that they have not encountered Cuban civilians with disabilities as a result of landmines.[17] It is possible that Cuban soldiers participating in past conflicts overseas have been killed or maimed by antipersonnel mines but no accurate information is available.
While there is no specific program to deal with Cuban landmine survivors, Cuba has a free and universal healthcare system described in detail in the June 2000 statement to Landmine Monitor. Cuban law prohibits discrimination based on disability, and there have been few complaints of such discrimination.[18] There are however no laws that mandate accessibility to buildings for the disabled and in practice buildings and transportation are rarely accessible to people with disabilities.
Cuba is not known to be directly involved in any humanitarian mine clearance activities but it contributes to victim assistance through 2,410 Cuban doctors who are working in 18 countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa.[19]
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[1] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 329, and Cuba’s response in full on the Landmine Monitor web site at www.icbl.org/lm/comments/.
[2] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 329.
[3] The ICBL delegation consisted of two representatives of the ICBL’s Coordination Committee: Noel Stott, Mines Action Southern Africa, and Diana Roa-Castro, Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas. The visit took place from 24-29 September 2001.
[4] Statement by Juan Antonio Fernandez, Director-General, Multi-lateral Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs, Havana, 24 September 2001; See Noel Stott and Diana Roa Castro, “Report of an ICBL Visit to Cuba,” (Johannesburg: Mines Action Southern Africa) November 2001.
[5] Statement made during a meeting between the ICBL and the Multi-Sector Committee on Disarmament, Havana, Cuba, 24 September 2001.
[6] Report of the Second Review Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed To Be Excessively Injurious Or To Have Indiscriminate Effects, Geneva, 11 - 21 December 2001.
[7] According to the US Department of Defense, Cuba has produced at least five types of landmines, including three antipersonnel mines: PMFC-1 fragmentation mine, PMFH-1 fragmentation mine, PMM-1 wooden box mine. ORDATA II CD-ROM. For details, see Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 316.
[8] “Cuba won't renounce use of landmines as defense weapons: Castro,” Agence France Presse (Havana), 26 April 2001.
[9] Janes’ Mines and Mine Clearance, on-line update, 18 November 1999.
[10] “Report of an ICBL Visit to Cuba,” November 2001.
[11] Janes’ Mines and Mine Clearance, on-line update, 18 November 1999.
[12] “Report of an ICBL Visit to Cuba,” November 2001.
[13] Statement of the Directorate of Multilateral Affairs of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Landmine Monitor, 19 June 2000.
[14] For more details on the US clearance operation, see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 332.
[15] Email to Landmine Monitor from JOC Walter T. Ham IV, Public Affairs Officer, US Naval Base Guantánamo Bay, 23 April 2001.
[16] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 407.
[17] Statement made during the ICBL/Landmine Monitor meeting with the Cuban Association of Physically Disabled People (ACLIFIM), Havana, Cuba, 26 September 2001.
[18] US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001: Cuba,” March 2002.
[19] ICBL meeting with Yiliam Jimenez Exposito, Director, Directorate of International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Havana, 27 September 2002.
