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Key developments since May 2001: In 2001, the Army cleared an area covering 7,749 square meters. In 2001, the Association of Volunteer Firefighters conducted mine risk education in six communities in San Marcos department, which reached an estimated 80,000 people.
Guatemala signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 26 March 1999, and the treaty entered into force on 1 September 1999. In 1997 Guatemala passed national legislation to ban antipersonnel mines in the form of Legislative Decree 106-97, which prohibits the production, purchase, sale, importation, exportation, transit, use, or possession of antipersonnel mines and explosive artifacts or their composite parts.[1]
Guatemala submitted its annual Article 7 transparency report on 5 June 2002, covering the period from March 2001 to March 2002.
Guatemala attended the Third Meeting of States Parties in September 2001 in Managua, Nicaragua. In November 2001, Guatemala cosponsored and voted in support of pro-ban UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M. Guatemala sent representatives to the “Mine Action in Latin America” conference in Miami, from 3-5 December 2001.[2] In January and May 2002, Guatemala attended intersessional Standing Committee meetings of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Guatemala is a State Party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW), and ratified Amended Protocol II to the CCW on 29 October 2001 with no reservations or interpretative statements. It attended the Third Annual Conference of States Parties to Amended Protocol II, as well as the Second CCW Review Conference, both in December 2001.
Guatemala has not produced or imported antipersonnel landmines, possesses no stockpile, and has not retained any mines for training purposes.[3]
Guatemala maintains that it did not use landmines during its long-running internal conflict, and there is no concrete evidence to the contrary. However, the guerrillas of the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union (URNG) did make limited use of crude, homemade mines, and improvised explosive devices during the war.
The OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, through its Program for Integral Action against Antipersonnel Mines (AICMA, Acción Integral Contra las Minas Antipersonal), is responsible for coordinating and supervising the Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (PADCA, Programa de Asistencia al Desminado en Centroamérica), with the technical support of the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB).
The IADB is responsible for organizing a team of international supervisors in charge of training and certification, known as the Assistance Mission for Mine Clearance in Central America (Misión de Asistencia para la Remoción de Minas en Centro América or MARMINCA).
PADCA and MARMINCA have mine action programs in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. In Guatemala, the Army and the Association of Volunteer Firefighters are responsible for clearance operations, along with PADCA/MARMINCA.
For the 2001 budget, the OAS PADCA program raised approximately $4.72 million from the United States ($1.27 million), Norway ($1.15 million), Canada ($979,232), Sweden ($639,964), United Kingdom, ($271,971), Spain ($255,340), Italy ($100,000) and Japan ($45,000).[4] This represents a decrease from $4.92 million raised in the year 2000.
According to Jhony M. Cabrera Perez, Coordinator of the Executive Coordination Unit (UCE), the annual budget for the OAS Guatemala program for 2001 was $1 million, with the government contributing an additional $120,000. The Association of Volunteer Firefighters is responsible for administering the funds.[5]
Since 1993, Guatemala has contributed fourteen military mine action supervisors to the MARMINCA mine clearance effort, including three in 2001 and two in 2002.[6]
In its annual Article 7 Report submitted 5 June 2002, Guatemala indicated that thirteen departments are considered at high-risk from unexploded ordnance: northern Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Chimaltenango, Escuintla, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Quiché, southern Petén, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, Sololá, Suchitepéquez, and Totonicapán. The departments of Santa Rosa and Jutiapa are considered low-risk.[7]
The OAS/AICMA Guatemala Coordinator told Landmine Monitor that the program has not found landmines, only UXO, and estimated the number of items of UXO remaining to be cleared at 6,000.[8]
In 1995, a Demining Coordinating Committee (Comisión Coordinadora de Desminado) was established by Legislative Decree 60-95.[9] In 1997, Guatemala established an Executive Coordinating Unit (UCE, Unidad Coordinadora Ejecutiva), which prepared a “National Plan for Demining and the Destruction of Unexploded Ordnance.” It is under the auspices of this plan that the OAS and IADB are now assisting Guatemala with its demining and UXO clearing efforts.
According to the OAS, PADCA clearance operations continued in 2001 and 2002 with the participation of the Association of Volunteer Firefighters (Cuerpo Voluntario de Bomberos), the Engineer Corps (Cuerpo de Ingenieros del Ejército, CIEG) of the Guatemalan Army, reintegrated former URNG members and MARMINCA personnel.[10]
The civilian Association of Volunteer Firefighters (Cuerpo Voluntario de Bomberos) engages 38 people in mine action activities including mine/UXO risk education, information gathering and marking of mine- and UXO-affected areas. The Army destroys the UXO where they are found.[11] The Volunteer Firefighters use GPS and portable radios in their work.[12] The UNRG cooperates with the Volunteer Firefighters’ activities, including raising awareness of the mine/UXO problem.
In April 2001, clearance began in the southern part of El Quiché department and was completed in June 2001.[13] In 2001, the Volunteer Firefighters located 26 UXO (compared to 80 in the year 2000) and the Army cleared an area covering 7,749 square meters.[14] From January 2001 to March 2002, one Claymore mine and 34 UXO were cleared in the provinces of Chimaltenango, Quiché, and San Marcos.[15]
Clearance in San Marcos department started in June 2001 and was scheduled for completion by June 2002, but this date has since been moved back to December 2002.[16]
Completion of the National Demining Plan, with clearance of all thirteen high-risk departments, is scheduled for 2005.[17]
Some clearance difficulties identified in the National Demining Plan include rough terrain and difficult weather conditions.[18] Inaccessible roads during the rainy season mean that helicopters are the only way that emergency medical assistance can be provided. Maintenance of vehicles and equipment is also a problem, due to the need to travel long distances over rough terrain. A lack of accurate maps makes planning more difficult.
With the support of the OAS and with additional logistical and financial assistance provided by the government, the Association of Volunteer Firefighters provides mine risk education using television, radio, and the print media. In 2001, the firefighters conducted mine risk education in six communities in San Marcos department (San Pablo, Rafael de la Cuesta, San Cristobal, El Tumbador, El Rodea, and Esquipulas Palo Gordo), which reached an estimated 80,000 people.[19]
Further education efforts are planned for Quetzaltenango, Totonicapan and Retalhuleu departments in 2002, with completion scheduled for 2003.[20]
In December 2001, four brothers, aged six, eight, ten and fourteen, were killed in Salama, Baja Verapaz department when they handled a grenade.[21]
No other mine or UXO casualties were reported in 2001 or in the first half of 2002. Since 1994, approximately fifteen people have been injured by landmines or UXO; before that time no official records were kept.[22]
The ASCATED/UNICEF Landmine Victim Support Program has identified approximately 320 casualties from 1972 to the end of June 2002, of which all but five were children.[23] Most survivors are male, and were injured when they were aged 15 or 16 years-old. All the survivors grew up in rural communities and continue to live in extreme poverty. Fifteen percent of the survivors are blind and depend on their families for support.
UNICEF has been supporting the community-based rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration of mine survivors in Guatemala since 1999.[24] UNICEF’s program is carried out in the five most heavily mine- and UXO-affected departments of Guatemala (Chimaltenango, Huehuetenango, Quetzaltenango, Quiché, and San Marcos). UNICEF works in cooperation with two local agencies, ASCATED (Asociación de Capacitacion y Asistencia Técnica en Educación y Discapacidad) and the University of Valle. As of February 2002 the achievements of the program included: 153 survivors had received a professional evaluation of their physical or sensorial disability; 253 mine and UXO survivors had received a specialized evaluation of their disability and/or received direct assistance for their rehabilitation; and five reference centers began to offer assistance to disabled people. The five reference centers are located in Nebaj, Chajul, Cotzal, San Marcos at Aldea la Laguna, Quetzaltenango, and are operated by the community under the supervision and evaluation of UNICEF and ASCATED. In 2002, funding is being sought to establish a National Managerial Information System on Demining Action (based on IMSMA); and to strengthen the organizational structure of the reference centers.[25]
Other organizations providing assistance to mine/UXO survivors in Guatemala include the Asociación Guatemalteca de Rehabilitación (AGREL), the OAS, the local NGO Transitions, Queen’s University, the Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR), and for war-wounded veterans, the Centro de Atención al Desacapacitado del Ejercito de Guatemala (CADEJ).[26]
On 18-19 June 2001, prosthetic technicians from Guatemala attended the First Regional Conference on Victim Assistance and Technologies, organized by the OAS and the CIR, in Managua, Nicaragua.[27] CIR has developed a Lower Extremity Distance Learning program for prosthetic technicians in Guatemala which also includes a clinical component implements by a qualified prosthetist who provides hands-on training.[28]
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[1] Article 7 Report, Form A, 2 March 2001.
[2] The Conference was sponsored by the US Department of Defense; the Mine Action Information Center of James Madison University; the Organization of American States (OAS); the US Southern Command; and the US Department of State. See http://hdic.jmu.edu/conferences/latinamerica/.
[3] Article 7 Report, Forms B, D and H, 2 March 2001; and Article 7 Report, Form D, 5 June 2002.
[4] In previous years other donors to the program have included: Argentina, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Honduras, and the Netherlands. “OAS Mine Action Program: Statement of Contributions Received by December 2001, 1992-2001,” Non-official table provided in email to Landmine Monitor (HRW) from Carl Case, OAS, 18 June 2002.
[5] Interview Jhony Cabrera, Coordinator, Executive Coordination Unit (UCE), Guatemala City, 11 February 2002.
[6] The fourteen supervisors constitute six percent of the total contributions to the program from countries in the region, and include: two in 1993, 1998, and 1999, three in 2000 and 2001, and two in 2002. “Contributing Countries (International Supervisors) to the OAS Program of Demining in Central America,” Table provided in email to Landmine Monitor (HRW) from Carl Case, OAS, 18 June 2002.
[7] Article 7 Report, Form C and National Demining Plan attachment, 5 June 2002.
[8] Interview Jhony Cabrera, Coordinator, Executive Coordination Unit (UCE), Guatemala City, 11 February 2002.
[9] “La Comisión Coordinadora para el "Programa para la Reducción de Riesgos a los Habitantes de Zonas Afectadas por el Enfrentamiento Armado, a través del Rastreo y Desactivación de Minas y otros Artefactos Explosivos.” Article 7 Report, Form A, 2 March 2001.
[10] OAS, “Informe del Secretario General sobre la implentación de las Resoluciones 1745 (apoyo a PADEP) y 1751 (apoyo a PADCA),” CP/doc.3432/01 rev.1, 7 May 2001.
[11] Interview with Sergio Vasquez, Public Relations Officer for Mine Clearance, Association of Volunteer Firefighters, Guatemala City, 10 March 2000.
[12] Two GPS receivers and five portable radios were reported in use by the Volunteer Firefighters. National Demining Plan attached to Article 7 Report, 5 June 2002.
[13] Interview with Guillermo Pacheco, Coordinator, OAS/AICMA, Guatemala City, 24 July 2001.
[14] Interview Jhony Cabrera, Coordinator, Executive Coordination Unit (UCE), Guatemala City, 11 February 2002.
[15] National Demining Plan attached to Article 7 Report, 5 June 2002.
[16] Interview with Guillermo Pacheco, Coordinator, OAS/AICMA, Guatemala City, 10 July 2002.
[17] Elizabeth Berry Adams, e-mail interview with Guillermo Pacheco, Coordinator, OAS/AICMA, Journal of Mine Action, Volume 5.2, July 2001, online version at http://maic.jmu.edu/.
[18] National Demining Plan attached to Article 7 Report, 5 June 2002.
[19] Interview with Guillermo Pacheco, Coordinator, OAS/AICMA, Guatemala City, 10 July 2002.
[20] Ibid., 23 January 2002
[21] Interview with William de Leon, Coordinator, Landmine Program of the Volunteer Firefighters, Guatemala City, 10 July 2002.
[22] Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p. 274.
[23] Interview with Fidel Arévalo Coordinator, Landmines Victim Support Program, ASCATED/UNICEF, Guatemala City, 15 June 2002.
[24] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 347.
[25] United Nations Portfolio of Mine-Related Projects, February 2002, p. 125.
[26] For details see Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 347-348.
[27] “Ayudarán más víctimas de minas antipersonales. Primera conferencia regional de rehabilitación y technología,” El Nuevo Diario (Managua), 19 June 2001.
[28] ICBL Portfolio of Landmine Victim Assistance Programs, accessed at www.landminevap.org; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 347.
