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Key developments since May 2001: Clearance operations, originally targeted for completion in 2001, are now scheduled to be completed by the end of 2002. In April 2002, Honduras stated that the country had met 98.59 percent of its mine clearance objectives. Since September 2001, Honduras has served as co-chair of the Mine Ban Treaty Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration.
Honduras signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, deposited its instrument of ratification on 24 September 1998 and the treaty entered into force on 1 March 1999. Honduras has not yet enacted national implementation legislation.[1]
Honduras participated in the Third Meeting of States Parties in Nicaragua in September 2001. Since the Meeting, Honduras has served as co-chair of the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration, together with Canada. It actively participated in all the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in January and May 2002.
On 11 April 2002, Honduras submitted its third Article 7 Report.[2] Both the 2002 and 2001 Article 7 reports included information on survivor assistance under the optional Form J.
Honduras cosponsored and voted in support of UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M, supporting the Mine Ban Treaty, in November 2001.
Honduras is not a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW).
Honduras has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. On 2 November 2000, Honduras destroyed its stockpile of 7,441 antipersonnel mines.[3] It is retaining 826 antipersonnel mines (159 M-969, 469 M-4, and 198 FMK-1 mines) for training purposes.[4]
Landmines were planted during the 1980s by combatants in the Nicaragua conflict on both sides of the Nicaragua/Honduras border. More than 2,000 mines have been cleared and destroyed on the Honduran side of the border.[5] None of the mines cleared in Honduras have been located more than a few hundred meters from the frontier.
Honduras has identified the departments of Choluteca, El Paraíso, Olancho, and Cortes as being mine-affected.[6] Honduras maintains that all suspected mine-affected areas have been marked and properly recorded.[7]
The OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy, through the Integral Action against Antipersonnel Mines Program (Acción Integral Contra las Minas Antipersonal, AICMA), is responsible for coordinating and supervising the Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (Programa de Asistencia al Desminado en Centroamérica, PADCA), 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 Centroamérica, MARMINCA).
PADCA and MARMINCA have mine action programs in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. In Honduras, the Army is also responsible for demining operations, along with PADCA and 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).[8] This represents a decrease from $4.92 million raised in the year 2000.
The budget for the Honduras program for 2001 was $650,456, and the same amount for and in 2002.[9]
According to the OAS, funding for the “Managua Challenge” project, which saw destruction of stockpiles by Honduras, Perú, and Ecuador prior to the Third Meeting of State Parties in September 2001, totaled $487,533, and was provided by two donors: Canada ($448,616) and Australia ($38,917).[10]
Honduras has contributed military mine action supervisors to the MARMINCA program since 1993, including four in 2001 and four in 2002.[11]
According to the OAS, the completion of clearance operations in Honduras was anticipated by December 2001, but poor weather, adverse soil conditions, and maintenance difficulties with medical evacuation aircraft resulted in delays. Demining activities are now expected to be completed by the end of 2002, when the last remaining mined areas along the border with Nicaragua in Choluteca Department should be cleared.[12] In its April 2002 Article 7 Report, Honduras stated that the country had met 98.59 percent of its mine clearance objectives.[13] Once the mine clearance is completed, technical supervisors will assist the Honduran Army in conducting quality assurance.[14]
From the beginning of the program in 1995 through the end of 2001, demining operations had resulted in the clearance of 380,385 square meters of land, and the destruction of 2,165 landmines and 56,009 UXO from the departments of El Paraíso, Olancho and Choluteca.[15]
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration supports an OAS mine risk education program in Honduras and Nicaragua.[16]
The Canada/Mexico/PAHO Joint Program for the Rehabilitation of Victims in Central America is training mine risk educators in Honduras to carry out courses in communities and schools in mine-affected areas, delivering materials along with mine awareness messages.
Landmine Casualties and Survivor Assistance
The last reported mine incident occurred on 18 March 2001, when a Honduran civilian attempting to cross into Nicaragua to hunt, lost his leg and an eye when he stepped on a landmine on the Nicaraguan side of the border.[17] In September 1995, Honduran officials estimated that over 200 civilians had been killed in landmine incidents since 1990.[18]
With respect to the treatment of mine-related injuries, Honduras provides programs, training, equipment and transportation to medical care. The Secretary of Health of Honduras (Secretaria de Salud de Honduras) through the National University of Honduras (UNAH, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras) is working on developing information systems on the rehabilitation of disabled persons, community-based rehabilitation programs, economic reintegration programs, studies on prosthetic and orthotic services, and developing resources such as seminars and workshop. The Honduran Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (FUHRIL- Fundación Hondureña de Rehabilitación e Integración del Limitado) and NGOs, as well as the Mexican government, were involved in the economic reintegration of mine survivors. There are prosthetic workshops at the Honduras Social Security Institute (Instituto Hondureño de Seguro Social) in Teleton and the general hospital in San Felipe.[19]
In 2001, the orthopedic workshop at the San Felipe General Hospital in Tegucigalpa produced or repaired 470 prostheses. A new orthopedic workshop in San Pedro Sula, created and equipped by the Teleton Foundation, commenced production in August 2001.[20]
The Canada-Mexico PAHO is supporting the Department of Health General Hospital regarding the rehabilitation program for survivors and the manufacture of prostheses.[21]
In Danli, the Gabriela Alvarado Rehabilitation Center continues to support disabled people with a wide range of services including physical rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration.
Handicap International Belgium (HIB) provides support to a network of prosthetic and orthotic workshops in Honduras and to organizations assisting people with disabilities, civil society coordination bodies, technical training programs, and to the creation of a national information system. While HIB does not directly provide services to disabled people, it supports more than twenty private and public Honduran institutions and five international organizations with training, technical, and financial assistance. More than 3,000 disabled persons benefited from the programs in 2001, with each patient paying for services according to their capacity. HIB activities are supported by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of the Presidency and the National Statistics Institute. The annual budget is $230,000 and donors including the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union, Canadian Cooperation, and private donors.[22]
Honduras has laws on the rights of disabled persons.[23]
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[1] The only national implementation measures Honduras has reported have been related to stockpile destruction. Article 7 Report, Form A (for the period from 3 December 2000 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001.
[2] Honduras has submitted three reports, dated 30 August 1999, 10 August 2001, and 11 April 2002. The time frame covered has varied for the different Forms within the annual reports.
[3] Article 7 Report, Forms B and G (for the period of 2 November 2000 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001. This report also states that Law 92-98 was published in the Official Gazette on 29 August 1998, ordering the destruction of all stockpiled landmines, and that on 1 September 2000, the Senior Chief of Staff (Señor Jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto) announced the Plan of Destruction of Stockpiled Landmines, which was executed in the period from 30 October to 2 November 2000. Article 7 Report, Form A (for the period from 3 December 2000 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001.
[4] Article 7 Report, Form D (for the period of 2 November 2000 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001. There were significant discrepancies between the stockpile numbers reported in Honduras’ 1999 Article 7 Report, and the numbers later reported as destroyed. See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 350. A Honduran official has confirmed that the latter figures are correct. Telephone interview with Octavio Salomon Nuñez, Director of Special Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 23 July 2002.
[5] Email to Landmine Monitor (HRW) from William McDonough, Coordinator, PACDA, Organization of American States, 24 July 2001.
[6] Article 7 Report, Form C (for the period 28 September 1995 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001. Cortes, some 300 kilometers from the Nicaraguan border, is not truly “mine-affected.” An accidental explosion of a munitions storage area several years ago contaminated a wide area near the facility with unexploded munitions of various types. The area still requires clearance operations. Email to Landmine Monitor (HRW) from William McDonough, Coordinator, PACDA, Organization of American States, 5 August 2002.
[7] Article 7 Report, Form I (for the period 1994 to 2001), 10 August 2001.
[8] 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.
[9] Article 7 Report, “Necesidades de Financiamiento Programa de Desminado” (dated 20 March 2002), 11 April 2002.
[10] Colonel William McDonough. “Report of the OAS-Mine Action Program to the Committee on Hemispheric Security,” 14 March 2002. “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.
[11] Honduras has provided 13 supervisors or 6% of the total contributions to the program from countries of the region, including: one in 1993 and four in 2000, 2001 and 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.
[12] See OAS contribution in Appendices of Landmine Monitor Report 2002. Technical difficulties with metal detection equipment also delayed the project. In January 2002, two Schiebel Company technicians arrived to inspect the equipment and the operation was restarted on 4 February 2002. Telephone interview with Miguel Barahona, Coordinator OAS/AICMA, 7 February 2002.
[13] Article 7 Report, “Resumen Estadístico del Avance del Desminado” (for the period 1995 to 31 December 2001), 11 April 2002.
[14] OAS, “Informe del Secretario General sobre la implementación de las Resoluciones 1745 (apoyo a PADEP) y 1751 (apoyo a PADCA),” 7 May 2001.
[15] Article 7 Report, “Resumen Estadístico del Avance del Desminado” (for the period 1995 to 31 December 2001), 11 April 2002. Also, Article 7 Report, Forms C (for the period 28 September 1995 to 10 August 2001) and G (for the period 2 November 2000 to 10 August 2001), 10 August 2001.
[16] OAS, “Informe del Secretario General sobre la implementación de las Resoluciones 1745 (apoyo a PADEP) y 1751 (apoyo a PADCA),” 7 May 2001.
[17] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p. 352.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Article 7 Report, Form J (for the period from 1995 to August 2001), 10 August 2001; see also Landmine Monitor Report 2001, p 353.
[20] Handicap International Belgium Activity Report 2001.
[21] Telephone interview with Lic, Octavio Salomon Nuñez, Director of Special Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 14 February 2002.
[22] Thierry Gonthier, Program Director, Handicap International Belgium, response to Landmine Monitor Survivor Assistance Questionnaire, 30 June 2002.
[23] Landmine Victim Assistance World Report 2001, Handicap International, Lyon, December 2001, p. 306.
