Colombia
Mine Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Colombia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified it on 6 September 2000, and became a State Party on 1 March 2001.
Law 759, which took effect on 25 July 2002, serves as Colombia’s implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty.[1] Colombia reports that activities prohibited by the treaty are criminalized by its Penal Code.[2] It has also enacted laws on victim assistance, land restitution, and mine clearance.[3]
Colombia submitted its most recent Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 transparency report on 30 April 2021, which outlined additional provisions, amended in relation to mine clearance standards.[4]
Colombia has made significant contributions to the Mine Ban Treaty at the highest levels, including by hosting the Second Review Conference in Cartagena in November–December 2009. Colombia has participated in the three other review conferences in 2004, 2014, and 2019; and has attended every Meeting of States Parties, most recently the Eighteenth Meeting of States Parties held virtually in November 2020. Colombia has also attended all of the treaty’s intersessional meetings in Geneva since 1999, most recently in June 2021
From 2020–2021, Colombia will serve as chair of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Committee on the Enhancement of Cooperation and Assistance. Previously, in 2018–2019, Colombia served on the treaty’s Committee on Article 5 (mine clearance implementation).[5]
Colombia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The Colombian Campaign against Landmines (Campaña Colombiana Contra Minas, CCCM) works to address the country’s extensive landmine problem.[6]
Production and use by non-state armed groups
Colombia’s 2021 Article 7 report states that improvised antipersonnel landmines are used both by organized armed groups as well as criminal enterprises involved in the manufacture of narcotics and in illegal mineral extraction. The bodies of the improvised antipersonnel mines are primarily non-metallic, using both commercial high explosives as well as improvised explosives from agricultural chemicals, and are activated by either electronic or chemical detonators. The Article 7 report notes that most are activated by pressure, but that some are activated by tension wires.[7] Previously, Colombia has provided information on at least 12 different types of mines produced by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), including antipersonnel, antivehicle, and Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines, some fitted with antihandling devices.[8]
Both the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC) and the National Liberation Army (Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN) have manufactured improvised antipersonnel landmines as well as remotely-controlled improvised landmines. In late 2020 and early 2021, media reports of Colombian Army seizures of hundreds of improvised antipersonnel landmines from armed groups, were attributed to dissident factions of FARC, the ELN, the Popular Liberation Army (El Ejército Popular de Liberación, EPL), and other unidentified armed groups.[9] Mines laid in Chocó Department, apparently in 2020, causing the death of at least 10 people and the injury of others, were blamed by the community on the ELN.[10]
In July 2021, communities in Murindó of Antioquia Department reported that antipersonnel landmine use was ongoing in conflict between the ELN and Autodefensas Gaitanistas (AGC), leading to both civilian casualties and community confinement. Up to 2,000 people are reported to suffer from food insecurity due to confinement by mine use in the area. The confinement area has been increasing since at least August 2019. In May 2020, the ELN demanded forced labor by an indigenous teenage girl from the confined community, to emplace a mine which resulted in her losing both her hands and an eye when it exploded.[11]
In April 2021, armed conflict between the National Army and FARC dissidents in Argelia municipality of Cauca Department led to the injury of at least five civilians by landmines.[12] In March 2021, the National Army alleged mine use by both FARC and ELN groups in the Catatumbo region bordering Venuzuela in Norte de Santander Department.[13]
The Colombian government Office of the High Commissioner for Peace attributed responsibility for recent landmine use to residual or dissident FARC forces for 218 mine incidents in 2020, and to ELN forces for 167 mine incidents in 2020. An additional 55 incidents were attributed to other armed groups, while 66 mine incidents occurred where the responsible group was unknown. In total, 506 new mine incidents were reported in Colombia in 2020.[14] As of 1 September 2021, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace registered 177 incidents, with 23 attributed to the ELN, 110 attributed to residual FARC and 44 attributed to other actors.
On 24 November 2016, FARC and the Colombian government signed a final agreement committing both parties to end their long-running armed conflict and build peace, including through mine clearance.[15] FARC ex-combatants established a civil society organization in 2017 to contribute to survey and mine clearance activities.[16] In 2019, some FARC dissidents abandoned the peace agreement and resumed armed activities against the government.[17] In August 2021, a CCCM demining and non-technical survey team was approached by a dissident FARC group in the municipality of Puerto Leguizamo, Putumayo Department, which stated that while they would not interfere with demining activities, they would continue to use antipersonnel mines in their armed activities.[18] In August 2019, Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed local residents and organizations in the Catatumbo region, who alleged that the ELN and EPL were emplacing mines in rural areas.[19]
CCCM expanded its risk education messaging on community radio amid the COVID-19 pandemic, across urban and rural territories. CCCM has called on NSAGs in Colombia to stop using explosive devices, due to the risk posed to the civilian population. Through its radio broadcasts, CCCM aims to warn of the threat of landmines and other explosive devices and promote safe practices in areas where NSAGs are present, in areas transited or occupied by NSAGs in the past, and in areas where demining has not occurred. The messages are also transmitted on community radio stations in some of the most affected areas in the country, where CCCM is undertaking clearance activities. These radio stations are managed by local communities, which have provided feedback to CCCM that the broadcasts are heard by local armed actors.[20]
Production, transfer, use, and stockpiling
Colombia’s State Military Industry (Industria Militar, INDUMIL) ceased production of antipersonnel landmines in September 1998, and destroyed its production equipment on 18 November 1999.[21]
The government of Colombia is not known to have ever exported antipersonnel mines.
Colombia reported completing the destruction of its stockpile of 18,531 antipersonnel mines on 24 October 2004.[22]
Colombia has retained the same number of mines for training purposes since 2007. It declared a total of 586 MAP-1 mines retained for training purposes in its 2009 Article 7 report and has not provided a figure in subsequent reports, but has stated that there has been “no change” to the information previously provided.[23] Colombia last destroyed or consumed landmines in training activities in 2006, when 300 retained mines were destroyed across three separate events.[24]
Colombia has not reported in detail on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties; but in 2011, Colombia informed the Monitor that the mines were “used for training the humanitarian demining units [of the armed forces] in the use of equipment for mine clearance.”[25]
[1] For details on penal sanctions and other aspects of Law 759, see Colombia Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form A, 6 May 2005. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database; and ICBL, Landmine Monitor Report 2005: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2005) p. 255.
[2] Colombia Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2013), Form A. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[3] For more information, see Landmine Monitor, “Country Profile: Colombia: Mine Action,” 11 December 2017.
[4] Colombia Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2020). See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database. Colombia submitted its initial transparency report on 15 March 2002 and has provided annual updates since 2002.
[5] Previously, Colombia served as co-chair of the treaty’s Committee on Victim Assistance in 2016–2017; the Standing Committee on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education, and Mine Action Technologies in 2011; and the Standing Committee on Victim Assistance and Socio-Economic Reintegration in 2002–2003.
[6] The CCCM was established in 2000 and has local sections in 22 of the 32 departments of Colombia.
[7] Colombia Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2020), pp. 46–48. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[8] Presentation by the Colombian Armed Forces, “Desarrollo Compromiso con la Convención de Ottawa” (“Development Commitment with the Ottawa Convention”), Bogotá, 6 March 2006. Antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) manufactured by armed groups are constructed out of everything from glass bottles to plastic jerry cans. The explosive used is normally ANFO (made from fertilizer), but sometimes is a conventional explosive such as TNT. The mines are initiated by pressure-activated syringe fuzes (chemical initiation), battery-operated fuzes, and electric fuzes activated by both pressure and tripwires. These mines often have high levels of metal fragmentation in them.
[9] See, for example, February 2021, in Vista Hermosa municipality of Meta Department, the National Army seized 254 improvised antipersonnel landmines reportedly manufactured by a dissident FARC faction. “Tropas del Ejército ocuparon taller en el que fabricaban artefactos explosivos en el Meta” (‘‘Army troops occupied a workshop that manufactured explosive devices in Meta’’), Infoebae, 24 February 2021. Also, In December 2020, in the municipality of Calamar of Guaviare Department, the National Army seized 570 improvised antipersonnel landmines reportedly stored by a dissident FARC faction. “En sumergible incautan arsenal de 'Iván Mordisco', jefe de disidencias” (‘‘In a submersible they seize arsenal of 'Iván Mordisco', head of dissidents’’), El Tiempo, 2 December 2020. In June 2021, in San Fracisco municipality of Antioquia Department, the National Army seized 470 improvised antipersonnel landmines and 60 directional mines from a cache reportedly belonging to the ELN. “Ejército halló caleta del ELN con cerca de 500 minas antipersonal en San Francisco, Antioquia” (‘‘Army found ELN cove with about 500 antipersonnel mines in San Francisco, Antioquia’’), Blu Radio, 29 June 2021. In January 2021, in Calamar municipality of Guaviare Department, the National Army seized 40 improvised antipersonnel landmines from a cache reported as belonging to a ‘residual armed group’. Comando General de las Fuerzas Militares de Colombia press release, “Tropas del Ejército en Calamar, Guaviare, hallan un depósito ilegal con minas antipersonal” (‘‘Army troops in Calamar, Guaviare, find an illegal deposit with antipersonnel mines’’), 8 January 2021. In November 2020, the National Army seized 20 improvised antipersonnel landmines in a cache containing other weapons in the Catatumbo region bordering Venuzuela in Norte de Santander Department. Comando General de las Fuerzas Militares de Colombia press release, “Más de 2.700 municiones fueron halladas en un depósito ilegal del GAO Los Pelusos” (‘‘More than 2,700 ammunition was found in an illegal deposit of the GAO Los Pelusos’’), 19 November 2020. In June 2020, the National Army found a cache containing 29 improvised antipersonnel mines and other material of an unknown group in Lejanías municipality of Meta Department. Comando General de las Fuerzas Militares de Colombia press release, “Ejército encuentra depósito ilegal perteneciente al GAO residual Estructura 40” (‘‘Army finds illegal deposit belonging to residual GAO Structure 40’’), 1 June 2020.
[10] The ELN issued a declaration that the mines were laid by counter-narcotics forces which operate under the national police and army. “ELN asegura que la siembra de minas antipersona en Chocó es responsabilidad de paramilitares aliados con la fuerza pública” (‘‘ELN assures that the planting of antipersonnel mines in Chocó is the responsibility of paramilitaries allied with the public force’’), Infoebae, 2 August 2021.
[11] The communities blamed the mine use on both groups and noted that due to the confinement by mine use, hunger is being experienced by them. “Sigue confinamiento en comunidades indígenas de Urabá por enfrentamientos de grupos armados” (‘‘Confinement continues in indigenous communities of Urabá due to clashes between armed groups’’), Blu Radio, 12 July 2021. The confinement of these communities by mines was condemned by the Human Rights Counselor for the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, “Eln siembra minas como estrategia de guerra: consejero de DD.HH. de la ONIC” (‘‘Eln sows mines as a war strategy: ONIC HRD counselor’’), Radio Nacional de Colombia, 2 March 2021. In October 2020, the Colombia office of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) also requested immediate assistance for the confined communities. “Más de 2.100 indígenas están confinados por enfrentamiento de grupos armados en Antioquia” (‘‘More than 2,100 indigenous people are confined due to the confrontation of armed groups in Antioquia’’), Agencia EFE, 20 October 2020. See also, “Joven indígena perdió manos y un ojo tras ser obligada por ELN a instalar una mina” (‘‘Young indigenous woman lost hands and an eye after being forced by ELN to install a mine’’), Blu Radio, 16 June 2021.
[12] “Despliegan comisión humanitaria para atender situación en Argelia, Cauca” (‘‘Humanitarian commission deployed to address situation in Algeria, Cauca’’), Radio Nacional de Colombia, 18 April 2021.
[13] The National Army alleged that mines laid by the ELN caused civilian casualties in Hacarí municipality, and that mines laid by FARC dissidents caused casualties in Teorama municipality. “Autoridades desactivan cuatro minas antipersonales en zona del Catatumbo” (‘‘Authorities deactivate four antipersonnel mines in the Catatumbo area’’), Radio Cadenal Nacional, 21 March 2021.
[14] Updated information according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, sourced from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) database of events by MAP/MUSE. Provided to the Monitor by CCCM.
[15] ‘‘Acuerdo Final para la Terminación del Conflicto y la Construcción de una Paz Estable y Duradera’’ (‘‘Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace’’), 3.1.7.1, p. 24, November 2016. Subsequently, an October 2017 ceasefire agreement between the government of Colombia and the ELN included a commitment not to use antipersonnel landmines, however the ceasefire expired without renewal in 2018. “Colombia Cease-Fire Agreement Takes Effect Sunday,” Voice of America, 30 September 2017. See also, Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, “Acuerdo y comunicado sobre el cese al fuego bilateral y temporal entre el Gobierno y el ELN” (‘‘Agreement and statement on the bilateral and temporary ceasefire between the Government and the ELN’’), 4 September 2017; and Adriaan Alsima, “Colombia’s ELN rebels blame government for failure to agree to ceasefire,” Colombia Reports, 2 July 2018.
[16] Humanicemos DH has received support from the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), the European Union (EU), the United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), Humanity & Inclusion (HI), HALO Trust, CCCM, and government agency Descontamina Colombia. Email from Camilo Serna, Researcher, CCCM, 16 August 2018.
[17] Megan Janetsky, “Ex-FARC leaders’ return to arms brings back memories of bloodshed,” Al Jazeera, 30 August 2019.
[18] Report provided to the Monitor by Camilo Ernesto Serna, Sub-Director, CCCM, 31 August 2021.
[19] HRW, “The War in Catatumbo: Abuses by Armed Groups Against Civilians including Venezuelan Exiles in Northeastern Colombia,” August 2019, p. 36.
[20] Email from Camilo Serna Villegas, Deputy Director of Operations, CCCM, 1 September 2020.
[21] Monitor interviews with Sergio Rodríguez, Second Technical Manager, INDUMIL, 5 July 2000 and 24 July 2001. As of 2001, INDUMIL was still producing Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines. Colombia stated that these mines are used only in command-detonated mode, as permitted by the Mine Ban Treaty. However, Colombia has not reported on steps it has taken to ensure that these mines are used only in command-detonated mode.
[22] In addition to the 18,531 mines destroyed, the government reported three other destructions of a total of 3,404 antipersonnel mines. Over the years, there have been many inconsistencies and discrepancies in Colombia’s count of stockpiled mines and their destruction. The Ministry of Defense sent a letter to the Monitor in September 2005 to clarify many of the problems. For details see, Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, July 2006) p. 302.
[23] Colombia Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report (for calendar year 2017), Form C. See, Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Database.
[24] In 2003–2004, Colombia reported retaining 986 mines for training. In 2005, it reduced that number to 886. In 2006, Colombia destroyed 300 more mines, but the number retained has not changed since December 2006. See, Landmine Monitor Report 2007: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, October 2007), pp. 267–268; and Landmine Monitor Report 2006: Toward a Mine-Free World (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, July 2006), pp. 302–303.
[25] Response to Monitor questionnaire by Amb. Alicia Arango Olmos, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the UN in Geneva, 13 May 2011.