| |
| Program for Comprehensive
Action Against Antipersonnel Mines |
"So the Sky, the horizon, the plains,
the crests of Cauca make those speechless who behold them."
Maria, Jorge Isaacs, 1837-1895
|
The Aicma Program Vision
PDF |
Nearing the close of the first decade
of the millennium, the Program for Comprehensive Action against
Antipersonnel Mines has evolved significantly. Since its inception in
1991, the program has been guided by an eminently humanitarian vision of
reestablishing safe, secure, and productive living conditions for
mine-affected communities, while considering developmental, human
rights, and gender issues among its social aspects.
The program evolved in order to support affected
communities in setting their goals and achieving their own vision of the
future. Through its community liaisons teams, AICMA, along with local
authorities and leaders, begins the path towards recuperation of both
the individual and the community. Community liaisons evaluate in a
comprehensive manner the needs of mine removal, education on mine risks,
as well as on the physical, psychological, and economic rehabilitation
of the individual and the community in order to anticipate requirements
upon delivery of cleared lands.
This evolution of comprehensive mine action has been
successfully applied in Nicaragua, and is being extended for the benefit
of mine-affected communities in Colombia, and on a lesser scale, in
Ecuador and Peru. Comprehensive mine action allows authorities, from the
local to national level, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
associated with AICMA, to plan for and deliver services and resources
needed by communities to achieve their own vision.
The projects presented in this Portfolio propose comprehensive action
to assist the individual and the community, both threatened permanently
or by humanitarian emergencies caused by antipersonnel mines or
improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Each project proposes a specific
solution appropriate to the evolution of the mine problem in each
assisted country.
The AICMA Program implements OAS General Assembly
resolutions, legitimized by a humanitarian consensus among 34 Member
States, to assist affected countries in the development of their
respective national humanitarian demining program.
Within the General Secretariat of the OAS, AICMA is responsible for
all aspects of mine action, and the destruction of munitions, explosive
remnants of war (ERW), and small arms. The principal responsibilities of
the OAS General Secretariat, exercised through the AICMA Program of the
Office of Humanitarian Mine Action, Department of Public Security, are
fundraising, resource management, field progress evaluation, and
diplomatic and political program coordination.
Thanks to financial support from the governments of
Belgium, Canada, Holland, Italy, Norway, Spain, and the United States;
to contributions from the affected countries themselves; and to support
from international monitors, the AICMA Program has been able, within the
past year, to set projects in motion to address the landmine problem in
Colombia, Nicaragua, and the border between Ecuador and Peru. For
example:
- As of July 2009, the Nicaraguan National Demining Plan reached
99% of its mined objectives, limiting danger to the departments of
Jinotega and Nueva Segovia. National authorities registered 173,829
mines destroyed and certified. The number of communities within 5
kilometers of a mined field, originally placing some 550,000 at
risk, by June 2009 had been reduced to 18 communities with 5,200
inhabitants. Mine risk education campaigns continued in Jinotega and
Nueva Segovia, as well as in Managua and Matagalpa, reaching more
than 20,500 inhabitants and 1,257 homes during the first half of the
year. During the same time period, 715 assistance services were
provided to 233 Nicaraguan and Honduran survivors. Comprehensive
action has been completed via micro-enterprises for 490 survivors,
and within those micro-enterprises, 29 were specifically designed
for women.
- Given that Nicaragua’s National Demining Plan has entered its
final stage, the AICMA program will evolve towards supporting a
downsized demining organization, dedicated to respond to emergencies
in suspect areas. Comprehensive support for survivors will also
continue, with an emphasis on social reintegration.
- On the Peru-Ecuador border, by the Cóndor Mountain range, within
the 18 months leading up to June 2009, 12 diverse objectives were
completed in the Teniente Ortiz area, in the Ecuadorian province of
Morona-Santiago. In Peru, operations continue on three objectives in
the vicinity of Chiqueiza in the Amazonas department. During the
same time period mine risk education campaigns were completed in 25
communities in Ecuador and one in Peru, reaching a combined total of
1,876 inhabitants. Similarly,28 victims from the two countries were
supported in their physical and psychological rehabilitation needs,
while the registry of survivors continued to be updated in Peru.
- The relative density of the population in Zapotillo,
Ecuador, adjacent to the Río Chira makes comprehensive
humanitarian mine action a necessity. The humanitarian demining
and mine risk education projects presented in this Portfolio
propose permanent solutions to the threat of landmines for this
affected population.
- AICMA activity in Colombia has supported the clearance of 25
of the 35 mined fields under jurisdiction of the Armed Forces,
all within a little over three and a half years. Indigenous
populations in El Refugio and El Guayabero communities, Guaviare
department, were able to take full advantage of cleared lands
during the beginning of 2008. Similarly, a large area suspected
of contamination in the town of Bajo Grande, department of
Bolívar, was cleared allowing the return of 215 families and
initiation of productive community projects supported by AICMA.
By mid 2009, AICMA has conducted integral actions to assist
communities in the municipalities of San Francisco and San
Carlos in Antioquia; El Dorado in Meta; and Samaniego in Nariño.
In addition to assisting in the removal of mines and explosives
that forced the displacement of populations, AICMA implements
mine awareness campaigns, identifies survivors, and conducts
surveys to identify community needs through its community
liaisons.
- The dignified return of populations displaced by the threat
of mines requires an intense amount of resources and services.
Because of this, AICMA is expanding its victim assistance
projects in Colombia to include the survival of the community
through productive projects on a local scale. Specifically, the
projects are geared towards providing micro-grants for the
reestablishment of fractured socioeconomic structures. These
projects demonstrate the real-life evolution of the program in
that they are adapting to fit the needs of the local people.
Having completed all stockpile destruction projects
by 2004, consisting of the destruction of more than one million
stockpiled antipersonnel mines in Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru, with financial
contributions from Australia and Canada, the Program has extended
its support to the destruction of the excess ammunition stocks of
Member States.
During 2007, in coordination with the OAS Mission for Assistance
to the Peace Process (MAPP-OAS) in Colombia and financial support
from the Governments of Canada and Italy, AICMA assisted in a
project to destroy 18,000 small and light weapons surrendered to the
Colombian Government by paramilitary groups as part of that
country’s peace process. With Canadian and U.S. contributions, a new
initiative was launched in Nicaragua from April to September 2007 to
destroy excess and obsolete weapons; and thanks to Canadian support
the initiative was renewed from February to March of 2008 allowing
for the destruction of about half of all the excess munitions.
AICMA promotes the interest expressed in the OAS General Assembly
Resolutions to make the Americas a landmine-free zone. With
financial support from the European Union, the program collaborated
with the Nicaraguan Government and the Geneva International Center
for Humanitarian Demining to create The Managua Workshop on Achieving a Mine-Free Americas
which took
place the 24th through the 26th
of February 2009. This workshop was held in preparation for
the Second Review Conference of the Party States of the Ottawa
Convention, taking place from the 30th of
November through the 4th of December 2009 in
Cartagena, Colombia.
As a natural evolution from mine action activities,
AICMA initiated support to Member States in their efforts to destroy
explosive remnants of war, excess or obsolete munitions stockpiles, and
small arms and light weapons. Obsolete munitions present a hazard to
surrounding communities. Major explosions have occurred due to fires,
human error, electrical storms, instability of propellants or
explosives, or sabotage. Many designated official storage facilities are
inadequately managed or secured increasing the risk of these stockpiles
falling into criminal hands.
The project for munitions destruction in the
surrounding areas of the capital of Guatemala, and the decontamination
of Las Palomas in Matagalpa department, Nicaragua, propose not only to
destroy the munitions, but in the case of Las Palomas to also offer
support for the social reintegration of the townspeople since most of
these people previously lived off of the recollection of scrap metal for
their economic vitality.
Resource requirements will continue to grow in order to
address the urgent need to alleviate the suffering of individuals and
populations internally displaced by the presence of mines and improvised
explosive devices. The affected countries and communities already
contribute from their precious resources and will. For AICMA, the need
to alleviate suffering implies increasing its support to building
national capability whether through training, equipment, operational and
logistical support, support for victim assistance programs, mine risk
education campaigns, or support to communities.
The projection of the AICMA Program vision requires active commitment
from Member States affected by mines and other remnants of war,
persistence by the international community, and constant support from
international organizations. The OAS maintains its commitment, so that
in conjunction with the donor community and the Member States, the
vision of reestablishing safe, secure, and productive living conditions
for mine-affected communities can be achieved. The commitment is to
landmine survivors, so that they may be left speechless when they behold
their community free of landmines and improvised explosives.
|
|
