25 April 2006
Land Mines, Unexploded Ordnance Called Growing Problem in Colombia
U.N. agency says Colombian children and women at greatest risk
Washington – Land mines and unexploded ordnance represent a "grave and growing problem" in Colombia, warns the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).
In an April 25 statement, UNICEF said that in recent years, local production and use of anti-personnel land mines by illegal armed groups in Colombia has increased, placing children and women at highest risk.
The U.N. agency said land mines are found in 31 of Colombia's 32 provinces. The land mines are not only in combat zones where the country's ongoing civil war is being fought, but with growing frequency in school yards, at local water sources and on rural access roads.
As the United Nations’ lead agency for coordinating action against mines, UNICEF works with the Colombian government and more than 14 civil organizations in the Andean nation to raise awareness about the dangers of landmines and ordnances, to work towards prevention of accidents, and to support victims within the country's national anti-landmine plan.
The U.S. State Department has called on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a left-wing group engaged in the long-running armed conflict against the Colombian government, to destroy its accumulated persistent land mines, booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IED). IEDs are explosive devices constructed in an improvised manner and designed to kill and maim people, or to destroy property. The State Department defines persistent land mines as munitions that remain lethal indefinitely, affecting civilians long after the cessation of military conflict.
The United States supports mine-risk education and mine survivors' assistance coordination in Colombia through a $75,000 donation to the Organization of American States.
Since 1993, the United States has provided about $1 billion for reducing, throughout the world, threats to innocent civilians posed by land mines left in the ground after conflicts end. That figure represents between one-third and one-half of all the money invested worldwide on mine action by donor nations, according to the State Department. (See related article.)
UNICEF has issued a global appeal for more than $4 million to help Colombia's land mine removal efforts, to protect former child soldiers, to prevent recruitment of children in Colombia's civil war and to provide life-saving aid to displaced people.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that a humanitarian emergency is looming among Colombia's indigenous communities, with some threatened with extinction, as irregular armed groups encroach on their land, sometimes torturing and killing leaders of the communities.
The State Department said in its 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released March 8, that Colombian government figures show that more than 2 million people have been displaced in Colombia since 1995, although the rate of displacement slowed considerably in 2005.
According to the State Department, the United States supported six international organizations and nongovernmental organizations in Colombia that provided emergency humanitarian assistance such as food, temporary shelter, hygiene and household kits, psychological counseling, health care and temporary employment to newly displaced persons. (See related article.)
The Western Hemisphere section of the country reports on human rights is available on the State Department Web site.
For more information on U.S. efforts to address the world's land mine problem, see the electronic journal Protecting Lives, Restoring Livelihoods: The U.S. Program To Remove Landmines on the State Department Web site.
Additional information about the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, which provides assistance to countries suffering from the presence of persistent land mines, also is available on the State Department Web site.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
