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United States Contributes to OAS Humanitarian Demining Activities in Colombia

The U.S. Department of State's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement has renewed its support to the Organization of American States' program for Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines with a contribution of 950,000 dollars to assist in clearance of several mine-affected areas in Colombia. The contribution also provides support for mine-risk education and micro-financing for six projects that allow mine-affected communities to reestablish productive living conditions.

The Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza expressed his gratitude for the valuable contribution and highlighted the importance of the Organization's demining plans, among the most important actions carried out in the region in the search for peace. "Demining activities, which have a deep sense of humanitarianism, require sophisticated technology that involves high budgets for each operation," said Secretary General Insulza, "but these efforts save innocent people from death or mutilation. Therefore, we must appreciate in its full extent the contribution made by the United States government to this program," he said.

The leader of the hemispheric Organization explained that "demining begins with the removal of explosives, but does not end there, because you have to take into account the stage of rehabilitation of the victims and also the education of the people living in areas with mines, about how to behave to avoid fatal accidents."

Colombia's need for humanitarian mine clearance stems from an on-going internal conflict that has left 31 of Colombia's 32 departments contaminated by landmines and other explosive devices. National records indicate that mines have killed or injured 10,445 people between 1990 and June 2013 - over 4,000 of these victims are civilians.

The OAS program has supported mine action activities throughout the Americas since 1991, assisting the completion of projects in Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Suriname and Nicaragua.

OAS support to Colombia's humanitarian mine action activities began in 2003 and have included the training of government deminers, leaders, and supervisors in humanitarian demining; conduct of mine risk education campaigns for people living in affected areas; landmine survivor rehabilitation, vocational training, and social reintegration; and the establishment of a quality assurance and quality control group to ensure mine clearance operations are conducted in accordance with international standards. The OAS program also has been assisting Colombian national authorities in facilitating the processes for incorporation of civilian demining organizations into the overall national demining effort.

The United States Government, through the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement has been committed to support mine action around the world and in particular in the Americas as reflected in their support to OAS mine action activities since the program's inception in 1991.

Since 2006, the program has also benefited from the support of Canada, Spain, Japan, and Italy, in addition to Colombia’s own contributions. These donations are used to purchase personal protection gear for the demining teams, purchase of demining equipment, life and accident insurance for the demining teams, and purchase of transportation for quality control and monitoring teams, among other uses.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-290/13