DISARMAMENT-NICARAGUA: 5,000 Mines Destroyed in Campaign Launch

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MANAGUA, Apr 12 1999 (IPS) - With the destruction of 5,000 landmines unearthed in rural areas of northern Nicaragua, the government began work Monday toward the total elimination of the roughly 83,000 anti-personnel mines still planted in this impoverished Central American country.

Army sappers destroyed the 5,000 mines at a military school 12 kilometres west of Managua, in a symbolic act marking the start of the First Central American Meeting on Demining.

The foreign ministers of all Central American countries – with the exception of Panama – plus the Dominican Republic, are participating in the gathering.

Also attending are Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria and the president of the Inter- American Defence Council, U.S. Major-General John C. Thompson.

Nicaragua, which has already unearthed around 54,000 mines, has now officially begun to work toward the goal of total clearance, in compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty that recently went into effect.

The Treaty, signed by 121 governments in Ottawa, Canada in December 1997, prohibits the use, manufacturing and stockpiling of landmines by signatory states. The United States, one of the world’s top manufacturers of anti-personnel landmines, has not yet signed.

Anti-personnel mines are estimated to kill or maim about 26,000 people a year worldwide, one third of whom are children. Nearly all victims are civilians.

The OAS Demining Programme will assist Nicaragua in clearing landmines until the year 2004, according to OAS adviser U.S. army Colonel William Mcdonough.

The original target was the year 2000. But hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region – especially Honduras and Nicaragua – in late October forced a change of plan, as many mines that had already been located were moved by mudslides and flooding, Mcdonough explained.

Figures from the Nicaraguan Defence Ministry indicate that local army sappers have unearthed slightly over 54,000 of the 136,800 landmines which were planted along the northern and southern borders, areas in central Nicaragua, and along parts of the Caribbean coast up to 1990.

The mines, of Soviet and U.S. make, were planted on bridges, electricity pylons, military objectives and in power plants during the war between the leftist Sandinista government (1979-90) and the U.S.-financed “contras”.

The Sandinista army used Soviet-made mines, while the “contras” planted Claymond landmines, of U.S. make.

The area with the greatest presence of unexploded ordnance is Nicaragua’s northern border with Honduras, where an estimated 55,000 landmines were planted along 145 kilometres of the more than 900-km border up to 1987. So far, the army has cleared a 30- km stretch of border.

Some 100,000 people live in parts of Nicaragua where unexploded landmines are buried.

According to United Nations reports, a landmine can remain active for several decades. And while a mine can cost as little as three dollars on the world market, clearance costs a minimum of 300 dollars per landmine.

The latest report by the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) reveals that landmines have claimed 534 lives in Honduras and 80 in Nicaragua since 1980.

But in Nicaragua, the incidence of accidents and deaths has been considerably reduced in the past year, thanks to prevention work and the installation of warning signs by the Nicaraguan army, with the support of the Red Cross and donor countries.

Clearance work, which started in 1993, is done by hand, as geographical conditions and dense vegetation make it impossible to use mine detectors.

Some 200 army sappers are working in the areas where the remaining 83,000 landmines are planted, which the government aims to eliminate over the next five years.

The National Demining Programme carried out by the Nicaraguan army is also receiving support from Canada, France, Denmark, Japan and the European Union, which have contributed a combined total of seven million dollars.

But an estimated 25 million dollars will be needed over the next five years in order to eliminate all mines in Nicaragua.

Honduras, which housed many of the “contras” fighting the Sandinista government, also has a serious landmine problem. But unlike in Nicaragua, the Honduran army has no idea of the precise number of mines.

Colonel Jose Davila, chief of Army Operations and Training in Honduras, said a total of 2,015 – mainly Soviet-manufactured – mines had been cleared so far.

“We do not have records, the areas that we have cleared of explosives are the places where accidental detonations have previously occurred,” said Davila. “The people who planted the mines have not provided us with information on the areas affected.”

The OAS is heading another programme as part of the Ottawa accords, through which it provides assistance to victims of landmines and promotes the recovery of fields where landmines are planted.