(MintPress) – Halo Trust, a British charitable organization, is helping Colombian civilians safely remove thousands of landmines left behind from decades of war. Volunteers hope that clearing the mines will prevent further casualties and help some 3.6 million internally displaced people return to their homes.
“I think it would be great if governments take the lead. You have situations where governments refuse to act. As long as someone is doing the cleanup, it will improve the situation,” said Dr. Khalil Dokhanchi, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Superior in a recent statement to Mint Press News.
For the past 50 years, the Colombian government has fought leftist rebels, drug traffickers and armed paramilitary groups in the vast jungles of Colombia. All groups, including the Colombian military, have used landmines and cluster munitions.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army, the two largest leftist rebel groups, have waged war against the Colombian government since the early 1960s. The groups have used kidnappings, gold mining and drug smuggling to finance their operations. The decades-long struggle has been carried out as a means to implement populist agrarian reform and oppose the monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations.
Although the FARC and the Colombian government are currently engaged in peace talks in Cuba, the vast, growing income disparities, political corruption and monopolization of national resources remain unaddressed by Bogota.
“These are men and women who know their territory and they are also victims of the armed conflict in this area. So now they are ready to become part of the process, they are conscious of what it represents for their families and communities,” said Natali Ochoa, a local coordinator for Halo Trust.
Since 1988, the Halo Trust, a non-partisan charitable organization, has worked to destroy 1.4 million landmines and 195,000 cluster munitions in 14 countries around the world. Although clearing some of the mines is possible by using robots, much of the risky work must be completed by individuals combing the ground for unexploded munitions.
Similar charitable work has been carried out in Bosnia, a country ravaged by war during the 1990s. “In Bosnia, the government has its own resources and its own personnel. There are also private organizations, like the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), training Bosnians to demine in different parts of the country,” Dokanchi said.
Since 1990, 10,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Colombia. According to LandMine monitor, the vast majority of those injured or killed by landmines continue to be civilians. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), 70 to 80 percent of landmine fatalities each year are non-combatants. The ICBL is a Nobel Peace Prize winning organizing working in 100 countries to create a world free of antipersonnel landmines.
The majority of countries have signed the 1997 Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines, an important piece of legislation preventing the proliferation of deadly landmines around the world.
On December 27 Poland became the 161st nation to ratify the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. With the signing, the entire European Union has now committed to end the use of cluster munitions and landmines.
“We warmly welcome Poland as a full member of the mine ban community. This ratification shows that all countries can and should renounce antipersonnel landmines forever. We hope other countries will now follow in Poland’s footsteps, particularly the U.S.” said Kasia Derlicka, ICBL Director.
Although the majority of countries have now committed to stop using land mines, 36 countries including: the U.S., China and Russia have yet to sign the treaty and continue to leave behind thousands of deadly mines in conflict zones around the world.
“Antipersonnel mines and cluster munitions are indiscriminate weapons that injure and kill civilians in every corner of the globe, every day. They don’t recognize ceasefires and claim victims long after the end of conflicts. They instill fear in communities and are a lethal barrier to development,” the ICBL posts online.
Despite the refusal by 36 states to act, there have been significant improvements. “The number of victims are declining. The number of cases involving civilians are declining. In this sense, it has been a major success,” added Dokhanchi, a professor studying land mine reduction in Bosnia.