Honduras

Mine Ban Policy

Honduras signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997, ratified on 24 September 1998 and became a State Party on 1 March 1999. National implementation legislation, Decree No. 60-2000, was published in the Official Gazette on 29 June 2000.^[1] On 24 April 2007 Honduras submitted its sixth Article 7 transparency report.^[2]

Honduras attended the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2006. It participated in the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2006 but not in April 2007. Honduras has not engaged in the discussions that States Parties have had on matters of interpretation and implementation related to Articles 1 and 2. Thus, it has not made known its views on the issues of joint military operations with states not party to the treaty, foreign stockpiling and transit of antipersonnel mines, and antivehicle mines with sensitive fuzes or antihandling devices.

Honduras is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It did not participate in the Eighth Annual Conference of States Parties to the protocol in November 2006 and did not submit an Amended Protocol II Article 13 report in 2006. Honduras is not party to CCW Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

Honduras has never produced or exported antipersonnel mines. On 2 November 2000 Honduras completed destruction of a total of 7,441 stockpiled antipersonnel mines.^[3]

Honduras has retained 815 mines for training purposes.^[4] This includes 458 M-4, 159 M-969 and 198 FMK-1 mines.^[5] It originally retained 826 mines, but destroyed 11 M-4 mines during training activities in 2005.^[6] In May 2006 Honduras said it will use all retained mines gradually.^[7]

Honduras has stated that the retained mines are needed for two main purposes: to help train military personnel assisting other countries in their demining programs, and to study areas where landmines may have been laid in the country.^[8] But, Honduras has yet to provide details on the intended purposes and actual uses of its retained mines, as agreed by States Parties at the First Review Conference in December 2004. Honduras did not utilize the new expanded Form D on retained mines agreed by States Parties at the Sixth Meeting of States Parties in 2005 in its 2006 and 2007 Article 7 reports.

Landmine and UXO Problem

Honduras’ mine contamination was the result of mine-laying along its borders with Nicaragua and El Salvador by warring parties in the armed conflicts in those two countries during the 1980s. The departments of Choluteca, El Paraíso, Olancho and Gracias a Dios were affected by mines as well as unexploded ordnance (UXO).^[9] Mine clearance operations in Honduras ended in 2004; according to the Organization of American States (OAS), demining of the last two affected departments of Choluteca and El Paraíso was completed on 12 June 2004.^[10]

In 2006, in the departments of El Paraíso (El Brasil and Montecristo communities) and Olancho (San Andres, Shiminka, Inipuwas), six antipersonnel mines were reported by civilians and the information verified; a suspected mined area was also reported and as a result, 65 (presumably square) “meters” of land were cleared but no contamination found.^[11]

In January 2007 Landmine Monitor visited communities in El Paraíso department and encountered few reports by the local population of landmine discoveries and no media reports of incidents, with the exception of a Honduran killed by a mine just across the border in Nicaragua in November 2005. A soldier, who did not want to be identified, indicated that he was aware of individuals in border communities storing landmines in their houses as “mementos” of the armed conflict. He was also aware of the November 2005 incident.^[12] On 16 December 2006 a farmer took a war-era hand-grenade discovered in an agricultural field to the police office in El Paraíso.^[13]

Mine/UXO Clearance

According to Honduras’ 2007 Article 7 report, only five of the six mines found in 2006 had been destroyed by April 2007; of the 57 UXO found only five were destroyed.^[14] In the first four months of 2007, four antipersonnel mines and 77 items of UXO were reported by civilians; none had been destroyed as of 24 April 2007.^[15] The OAS reported that Honduran authorities received 16 reports of mines or UXO. By August 2007, 11 of the items founds had been destroyed, one report was found to be false and the other four reported sites had been visited but ordnance was still awaiting destruction.^[16]

Previously Honduras reported the destruction of two antipersonnel mines and 99 UXO in 2005.^[17] Between September 1995 and June 2004 it cleared 446,798.7 square meters of terrain along its border with Nicaragua and destroyed 2,189 mines and 214 UXO.^[18]

Summary of Efforts to Comply with Article 5

Under Article 5 of the Mine Ban Treaty, Honduras must destroy all antipersonnel mines in mined areas under its jurisdiction or control as soon as possible, but no later than 1 March 2009. Although in June 2004 clearance was said to be finalized in Honduras, the OAS noted in the same year that certain regions would remain at risk for future mine incidents, especially in border areas, because of the nature of the original mine-laying and environmental factors.^[19] Available information indicates that Honduras has complied with the requirements of Article 5, but it cannot claim to be “mine-free” and a residual demining capacity will continue to be required.

Mine Risk Education

In 2005 a mine risk education (MRE) campaign was implemented in communities previously suspected of being mine-affected by a Nicaragua-based team from the OAS Assistance Program for Demining in Central America (Programa de Apoyo al Desminado en Centroamérica, PADCA). The team visited local officials, met local organizations and implemented an extensive house-to-house awareness-raising campaign. From August 2006 to March 2007 it reached 1,400 people in two departments, four municipalities and 18 communities in the Honduras/Nicaragua border region. Included were 46 community leaders and 10 others who the OAS PADCA MRE team trained to provide MRE within their own communities.^[20]

The MRE campaign resulted in 16 public reports of areas affected by explosive devices; the MRE team verified the existence of 10 landmines and 114 UXO.^[21] As of 7 June 2007 disposal had been undertaken by the Honduran military in nine of the 16 affected areas, resulting in the destruction of five mines and 41 UXO. The campaign also led to the identification of two previously unregistered minefields in the Nicaraguan department of Jinotega. The OAS PADCA received funding from the United States to undertake the MRE campaign in Honduras. Carlos J. Orozco, OAS coordinator in Nicaragua, stated that community-based MRE campaigns are very effective at identifying landmine survivors that have not been registered.^[22]

Landmine/UXO Casualties

Although no mine incidents or casualties have been reported since November 2005, UXO incidents have continued to cause casualties in Honduras. In June 2007 two incidents involving fragmentation grenades killed three and injured three young people.  One of the grenades was found in a goat pen in Caucara de San Lorenzo (two killed, three injured); another grenade was found in an abandoned house near Tegucigalpa (one killed).^[23]

Data Collection

Until May 2007 there was no publicly available registry of landmine casualties in Honduras, therefore, the total number of mine survivors was not known. The OAS PADCA August 2006-May 2007 MRE campaign coordinated mine/ERW casualty data collection and recording in Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA). It identified 48 people who had been injured or killed by mines in previous years and never officially registered or provided with appropriate assistance.^[24] Of the 48, six had been killed and 42 injured in 38 incidents; four were military and 44 were civilian. All incidents occurred in two departments bordering Nicaragua: El Paraíso (45 in municipalities of Danlí, El Paraíso and Trojes) and Choluteca (three in municipalities of Choluteca and Orocuina).^[25] Previously reported casualty information indicated that there may be as many as 200 landmine survivors in Honduras.^[26] There may be additional military casualties to add to the OAS PADCA registry.^[27] In May 2006 a Honduran military representative informed Landmine Monitor of eight military mine casualties (six injured and two killed) including one Brazilian officer.^[28]

Civilian survivors in Honduras tend to be poor farmers, living on small farms; many survivors were injured while hunting, crossing back and forth along the border with Nicaragua.^[29]

Survivor Assistance

People with disabilities in Honduras are one of the most disadvantaged groups in one of the region’s poorest countries.^[30] Government and private hospitals appear to have adequate capacity to deal with traumatic injuries. Physical rehabilitation centers are located in major cities. Psychosocial and socioeconomic reintegration programs are limited and hampered by the country’s poverty. Honduran law prohibits discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities but government officials are often unaware of disability issues and the laws are generally not enforced.^[31] Honduras signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 30 March 2007, but not the Optional Protocol allowing for the monitoring of disability activities.

The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Governance and Justice fund organizations working with people with disabilities.^[32]

The OAS PADCA has facilitated and covered the costs of assisting the 42 mine/ERW survivors registered by May 2007. Assistance was provided at the Nueva Vida (New Life) center in Choluteca and several rehabilitation centers in Nicaragua. All of those requiring prostheses have been assisted and seven others were to be transported to Managua, Nicaragua for specialized treatment in 2007. ^[33]

The Nueva Vida rehabilitation center in Choluteca provides and repairs prosthetics and orthotics as well as providing a socioeconomic reintegration program. It refers people to the Teletón rehabilitation center Choluteca for physiotherapy. There are four Teletón rehabilitation centers in Honduras.^[34] In 2006 the Nueva Vida Center assisted 313 disabled people, including 19 mine/ERW survivors: 18 prosthetic devices were provided, four were repaired and two people were assisted in developing a micro-enterprise. The Nueva Vida Center is said to be the only facility that provides specialized mine/ERW survivor assistance and socioeconomic reintegration in Honduras.^[35] It is funded by the Ananda Foundation, Grapes for Humanity, OAS, the Polus Center for Social and Economic Development and voluntary contributions.^[36]

In 2006 seven mine survivors from El Paraíso received socioeconomic support from the Coffeelands Landmine Victims’ Trust, as this department is in the heart of the coffee growing area of Honduras. The Trust was created by the Polus Center and supported by the US Department of State.^[37]

Funding and Assistance

The United States donated $1,740,000 to mine action in Latin America through the OAS, including Honduras; country amounts were not specified.^[38]

National Contribution to Mine Action

Honduras was among OAS member states reported as providing in-kind support in 2006 to the OAS Program for Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines; the total value of all in-kind contributions was $2.9 million.^[39]