Cuba
and the USA remain the only countries in the Americas region that have not yet
joined the Mine Ban Treaty. Cuba’s position has not changed since its
Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided Landmine Monitor with a detailed policy
statement in June 2000.[1] That
statement indicated that Cuba fully “understands and shares the
humanitarian concerns caused by the indiscriminate and irresponsible use of
antipersonnel landmines” and described its full support for
“humanitarian efforts made by the international community to prevent or
mitigate the effects of the indiscriminate use of this kind of
weapons.”[2]
A delegation from the ICBL accepted an official invitation to visit Cuba in
September 2001.[3] Cuba viewed
the invitation as an expression of Cuba’s humanitarian concern, but
government officials continued to state that Cuba will not join a treaty that it
“cannot comply
with.”[4] The visit
included a tour of Cuban mined areas surrounding the US Naval Base at
Guantánamo Bay, as well as meetings with the officials of the Directorate
of Multi-lateral Affairs in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and
representatives of the Cuban Association of Physically Disabled People (ACLIFIM)
and the Centre for the Study of International Humanitarian Law.
Cuba participated as an observer in the Third Meeting of States Parties in
Managua in September 2001. A representative from Cuba’s Permanent Mission
to the UN in Geneva attended the January and May 2002 Mine Ban Treaty
intersessional Standing Committee meetings. As it had done in previous years,
Cuba in November 2001 abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution
56/24M, calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Cuba is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its
original Protocol II on landmines, but has not yet ratified Amended Protocol II.
The ICBL delegation to Cuba was informed by the Multi-Sector Committee on
Disarmament, that the process for ratification was ongoing, but had been delayed
by the need to ensure that Cuba could fulfill all of its obligations and because
a number of possible amendments to Amended Protocol II were being discussed in
the lead-up to the Second Review
Conference.[5]
Cuba participated as an observer in the third annual meeting of States
Parties to Amended Protocol II and also participated in the Second CCW Review
Conference, both in December 2001. Regarding the proposal for a new protocol on
explosive remnants of war, Cuba stated that it shared the humanitarian concerns,
but believed that further clarification and political, technical and legal
discussion were needed; it supported the establishment of an open-ended
intergovernmental group of experts with a broad mandate on the
issue.[6]
PRODUCTION, TRANSFER AND STOCKPILING
Cuba’s state-owned Union of Military
Industries (Unión de las Industrias Militares, UIM) is believed to
continue production of antipersonnel
mines.[7] In April 2001, Cuban
Defense Minister Raul Castro, told the media: “We manufacture them
[landmines] of all types, but we never export them, nor are we going
to.”[8]
Since 1996, Cuba has maintained that it does not export antipersonnel
mines.[9] This was reiterated
by government representatives during the ICBL visit in September 2001. The ICBL
delegation raised the need for Cuba to establish a formal moratorium or
prohibition on the export of antipersonnel mines to formalize these statements
and government representatives indicated they would investigate whether a more
formal and legal ban could be
imposed.[10]
No official information is available on the size and composition of
Cuba’s stockpile of antipersonnel mines, but based on information in the
military trade press, it appears that Cuba has OZM-4, POMZ-2, and POMZ-2M
mines.[11]
USE
Both the US and Cuba planted landmines around the
US Naval Base at Guantánamo in the southeast of Cuba. Cuban officials in
charge of the military base at Guantánamo told the ICBL delegation that
they could not provide ICBL with details on the number and types of mines laid
on Cuban territory, but they stated that fragmentation mines are not
used.[12]
Cuban authorities have stated that the Cuban minefields are duly
“marked, fenced and guarded” to ensure the protection of civilians,
as stipulated by the CCW's Amended Protocol
II.[13] During the ICBL visit
to Guantánamo this was confirmed and it was evident that the minefields
were well maintained.
Clearance by the US of antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from the US
minefields around Guantánamo began in September 1996 and was completed in
1999.[14] Three verification
stages were then carried out, with the final phase completed in May
2000.[15] It is not known if
the US maintains a stockpile of antipersonnel mines at the US Naval Base in
Guantánamo.
MINE ACTION, CASUALTIES, AND SURVIVOR ASSISTANCE
In 2001, two mine incidents were reported in which
one person was killed and three others
injured.[16] No incidents were
reported in the first six months of 2002.
Representatives of the Cuban Association of Physically Disabled People
(ACLIFIM), a membership group of 50,000 people that provides a support network
for people with disabilities, told ICBL that they have not encountered Cuban
civilians with disabilities as a result of
landmines.[17]It is possible
that Cuban soldiers participating in past conflicts overseas have been killed or
maimed by antipersonnel mines but no accurate information is available.
While there is no specific program to deal with Cuban landmine survivors,
Cuba has a free and universal healthcare system described in detail in the June
2000 statement to Landmine Monitor. Cuban law prohibits discrimination based on
disability, and there have been few complaints of such
discrimination.[18] There are
however no laws that mandate accessibility to buildings for the disabled and in
practice buildings and transportation are rarely accessible to people with
disabilities.
Cuba is not known to be directly involved in any humanitarian mine clearance
activities but it contributes to victim assistance through 2,410 Cuban doctors
who are working in 18 countries in Central America, the Caribbean, and
Africa.[19]
[1] See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p.
329, and Cuba’s response in full on the Landmine Monitor web site at
www.icbl.org/lm/comments/. [2] See
Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p.
329. [3] The ICBL delegation consisted
of two representatives of the ICBL’s Coordination Committee: Noel Stott,
Mines Action Southern Africa, and Diana Roa-Castro, Campaña Colombiana
Contra Minas. The visit took place from 24-29 September
2001. [4] Statement by Juan Antonio
Fernandez, Director-General, Multi-lateral Affairs, Department of Foreign
Affairs, Havana, 24 September 2001; See Noel Stott and Diana Roa Castro,
“Report of an ICBL Visit to Cuba,” (Johannesburg: Mines Action
Southern Africa) November 2001. [5]
Statement made during a meeting between the ICBL and the Multi-Sector Committee
on Disarmament, Havana, Cuba, 24 September
2001. [6] Report of the Second Review
Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or
Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed To
Be Excessively Injurious Or To Have Indiscriminate Effects, Geneva, 11 - 21
December 2001. [7] According to the US
Department of Defense, Cuba has produced at least five types of landmines,
including three antipersonnel mines: PMFC-1 fragmentation mine, PMFH-1
fragmentation mine, PMM-1 wooden box mine. ORDATA II CD-ROM. For details, see
Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p.
316. [8] “Cuba won't renounce use
of landmines as defense weapons: Castro,” Agence France Presse (Havana),
26 April 2001. [9] Janes’ Mines
and Mine Clearance, on-line update, 18 November
1999. [10] “Report of an ICBL
Visit to Cuba,” November
2001. [11] Janes’ Mines and Mine
Clearance, on-line update, 18 November
1999. [12] “Report of an ICBL
Visit to Cuba,” November
2001. [13] Statement of the Directorate
of Multilateral Affairs of the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Landmine
Monitor, 19 June 2000. [14] For more
details on the US clearance operation, see Landmine Monitor Report 2000, p.
332. [15] Email to Landmine Monitor from
JOC Walter T. Ham IV, Public Affairs Officer, US Naval Base Guantánamo
Bay, 23 April 2001. [16] See Landmine
Monitor Report 2001, p. 407. [17]
Statement made during the ICBL/Landmine Monitor meeting with the Cuban
Association of Physically Disabled People (ACLIFIM), Havana, Cuba, 26 September
2001. [18] US Department of State,
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Country Reports on Human
Rights Practices - 2001: Cuba,” March
2002. [19] ICBL meeting with Yiliam
Jimenez Exposito, Director, Directorate of International Cooperation, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, Havana, 27 September 2002.
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