Landmines’ Impact on Civilians in Colombia
The most comprehensive source of data about landmine casualties in Colombia is the Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, which reports official statistics of antipersonnel landmine casualties. These statistics provide only a partial picture, in the sense that they do not distinguish between antipersonnel landmine incidents and incidents involving unexploded ordnance (due to the difficulty in distinguishing between the two types of incidents). Also, it is likely that there is a great deal of underreporting, especially of civilian casualties.3 Underreporting may be due to the lack of state presence in parts of the country, survivors’ fear that they will be subject to further abuse if they report the landmine, or lack of knowledge by survivors, local governments, and medical institutions about the benefits available to landmine survivors, among other factors.
Nonetheless, the data of the Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory shows a dramatic increase in casualties that is consistent with the observations of local NGOs: between 1990 and 2000, reported casualties fluctuated, but did not exceed 148 per year. In 2001, reported casualties started going up: to 287 in 2001, 627 in 2002, 732 in 2003, 877 in 2004, 1,112 in 2005, and 1,107 in 2006.4
The bulk of these casualties are military. However, the number of reported civilian casualties is very high, and has also increased alarmingly in recent years, from 66 in 2000 to 314 in 2006.5
Many encountered the landmines while they were engaging in ordinary activities. For example, according to government records, 151 were hurt while they were “passing through the area,” and many others were hurt while engaging in farming, playing, doing housework, tending to cattle, hunting, or fishing.6 Of the 314 civilian casualties recorded by the Landmine Observatory in 2006, 66 were children.7
Nine-year-old “Pablo” told us he felt “incomplete” when playing with other children because “I had one hand and the other boys had two.” © 2006 MMSM/Human Rights Watch.
The Smallest Survivors
The children who are injured by landmines are often forced to leave their families and cope with their injuries alone, in new and difficult environments. “Lucía,” a 10-year-old we met in Bucaramanga, lost her eyesight, a hand, and several fingers on her remaining hand in her incident. Because of the lack of specialized teachers for the blind in her town, she was living in a shelter full of other children and displaced people in the city. She didn’t want to talk about her landmine incident, and she missed her family: “Sometimes on Christmas I stay with my mommy, but at other times I’m not with her … I like to study, but only next to my mommy.”8 “Pablo,” a nine-year-old living at the same shelter, told us about how he felt when playing with other children after the incident: “I felt incomplete because I had one hand and the other boys had two.”9
At the same time, however, children who are injured are sometimes better able than adults to adjust to the resulting changes in their lives.10 In some cases, children who move away from rural areas as a result of incidents are able to find better educational opportunities. “What has hurt me the most is that I can’t continue playing soccer,” Onofre Zafra Sánchez, who stepped on a landmine at the age of 16, told us. “I would have given my life to play soccer. But being in the city I have more of a chance of doing something in my life.”11
More Than Physical Injuries
If not fatal, the physical injuries caused by landmines are often very serious. Most of the survivors we interviewed had suffered typical injuries from landmine incidents: loss of limbs—legs, feet, and sometimes hands—and damage to their eyesight and hearing. But the impact that landmine incidents have on the survivors often extends far beyond the physical injuries, affecting their mental wellbeing, their ability to support themselves and their families, and their ability to remain in their homes.
Edilberto lost his vision in one eye and his hands to a landmine. His injuries forced him to abandon the countryside and he now lives off charity in the city. © 2006 MMSM/Human Rights Watch.
The majority of civilian survivors are adult men, many of whom do manual labor in farming, cattle-ranching, or mining in rural areas.12 Landmine injuries limit or sometimes completely impede their ability to work, forcing them to migrate to cities in search of new opportunities for gainful employment. “I was a farmer, I raised yucca, corn, bananas, cacao. I was born and raised in the countryside. I expected to continue in the countryside,” saidEdilberto Prada Ardila, a 46-year-old man who lost an eye and his hands to a landmine, and now lives off charity in the city of Bucaramanga.13
Sometimes, active adults become dependent on their children, developing depression and feelings of uselessness. “I live dying,” said one farmer in his fifties who lost a leg and most of his eyesight when he stepped on a landmine four years ago. “I was coming from working, I had been digging out a little yucca plant [when the incident happened] … Now I live from handouts and from the food my children give me. I live with the three youngest ones .… I’ve been sick for three years and still, I don’t die.”14
Another survivor in her fifties, Ofelia, attempted suicide after her incident. Widowed after guerrilla groups killed her husband in 1991, Ofelia lost her leg when she stepped on a landmine, and then lost her farm as a result:
I had a very pretty farm when I fell on the mine but I had to sell it to pay all the expenses and to eat, since the children were small
For indigenous survivors, adjusting to a life outside of their traditional communities can be particularly painful. Adelmo, a member of the Yanacona tribe, left his community because the incident made it difficult for him to do the walking and hard labor that life there entails. “Even if it hurts me in my soul to leave the region, I can’t work like in the past,” he said. The move was traumatic. “I’m restless. My place is my own community. I miss the food, the customs of the community. Here you feel bad; you wonder what the community is planning. You become very disconnected from what is happening there.”16
Mines and Other Abuses
Many of the survivors we interviewed described how their injuries had compounded other problems that the survivors or their families were already suffering due to abuses such as displacement, forced taking of land, or the killing of family members.
One man told us that he encountered the landmine that injured him on a farm he moved to near the town of Tibú, in the state of Norte de Santander, after he had been displaced from his farm in the nearby town of La Gabarra. “The FARC, ELN, paramilitaries, and the army were all there. They would all enter my farm…. The paramilitaries entered La Gabarra in ’99 and killed 67 people, and they took away all the animals and ate all the cattle…. So we moved to Tibú.”17
One young man, Jimmy, and his family had to leave their home after the FARC killed his father: “They accused us of helping the paramilitaries. They took him away and three days later we found him dead
People who are living in areas under the control of armed groups can face even greater difficulty than most in obtaining assistance and recovering from the incident.
One 19-year-old landmine survivor who is still living in a rural area under FARC control told us that after his incident he had to travel into the city for treatment.20 But the guerrillas started to accuse him of collaborating with the army. As a result, while the guerrillas control the movements of all the people in the region, he said in his case they set even stricter rules: “I live humiliated … I have to ask for permission to make phone calls … I can only leave the area once a month and then I have to show them results from my trip,” he said.21 This man filed papers with the government to receive compensation for his injury, but when he went home, he said, “The guerrillas burned my papers … The guerrillas don’t like us to receive help from the state. But they don’t offer us help either… If the government offers me some help, I will leave the area.”22
Mauro Antonio Joaquí, a survivor from southern Cauca, had to leave his town after losing part of a leg to a landmine. He told us that even though he had encountered the landmine while fishing, the guerrillas in the area accused him of serving as a guide for the military, so he had to flee.23
Other Indiscriminate Weapons: Gas Cylinder Bombs
In addition to using antipersonnel landmines, the FARC are notorious for their use of gas cylinder bombs. Gas cylinder bombs are made out of empty tanks of gas, which are easy to obtain because Colombians all over the country use them to fuel their stoves. After loading the tank with explosives and shrapnel, a FARC member launches it from a tube packed with dynamite. The tubes are impossible to aim with accuracy, and as a result they regularly strike civilian objects and cause avoidable civilian casualties. International humanitarian law requires that combatants be distinguished from noncombatants and that military objectives be distinguished from protected property or places. The FARC’s use of gas cylinder bombs in civilian areas is thus a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
Perhaps the most horrific case of gas cylinder bomb use by the FARC occurred on May 2, 2002, when during combat with paramilitary groups the FARC launched gas cylinder bombs in the town of Bellavista, in the Bojayá region of Chocó state.24 One of the bombs, apparently directed at paramilitaries, instead hit the local church, where many of the town’s residents had sought refuge.25 Approximately 120 people were killed, and another 98 were wounded, according to the United Nations (UN) mission that reconstructed the events shortly thereafter.26 For two days after the event, “almost the totality of the approximately 1,000 inhabitants” of the community were forced to stay in a neighboring town while the fighting continued.27
The FARC later issued a public statement expressing their regret for the damage caused to the community, and accusing the government, military, and paramilitaries of being ultimately responsible.28 But while the UN report concluded that paramilitaries had also violated the laws of war during the confrontations, and that the military should be investigated for failing to stop paramilitaries from entering the area, none of this excuses the FARC’s use of these weapons in a civilian area that, in this case, led to devastating loss of civilian life.
The horrific events in Bojayá have not stopped the FARC from using gas cylinder bombs. One example is the case of Teresa Arcila, a 49-year-old woman who cooks the typical Colombian “arepas” and washes other people’s clothes to support her nine-member family. Teresa bought her house near the police station in the town of Toribío, in the state of Cauca, 35 years ago. In 2005 her house was destroyed when the FARC launched simultaneous attacks using gas cylinders into the neighboring towns of Toribío and Jambaló. “The cylinders started at 8:30, they were coming from the hills and landing on the neighboring houses. They [the FARC] wanted the cylinders to land on the police station, but none of them fell there. Ten houses were destroyed. They landed on the church too.”29
In August 2006, as Teresa was trying to rebuild her house, the FARC launched another attack on Toribío using gas cylinder bombs. “We were asleep and it landed in the patio of the house. They threw only one cylinder and it hit us again.”30
A member of the indigenous association of northern Cauca, who lives in the same area as Teresa Arcila, told Human Rights Watch that his group had asked the FARC to cease these types of attacks, which affect civilians. However, he said that the FARC had always refused, replying that in war, everything is fair.31
3 Various sources consider that there is significant underreporting. See International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Landmine Monitor Report 2006, Colombia chapter, http://www.icbl.org/lm/2006/colombia.html#fnB174 (accessed June 20, 2007). According to the Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, however, registration of landmine incidents is improving. Human Rights Watch interview with Luz Piedad Herrera, director of the Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, September 27, 2006.
4 Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, Chart on Frequency of Victims of Mines/UXO by Condition 1990-June 1, 2007, http://www.derechoshumanos.gov.co/minas/descargas/victimascondicion.pdf (accessed June 19, 2007).
5 Ibid.
6 Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, Chart on Victims by Activity at the Time of the Accident, 1990-June 1 2007, http://www.derechoshumanos.gov.co/minas/descargas/victimasactividad.pdf (accessed June 19, 2007).
7 Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, Chart on Victims of Mines/UXO by Gender and Age, 1990-June 1, 2007, http://www.derechoshumanos.gov.co/minas/descargas/edadsexozona.pdf (accessed June 19, 2007).
8 Human Rights Watch interview with Lucía (pseudonym), September 28, 2006.
9 Human Rights Watch interview with Pablo (pseudonym), September 28, 2006.
10 Human Rights Watch interview with Rodrigo Chaparra, psychologist at CIREC rehabilitation center, September 27, 2006.
11 Human Rights Watch interview with Onofre Zafra Sánchez, September 28, 2006.
12 In 2006, only 20 of the casualties recorded by the Landmine Observatory were women. Colombian Vice-Presidency’s Antipersonnel Landmine Observatory, Chart on Frequency of Victims of Mines/UXO by Condition, http://www.derechoshumanos.gov.co/minas/descargas/victimascondicion.pdf (accessed March 20, 2007).
13 Human Rights Watch interview with Edilberto Prada Ardila, September 28, 2006.
14 Human Rights Watch interview with a landmine survivor who requested anonymity, September 28, 2006.
16 Human Rights Watch interview with Adelmo Uni Jiménez, October 2, 2006.
17 Human Rights Watch interview with landmine survivor who requested anonymity, September 28, 2006.
20 Human Rights Watch interview with landmine survivor who requested anonymity, October 2, 2006.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 Human Rights Watch interview with Mauro Antonio Joaquí, October 2-3, 2006.
24 Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, “Report on Observation Mission in the Middle Atrato,” May 20, 2002.
25 Ibid., pp. 9-10.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Communiqué by the José María Córdoba Block of the FARC-EP, May 8, 2002, available as Annex VI to Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, “Report on Observation Mission in the Middle Atrato.”
29 Human Rights Watch interview with Teresa Arcila, October 2, 2006.
30 Ibid.
31 Human Rights Watch interview with member of the Association of Indigenous Towns of Northern Cauca who requested that his name be withheld, May 25, 2007.