U.S. Government supports humanitarian demining program in Colombia

June 12, 2009

U.S. Government supports humanitarian demining program in Colombia

In order to help Colombia set the country free from land mines, the U.S. government supported the Humanitarian Demining Workshop in Colombia held in Bogota June 9-12, 2009.  The workshop, whose purpose was to define government policies on this issue for the next few years, was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Presidential Program for the Comprehensive Action against Anti-personnel Mines (PAICMA for its acronym in Spanish) and the Mine Action Information Center (MAIC) at the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

The closing ceremony was led by U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William R. Brownfield, Vice-minister of Defense Sergio Jaramillo, PAICMA Director Andrés Davila and Colombian Army’s Major-General Luis Alberto Ardila.  After three days of work, the Colombian government, NGOs and the international community presented their results on the status and challenges Colombia faces on demining issues.

The United States has supported programs to contribute to humanitarian demining in Colombia. In particular, since 2006 the U.S. Department of State has allotted nearly $4 million to fund two of the four demining platoons currently assigned to this task, and has supported the work of CIREC and the Colombian campaign against landmines. For their part, the U.S. Department of Defense provided nearly $400,000 to increase the Government’s capacity to demine, enhance the necessary infrastructure and assigned $1 million to equip three new battalions for humanitarian demining. In addition, the U.S. Agency for International Development allocated $126,000 to support the return of 109 families to the San Carlos municipality in the Department of Antioquia, a region that is undergoing demining. The USAID also helped the Bajo Grande community in Montes de María, with income-generating projects that will help them return to their land, which has also being demined.