Mindful of the mines.

• Author: Ruan, Juan Carlos
• Position: Program for Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Landmines

For over 15 years, the Organization of American States (OAS) has been responding to a little-known crisis that has threatened the lives of thousands of people in Central and South America. The conflicts that took place in the region during the 1980s and 90s--and continue to this day in the case of Colombia--have left a legacy of landmines that impedes development in rural communities and continues to maim and kill innocent civilians, even years after peace treaties have been signed and weapons surrendered.

The Program for Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Landmines (AICMA for its initials in Spanish), was established in 1991 and has matured into a program that takes a comprehensive approach aimed at ensuring the safe development of mine-affected communities. AICMA is coordinated by the Office of Humanitarian Mine Action, OAS Department for the Prevention of Threats against Public Security. The program focuses on humanitarian detaining; mine-risk education; assistance with the physical and psychological rehabilitation of landmine victims and their socioeconomic reintegration; destruction of stockpiled mines; and promotion of a ban on the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of antipersonnel mines.

The region's terrain and the lack of clear maps indicating where mines were buried has made locating mined areas difficult. This means that public outreach must be done in high-risk areas to ensure that inhabitants are conscious of the danger and aware of the procedures they should follow if they encounter a landmine. Taking into consideration the behaviors, activities, language, and customs of the affected communities, the OAS develops mine risk education campaigns for adults and children. These are carried out through house-to-house visits, meetings in town squares and schools, national radio campaigns, and through the use of other communications material, in order to reach the maximum number of men, women, and children.

The OAS program has also supported over 1,000 mine survivors throughout the hemisphere by providing them with a number of specialized treatments and trainings. As mine affected communities are located largely in rural areas in border regions, the fist step in assisting them is making them...