[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 20992-20993]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         LANDMINES IN COLOMBIA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the people of Colombia have endured decades 
of civil conflict characterized by widespread killings and 
disappearances of civilians perpetrated by rebel groups and 
paramilitary death squads, sometimes with the active participation of 
government security forces. In recent years, both rebels and 
paramilitaries have financed their illegal activities through the sale 
of cocaine, which has also corrupted government institutions.
  Each year since the inception of Plan Colombia, the United States has 
provided Colombia with more than half a billion dollars in mostly 
military and counter-drug assistance, totaling more than $5 billion.
  The primary goal of Plan Colombia, at least as sold to the Congress, 
was to decrease by half the amount of coca produced, resulting in 
commensurate reductions in the income derived from cocaine to the 
rebels and paramilitaries and the amount of cocaine entering the United 
States.
  While there is no reliable evidence that Plan Colombia has affected 
either the price or availability of cocaine in the United States, the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that profits from 
illegal drugs to the FARC rebels declined by about one-third between 
2003 and 2005. This is welcome news. But whether this trend has 
continued since then or has ebbed and flowed like most other statistics 
relating to drug cultivation and trafficking in Colombia, is unknown. 
Unfortunately, it is also not yet apparent that this reported reduction 
in profits has affected the FARC's ability to operate.
  While the majority of killings of civilians during the 7 years of 
Plan Colombia are attributed to paramilitaries, sometimes with the 
active or tacit support of government forces, the FARC has engaged in 
many atrocities, including attacks against civilian targets and 
kidnapping. But perhaps the most insidious of their crimes is the 
widespread use of landmines.
  According to a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch, 
casualties from landmines used by the FARC, as well as by another rebel 
group known as the ELN, have risen steadily in recent years. As is so 
often the case with landmines which are triggered indiscriminately by 
the victim, most of the casualties in Colombia have been civilians.
  While the number of casualties did not exceed 148 a year in the 
1990s, Human Rights Watch reports that last year the number was 1,107. 
This increase contrasts sharply with the worldwide decline in the use 
of these insidious weapons. In fact, Colombia is among the more than 
150 nations that have signed or ratified the international treaty 
banning antipersonnel mines.
  According to press reports, the FARC defends its use of mines by 
claiming that they are used only against government security forces, 
not civilians. That, however, is a specious claim, since mines are 
inherently indiscriminate. They will kill or maim whoever comes into 
contact with them, often months or years after they are laid. I have 
seen photographs of the horrific injuries suffered by both government 
soldiers and innocent civilians from rebel mines.
  While the FARC, like others who continue to use landmines, would 
undoubtedly claim that their military utility justifies their continued 
use, I reject that argument. The harm to civilians and the 
contamination of the countryside caused by mines cannot be justified.
  While there are programs to assist Colombia's mine victims with 
rehabilitation and vocational training, they are far from adequate. I 
have supported efforts to increase U.S. assistance. We are looking at 
ways to use the Leahy

[[Page 20993]]

War Victims Fund to assist Colombian civilians who have been injured by 
mines, and we are supporting United for Colombia's efforts to obtain 
surgery in the U.S. for Colombian soldiers who have suffered grievous 
mine injuries.
  I have been a consistent critic of human rights violations in 
Colombia where impunity remains a persistent problem. There have been 
thousands of killings of civilians, including of human rights 
defenders, union members, journalists, and others who have been 
targeted by one armed group or another. Hardly any of these crimes have 
resulted in convictions and punishment. But none of that excuses the 
continued use of landmines by the FARC and ELN. As I have said many 
times before, the use of landmines should be a war crime. It is 
barbaric; it is inhumane; it is indefensible.

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