As Colombia peace talks advance, war widows, ex-fighters clear landmines one at a time

Record ID: 95435

  • Title: As Colombia peace talks advance, war widows, ex-fighters clear landmines one at a time
  • Date: 12th July 2016
  • Summary: SAN RAFAEL, ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA (JUNE 29, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF NORALBA GUARIN, PUTTING ON A PROTECTIVE ANTI-EXPLOSIVE VEST AND SHATTERPROOF MASK, ON A REMOTE WOODED HILLSIDE IN SOUTHWESTERN COLOMBIA SIGN WARNING OF DANGER OF MINES GUARIN WALKING IN HILL (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) WORKER FOR BRITISH-BASED HALO TRUST, A DEMINING GROUP NORALBA GUARIN, SAYING: "One kneels down at the start of the day, the first thing you think is that I know that here in front of me, there could be mines where I haven't yet cleared. I need to take care. I do get nervous because if you are not nervous, you wouldn't step with caution but one is sure because you have all the knowledge." VARIOUS OF GUARIN SCOURING FOR MINES (SOUNDBITE) (ENGLISH) ALEX GREENALL, HALO TRUST'S SENIOR OPERATIONS OFFICER IN COLOMBIA SAYING: "In the demine process you have to remove all vegetation above ground before you can swing a detector so 95 - 96 percent of the demine time will be removing that surface vegetation before they can swing a detector and move forward." VARIOUS OF GUARIN'S COLLEAGUE, WILMAR GIL, SCOURING FOR MINES /REMOVING VEGETATION BANNER THAT READS: "FOUND, TWO" MORE OF MAN CLEARING MINES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) WORKER FOR BRITISH-BASED HALO TRUST, A DEMINING GROUP WILMAR GIL, SAYING: "I was drawn to the job because of what happened to my father. It made me very sad seeing him like that. I think that this is something very, very inhumane. It's very barbaric." GENERAL VIEW OF AREA BEING CLEARED OF MINES MORE OF WORKERS SCOURING FOR MINES /REMOVING VEGETATION (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JUAN ROMERO, AN EX-COMBATANT WHO BELONGED TO AN ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP, SAYING: "To make those who were demobilized or participants in the peace process part of this process is also very important because before we were actors in the conflict. Now we are actors of peace, actors of construction and transformation. I think it's very important that people see we are contributing in that transformation as participants in the peace process and before as victimizers." VARIOUS OF WORKERS PREPARING EXPLOSIVE DEVICE FOR CONTROLLED EXPLOSION OF MINE BANNER THAT READS: "DANGER" VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATION OF CONTROLLED EXPLOSION WORKER INSPECTING AREA
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2016 15:43
  • Keywords: minefield landmines civil war Colombia Antioquia rebels FARC
  • Location: SAN RAFAEL, ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA
  • City: SAN RAFAEL, ANTIOQUIA, COLOMBIA
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA0014QDT4CJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Working in the middle of a minefield, Noralba Guarin, puts on her protective anti-explosive vest and shatterproof mask, on a remote wooded hillside in southwestern Colombia.
    She is searching for landmines following a deadly legacy of 52 years of civil war in Colombia, one of the most mine-scarred countries in the world.
    "One kneels down at the start of the day, the first thing you think is that I know that here in front of me, there could be mines where I haven't yet cleared. I need to take care. I do get nervous because if you are not nervous, you wouldn't step with caution but one is sure because you have all the knowledge," said the widow and mother of two young children near the village of San Rafael in Colombia's province of Antioquia.
    War forced Guarin, to flee her home twice, once aged 13 to avoid being forcibly recruited by rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and years later when rebels threatened her again when she was heavily pregnant.
    Now Guarin, twenty-six-years-old, has worked for the British-based Halo Trust, a demining group, clearing the mines the FARC planted in their fight against government troops for a year.
    Getting rid of mines in Colombia - a land of mountains and jungle terrain - is a key challenge facing the battered nation and is a crucial for rural development and tackling poverty.
    It's a task experts estimate will take a least a decade.
    "In the demine process you have to remove all vegetation above ground before you can swing a detector so 95 - 96 percent of the demine time will be removing that surface vegetation before they can swing a detector and move forward," said Alex Greenall, Halo Trust's senior operations officer in Colombia.
    In the surrounding rolling countryside guns have fallen silent and the bombing raids have stopped following a bilateral ceasefire signed in June between the government and rebels.
    This brings Colombia ever closer to signing a full peace accord to end half a century of war and Latin America's longest-running insurgency. A final deal is expected within weeks.
    But as Colombia emerges from decades of war, the enemy remains - in the form of landmines that lurk beneath the soil.
    On the hillside Guarin's colleague, Wilmar Gil, is scouring for mines. Beside him two sticks mark the spot where landmines have been found since demining started here in May.
    For him the work has a personal poignancy. Gil was 14 when he heard the screams of his father who stepped on a landmine while tending his cassava crops one day in 2005.
    The mine tore off his father's ankle, forcing doctors to amputate his leg below the knee.
    "I was drawn to the job because of what happened to my father. It made me very sad seeing him like that. I think that this is something very, very inhumane. It's very barbaric," Gil said.
    As part of the peace effort, a pilot programme started last year involving guerrilla fighters working alongside army soldiers to identify and clear a small number of minefields. Such efforts are likely to increase once a peace deal is signed.
    For Juan Romero, an ex-combatant who belonged to an illegal armed group for four years and laid down his weapons in 2006, clearing mines is a chance to contribute to building peace.
    He is one of nearly 20 ex-combatants, from all sides in the war, employed by the Halo Trust as mine clearers.
    Romero, who declined to give his real name, started clearing mines last year and has so far found one.
    "To make those who were demobilized or participants in the peace process part of this process is also very important because before we were actors in the conflict. Now we are actors of peace, actors of construction and transformation. I think it's very important that people see we are contributing in that transformation as participants in the peace process and before as victimizers," said the 32-year-old Romero.
    The government says nearly 700 of Colombia's 1,096 municipalities are thought to be contaminated by landmines. One of the challenge is that no one knows exactly where and how many mines there are or how much it will all cost, Greenall said.
    Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, this year pledged to make the country free of mines by 2021 and said there will be 10,000 people working on mine clearance by next year.
    A peace deal could pave the way and encourage more of Colombia's 6.7 million displaced people to finally return home. But unless swathes of land are cleared of mines, many farmers and their families will be too afraid to go back.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register