Team:Edinburgh/mapxmlelsalvador



El Salvador <![CDATA[El Salvador has a minor problem with explosive remnants of war (ERW), and may contain a small residual mine threat. Contamination is the result of the 1980–1992 conflict between government forces and the opposition movement Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional, FMLN). A 2006 report on its national demining program stated that from March 1993 to January 1994, 9,511 mines were cleared from a total reported area of 438km2 in seven departments. The time period for demining and the quantity of ordnance found suggests a very high level of land release other than by clearance.

El Salvador has reported on a number of occasions since 1994 that it has cleared all mined areas from its territory, although its characterization of that clearance has varied. At the Standing Committee meetings in February 2003, El Salvador stated, “We celebrate the news that Costa Rica has been declared mine-free, and thus joins El Salvador as a mine-free country in the Central American region. I remind you that my country was declared and certified as mine-free in 1994 by the UN, following completion of the National Demining Plan … Though there have been some isolated accidents since 1994, these have involved UXO, many of them homemade.” In June 2005, however, Colonel William McDonough, Coordinator of the Organization of American States (OAS) Mine Action Program, said that all mined areas were cleared “to a 97% confidence rate by 1994 demining standards.”

In 2008, an official from the National Civilian Police, which is under the Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, and an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs both acknowledged there might be a residual threat from ERW in rural areas but declared they considered the country “mine-safe.” In March 2006, Jose Francisco Cortez Gonzalez of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that while some war-era explosive devices are still being found, El Salvador does not have a landmine problem. A database of explosive ordnance contamination at the National Civilian Police’s Division of Arms and Explosives (DAE) last recorded a mine in September 2006—the mine was “homemade.” An official in the Ministry of Health, however, told Landmine Monitor in April 2008, “The authorities declared that El Salvador is ‘mine-safe.’ However, not all lands were surveyed after the war. For instance most of the lands given to former guerrillas were never surveyed. Sometimes you hear people finding ERW on their own land.”

In 2007, four new casualties occurred from ERW/improvised explosive devices (IEDs); all were injured adults. No landmine casualties were reported in 2007. The last officially confirmed report of a mine casualty was in 1994.

Incidents happened in rural areas, in central departments of the country, and were reportedly caused by intentional risk-taking behavior, although the activity at the time of the incident was not reported.[

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