- Sergio Bueno Aguirre assured that the accreditation of the Civil Organization of Humanitarian Demining of the FARC, will begin operations once its members are trained and finish the process of accreditation in charge of the OAS.
- He stressed that the European Union announced the allocation of 4 million Euros to support the plan for the economic and social reincorporation of the ex-combatants.
Bogotá, D.C., Agosto 10 / 2017.- The National Government assured that the accreditation granted by the Interinstitutional Humanitarian Demining Instance to the Civil Organization «Humanicemos DH» will contribute positively to strengthening Humanitarian Demining operations that are being carried out in the country.
When presenting the organization, Sergio Bueno Aguirre, Director for the Integral Action against Antipersonnel Mines – Descontamina Colombia, office of the High Council for the Postconflict of the Presidency of the Republic, assured that the accreditation of the Civil Organization of Humanitarian Demining (OCDH) , «Humanicemos DH», is another step in the ex-combatants’ reincorporation into civilian life.
«With the accreditation of Humanicemos and Colombia sin Minas, the country has 11 operators of Humanitarian Demining, including national capacity, represented in the Humanitarian Demining Brigade and the Explosives and Demining Association of the Marine Infantry. In this way, we strengthen the sector with the purpose of fulfilling the commitment acquired in the Ottawa Convention, to declare the country free of suspicion of mines», he said.
He highlighted the technical and, above all, financial support of the European Union in allocating 4 million Euros, to support the plan for the economic and social reincorporation of ex-combatants.
Accreditation Process
The Director of Descontamina Colombia informed that during the last 9 months, his organization has been working with the FARC to structure the new organization and, above all, to meet all the requirements defined in the National Accreditation Standard when the moment has come to request accreditation.
For his part, Pastor Alape, member of the National Reincorporation Council for the FARC, said that in the socioeconomic census presented by the National University, it was found that of the 10,005 ex-combatants, 17% (1700) people expressed interest in being linked to a collective project in demining. Of that total, 436 people are interested to start demining work immediately.
Marcela Moreno, Director of the HUMANICEMOS DH Corporation, said that the idea is to start training with some 200 ex-combatants, who at the end of the process must be accredited by the OEA. «Our commitment is to incorporate more people to the Corporation, when resources are arriving and the tasks assigned by the Government increase,» she said.
With these two new OCDH, there are already eleven (11) operators that can carry out Demining operations in the country: the national capacity represented by the Humanitarian Demining Brigade (BRDEH) and the Explosives and Demining Association of the Marine Corps (AEDIM); and the civil operators The HALO Trust, Norwegian Popular Aid (NPA), Perigeo, Handicap International, DDG, Colombian Campaign against Mines (CCCM) and Attex.
In the last eleven months, the National Government assigned demining tasks in 137 municipalities of the country, where activities of clearance and qualification of information through the realization of Non-Technical Studies (NTS) were started, in order to confirm the events registered in the information system administered by the directives of Descontamina Colombia.
- Fuente: Acción Contraminas
