Sign-on Letter

June 27, 2001

George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush,

I am writing to you on behalf of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) regarding the global landmines crisis. We are concerned about the continued devastation and economic loss that the widespread use of anti-personel mines is causing around the world. US made mines continue to threaten the lives of men, women, and children in more than 28 countries, and landmine deaths and injuries in recent decades total in the hundreds of thousands. In Cambodia alone there are more than 35,000 amputees injured by landmines.

Our General Assembly has repeatedly spoken out against the production, sale, and use of weapons of war and has joined in the national and international call for a prohibition on the manufacture, sale, and use of antipersonnel mines.

We understand that a review of US landmines policy is currently being coordinated by the National Security Council and the Departments of Defense and State. Current policy regarding landmines is based on the view that there are two major impediments to the US signing the treaty - Korea and "mixed mines" (a mine which includes a self-destructing anti-personnel mine). We hope that your review will recognize that there are alternatives to the mixed mine system which are currently being used by our NATO allies and which fall within the boundries of the Landmine Convention. And, secondly, we hope that the review will recognize that the overwhelming technological superiority of US weapons on the Korean peninsula negates the need for landmines in that region. Many retired military leaders have concurred with this opinion.

We believe that this review should recognize that landmines have cause widespread humanitarian disaster and we urge you to take the lead in moving the United States toward ratifying the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and Their Destruction during your first year in office.

Sincerely,

Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory
Director
Washington Office, Presbyterian Church (USA)