Major Shift in U.S. Policy on Anti-Personnel Landmines: Call the White House to Protest

Issue:

There are alarming reports stating that the Pentagon recently recommended the following changes to current U.S. landmine policy:

• The abandonment of U.S. plans to comply with the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006.
  
• The cessation of efforts to eliminate dumb mines from the U.S. arsenal by 2003.
  
• The termination of the search for alternatives to Anti-Personnel (AP) mines.
  
• The assertion of the indefinite need for AP mines, both smart and dumb, in Korea and elsewhere, particularly in special operations.

Officials in the Department of State and the National Security Council will join the multi-agency landmine policy review prior to a decision by President George W. Bush. The current U.S. government appears to be inclined to abandon the promise made by the Clinton Administration to sign the Ottawa Convention in 2006, although it has not officially endorsed or refuted it. Congressman James P. McGovern (D-MA), Jack Quinn (R-NY), and Lane Evans (D-IL) recently circulated a landmines sign-on letter urging President Bush to reverse the direction of his administration's landmine policy review.

Action:

Strong immediate support is needed to reverse the direction of U.S. policy on Anti-Personnel mines. Call the White House Switchboard at 202-456-1414 on December 3rd or 4th for the National White House Landmines Call-in Days.

Contact your U.S. Representatives and ask him/her to sign the McGovern/Quinn/Evans landmines sign-on letter. Visit http://www.vote-smart.org to find out how to call, fax, or email your legislator.

Background:

The United States is the world leader in de-mining and victim assistance efforts and has (since 1993) provided more than $500 million toward supplying other countries with de-mining training and equipment and in educating people about Anti-Personnel Landmines (APLs). In October 1997, the Clinton Administration announced the "De-mining 2010 Initiative," which aimed to increase funding for humanitarian de-mining (to $1 billion a year) and to clean landmines by 2010. In March 2001 a Congressional Legislation, Landmine Elimination and Victim Assistance Act of 2001 was introduced in the House and the Senate, providing support to mine action programs, including victim assistance.

The U.S., however, refused to sign or accede to the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production, and transfer of APLs and which requires states-parties to destroy their stockpiled APLs within four years, and pursue de-mining efforts within 10 years. The U.S. opted in September 1997 not to adopt the text of the comprehensive ban treaty, due to the failure of securing exceptions for the Demilitarized Zone along the Korean border and the U.S. mixed mine system. Consequently, the U.S. refused to sign the Mine Ban Treaty in December of the same year. The treaty, under Article 15, was open for signature from December 3, 1997 until its entry into force in March 1999, and is open for accession [Article 16 (2)] by any State that has not signed. The Ottawa Convention has gathered in September 2000 for the second meeting of states-parties; non-signatories such as China, Israel and Turkey participated in the meeting; the U.S. did not. In the 2001 convention, states-parties and signatories to the Mines Ban Treaty stood at 141; the U.S. being the only NATO partner that has not initiated procedures to accede.

Although the U.S. ratified the amended Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) landmines protocol [Protocol II] in 1997, which prohibits the use of non-detectable APLs, the long-term solution to the problem is a permanent global ban on the use of landmines. Such is the aim of the Ottawa Convention. U.S. leadership is crucial in urging non-signatories to join the treaty and to aid in the implementation and enforcement process.

For questions and further information visit the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines at www.banminesusa.org.

General Assembly

The 207th General Assembly (1995) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) expressed its concern and sorrow at the continuing devastating effect that the widespread use of anti-personnel mines is having on community life and its brutal consequences for those whose lives have been shattered. The Assembly joins in the national and international call for a prohibition on the manufacture, sale, and use of antipersonnel landmines. The Assembly also supports an extension of the voluntary moratorium on exports of anti-personnel mines and the extension of the moratorium legislation to include prohibition. It calls for a prohibition on the sale of anti-personnel mine component parts by the U.S. manufacturers to other countries.
The 212th General Assembly (2000) of the Presbyterian Church (USA) stated:"Landmines continue to take their toll long after the conflicts in which they were introduced are over. The devastation, therefore, on innocent victims, and the economic losses that occur, for instance when land cannot be used for farming, continues. A citizens movement in 1997 lead to the adoption of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. The United States, once seeking to lead the world in the elimination of this curse, has refused to support this treaty, putting its effectiveness in danger, once again putting its own agenda above the global imperative. Yet at the same time, the U.S. has invested millions of dollars in demining, as well as providing for others education and training for demining efforts.