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'[M]ines that leave no enduring hazard on the battlefield', the
US announces a new policy on Landmines, February 27
'Op-ed by Special Representative for Mine
Action Lincoln Bloomfield', Washington File, February 27,
2004.
(This op-ed column by Lincoln Bloomfield, who is special
representative of the president and secretary of state for mine
action and assistant secretary of state for political-military
affairs, was published in the Financial Times February 27 and is in
the public domain. No republication restrictions.)
America's Promise On Landmines
By Lincoln Bloomfield
The Bush administration will today announce a new policy on
landmines that lie on or beneath the ground, ready to explode, long
after cessation of the hostilities that prompted their use.
Indiscriminate use of persistent landmines by undisciplined armies,
irresponsible governments and non-state actors has maimed tens of
thousands of children and created widespread problems across the
globe that have reached crisis proportions in several nations
within the last decade. The US shares common cause with all who
wish to undo this harmful legacy of conflict.
US military forces currently have persistent anti-personnel and
anti-tank mines in their inventory. Under the new policy, after
2010, the US will no longer use persistent landmines of any type,
on any battlefield, for any purpose, anywhere in the world. Between
now and then, use of persistent landmines will require presidential
authorisation.
After 2010, any landmines used by US forces will be rendered
inert after a determined time period, measured in hours or days,
not years or decades. The technology to do this exists now and has
been proved, with no failures in more than 60,000 tests. The
explosive power of our mines - anti-personnel and anti-vehicle -
will be confined to the duration of hostilities.
Under this new policy, within a year the US will discontinue
forever the use of any mines that are non-detectable to
conventional metal detectors. Again, the US is the first major
military power to make such a complete and unconditional
commitment, one that covers all types of landmine.
Additionally, President George W. Bush has directed a 50 per
cent increase in the Department of State's 2005 humanitarian mine
action budget over baseline levels of fiscal year 2003, for a new
total of $70m per year, nearly twice that of the next largest
donor.
This is a bold and sensible policy, one that breaks with
formulations of the past. No other country has adopted a policy
that can meet these standards of eschewing persistent landmines of
all kinds, assuring detectability of any landmines used and
strongly supporting humanitarian mine action programmes
worldwide.
The "Ottawa Convention", to which the US is not a signatory,
prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines, but is silent on the
entire class of more powerful anti-vehicle landmines. The fact that
the US and the Ottawa Convention's drafters could not agree on
terms in 1997 obscured the fact that we share a common commitment
to end the harmful effects of landmines.
Nevertheless, many will ask how the new US policy differs from
the Ottawa Convention. The convention's ban on all anti-personnel
landmines would have denied our military the needed capabilities
currently provided by mines that leave no enduring hazard on the
battlefield. The president's new policy will end the use of
landmines that are persistent, non-metallic, or both, while the
Ottawa Convention permits landmines that are powerful enough to
destroy a vehicle, including persistent and undetectable versions
and those with "anti-handling devices" that can be triggered by
people.
By ending the use of both persistent anti-vehicle and persistent
anti-personnel mines, the US becomes the first big military power
to take such comprehensive measures to protect civilians from
post-conflict hazards, beyond protections afforded under any
treaty.
Policy approaches may differ, and deserve to be discussed, but
the people and communities victimised by deadly mines left behind
after conflict deserve the full co-operation of all who support
mine action.
No country does more than the US to support humanitarian mine
action, including landmine clearance, mine risk education and
victim assistance.
The US funded the first demining operations in Afghanistan in
1988 and has since been the world's largest donor, providing almost
$800m to clear mines and help civilians in 46 countries or
territories.
The programmes being increased under the new policy promote
stability by allowing refugees to return home and giving
communities a chance to rebuild their economies.
This new policy responds with vision to the problem of
persistent landmines, avoiding recriminations over past policy
disputes, demonstrating America's humanitarian commitment and all
the while preserving needed military capability. We welcome other
countries that may share this vision by curtailing their trade in
and use of all persistent mines. Above all, we look forward to
redoubling efforts with the international community, including
governments, international and non-governmental organisations and
the private sector, to end the humanitarian crisis caused by these
weapons once and for all and to ensure that all people may walk the
earth in safety.
(Lincoln Bloomfield is Special Representative of the President
and Secretary of State for Mine Action and Assistant Secretary of
State for Political-Military Affairs.)
Source: US State Department, Washington File, http://usinfo.state.gov.
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© 2003 The Acronym Institute.
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