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On December 18, 124 members of the House of Representatives wrote to President Bush expressing their alarm at reports his administration is considering abandoning any plans to join the Ottawa Landmines Convention. The bipartisan appeal, endorsing the target set by the Clinton administration of joining the Convention by 2006, was sponsored by Democratic Representatives James McGovern and Lane Evans, and Republican Representative Jack Quinn. The letter reads:
"We share your eagerness for global and human security during these troubling times. With this in mind, we write to express our serious concern about the direction of the current administration review of US policy on anti-personnel (AP) landmines. As you know, the Department of Defense has recently completed its component and, after input from the State Department and the National Security Council, the review is expected to reach your desk for approval. We respectfully urge that you ensure that the policy your Administration authorizes takes into account the indiscriminate consequences inherent in the nature of anti-personnel landmines, the danger these weapons pose to civilians and US troops, and the desire to continue US leadership and unity among our key international allies.
We have received reports that the Department of Defense has recently recommended the following changes to current landmine policy:
These alarming recommendations are out of step with your own avowed commitment to protect innocent civilians and, indeed, US troops. As you know, most of the modern militaries in the world, including our major allies in the war against terrorism, have ended their use of anti-personnel landmines because of the weapon's indiscriminate and disproportionate impact on unarmed men, women, and children. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty's prohibition on the weapon's use, production, transfer, and stockpile has resulted in a significant decrease of landmine injuries and deaths, the destruction of millions of stockpiled weapons, and a virtual end to the transfer of anti-personnel mines. The United States' global leadership in mine clearance and victim assistance has also contributed significantly to decreasing landmine casualties. American leadership is similarly needed to encourage other treaty holdouts to support the global ban.
Mines have caused over 100,000 US Army casualties since 1942, including one third of all casualties in Vietnam and in the Gulf War. On May 19, 2001, nine retired military leaders, including Lt. General James F. Hollingsworth, former Commander of US-ROK forces, expressed their support for the Mine Ban Treaty, stating that the elimination of AP mines from the US arsenal would enhance US combat mobility and effectiveness and protect US servicemen and women. It is clear that changes in tactics, doctrine, or substitution of alternative sensor/weapon systems already available could compensate for anti-personnel landmines in Korea and elsewhere.
Afghanistan is, perhaps, the best example of the reason to eliminate this weapon from our arsenal. In that country there are an estimated 8-10 million landmines in the ground. The Landmine Monitor 2001 reports that in the year 2000 an estimated 88 people per month were maimed or killed by the weapon in Afghanistan, a nation the size of Texas. Demining operations in that country funded, in part, by the United States, employ nearly 5,000 workers and cost millions of dollars each year. Now US and allied troops in Afghanistan are also at serious risk of losing lives and limbs to this insidious weapon.
We encourage you to insist that the Northern Alliance end its use of the weapon and destroy their stockpiled inventory. Most importantly, we urge you to instruct the State Department and the National Security Council to redirect the landmines policy review to reflect the need for the elimination of this outmoded, indiscriminate weapon from the US arsenal. Only in this way can the United States resume its leadership on this important international issue."
On December, a senior administration official insisted: "The policy is under review. Until such time as the administration brings forth its policy, it is meaningless to suggest it has moved one way or another."
In London on December 2, Landmine Action and the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which is continuing the Princess's prominent work on behalf of landmine victims and in favour of a total global AP ban, drew attention to the use of cluster bombs in Afghanistan. Up to that date, according to US figures cited by Landmine Action, 600 cluster bombs had been dropped in the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida. Each bomb contains 202 'bomblets' designed to scatter over a 150-mile radius. According to Richard Lloyd, Director of Landmine Action: "When the container opens...the bomblets...are supposed to detonate on impact... The conservative estimate is that 10% of these bomblets fail to go off... If there's been 120,000 bomblets used in Afghanistan already, then there's 12,000 of these lying around waiting to explode at the slightest touch." The problem, Lloyd added, is compounded by the fact that the bomblets are yellow, the same colour as food packages dropped by the US military. A number of child fatalities had already been reported by the beginning of December.
Andrew Purkis, Chief Executive of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, told reporters: "Like landmines, unexploded cluster bombs represent a lethal threat. ... It seems a timely moment to urge the UK government to take a leadership role in rallying international opinion behind [the move to have] international humanitarian law also apply to cluster bombs."
In early January, it was reported that India was laying large numbers of anti-personnel mines along its border with Pakistan. Neither India or Pakistan are signatories of the Ottawa Convention. On January 4, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) wrote to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urging his government "to refrain from laying new anti-personnel mines and to declare this publicly. In taking such a bold step, you will avoid putting civilians and combatants at further risk and will help to build confidence in the region, laying the groundwork for peace. We are also calling on Pakistan to refrain from using anti-personnel mines. We are also urging states parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, including Bangladesh and the Maldives, to oppose any use of anti-personnel mines by India or Pakistan."
On January 14, Cambodia announced it had completed the destruction of the last portion of its AP stockpile. The destruction programme, funded in large part by international donations, took over three years to complete. Cambodia remains one of the most heavily mined on earth, with an estimated 4-6 million mines on its territory. According to Khem Sophoan, Director of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre, "more than 200 years" of demining work be required to finally rid the country of the scourge.
Reports: Diana fund calls for action against cluster bombs, Reuters, December 2; Groups warn of deadly cluster bombs, Associated Press, December 2; Letter to President Bush from 124 Members of Congress, December 18, available on the website of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (http://www.icbl.org); Bush landmine review draws fire, ABC News, December 20; Letter from ICBL to Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee, January 4, ICBL website; India and Pakistan urged against landmines, OneWorld, January 7; Cambodia destroys land mines, Associated Press, January 14.
© 2002 The Acronym Institute.