On February 27th, the Bush Administration, after more than two years of review, released a revised US landmine policy. The new policy reverses the Clinton Administration’s commitment to cease using antipersonnel landmines by 2006. Instead, the new policy states that the US will only phase out some types of mines by 2010. It allows the continued use of other types of mines indefinitely. The following is LSN’s response to this policy revision.
Landmine survivors around the world are deeply disappointed that the United States government has elected not to ban the use of antipersonnel mines or to join the 150 nations that have signed the historic 1997 Landmine Ban Treaty. ALL NATO ALLIES, have already agreed to ban the use, manufacture, stockpiling and export of ALL types of antipersonnel mines. The United States and Cuba are the ONLY countries in the Western Hemisphere that have not yet banned landmines.
The Administration has decided to phase out traditional or “dumb” mines by 2010. “Dumb” mines can lay dormant underground for decades, blowing off limbs and taking lives long after conflict has ended. This new policy asks people living in mine-infested countries to wait SIX MORE YEARS before these “dumb” mines are “phased out.”
The Administration has decided to stockpile and retain the right to use so-called “smart” mines – mines that can be programmed to deactivate or self-destruct. It seems the new US policy wants us to think that a “smart” mine is a “safe” mine. The real question is: “Would you let your child play in a soccer field that was littered with US smart mines, even if you were told they were deactivated?” There is no such thing as a clean or safe minefield. In fact, nearly all minefields around the world contain a dangerous mixture of mines supplied by many countries over the years of a conflict.
In 1998, the United States promised to stop using ALL antipersonnel mines outside the Korean Peninsula by 2003, with a target date to join the global Mine Ban Treaty by 2006. Now, in 2004, the Administration is rolling back these promises. They’re not only leaving the door open to using “dumb” mines until 2010, but they want to use their “smart” mines whenever and wherever they deem appropriate, in perpetuity.
In essence, the Bush Administration policy is legitimizing the use of a weapon designed to maim and rip off body parts—a weapon most of the world deems excessively injurious, inhumane and indiscriminate in nature. The unintended consequence of this new legitimacy may be that an international market is created for American “smart mines” or copycat versions made in China, Russia or India, other countries that have not yet banned mines.
There is no such thing as a “smart” or “dumb” or “safe” landmine. Landmines, whatever their type, will never know the difference between a soldier’s boot and a child’s sandal. The humanitarian cost of this weapon is too high at any price.
How many of the US soldiers injured in Iraq or Afghanistan know if the weapon that took their leg, eye, or arm was “smart “ or “dumb”? They, and other landmine survivors worldwide, only know that, if they’re lucky enough to survive the blast, life will never be the same.
It is imperative that we let the US leadership know that, in our opinion, this new U.S. landmine policy is shortsighted and wrong.
Survivors deserve better.
TAKE ACTION ONLINE
E-mail your concerns today to Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield at bloomfieldlp@state.gov. He is the President and Secretary of State’s Special Representative for Mine Action. You may also address your concerns to Dermott O'Connell, Chief of Staff, Bureau Political-Military Affairs at o'connelldb@state.gov.
Send your message to the Commander in Chief in the White House at president@whitehouse.gov.
White House Switchboard: 202-456-1111
White House Fax: 202-456-2461
Find your senator’s email address at http://www.senate.gov .
Here are some questions the new US policy does not address:
When will the US complete the destruction of its stockpile of old antipersonnel and anti-tank landmines?
Have US troops used antipersonnel mines since the 1991 Gulf War? If we haven’t used these mines in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq, when and where would we really need them?
Don’t landmines pose a threat to US troops, given the record of past wars, where landmines (even US-made mines) were a leading cause of American casualties?
How do you expect other countries to respond to this US policy, as it goes against the wishes of the majority of the nations of the world that have banned mines?
How can our government effectively urge other countries to ban landmines at the same time as we insist on keeping millions of our own?
Speaking of military litter, will US forces continue to use “cluster bombs” with a dud rate that leaves unexploded ordnance acting like dumb deadly landmines on the ground?
Given there are thousands of women and children who continue to be injured and killed by landmines, what is the US government commitment to War Victim Assistance and Survivor Recovery in the coming years?
How can we help ensure more money is spent on landmine clearance and on survivor assistance?
The newly announced US landmine policy does not address these questions, and it raises many more. Please contact the authors of this new policy and ask your own questions. And, if you receive an answer to your queries, please forward it to LSN@landminesurvivors.org
For more information on the US Campaign to Ban Landmines position: http://www.banminesusa.org
For more information on the US landmine policy: http://www.state.gov
For a transcript of the Mine Ban Policy Media Briefing:
http://www.state.gov
© Copyright 2004 Landmine Survivors Network. All Rights Reserved
Landmine Survivors Network: http://www.landminesurvivors.org
Please also visit Adopt-A-Minefield, in our Links section or: http://www.landmines.org
Landmine survivors around the world are deeply disappointed that the United States government has elected not to ban the use of antipersonnel mines or to join the 150 nations that have signed the historic 1997 Landmine Ban Treaty. ALL NATO ALLIES, have already agreed to ban the use, manufacture, stockpiling and export of ALL types of antipersonnel mines. The United States and Cuba are the ONLY countries in the Western Hemisphere that have not yet banned landmines.
The Administration has decided to phase out traditional or “dumb” mines by 2010. “Dumb” mines can lay dormant underground for decades, blowing off limbs and taking lives long after conflict has ended. This new policy asks people living in mine-infested countries to wait SIX MORE YEARS before these “dumb” mines are “phased out.”
The Administration has decided to stockpile and retain the right to use so-called “smart” mines – mines that can be programmed to deactivate or self-destruct. It seems the new US policy wants us to think that a “smart” mine is a “safe” mine. The real question is: “Would you let your child play in a soccer field that was littered with US smart mines, even if you were told they were deactivated?” There is no such thing as a clean or safe minefield. In fact, nearly all minefields around the world contain a dangerous mixture of mines supplied by many countries over the years of a conflict.
In 1998, the United States promised to stop using ALL antipersonnel mines outside the Korean Peninsula by 2003, with a target date to join the global Mine Ban Treaty by 2006. Now, in 2004, the Administration is rolling back these promises. They’re not only leaving the door open to using “dumb” mines until 2010, but they want to use their “smart” mines whenever and wherever they deem appropriate, in perpetuity.
In essence, the Bush Administration policy is legitimizing the use of a weapon designed to maim and rip off body parts—a weapon most of the world deems excessively injurious, inhumane and indiscriminate in nature. The unintended consequence of this new legitimacy may be that an international market is created for American “smart mines” or copycat versions made in China, Russia or India, other countries that have not yet banned mines.
There is no such thing as a “smart” or “dumb” or “safe” landmine. Landmines, whatever their type, will never know the difference between a soldier’s boot and a child’s sandal. The humanitarian cost of this weapon is too high at any price.
How many of the US soldiers injured in Iraq or Afghanistan know if the weapon that took their leg, eye, or arm was “smart “ or “dumb”? They, and other landmine survivors worldwide, only know that, if they’re lucky enough to survive the blast, life will never be the same.
It is imperative that we let the US leadership know that, in our opinion, this new U.S. landmine policy is shortsighted and wrong.
Survivors deserve better.
TAKE ACTION ONLINE
E-mail your concerns today to Assistant Secretary of State Lincoln Bloomfield at bloomfieldlp@state.gov. He is the President and Secretary of State’s Special Representative for Mine Action. You may also address your concerns to Dermott O'Connell, Chief of Staff, Bureau Political-Military Affairs at o'connelldb@state.gov.
Send your message to the Commander in Chief in the White House at president@whitehouse.gov.
White House Switchboard: 202-456-1111
White House Fax: 202-456-2461
Find your senator’s email address at http://www.senate.gov .
Here are some questions the new US policy does not address:
When will the US complete the destruction of its stockpile of old antipersonnel and anti-tank landmines?
Have US troops used antipersonnel mines since the 1991 Gulf War? If we haven’t used these mines in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq, when and where would we really need them?
Don’t landmines pose a threat to US troops, given the record of past wars, where landmines (even US-made mines) were a leading cause of American casualties?
How do you expect other countries to respond to this US policy, as it goes against the wishes of the majority of the nations of the world that have banned mines?
How can our government effectively urge other countries to ban landmines at the same time as we insist on keeping millions of our own?
Speaking of military litter, will US forces continue to use “cluster bombs” with a dud rate that leaves unexploded ordnance acting like dumb deadly landmines on the ground?
Given there are thousands of women and children who continue to be injured and killed by landmines, what is the US government commitment to War Victim Assistance and Survivor Recovery in the coming years?
How can we help ensure more money is spent on landmine clearance and on survivor assistance?
The newly announced US landmine policy does not address these questions, and it raises many more. Please contact the authors of this new policy and ask your own questions. And, if you receive an answer to your queries, please forward it to LSN@landminesurvivors.org
For more information on the US Campaign to Ban Landmines position: http://www.banminesusa.org
For more information on the US landmine policy: http://www.state.gov
For a transcript of the Mine Ban Policy Media Briefing:
http://www.state.gov
© Copyright 2004 Landmine Survivors Network. All Rights Reserved
Landmine Survivors Network: http://www.landminesurvivors.org
Please also visit Adopt-A-Minefield, in our Links section or: http://www.landmines.org