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Note: This document is from the archive of the Africa Policy E-Journal, published by the Africa Policy Information Center (APIC) from 1995 to 2001 and by Africa Action from 2001 to 2003. APIC was merged into Africa Action in 2001. Please note that many outdated links in this archived document may not work.

Africa: Recent Landmines Documents, 2
Date Distributed (ymd): 960216

Arms Control Working Group c/o
Demilitarization for Democracy
1601 Connecticut Ave. NW #600
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 319-7191  Fax: (202) 319-7194
E-mail: [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

January 26, 1996

Washington, D.C. ... President Clinton today signed into law
a one-year moratorium on the use of anti-personnel landmines
by U.S. forces. This "Leahy-Evans" (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt.
and Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill.) amendment is part of the foreign
operations appropriation, which is included in the Continuing
Resolution keeping the government running until March 15. The
moratorium on landmine use will take effect in three years, so
that U.S. armed forces can make changes in doctrine and
operations without disrupting combat readiness. (For more
information on military alternatives to landmines, please call
319-7191 for a copy of DFD's 1995 report, which contains a
three-year timetable for phasing in these alternatives.)

The moratorium on landmine use is permanent law, despite the
fact that the bill containing it expires March 15. Supporters
of the provision expect strong efforts this coming year from
the Pentagon to overturn it, but at the moment, U.S. law
pointedly rejects current administration policy and points the
way toward an international ban on the use of anti-personnel
landmines. This is victory for a remarkable coalition of
veterans, religious, humanitarian, human rights, development,
and disarmament groups. DFD director Caleb Rossiter said:
"This amendment points the way to a world in which landmines
are illegal and their use is punished with stiff sanctions. As
is the case with chemical weapons, that will lead eventually
to a world without landmines, which will save lives and limbs
not only for tens of thousands of civilians but also for U.S.
troops on peace-keeping missions in places like Bosnia."

The moratorium on landmine use passed the Senate 67-27, and
then was accepted in conference by a House subcommittee
chaired by Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.). The Pentagon made an
attempt to weaken the moratorium in the conference on the
Defense Authorization Act, but Sen. Leahy held up that bill on
the Senate floor until Armed Services chair Sen. Strom
Thurmond (R-S.C.) agreed to remove a provision granting the
President the right to waive the landmines moratorium.

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February 2, 1996

Dear President Clinton:

We represent veterans, international development, humanitarian
relief, human rights, religious, and disarmament groups who
support the International Campaign To Ban Landmines.  We have
been deeply disappointed by your decision to defer to the
wishes of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of
Defense and instruct your representatives in recent
international negotiations to thwart efforts to ban landmines.

Landmines burst into press and public notice in December when
Army Specialist 4 Martin John Begosh drove his vehicle over a
landmine and became the first U.S. military casualty in
Bosnia.  He certainly will not be the last military casualty,
because 6 million or more landmines are strewn across Bosnia
and Croatia.

In November 1995 Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John
Shalikashvili lobbied hard against a moratorium on landmine
use proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Lane Evans; just
two months later Secretary of Defense William Perry called
landmines the number one threat to U.S. military personnel in
Bosnia.  Clearly, the argument that landmines are "force
multipliers" that save the lives of U.S. military personnel
fails the reality test in Bosnia, where landmines are deadly
"force dividers" for our troops, just as they were in Vietnam,
Iraq, and Somalia.  A world without landmines would be far
safer for U.S. troops than the world with millions of
landmines they must face today.

However, the overriding reality in Bosnia and other areas of
armed conflict is that military casualties due to landmines
are only the tip of the iceberg.  Landmines are the weapons
that keep on killing long after armed conflict has ended.
Whom do they keep on killing?  Tragically, innocent children
at play, farmers cultivating land for food, and women carrying
the family's supply of water are the ones killed or maimed.
Over 100 million landmines in 62 countries continue to kill
and maim 2000 people every month and pose a significant
barrier to efforts to promote sustainable economic development
abroad.

Indeed, whether landmines, on balance, protect or threaten
military personnel is not for us the key issue.  Landmines are
indiscriminate terror weapons that, like chemical weapons,
should be banned from the world's arsenals.  Secretary of
State Warren Christopher has called landmines "weapons of mass
destruction in slow motion," and we believe that weapons of
mass destruction are illegal and should be banned and
destroyed.

We are aware that U.S. armed forces attempt to use landmines
in such a way as to minimize civilian casualties, by marking
permanent minefields and generally using only short-term,
self-destructing mines in unmarked areas.  However, it is not
U.S. use but U.S. leadership that is at issue at this time.

Landmines are a global problem requiring global leadership.
There will be no significant movement toward a workable ban on
landmines until the United States joins the countries who are
removing landmines from their arsenals and then challenges
other countries to agree to an international regime of
inspections and sanctions to ensure that landmines are not
being produced, stockpiled, or used.  A ban is the only
practical way to ensure that in future Bosnias our troops and
those of our allies do not suffer the senseless casualties
they have this time.

In your September 1994 address to the United Nations you
placed the United States firmly behind the goal of ridding the
world of anti-personnel landmines.  Since then, however, you
have deferred to the Pentagon's intense opposition to
meaningful steps toward achieving the goal you and we share.
As noted above, last fall the Pentagon lobbied fiercely
against the Leahy-Evans landmine use moratorium even after it
passed the Senate by a better than two-to-one margin, and the
U.S. delegation to the U.N. negotiations on conventional
weapons actually opposed other countries' proposals to ban
landmines.

We applaud the enactment into law in January of the Leahy-
Evans legislation, which establishes a one-year moratorium on
the use of anti-personnel landmines by U.S. forces starting in
1998.  This law should form the basis for the U.S. position in
current international negotiations on landmines.

Now, while America's attention is focused on the threat of
landmines in Bosnia, is the time for you to take on the
Pentagon's arguments and stand up for the thousands of
civilian and military victims of landmines.  We recall that
the Pentagon in the 1980s also bitterly opposed efforts to ban
the production of chemical weapons, which like landmines by
their very nature did not discriminate between combatants and
civilians.  However, President Bush promoted the historic
agreement banning all parties from having chemical weapons and
setting up a system of inspections and sanctions to enforce
the agreement.

Only the Commander-in-Chief can instruct the Pentagon to cease
its resistance to banning a weapon.  We urge you to do so in
the case of anti-personnel landmines, so the Pentagon can
begin planning for operations in a mine-free world and the
United States can return to its position of international
leadership on this issue.

We come to the landmines campaign from a wide variety of
perspectives -- human rights groups who see landmines as
indiscriminate weapons that violate existing international law
protecting civilians from attack; veterans' groups who have
seen first-hand the trauma these coward's weapons inflict on
combatants as well as civilians; international relief groups
who treat victims of mine warfare; international development
groups who face the nearly impossible task of helping
communities clear mines and resume economic development; and
disarmament groups who oppose the transfer of weapons to
irresponsible users, which for landmines means, by definition,
virtually all users.  We all view the International Campaign
To Ban Landmines as one of the most important legacies that
the troubled 1990s can offer to the world.

We look forward to hearing your response to our position.
Thank you for your attention to our appeal.

Sincerely,

Americans for Democratic Action; Amy Isaacs, National Director
* American Friends Service Committee, Washington Office; James
Matlack, Director * Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace;
Kathryn Johnson, Interim Executive Director * Bread for the
World; David Beckman, President * Center for Defense
Information; Admiral Jack Shanahan, Director * Church of the
Brethren, Washington Office; Timothy McElwee, Director *
Church Women United, Washington Office; Nancy Chupp, Director
* Council for a Livable World; John Isaacs, Executive Director
* Council on Economic Priorities; Jordana Friedman, Director,
International Security Program * Demilitarization for
Democracy; Caleb Rossiter, Director * Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America; Mark Brown, Assistant Director * Federation
of American Scientists; Lora Lumpe, Director Arms Sales
Monitoring Project * Friends Committee on National
Legislation; Joe Volk, Executive Secretary * Fund for New
Priorities in America; Maurice Paprin, President * Human
Rights Watch, The Arms Project; Steve Goose, Program Director
* Lutheran World Relief; Kathryn Wolford, President *
Maryknoll Justice and Peace Office; Terence Miller * Mennonite
Central Committee, Washington Office; J. Daryl Byler, Director
* National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament;
Greg Bischak, Executive Director * Peace Action; Fran Teplitz,
Program Director * Physicians for Human Rights; Susannah
Sirken, Acting Executive Director * Saferworld; Peter Davies,
United States Representative * United States Catholic
Conference; John Carr, Secretary of the Department of Social
Development and World Peace * Veterans for Peace; Jerry
Genesio, Executive Director * Vietnam Veterans of America
Foundation; Jody Williams, Coordinator, the International
Campaign To Ban Landmines * Washington Office on Africa; Imani
Countess, Executive Director * Women's Commission for Refugee
Women and Children; Mary Diaz, Director * Women's Action for
New Directions; Debra Walden, Director * Women Strike for
Peace; Edith Villastrigo, Director * World Federalist
Association; Tim Barner, Executive Director

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This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Washington Office on Africa (WOA), a not-for-profit church,
trade union and  civil rights group supported organization
that works with Congress on Africa-related legislation. WOA's
educational affiliate is the Africa Policy Information Center
(APIC).

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