| U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines In this edition. . .
New Senate Bill Introduced to Ban U.S. Procurement of Landmines The U.S. is one of only thirteen countries left in the world that produce or reserve the right to produce antipersonnel mines. If this bill passed, the U.S. would be removed from for that shameful list. The world expects more from the U.S. and so do its citizens. Weapons that do not distinguish between combatants and civilians are inhumane, and should not be produced by the United States or any country. If the U.S. insists on making and using antipersonnel landmines, it will send the wrong message to other nations that claim the right and need to use landmines. If the U.S. needs them, why shouldn’t other nations? It is long past time for the U.S. to join with the rest of the world and ban the procurement of victim-activated weapons. To send a message to your Senators, urging them to co-sponsor the Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006, go to: <http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=8951251> For more information and resources about the Act, go to: <http://www.fcnl.org/issues/item.php?item_id=1995&issue_id=9> U.S. Armed Forces and Civilian Landmine Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan Since 2003, 125 U.S. soldiers, service members and contracts have been killed or injured by landmines in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the most heavily mine impacted countries in the world. Civilians in those two countries are also plagued by landmines, their numbers likely in the thousands. The USCBL has prepared a fact sheet on U.S. and civilian casualties by landmines in Iraq and Afghanistan. To read the fact sheet, go to: <http://www.banminesusa.org/index_afghan.html> 7th Meeting of the States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty To Meet The 7th Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction will take place in Geneva, Switzerland on September 18-22, 2006. For more information on ICBL’s involvement in the meeting,
go to: <http://www.icbl.org/news/7msp> Has the U.S. Sold Cluster Munitions to Israel? Reports indicate that the U.S. has delivered new cluster munitions to Israel since the commencement of renewed hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. Cluster munitions, while designed to detonate on impact, can fail to detonate at a rate of up to 16 percent. When un-unexploded bomblets litter the ground, they can function much like a landmine, killing an unsuspecting person who inadvertently triggers the bomblets. Unexploded cluster bomblets pose a serious threat to civilians, keep land from being exploited for growing food and building houses, and make it hard for refugees to return home after conflict subsides. To read Human Rights Watch’s report on U.S. sales of cluster munitions to Israel, go to: <http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/11/israb13974.htm> To read Human Rights Watch’s letter to the National Security Advisor urging the U.S. not to sell cluster munitions to Israel, go to: <http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/11/israb13972.htm> To read the NY Times report on U.S. shipment of cluster munitions to Israel, go to: <http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/11/africa/web.0811military.php> U.S. Awards $2.1 Million in Grants To Help Clear Land Mines WASHINGTON -- The United States is continuing its commitment to help in the global effort to clear land mines, recently announcing new mine-removal grants worth more than $2.1 million. In a July 27 statement, the State Department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA) said it awarded the grants to 20 nongovernmental groups and UNICEF. The program involves clearing land mines, teaching mine risk education, rendering assistance to mine survivors, and conducting research related to mine removal. The WRA, in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said the grants augment the department's $78.5 million humanitarian mine action budget for fiscal year 2006. Countries to be helped by the program are Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Colombia, Jordan, Laos, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Vietnam and Tajikistan. The program's recipients include Catholic Relief Services, based in Baltimore, which will use its $74,677 grant to teach primary school children in Vietnam's Quang Tri Province about the dangers of unexploded ordnance (UXO) and land mines. To read the full article, go to: <http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=July&x=200607281255151xeneerg4.299343e-03> Fighting Roadside
Bombs: Low-Tech, High-Tech, Toy Box By Renae Merle Robert Pervere's fight against insurgents in Iraq started with an Emaxx monster truck from Debbie's RC World Inc. in Chesapeake, Va., a $335 toy that he turned into a weapon for U.S. troops against roadside bombs. The 24-year-old engineer replaced about 80 percent of the toy's plastic parts with aluminum, fastened two small surveillance cameras to the top and made room for an explosive that could blow up suspicious objects from hundreds of feet away. "I get paid to play with [radio control] cars," said Pervere, who helped build the prototype for Applied Marine Technology Inc., a Virginia-based defense contractor that has said it expects to begin receiving military orders in September. "This has been a very rewarding project, working on a tool that's going to be out the door saving lives shortly." After more than three years of war in Iraq, roadside bombs remain the deadliest single threat to U.S. troops, and countering them has emerged as one of the chief technological problems of the conflict. The Pentagon has spent tens of millions of dollars on the most obvious fixes -- adding armor to vehicles and deploying jammers to block radio signals used to explode the devices -- only to see the insurgents develop larger, better-concealed and more complicated explosives triggered by cellphones, garage-door openers, pressure hoses and other methods. Soldiers have even developed solutions of their own: Many Humvees in Iraq are outfitted with metal devices the size of a hockey stick that can catch tripwires or detect heat-sensitive triggers on roadside bombs. To read the full article, go to: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/28/AR2006072801462.html> Peace Sages and Teens vs. World Strife By Jennifer Brown When the largest gathering of Nobel Peace Prize winners outside Oslo, Norway, comes to Denver this fall, it will announce the 12 core problems standing in the way of world peace. Some say the secret list - the result of a year's worth of conversations among some of the planet's foremost experts in conflict resolution - could have the significance of the United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Nobel laureates, among them the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, will present their global action plan to 3,000 teenagers from 31 countries at PeaceJam, to be held Sept. 15-17 at the University of Denver. The $2.4 million event started by the Arvada-based PeaceJam Foundation teaches youth - from honors students to gang members - to create pockets of peace. Students and Nobel laureates brainstorm about how to take back a neighborhood park, start a gay-straight alliance at school or raise money to build a classroom in an African village. To read the full article, go to: <http://www.denverpost.com/ci_4100251?source=rss> The Kongra-Gel/HPG pledges to renounce the use of anti-personnel mines Geneva, 18 July 2006 - The Kurdistan People’s Congress (Kongra Gel)/People’s Defence Forces (HPG), also known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has committed to a total ban on antipersonnel (AP) mines in signing the Geneva Call’s Deed of Commitment. "Our organization has been discussing the issue of landmines for several years. We have now decided to stop using AP mines because we realized that this coward weapon is against our struggle and principles" said Zubeyir Aydar, President of the Kongra-Gel. "AP mines affect civilians and cause irreparable damage, often long after fighting is over" added Fehman Hüseyin, HPG Commander. "Our strategy is to employ discriminate weapons only. This is why we use command-detonated devices, no longer AP mines." Several thousands of people have been killed or injured by mines.The Kongra-Gel/HPG, (also known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) ) has been waging an armed struggle against the Turkish State since 1984. Both parties used mines, particularly in the predominantly Kurdish areas in the southeast of the country. In addition, borders with Syria, Iraq, Iran and Armenia have also been mined by the Turkish army. The Republic of Turkey acceded to the Ottawa Convention in 2003. To read the full press release, go to: <http://www.genevacall.org/news/testi-press-releases/gc-18jul06-pkk.htm> For more information on the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, go to www.banminesusa.org U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines To make a donation to the US Campaign to Ban Landmines go to: www.banminesusa.org/support/body.html and click on Donate. |
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