New US Landmine Policy Represents a Major Dangerous Policy Rollback
March 5, 2004

In this edition. . .

• Overview of New US Landmine Policy
• Action Alert: Write a Letter to the Editor About New Dangerous US Landmine Policy
• Action Alert: Please Distribute this Email and Announce this New Policy in your Newsletters and Websites
• New York Times, Boston Globe, and Other Papers Publish Editorials Critical of New Policy
• Many Organizations and Policy-Makers Condemn New Policy

Overview of New US Landmine Policy

The Bush Administration's policy on landmines, announced last week, constitutes a major and dangerous rollback of US landmine policy:

• The US has now abandoned its plans to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, by 2006 (as was the Clinton plan), or ever.
• The use of US self-destructing mines is now permitted indefinitely anywhere in the world.
• The use of long-lived (or "dumb") antipersonnel mines is now permissible until 2010.

There are a few positive and important aspects to the new policy:

• US mine action funding will increase for next year.
• All non-self-deactivating ("dumb") mines, both antipersonnel and anti-vehicle, will be phased out, but not until 2010. However, these positive elements of the policy are far overshadowed by the negative elements.
   
  This new policy is completely out-of-step with the global movement that has been working for over a decade to eradicate the weapon. The unprecedented alliance of governments, international organizations such as the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross and civil society groups that make up the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) made history in 1997, when they secured the 1997 treaty prohibiting antipersonnel mines (and won the Nobel Peace Prize). The new policy undermines the movement's efforts to universalize the life-saving 1997 Mine Ban Treaty by providing justification for other holdout states - such as Russia, India, and Pakistan- to use, produce, or export these indiscriminate weapons. A total of 150 governments have joined the Mine Ban Treaty, of which 141 are full States Parties, including all of NATO except the US.

Action Alert: Write a Letter to the Editor About the New Dangerous US Landmine Policy

Most papers around the country, and around the world, have already published articles about this new US landmine policy. Many seem to inaccurately portray self-deactivating or self-destructing mines as "smart," though they cannot distinguish between the foot of a soldier and that of a child. Make your voice heard to policy-makers and the general public and submit a letter to the editor to your local paper.
If your letter gets published, please email us at landmines@fcnl.org or send it to us at the address at the bottom of this email.

Sample Letter to the Editor:

To the Editor:
The recent coverage of President Bush's new US landmine policy sugar-coats a major policy rollback through which the US government has abandoned plans to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty that has already had a tremendous, life-saving impact worldwide. US refusal to join this treaty gives political cover to countries such as Russia, India, and Pakistan, which have laid hundreds of thousands of mines in recent years with devastating consequences for innocent victims.

Though President Clinton failed to sign the treaty, he did create a policy that would put the US on track to join by 2006. The new Bush policy rejects any notion that the US will join the treaty, puts off the destruction of "persistent" landmines until 2010, and asserts that our military may use self-deactivating mines indefinitely. These so-called "smart" mines cannot discriminate between soldiers and children, tend to be scattered by air and are thus difficult to mark and map, pose tremendous challenges and costs for demining teams, and threaten the lives and limbs of innocent civilians and US troops who step on the weapons soon after they've been planted.

Meanwhile, reportedly, the US military hasn't used antipersonnel landmines since 1991. Let's join the majority of the world in giving up this cruel, outmoded, and indiscriminate weapon that kills and maims far more civilians than it does soldiers!

Sincerely,
Name
Address

Action Alert: Please Distribute this Email and Announce this New Policy in your Newsletters and Websites

Please help us spread the word about this dangerous new policy. Forward this email to people you know, and encourage them to visit our website at www.banminesusa.org. If you or your organization has a newsletter, website, or other means of communication, we urge you to include information about this new policy and ways people can take action.

Please see our website at www.banminesusa.org. You are more than welcome to link from your website to ours and to include information in your materials that is on our website. Finally, if you know of a radio show or other media outlet that may be interested in this story, please let us know at landmines@fcnl.org.

New York Times, Boston Globe, and Other Papers Publish Editorials Critical of New Policy

The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe, and other newspapers have published editorials and Op-Eds critical of the new US landmine policy. Others may soon follow. We believe these editorials are an important way to influence public and policy-maker opinion. If you see other editorials or are interested in submitting an Op-Ed, please contact us at landmines@fcnl.org. Please see http://www.banminesusa.org/news/921_times.htm for the following editorials:

• Boston Globe Editorial: New Life for Land Mines
  March 3, 2004 2004
• New York Times Editorial: A Bad Shift on Land Mines
  March 1, 2004
• International Herald Tribune: Land mines: Another American Blow to Multilateralism
  March 3, 2004
• The Courier-Journal Louisville: Editorial: Banning Landmines
  March 2, 2004
• Akron Beacon Journal: Points high and low in land-mine debate; As usual, White House charts a separate course
  March 2, 2004

Many Organizations and Policy-Makers Condemn New Policy

Many organizations, such as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, and policy-makers such Senator Patrick Leahy and the government of Japan, have condemned the new US landmine policy. If your organization is able to come out with a statement in response to the new policy, that would be very helpful.

Please send any organizational statements to landmines@fcnl.org, and we will post them on our website. See http://www.banminesusa.org/news/920_org.htm for the following statements:

• Nobel Laureates (International Campaign to Ban Landmines) Condemn U.S. Decision to Keep Antipersonnel Mines
• US Conference of Catholic Bishops Says New U.S. Landmines Policy is 'A Missed Opportunity'
• New US Landmine Policy Disappointing Says Landmine Survivors Network
• Statement by Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation on Bush Administration's Landmine Policy Reversal
• Physicians Against Landmines Criticizes New White House Policy on Landmines
• Norwegian People's Aid: Condemns President Bush's New Stance on Landmines
• 'Canadians Committed to Crossing Landmines Off Global To-Do List' Says Mines Action Canada
• 'US Landmine Policy -Disregard for Multilateralism?' Says Austrian Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch
• Human Rights Watch news release in response to the new Bush US landmine policy.
• Lutheran World Relief Urges US Administration to Support, Not Abandon, Life-Saving International Landmine Ban.
• Japan regrets that the United States has decided not to sign an international treaty to ban land mines.
• Senator Patrick Leahy's response to the new policies.
• Congressman Lane Evans' response to the new policies.
• U.S. Representative James P. McGovern's response to the new policies.
• Mine Ban Advocates (US Campaign to Ban Landmines) Denounce White House Decision to Retain Landmines and Abandon Mine Ban Treaty

For more information about the US Campaign to Ban Landmines or to donate on-line, please see our website at www.banminesusa.org

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
Care of Physicians for Human Rights
100 Boylston Street, Suite 702
Boston, MA 02116
USA
phone: 1+ 617-695-0041
fax: 1+ 617-695-0307

To stop receiving these updates and action alerts, please write to landmines@fcnl.org from the email address that receives the newsletter and ask us to take you off the list.