| U.S. Campaign to Ban
Landmines Email Newsletter In this edition. . .
Action Alert: Contact
Your Legislators about Landmine Victim Assistance Bills! By letter, fax, or email, please contact your Member of the House of Representatives and your two Senators to urge them to cosponsor the "International Disabilities and Victims of Landmines, Civil Strife and Warfare Assistance Act of 2003." This bill, if passed, will help thousands of landmine survivors worldwide with medical and rehabilitative care. In order to attract new supporters in Congress, it is to our advantage not to mention the Mine Ban Treaty or the current US landmine policy review when contacting legislators about this bill. See sample letter below. To find your legislators' contact information, visit www.senate.gov and www.house.gov . This bill was introduced in the House and Senate during the last legislative session but was never voted on. We hope that legislators will feel compelled to pass the bill during this session. The more cosponsors we get, the better chance of passing the bill! Please pass along this action alert. _________________________________ Sample Letter of Support in Favor of Landmine Victim Assistance Bill Date Dear Senator or Representative (name): I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the
"International Disabilities and Victims of Landmines, Civil
Strife and Warfare Assistance Act of 2003" (S 742 and HR 1462). While the Federal Government invests over $120 million in landmine-related activities annually, primarily for demining, less than ten percent of these funds are directed toward addressing the human suffering among those injured by mines. S. 742 and HR 1462 will expand authority at USAID and the Department of Health and Human Services to provide assistance to individuals with disabilities, including victims of landmines and other victims of civil strife and warfare. Such assistance includes medical and rehabilitation services, research, prevention, public awareness campaigns, and peer support. Thank you for considering this important humanitarian issue. Sincerely, Senators Brownback sponsored this bill in the Senate, with cosponsorship from Senators Clinton, Mikulski, Smith, Feinstein, Murray, and Bingaman. Representative Lantos sponsored this bill in the House, with cosponsorship from Representatives Wolf, Brown (Ohio), Smith (New Jersey), Evans, Payne, Pitts, Berman, Quinn, Wexler, Case, Crowley, McDermott, Woolsey, Blumenauer, Serrano, Ackerman, Schiff, Over, Hoeffel, McCollum, and Langevin. Thank You to Organizations that Posted Our Action Alerts Thank you to the organizations below that recently added information about landmines and Iraq to their websites and/or action alerts with links to the US Campaign to Ban Landmines website. Note that a couple of these groups had the landmines alert on their sites for a week and then replaced them with other alerts. Also note that some of the groups below take different positions from the USCBL on some issues, but that we have a common position on the need for the US government to ban antipersonnel landmines and prohibit their use in Iraq. National
Network to End the War Against Iraq Pax
Christi USA Education
for Peace in Iraq Center Win
Without War Voices
in the Wilderness Veterans
for Peace If you work with an organization that could link to the USCBL website or include our action alerts on your site or in your emails to members, please contact us at landmines@fcnl.org or 617-695-0041. Campaign Urges UK and Australia to Abide by Treaty Obligation The US Campaign to Ban Landmines has recently contacted the UK and Australian Embassies in the US and has asked these governments to confirm that their troops in Iraq have been and will be in full compliance with their obligations under the Mine Ban Treaty, or Ottawa Convention. Both governments have responded that their troops have not and will not lay antipersonnel mines in Iraq and will not assist US troops in AP mine-laying operations. As far as we know, US forces have not yet laid AP mines in Iraq, despite Pentagon indications that they may do so. We will continue to engage foreign governments on this issue and urge them to put pressure on the US government to prohibit AP mine use. Millions of Mines Will Litter Iraq, Expert Says (ROME, Italy) Iraq, devastated by a string of wars, will remain littered with landmines that could slow the rebuilding of the country for as many as 10 years, one of the world's leading landmine experts said on Monday. “There are million of mines in Iraq. Whether it is two million or five million or eight million is impossible to say because of the lack of transparency,” Stephen Goose, director of the armaments section of Human Rights Watch, said. Iraq is layered with mines from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the 1991 Gulf War and the current conflict. Goose said mine-clearing agencies could
not hope to match the targets in Kosovo, where teams aim to sweep
the area of the former Yugoslavia clean within a year. “It will take five to 10 years to clear the high priority areas in Iraq...for people to be able to move about freely and to engage in the main economic activities,” Goose told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference on land mines. Last week, the British-based organisation Mines Advisory Group revealed Iraq had stored nearly 700 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines in a mosque... For the full article, visit Nicaraguan Landmine
Kills One Child, Injures Two (MANAGUA, Nicaragua) A landmine killed a 9-year-old boy and seriously injured two other children on Nicaragua's southeastern coast, Managua radio stations reported Saturday. The children found the explosive device on Friday on a rural road in Huapi, on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, after a truck that was driving by unearthed it, according to media reports. The children began to play with the landmine, and at one point they dropped it. It hit a rock and exploded. Francisco Borge Lucas, 9, died immediately from the blast. Hector Manuel Borge Lucas, 6, and Johana Castro Lanzas, 9, were seriously injured and taken to a hospital in Juigalpa, in central Nicaragua. Nicaragua's southern Caribbean coast was a conflict-ridden area during the civil war between the Sandinista army and Contra guerrillas in the 1980s, and live anti-personnel landmines remain scattered throughout the region. For more information about the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines or to donate on-line, please visit www.banminesusa.org |
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For more on the Mine Ban Treaty, go to www.icbl.org |