U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines Email Newsletter
March 1, 2002

In this edition…

• March 1 Anniversary of Landmine Treaty’s Entry into Force
• Action Alert 1: Sign Your Organization onto the Landmines Letter to Bush
• Action Alert 2: Contact Your Senators and the White House
• Vietnam Veterans Group Launches Media Blitz Against Mines
• International Landmines Campaign Criticizes India/Pakistan
• Australian Soldier Dies After Stepping on Mine in Afghanistan

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty’s entry into force as law for the world’s nations that have ratified the 1997 Convention. Please honor this anniversary by signing your organization (if applicable) onto the letter to the President and by contacting your Senators and the White House (see action alerts below). Also see what countries and individuals throughout the world are doing to honor this anniversary by visiting www.icbl.org. Finally, see below how an Australian soldier died from a mine explosion in Afghanistan and what the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation are doing to raise the visibility of the mines issue and U.S. policy.

Organizations that are part of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines will be sending a letter to the White House next week asking President Bush to ban landmines in light of his administration’s formal policy review of the issue. We are working to get as many national, state, and local groups as possible to sign onto the letter. If you are affiliated with an organization, please consider having your group sign onto the letter below. Please let us know by Wednesday, March 6 at landmines@fcnl.org.

March 7, 2002

George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

March 1 marked the 3-year anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty’s entry into force. We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to urge you to bring the United States on board this historic agreement. We understand that your administration is in the midst of a formal review of U.S. landmine policies. We hope you will take this opportunity to renounce this weapon of terror that does not discriminate between soldiers and children.

Often called "weapons of mass-destruction in slow motion," landmines indiscriminately maim and kill 15,000-20,000 people each year in more than 80 nations. Most of the victims are civilians, and approximately one-third of them are children. Farming, travel, and economic development are severely inhibited by the terrifying presence of mines. For this reason, nearly three quarters of the world’s nations, including all of NATO (except for the United States and Turkey) have banned the weapon.

We commend the United States for its generous support of demining and landmine victim assistance. These programs should continue and should be strengthened. However, U.S. political support of the global landmine ban is also vital. Our government’s reluctance to participate in this successful accord gives political cover to armies that continue to use the weapon with disastrous civilian consequences.

Current U.S. policy mandates that the U.S. moves toward compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty by the year 2006 if certain military conditions are met. Notably, in May of 2001, 8 senior, retired U.S. admirals and generals, including a former commander of U.S. troops in Korea, wrote to you stating that AP landmines "are outmoded weapons that have, time and again, proved to be a liability to our own troops. We believe that the military, diplomatic, and humanitarian advantages of speedy U.S. accession [to the treaty] far outweigh the minimal military utility of these weapons" (see attached). Moreover, last November, more than 500 U.S. veterans from all 50 states sent a similar letter, reminding you that mines have caused over 100,000 U.S. Army casualties since 1942, including one-third of all casualties in Vietnam and in the Gulf War. Sadly, it comes as no surprise that American soldiers have recently had limbs blown off by landmines in Afghanistan.

It is our understanding that as part of this policy review process, the Defense Department recommended that you abandon all U.S. efforts to join the Mine Ban Treaty. However, 124 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, recently asked you not to heed these recommendations and encouraged you to eliminate antipersonnel landmines from the U.S. arsenal.

Last year at this time, more than 250 Americans and additional people from more than 70 countries came together in Washington, D.C. for Ban Landmines Week where they met with more than 300 Congressional offices and asked the U.S. government to prioritize this issue. We believe that our nation is above using weapons of terror such as landmines. As humanitarian, religious, human rights, veterans, and medical organizations, we represent a wide cross-section of American values and constituencies. The humanitarian, military, and diplomatic reasons to join the Mine Ban Treaty are so compelling that we are hopeful your administration will now find a way for our country to join the global ban of this indiscriminate weapon.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

The following organizations:

March 1-8, 2002 is Ban Landmines Week to mark the 3rd anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty going into force as international law. The U.S. government is "honoring" this anniversary by continuing its refusal to join the Mine Ban Treaty. The Bush administration is currently determining new U.S. landmines policies. If he accepts recent Defense Department recommendations, he will abandon all efforts to join the Mine Ban Treaty. Now is the time to speak up to your U.S. Senators, President Bush, and Secretary Colin Powell about this cruel and indiscriminate weapon. Please get 5-100 of your friends and family members to join you in speaking up between now and March 8.

Members of the House of Representatives recently signed onto a letter to the President urging him to eliminate antipersonnel landmines from the U.S. arsenal. Fax, email, or call your U.S. Senators and ask them to send their own individual letters!

SAMPLE FAX OR EMAIL TO YOUR SENATORS:

Visit http://www.senate.gov for their contact information.

Dear Senator_______:

As you may know, the Bush administration is currently determining new U.S. landmines policy. Before he finalizes this policy, please urge him to give up antipersonnel landmines from the U.S. arsenal and to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Thousands of innocent civilians in poor countries continue to be maimed and killed by landmines each year. Our own troops and peacekeepers are at risk from mines in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Almost all of NATO has given up this cruel, indiscriminate weapon. It is time for our country to do so as well.

Sincerely,

Name, Address

Sample email or fax to President Bush and Secretary Powell:

Powell fax: 202-261-8577 Bush fax: 202-456-2461

Bush email: president@whitehouse.gov

White House switchboard: 202-456-1414

Dear President Bush/Secretary Powell,

I am dismayed to hear that the United States may be moving away from its commitment to join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. Antipersonnel landmines maim and kill upwards of 18,000 people each year, mostly children, farmers, and other innocent civilians. The indiscriminate weapon also renders land useless for cultivation. Most of the world's nations, including almost all of NATO, have joined the Mine Ban Treaty. It is time for the United States to do so as well.

In Afghanistan, there are already 8-10 million landmines on the ground. U.S. deployment of mines in that country, an option military leaders say is possible, would only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and put U.S. ground troops at risk. Please advocate for our country to give up this dishonorable weapon, in Afghanistan and everywhere else.

Sincerely,

Name, Address

February 25 News Release

VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA FOUNDATION URGES PRESIDENT BUSH TO BAN LANDMINES IMMEDIATELY

U.S. military has no need for this obsolete weapon, according to retired military leader

In anticipation of a Bush Administration announcement on U.S. landmine policy expected next month, the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation (VVAF) today launched a public information campaign appealing to President Bush to join our NATO allies and the majority of the world's nations and immediately ban landmines.

The U.S. is not a signatory to the international treaty banning landmines - signed by 140 nations -- and is the only NATO country not to renounce the weapon. The Bush administration is reviewing all of the policies of the Clinton administration, including that which outlines the U.S. policy on landmines. A decision on this review is imminent.

"The upcoming U.S. decision on landmines presents President Bush with an historic opportunity to lead the global coalition of nations and rid the world of this horrific and inhumane weapon that kills or maims thousands of people every year," said Bobby Muller, VVAF president and co-founder of Nobel Prize-winning global campaign to ban landmines. "President Bush's moral leadership in the war on terrorism provides him the opportunity to do what the Clinton Administration could not and the world community expects - ban landmines."

Current U.S. policy on landmines, which was declared by President Clinton in 1998, calls for a ban on landmines by 2006 if alternative weapons are adopted by then. VVAF maintains that sophisticated and extremely effective alternative weapons already exist and the U.S. military has no need for an obsolete weapon like landmines in today's modern battles.

"The truth is our military doesn't use landmines anymore - and hasn't used them in the last 10 years," said Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, Jr., (USA, Ret.), an artillery commander in Vietnam and former president of The National Defense University. "They just haven't declared it policy. Weapons exist today that are lighter, more precise and simply more lethal than landmines. Landmines are weapons that have no place in today's high-tech military."

VVAF's public information campaign to ban landmines -- which includes television, radio, print, outdoor ads, banner ads on AOL and Yahoo and internet outreach -- not only highlights the obsolescence of landmines in today's modern military and the fact that landmines actually maim more U.S. soldiers than they protect, it also asks President Bush if, in a critical time of international coalition building, it is wise for the U.S. to stand apart from its NATO allies on the issue of banning landmines.

"Cooperation between our military forces and those of other nations is critical to future successes," Gard said. "U.S. insistence on continued use of landmines pose a threat to future combined missions with our allies. Landmines are relics of past battles and put our troops in harms way."

Two 30-second television spots, "Hopscotch," narrated by anti-landmine crusader and singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris, and "Today's Military," will air in the Washington, DC market, while a third television spot is planned for international audiences. Print advertising will appear in defense and Capitol Hill publications as well as general dailies. Subway advertisements are planned for early March. (You can view VVAF's ban landmines public information campaign at http://vvaf.org/campaign/home.html).

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Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation is dedicated to achieving global security through programs that not only reduce the worldwide threat posed by war and conflict but also promote justice and freedom. As veterans who understand the causes, conduct, and consequences of war, we are committed to leaving a legacy of fairness for future generations — at home and abroad.

Established by a dedicated group of Vietnam veterans in 1980, VVAF has transformed the experience of war into a program of service to others. Our goal is simple — to build and nurture a global spirit that is humanitarian and compassionate, just, and dedicated to freedom.

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For interview requests with Bobby Muller or Gen. Robert Gard, please call Patti Reilly (202) 557-7518 or Maria Montenegro (202) 557-7522

Press Statement Embargoed for Release 1 March

India and Pakistan come under fire for mine use as ICBL marks Mine Ban Treaty anniversary

(1 March 2002) The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) called for an end to mine warfare on the India-Pakistan border, on the occasion of the third anniversary of the entry into force of the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines.

A total of 122 countries have ratified and another 20 have signed the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. Although most of Africa, Europe and Latin America, and some countries in Asia have joined the treaty, the following nations are among those that have so far refused to become States Parties: China, Egypt, Finland, India, Israel, North and South Korea, Pakistan, Russia and United States (U.S.).

Delhi and Islamabad will come under pressure this week as campaigners arrange embassy visits and mount a worldwide letter-writing campaign to communicate the ICBL message that mine use cannot be tolerated. Meanwhile, leaders in the Commonwealth have been asked to weigh in and condemn mine use at their meeting this weekend in Queensland, Australia.

The ICBL also voiced its alarm at a possible reversal of U.S. landmine policy, calling on the Bush administration to honor its commitment to ban the weapon and to join the Mine Ban Treaty by a certain date.

Turning to the situation in Afghanistan, one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, the ICBL appealed to donor countries to make mine action and victim assistance programs a priority in rebuilding the

country. The campaign urged the country’s interim authority to begin destroying stockpiled antipersonnel mines, provide a comprehensive victim assistance program and prepare the way for the new government to accede to the Mine Ban Treaty as soon as possible. In order to highlight the problems posed by the contamination of landmines and UXO in Afghanistan and ways to address them, the United Nations Mine Action Center for Afghanistan, the Afghan Campaign to Ban Landmines, the ICBL and other partners will host an international meeting in Kabul in July 2002.

Mine threat in India and Pakistan

"Mines will take the lives and limbs of civilians in India and Pakistan today and for years to come," said Faiz Fayyaz who heads the Pakistan Campaign to Ban Landmines. Echoing this statement, coordinator of the Indian Campaign to Ban Landmines Dr Balkrishna Kurvey said, "on top of the deaths and casualties, landmines are also denying farmers the use of large areas of land and clearing them will be expensive and dangerous."

The ICBL argues that any use of antipersonnel mines violates international law. "These weapons are illegal under customary international humanitarian law because they are inherently indiscriminate and their limited military utility is far overshadowed by their devastating humanitarian consequences," said coordinator Elizabeth Bernstein.

"Together with the humanitarian and economic reasons for banning mines, there are also powerful diplomatic motivations," said Bernstein, "since banning and clearing mines can be confidence building measures which can add to regional peace and security." Bernstein pointed to the example of Greece and Turkey and their long-term border dispute. Both countries made simultaneous announcements last year that they would join the treaty as a confidence building measure.

Military experts taking part in a study carried out by the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1996, concluded that in the three previous India-Pakistan wars, the "contribution of these minefields to the ultimate outcome of the conflict was considered to be marginal."

The ICBL sent letters to India’s Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistan’s President Musharraf on 4 January, urging both sides to refrain from using mines and to make a public declaration to this effect. The campaign has not received an official response from India as yet. A reply from the Deputy Chief of Pakistan’s Mission in Washington DC was sent on 29 January and states: "Pakistan has been obliged to take precautionary defensive measures in the face of massive Indian military deployments at our border."

Mine use in India and Pakistan has received media coverage over the last few months. Several civilian casualties have been reported, including a bicyclist who was killed on New Year’s Day in India’s Bikaner district and a child was injured in the same region soon afterwards. There have also been recent reports of mines killing and injuring military personnel.

The ICBL's groundbreaking Landmine Monitor initiative has documented mine use in other countries besides India and Pakistan, including in Angola, Burma, Russia and Sri Lanka.

Progress in eliminating weapon of terror

The Mine Ban Treaty was signed by a total of 122 governments on 3 December 1997 in Ottawa, Canada. In September the following year, Burkina Faso was the 40th country to ratify, triggering entry into force six months later. Thus, in March 1999 the treaty became binding under international law, and did so more quickly than any treaty of its kind in history.

Today considerable progress has been made in eradicating antipersonnel mines: the international trade in mines is now at a virtual standstill, production has gone down dramatically, global use of mines has been reduced, there is an encouraging decline in the number of new mine victims, vast tracts of land have been cleared, and tens of millions of antipersonnel mines in stockpiles have been destroyed.

World attention now being focused on Afghanistan has certainly helped one of the world's most heavily mine-infested countries continue to deal with mine and UXO clearance activities - threatened with up to a 30% reduction prior to September 11, due to lack of funding. The ICBL continues to work closely with States Parties, the UN, the ICRC and others on the full implementation and consolidation of the Mine Ban Treaty. This includes efforts to ensure that all mine-affected States Parties in positions of need will receive the necessary technical and / or financial assistance to be able to meet their obligations under this truly life-saving humanitarian treaty, one of the few success stories in multilateral diplomacy existing today.

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For more information please go to www.icbl.org, write to media@icbl.org or contact:

· Liz Bernstein, ICBL Coordinator, +1-202-547-2667 (Washington DC)

· Susan Walker, Intersessional Programme Officer, + 41-79-470-1931 (Geneva).

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 17 Feb 02 (CBC)

Australia suffered its first fatality in the war on terrorism on Sunday when an Australian solider was killed in a landmine explosion in Afghanistan.

The unidentified soldier was a member of the Special Air Service Regiment. He was in the lead vehicle in a convoy when it struck an anti-vehicle landmine near Kandahar. No other injuries were reported.

Army chief Lt.-Gen Peter Cosgrove said the soldiers were seeking out and removing weapons left by retreating Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.

A U.S. combat search and rescue helicopter evacuated the wounded soldier to an American medical facility, but he died soon after arrival, Congrove said.

Australia has committed 1,500 military personnel, including 150 commandos, to the war in Afghanistan.

Kandahar remains a dangerous place despite the presence of thousands of U.S., Canadian and Australian soldiers. Several skirmishes and firefights have been reported in the past week.

The U.S. has taken over the airfield in Kandahar and turned it into a base for more than 4,000 soldiers, including 750 Canadians.

Some Muslim pilgrims have been waiting for days outside the city's courthouse for word on whether they would be able to board flights from Kandahar to Mecca.

They say they won't be able to make their journey because the U.S. has taken over the airport.

"Kandahar is a very important city in the Muslim world," said one man. "Pilgrims have been leaving from here to go to Mecca for more than a hundred years. My parents and grandparents made that trip and now we're being denied that right."

But a government spokesman in Kandahar province said it's not the fault of the U.S. that civilian planes aren't leaving from the airport. He said the airport has been damaged by years of war.

Military transports can use the runway but large passenger planes can't take off or land.

www.banminesusa.org

U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
Care of Physicians for Human Rights
100 Boylston Street, Suite 702
Boston, MA 02116
1+ 617-695-0041
1+ 617-695-0307
landmines@fcnl.org

US Campaign to Ban Landmines
c/o Friends Committee on National Legislation
245 2nd Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: (202) 547-6000
Fax: (202) 547-6019
www.fcnl.org landmines@fcnl.org