|
U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines E-mail Newsletter India
Plants Landmines Along Pakistani Border! ACTION
ALERT: WRITE ABOUT INDIAÈS MINEFIELDS IN LETTER TO THE EDITOR INDIA'S LAND MINES, A BITTER HARVEST FOR FARMERS (Excerpted) <back to top> The New York Times By SOMINI SENGUPTA Jan. 4, 2002 http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/04/international/asia/04BORD.html ULLA KOT, India, Jan. 3 ‰ Raj Singh was tending to his cattle one day last week when soldiers rolled into this tiny village hard against the border with Pakistan and went to work on the fields where he and his neighbors had only recently sown this year's wheat. The soldiers planted something else altogether: land mines. They asked the farmers to vacate their fields. They necklaced the mine fields with a narrow wire fence and hung red triangles as warnings. By the time they had finished, more than 80 percent of the agricultural lands in this village were beyond reach. "We can't do anything," said Mr. Singh, 38, a retired soldier with a handlebar mustache and 10 acres of land to share with his five brothers and their wives and children. "We don't know if they're going to be there six months, one year, until the war, or what." Even as diplomatic efforts continue in an attempt to avert the fourth war between India and Pakistan, soldiers on the Indian side of the border have been busy in the last two weeks sowing thousands of acres of farm land with antipersonnel and antitank mines, in what looks like preparation for a long standoff between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Officials of the Indian Army, which is laying the mines with help in some places from the Border Security Force, have declined to disclose details about the scope of the effort. But a drive through several border regions here, along with accounts from other border areas, indicate that India is in the process of laying mines along virtually the entire length of its 1,800-mile border with Pakistan. One army commander here said the mined area extended roughly one and a quarter mile deep. . . But the land mines may be the most worrisome and potentially longest-lasting measure. The local army commander, Col. Shirish Kulkarni, said his unit had spent nearly two weeks laying mines across a mile and quarter-deep strip of farm land. A two-to-three-acre plot, he said, was likely to contain 50 or 60 mines. Once the mines are placed, clearing one field alone could easily take 20 days. "It's a colossal and herculean task," he said. His sympathies, he added, were with the farmers, whose livelihoods had been affected by his presence. "I also feel sorry for them," he said. "Their lives are disturbed." . . . The cattle fodder that is now ready to be picked cannot be had. Already it looks as if the wheat will probably wither before it can be harvested in April. Most of the women and children of the village have been sent away to neighboring villages. The men are far more idle than they would like, left to stand and stare at fields that are likely to spend the winter without water or fertilizer. Instead, bullock carts share narrow dirt roads with army trucks. Farmers work where they can, tending to a plot just beyond what is now a lethal, forbidden zone that was once part of India's breadbasket. The area has already proved perilous. Last week, 18 soldiers were killed in a border village in Rajasthan, when a mine accidentally exploded. Several have been wounded. There have been civilian casualties as well. On New Year's Day, a bicyclist trying to cross into the fenced, mine field in the Bikaner district of western Rajasthan was blown to bits. A child was wounded in the same area last week. In another Rajasthani border area, called Ganganagar, a local official said a 14-year-old boy had died and three other civilians had been wounded while helping soldiers with land mines last week. Stray cattle and dogs have been killed in several places along the border. In this section of Punjab, soldiers were busy adding to the fortifications today. As the sun peeked through the sky at midday, a dozen men washed and snipped narrow white strips of cloth to measure and mark where the mines would be laid. Empty green mine cases stood stacked against the wall of a schoolhouse that the army had taken over. . . War or no war, the people of Mulla Kot say, their lives are already embattled. "As far as we are concerned, this is a war," said Jarnail Singh, 30, the father of two, whose wife and children have been sent to a village further inland. "For the last 10 days, we have not had a normal life. We can't be with our families. We can't work on our fields." Tara Singh, the old man, waved his arms across his land. "Until the mines are removed," he said, "this is no more agricultural land. It is finished." Copyright 2002 New York SPOTLIGHT ON SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS <back to top> Normally, we write USCBL –spotlights” ourselves, but this time we didnÈt have to; the San Antonio Express-News wrote a feature story on an inspirational USCBL member. Preacher Takes on New Mission By Gary Martin San Antonio Express-News Washington Bureau WASHINGTON ‰ Phineas Washer pushed his tossed salad with a fork as he described a gruesome explosion that ripped through three young girls from Senegal. The land mine killed two instantly, but a third withered in pain as villagers looked on, unable to rescue her. "They just couldn't get any closer," said Washer, a retired Presbyterian minister from San Antonio. The Senegal villagers were frustrated that they couldn't help: They were too afraid to walk into the minefield. Washer personalizes that experience. "What if it were my grandchildren?" There are 110 million land mines scattered through 64 countries, according to UNICEF, the global relief organization established after World War II to relieve the suffering of children in war-torn countries. Those anti-personnel bombs, many left over from former conflicts, kill an estimated 800 people a month and maim thousands more. Most of the victims are civilians. Many are children who wander unknowingly into mined areas or pick up unexploded armaments that often looks like an attractive toy. "Phin" Washer, 68, said he has a new calling after leaving a pastoral career of 42 years. He flew to Washington from South Texas for a two-day swing to urge members of Congress and the Bush administration to ban the use, production and stockpiling of land mines. "As people find out what these do to human beings," Washer said, "the public will get aroused about it. There is going to be some change." Butting shoulders with Gucci-shoed lawyers lobbying lawmakers for special interests, Washer stands out in the corridor of power with his 6-foot-2-inch frame. Without the leverage of political action committee funds to donate to congressional campaigns, the Texas-born peace activist is using another incentive: chocolate chip cookies. Washer admits his wife, Sylvia, cooked up the novel approach. "I said, 'Man, that's the best idea I ever heard. That would make a real stand out,'" Washer said. It made quite an impression. Congressional offices received a box of two dozen cookies. "Isn't it nice to hear about people like that?" asked Gina Coplon-Newfield, the coordinator of the Boston-based U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, which represents 500 organizations nationally. "We have a lot of people involved in the campaign, but there are few people as involved as Phin Washer," she said. "Though soft-spoken, he has a lot of energy and a lot of commitment." Washer said he sent the goodies to five congressmen. He got a reply from three of them, including Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, and Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio. Rodriguez signed up with the cause, particularly since U.S. ground troops are deployed in Afghanistan, where there are an estimated 10 million active land mines. "Our government should be taking steps to end the use of these indiscriminate killing machines," said Rodriguez, a member of the House Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs committees. The bipartisan push to ban land mines includes Reps. James McGovern, D-Mass., Lane Evans, D-Ill., and Jack Quinn, R-N.Y. "The response has been better than I expected," said Washer, who briefed lawmakers on the need for U.S. compliance with the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which the United States, Russia and China did not sign. The issue cuts across partisan lines, as the number of organized groups, including the Vietnam Veterans of America [Foundation], urge Congress and the Bush administration to curtail production and deployment of the deadly devices. "It was out of the Vietnam Veterans of America [Foundation] that this thing really got going," Washer said, crediting Bobby Muller, a war hero and the president of the veterans organization. Jordan's Queen Noor Al-Hussein and Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary-general, also have been credited with helping the movement. While the United States continues to produce and use land mines, it has spent $500 million since 1993 on research and demining activities, according the State Department. Funding for those efforts totaled $40 million in fiscal year 2001, which ended Sept. 30. Humanitarian demining programs under the Defense Department totaled $25 million in the same year. "Over the past 10 years, the results of our collective efforts have been most impressive," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "We have seen a decrease in reported casualties from 26,000 to 10,000." Activists say more can be done. Specifically, they want a ban on the production and use of the weapons. It takes only $3 to purchase a land mine built by industrial countries but $1,000 to remove it from far-flung fields. In the removal process, one injury occurs with every 1,000 mines dug up, and a death results with every 5,000 pieces cleared from areas of conflict. There are always tragic stories, like the girls from Senegal, whose young lives were shattered by an indiscriminate explosion. Pictures of children with missing limbs and prostheses provoke anger. Washer, who retired from Pipe Creek Presbyterian Church in 1999, said the images and "gruesome stories" convinced him that a ban on land mines should be his calling. "I felt that this should be a priority," he said. With his two children grown, Washer has become a tireless advocate on the issue, said Coplon-Newfield, whose U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines calls on the grass-roots efforts of 6,000 individuals. "He has a sense of who the decision makers are on the issue," she said. "He has no qualms about contacting people." At this point, Washer has the commitment of only one Texas lawmaker in the effort to ban land mines. "With many of the other Texans, we've gotten a noncommittal answer," Washer said. "But I certainly feel a lot of people have been educated about the tragedy. So I would like to think there is a building awareness in Texas of the problem." Copyright San Antonio Express-News gmartin@express-news.net AFGHANISTAN: MINE CLEARANCE CRUCIAL FOR RECONSTRUCTION (Excerpted) <back to top> ISLAMABAD, 29 December (IRIN) - The Mine Action Programme for Afghanistan (MAPA) sent a security assessment team to the eastern city of Jalalabad on Friday to determine whether full-time land mine clearance could commence in order to clear the way for reconstruction and rehabilitation work. "It is paramount that mine action happens before any reconstruction or rehabilitation can start," Richard Daniel Kelly, MAPA's programme manager, told IRIN on Friday. The security assessment team is due to make recommendation by Sunday on whether mine clearance can start full-time in and around the city. Another team due to have undertaken a similar mission to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Friday was unable to set out. "We had a mission to go into Kandahar this morning by plane, but that was postponed due to the advice from the coalition force... we are trying to get justification for that," Kelly said. "It is imperative that we get in and get our operations started. There are lot of indications that unexploded ordnance (UXO) and mines are spread throughout the city," he added. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Afghanistan is one of the world's most heavily mined countries, where two to three people die every day due to land mines. "This was the case even before the current conflict, and will remain the reality long after a new government is in place. And, now de-miners getting back to work for the first time since mid-September have the added burden of clearing cluster bombs, along with the countless anti-personnel mines and other unexploded ordnance," said a ICBL statement on its website. Afghanistan's estimated eight to 10 million land mines and UXO Ì the result of two decades of war - claimed 88 casualties a month last year, according to one mine action group. ICBL said it is concerned that civilians, aid workers, peacekeepers and military personnel in Afghanistan continue to be at grave risk of death or injury by mines and similar weapons. There was an urgent need for the international community to boost funding and other support for mine action and victim assistance in Afghanistan, it added. It also wanted the Afghan interim government to join the Mine Ban Treaty as soon as possible. An interim administration led by Hamid Karzai took control of Kabul on 22 December for a period of six months as a first step toward the establishment of a broad-based multi-ethnic government to bring peace and stability to the country. A massive reconstruction effort for Afghanistan is being planned under UN coordination with the help of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. A needs-assessment team is busy determining what is needed for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Afghanistan, where more than seven million people are in need of some kind of aid from the UN and international donors. . . "How mine action is going to impact [on] the reconstruction work in intimate details [is being discussed], so that they can factor in the mine action, especially the mine-clearance requirements of their individual projects," Kelly said. Afghanistan has witnessed massive internal displacement of people, mostly due to factional fighting, and also because of the worst drought of 30 years, now in its third year. Agriculture, vital for the survival of the people, is also hampered by presence of land mines in the fields, and remains a security risk for people returning to their villages. Kelly said there was a need to speed up mine-clearance work, which had had to be suspended during the US-led military campaign against the Taliban movement and its guest, Osama bin Laden. But the work has already resumed in some areas after the retreat of the Taliban. Mine clearance was in progress in the central regions of Afghanistan, where more than 920 de-miners from various implementing agencies were also carrying out awareness and survey work, he said. In the western regions, including the historic city of Herat, more than 200 de-miners were busy with mine clearance, awareness and surveys, while 150 de-miners were waiting to go in after they obtained security clearance for road travel. More than 230 de-miners were active in northern Afghanistan, working in the Mazar-e Sharif, Baghlan, Samangan and Konduz areas. An additional 100 de-miners were expected to join the others by 3 January, Kelly added. Kelly said the state of ammunition depots within military compounds which were bombed by coalition forces remained a source of major concern to his group: much of this ordnance was live and could explode if moved. . . Afghanistan's mine-action programme has more than 5,000 de-miners, but Kelly said there was a need to increase this number in order to keep up with the pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation work, now at the planning stage. Given the enormity of the task facing him, Kelly said mine clearance had to be stepped up. "Time is of real essence here," he stressed. USCBL SAYS GOODBYE AND THANK YOU TO EILEEN CAMPBELL <back to top> For the past year and four months, Eileen Campbell has been a tremendous asset to the USCBL, first as its Student Coordinator, then as its Grassroots Coordinator. In mid-January Eileen leaves behind her work with the USCBL and takes on a position at Physicians for Human Rights (where the USCBL is housed and coordinated) as an organizer with PHRÈs global AIDS campaign. The USCBL has benefitted from EileenÈs hard work and skills in many ways. Firstly, she has organized students to participate in USCBL events and initiatives, and she launched and maintained the USCBL youth website. Secondly, Eileen has provided activists of all ages throughout the country with information and materials about the campaign and how they can get involved. Thirdly, Eileen recruited 20 veterans to participate in a lobby day in Washington, D.C. and continued her outreach with veterans by finding 500 of them from all 50 states to sign onto a letter to President Bush. Finally, Eileen advocated strongly and convincingly for Members of Congress to sign the recent letter to the President urging him to support a ban on antipersonnel mines rather than a rollback of positive mines policies. For these things and more, we are grateful for EileenÈs talents, work, and friendship. Though she will work out of the same office where the USCBL is based, we will miss her on the campaign. Good luck Eileen! PENTAGON DIRECTS ARMY TO CONTINUE ALTERNATIVE LAND MINES PROGRAM USA, Dec 24, 2001 (Inside the Army) <back to top> The Pentagon has directed the Army to continue developing alternative antipersonnel land mines, reversing a decision the service made to free up money for other efforts. The directive is good news for land mine opponents who want the United States to sign the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of antipersonnel land mines. However, according to a letter signed by 124 lawmakers and released last week, the Pentagon is recommending that the United States eventually abandon plans to comply with the Ottawa Convention and cease its efforts to develop alternative land mines. Inside the Army first reported last month that the Army's spending plan for fiscal years 2003 to 2007 cuts all funding from more than a dozen programs, including an effort to develop alternative land mine technology. The service predicted it would save more than $4.1 billion by terminating 19 development and procurement efforts (ITA, Nov. 12, p1). The Army estimated it would reap $540.9 million from the alternative land mines program, and $108.9 million by terminating the Remote Area Denial Artillery Munition program, which is being pursued to eliminate the use of pure antipersonnel land mines outside of South Korea by 2003. Not so fast, the Pentagon says. According to program budget decision No. 123, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has told the Army to continue funding the efforts. OSD notes that a presidential directive remains in effect that requires the Defense Department to develop alternatives to antipersonnel land mines. Former President Clinton set U.S. policy on land mines in 1998 through presidential decision directive No. 64, which says the United States will end the use of antipersonnel mines outside Korea by 2003 and sign the Ottawa Convention by 2006, provided the Defense Department develops and fields suitable alternatives that would allow the military to maintain its warfighting capabilities. "PDD 64 is the policy. Until it's changed, that's the way we have to operate," an Army official said last week. "I think the OSD directive is the right thing; put the money in and move on. That's what we are doing." The official said there is widespread agreement that ending the use of indiscriminate land mines is a good idea, but he asserted the military needs to maintain its combat capability. "When we have something to replace land mines with, that will be great. But, we're not at that point yet," he said. He declined to discuss the U.S. campaign plan for using land mines, but asserted that mines remain an effective combat weapon. "We would use anything in our arsenal to defeat the enemy and it's all in accordance with our war plan. That's just the generic use of our war plan," he said. "One of the things that is critical to any military operation is deploying a barrier system or defeating a barrier system," he added. "Land mines are part of the barrier system that the United States employs. Landmines remain an effective weapon." The Defense Department has given the Army responsibility for developing alternatives to antipersonnel land mines. For more than a year now, the Army has been prepared to award a contract to develop an alternative system that is based on the man-in-the-loop concept, which means soldiers will detonate the mines according to visual observations. However, the Army has not been able to award the contract because the Bush administration is conducting a review of U.S. policy on land mines and the Ottawa Convention. When the review will be completed is unknown. However, a letter released by lawmakers last week states that the Pentagon's portion of the review is finished. According to the letter, DOD recommends that the Bush administration abandon plans to sign the Ottawa Convention by 2006; cease efforts to eliminate "dumb" mines from the U.S. arsenal by 2003; and terminate the search for alternative antipersonnel land mines. The letter urges Bush to consider the effect that indiscriminate land mines have on soldiers and civilians. It was circulated by Reps. James McGovern (D-MA), Jack Quinn (R-NY) and Lane Evans (D-IL),with the help of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, and was signed by 124 lawmakers. "We respectfully urge that you ensure that the policy your Administration authorizes takes into account the indiscriminate consequences inherent in the nature of antipersonnel landmines, the danger these weapons pose to civilians and U.S. troops, and the desire to continue U.S. leadership and unity among our key international allies," the letter reads. "Most importantly, we urge you to instruct the State Department and the National Security Council to redirect the landmines policy review to reflect the need for the elimination of this outmoded, indiscriminate weapon from the U.S. arsenal," the letter concludes. "Only in this way can the United States resume its leadership on this important international issue." Gina Coplon-Newfield, coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, said she was happy to hear that the Pentagon is directing the Army to restore funding for developing alternative land mines. "Whether it's because of pressure from the public or Congress or internally. . . I'm glad to hear that there is a change in these recommendations, if there is indeed a change," she said last week. "Wherever the pressure is coming from, I'm glad to hear it." Five hundred veterans also sent Bush a letter at the end of November asking him to send the Ottawa Convention to the Senate for ratification. To date, 142 nations have signed the convention, which is commonly referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty. "Nearly all of our NATO allies have ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, demonstrating that humanitarian concerns can be met without limiting their ability to complete their missions and protect their troops," the veterans' letter reads. "So now, as citizens and veterans, we ask you to honor your commitment to protect U.S. troops and innocent civilians by sending the Mine Ban Treaty to the Senate for ratification." DOD and the Army Materiel Command did not respond by press time (Dec. 20) to questions regarding the Pentagon's recommendations on land mines and the U.S. land mine stockpile. -- Chris Strohm © Inside Washington Publishers <back to top> For more information about the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and how to get involved and/or contribute, please visit www.banminesusa.org or call 617-695-0041. To unsubscribe, write to landmines@fcnl.org from the email address where you receive the newsletter, and write –unsubscribe” in the message. The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines Housed and Coordinated by: Physicians for Human Rights 100 Boylston Street, Suite 702 Boston, MA 02116 www.banminesusa.org landmines@fcnl.org Phone: + 1-617-695-0041 Fax: + 1-617-695-0307 |
| FREE EMAIL CAMPAIGN UPDATES |
|
| Please enter your email address and click "Go" | |
|
| SEARCH OUR SITE |
| For more information on the Mine
Ban Treaty and countries that have ratified it, contact the International
Campaign to Ban Landmines www.icbl.org
US Campaign to Ban Landmines |