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U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines E-mail Newsletter •
Congressional Letter to President Bush -See if Your
Member Signed. Congressional Letter to President Bush -See If Your Member Signed. <back to top> Recently, the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines and some Members of Congress received indications that the Defense Department had made recommendations to President Bush asking him to abandon all efforts to ban antipersonnel landmines. Today, 124 Members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the White House urging President Bush to reconsider the direction in which new U.S. landmines policies are headed. The President is expected to finalize new policies on the issue within the next few weeks. Below is the letter and the signers (arranged alphabetically by state). For those of you who called your Representative and urged others to do so, thank you! The USCBL gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship of this letter by Congressmen Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jack Quinn (R-NY), and Lane Evans (D-IL) as well as the recent briefing on this issue hosted by Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX). On U.S. House of Representatives Letterhead December 18, 2001 Dear Mr. President: We share your eagerness for global and human security during these troubling times. With this in mind, we write to express our serious concern about the direction of the current Administration review of U.S. policy on antipersonnel (AP) landmines. As you know, the Department of Defense has recently completed its component and, after input from the State Department and the National Security Council, the review is expected to reach your desk for approval. 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. We have received reports that the Department of Defense has recently recommended the following changes to current landmine policy: •
The abandonment of U.S. plans to comply with the Mine Ban Treaty
by 2006. These alarming recommendations are out of step with your own avowed commitment to protect innocent civilians and, indeed, U.S. troops. As you know, most of the modern militaries in the world, including our major allies in the war against terrorism, have ended their use of antipersonnel landmines because of the weapon's indiscriminate and disproportionate impact on unarmed men, women, and children. The 1997 Mine Ban Treaty's prohibition on the weapon's use, production, transfer, and stockpile has resulted in a significant decrease of landmine injuries and deaths, the destruction of millions of stockpiled weapons, and a virtual end to the transfer of antipersonnel mines. The United States' global leadership in mine clearance and victim assistance has also contributed significantly to decreasing landmine casualties. American leadership is similarly needed to encourage other treaty holdouts to support the global ban. 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. On May 19, 2001, nine retired military leaders, including Lt. General James F. Hollingsworth, former Commander of US-ROK forces, expressed their support for the Mine Ban Treaty, stating that the elimination of AP mines from the U.S. arsenal would enhance U.S. combat mobility and effectiveness and protect U.S. servicemen and women. It is clear that changes in tactics, doctrine, or substitution of alternative sensor/weapon systems already available could compensate for antipersonnel landmines in Korea and elsewhere. Afghanistan is, perhaps, the best example of the reason to eliminate this weapon from our arsenal. In that country there are an estimated 8-10 million landmines in the ground. The Landmine Monitor 2001 reports that in the year 2000 an estimated 88 people per month were maimed or killed by the weapon in Afghanistan, a nation the size of Texas. Demining operations in that country funded, in part, by the United States, employ nearly 5,000 workers and cost millions of dollars each year. Now U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan are also at serious risk of losing lives and limbs to this insidious weapon. We encourage you to insist that the Northern Alliance end its use of the weapon and destroy their stockpiled inventory. 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 out-moded, indiscriminate weapon from the U.S. arsenal. Only in this way can the United States resume its leadership on this important international issue. Sincerely, Initial Sponsors: Jim
McGovern (D-MA) cc:
Secretary of State Colin Powell Action Alert: Thank Your Legislator for Signing Letter to President. <back to top> If your U.S. Representative is on the above list, contact him or her and simply say "thank you!" This will let them know that their voters appreciate their efforts during a difficult political time. It will also encourage them to act quickly next time they have the opportunity to act on this issue. For fax, email, and phone contact information, see www.house.gov or www.vote-smart.org. (Mailed letters are still not being received on the Hill). Almost Half of Mines to "Protect" Korea Are Stocked in the Us! <back to top> Human Rights Watch letterhead (Washington, DC, December 3, 2001) -- Nearly half of the antipersonnel mines retained by the United States for use in Korea are actually stored in the United States, Human Rights Watch revealed today. The need to keep these antipersonnel mines to defend South Korea is regularly cited by U.S. officials as a key reason for the U.S. not joining the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. According to information obtained by Human Rights Watch from the U.S. Army Material Command in a Freedom of Information Act request, 45 percent of the 1.2 million long-lasting "dumb" (non-self-destructing) antipersonnel mines retained for use in Korea are stored at depots in the continental U.S. Another 50 percent are in Korea, but at the onset of conflict will be handed over to South Korean troops for their use. The U.S. earmarks only the remaining 5 percent of the mines for immediate use by U.S. troops in South Korea. "This new information seriously calls into question the major rationale put forth by the Pentagon for not banning antipersonnel mines," said Steve Goose, program director of Human Rights Watch's arms division. "The U.S. has repeatedly said that these mines are needed to stop a massive surprise attack by North Korea. Obviously, they are not needed for that if they are sitting in warehouses in the U.S." Today, December 3, 2001, is the fourth anniversary of the opening for signature of the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits all use, production, stockpiling and trade of antipersonnel mines. The treaty has been signed by 142 nations, including every other member of NATO except Turkey, which announced earlier this year it would join in the near future. "The Bush administration needs to be fully informed about the mines retained for use in Korea," said Mr. Goose. "Most people assume that the mines for use in Korea are already there, not weeks or months away." There are already more than one million mines buried in the ground in and near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea. These mines are under South Korean control, not U.S. The 1.2 million stockpiled U.S. M16 and M14 antipersonnel mines are additional mines intended for use in case of renewed conflict. A U.S. law in place since 1992 prohibits exports or transfers of antipersonnel mines to any country. It is therefore not clear what legal mechanisms would allow the transfer of the approximately 600,000 mines held as War Reserve Stocks for Allies (WRSA) to the South Koreans. The Clinton administration announced in January 1997 that as a matter of policy the U.S. would observe a permanent ban on the export and transfer of antipersonnel mines. Human Rights Watch recently reported that the Pentagon has recommended that the Bush administration abandon the U.S. commitment to ban antipersonnel mines as soon as possible and in particular the target date for joining the Mine Ban Treaty in 2006. The Bush administration is in the midst of a review of U.S. landmine policy. 500 Veterans from All 50 States Urge President to Ban Mines <back to top> More than 500 veterans from all 50 states sent a letter to President Bush urging him to give up antipersonnel landmines for both military and humanitarian reasons. Many of these veterans have personally seen the horrible effects of this weapon on their fellow soldiers and on innocent civilians. Nov. 26, 2001 Dear President Bush: U.S. soldiers have fallen to antipersonnel (AP) landmines in every American-fought conflict since World War II. Mines are friends to no one-they maim or kill upwards of 18,000 people each year, mostly innocent civilians. AP mines, most of them our own, were responsible for a third of U.S. casualties in the Vietnam Conflict and Gulf War. As veterans, we ask you to send the Mine Ban Treaty to the Senate for ratification. We are not alone in our support for this treaty and our belief in its humanitarian, military, and diplomatic necessity. On May 19, 2001, eight retired senior officers sent a letter asking you to join the Mine Ban Treaty. Signed by such respected leaders as Lt. General James Hollingsworth, former commander of U.S. troops in Korea and author of the U.S. battle plan for the defense of South Korea, this letter provides further military rationale for treaty accession. The humanitarian reasons for supporting the Mine Ban Treaty are striking. The overwhelming majority of landmine victims are civilians in poor countries who have severely limited access to doctors, blood transfusions, and prosthetic limbs. One third of landmine victims are children. Fortunately, however, this treaty has already begun saving lives. Since 1997, more than two thirds of the world's nations have joined the Mine Ban Treaty, and AP mine exports and production have significantly decreased, while casualty rates have fallen. U.S. participation will help further stigmatize landmine use among the few remaining countries that deploy this indiscriminate and insidious weapon. 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. 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. Thank you for giving your attention to this pressing matter. Sincerely, Signed by more than 500 veterans from all 50 states For a list of signers, visit www.banminesusa.org Two Recent Important News Articles on Mines <back to top> For more articles, visit ww.banminesusa.org and click on "Special Section: Landmines in Afghanistan." The
Hidden Enemies ALI KHUJA, Afghanistan -- Abdul Taher is a slight 14-year-old farm boy facing a choice that would baffle any grown-up: Should he risk starvation or risk having his leg blown off by a land mine? His family lives in this village 30 miles north of Kabul, in an area that is heavily mined, so it would be crazy to walk through the family's farmland, even after such primitive Afghan-style mine-clearing methods as driving a flock of sheep through first. (This is a tough country for livestock as well as humans.) Yet the family has to eat, and the only way to get food is to work the land - even if every step is dangerous. This makes the problem of land mines central to any discussion of Afghanistan's future, for the mines are a critical impediment to the country's recovery. Long after Osama bin Laden is buried, after a new government is presiding over Afghanistan's reconstruction, land mines will continue to haunt this country. The Bush administration is now conducting an interagency review to determine its policy on land mines, and every signal is that it will pull back from President Bill Clinton's quasi-pledge to join the international ban on antipersonnel mines by 2006. Instead of belatedly joining the Ottawa Convention to ban mines, we seem determined to walk away from it. The outcome of the review on land mines will help determine how many children lose their legs and lives in the coming decades, how many countries find their economic recovery blocked by buried mines. This is an area where we have a strong national interest, as well as a humanitarian interest, in playing a leadership role to help evict land mines from the arsenal of wars, and yet Pentagon complacency and President Bush's allergy to treaties together make it very likely that we will be part of the problem rather than the solution. The laying of mines is the 21st- century equivalent of what the Romans did to Carthage: plow salt into the ground so that it could never again sustain a population. The number of mines in Afghanistan is usually wildly exaggerated, because estimates come from nongovernment organizations trying to raise money to clear them (figures of 10 million are sometimes thrown about, when a more careful extrapolation from areas that have been cleared suggests fewer than one million, perhaps only 300,000). But still, whatever the exaggerations, on average three Afghans a day are maimed or killed by mines. To clear a mine, a worker waves a metal detector over the ground until it buzzes, then uses a metal rod to probe -gently - from the side, and then a trowel to uncover it. If it is a mine, he uses a charge to blow it up. The job, which pays $105 a month, requires intense concentration. The Afghan who showed me how to clear mines recalled a colleague who had had a bitter argument with his wife one night and was still upset as he showed up for work the next morning. Distracted, he probed too aggressively -and blew himself up. Along roads and footpaths of Afghanistan, painted stones mark the safe zones - white on the inner, cleared side, and red on the outer, dangerous side. And yet one constantly sees Afghans walking into the minefields to gather fuel or till their fields. It is not that they are stupid or oblivious; it is that they feel they have no choice. New technologies and new kinds of wars have eclipsed the usefulness to us of land mines. They protect soldiers stationed for long periods in enemy territory, as Americans were in Vietnam and Korea, or as Russians were in Afghanistan, but they endanger our troops in modern wars like our deployments in Afghanistan or Somalia. Eight retired generals have written to President Bush saying that mines are not critical to our operations in Korea or elsewhere, and would slow a counter-invasion of North Korea in any war. The nub of the problem is that it will be impossible to restrain irresponsible users of land mines unless the entire international community, including the United States, is four- square against them. The mines in this village, for example, were mostly laid by the Northern Alliance, our new ally. If its leaders feel threatened, their impulse will be to lay new mines - and how can we tell them not to when we reserve the right to lay mines ourselves? This is an issue where the United States could and should get out front and lead the world, thus saving future generations of kids from the excruciating choices faced by Abdul Taher. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
CAMP RHINO, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Three U.S. Marines were wounded on Sunday when one stepped on what appeared to have been a mine while clearing ordnance from Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan, an officer said. One man lost his leg below the knee and was flown directly to a U.S. military hospital in the Gulf area, the first serious injury among the Marines since they landed in Afghanistan three weeks ago. The two others were flown by helicopter for medical treatment at Camp Rhino, the base south of Kandahar that the Marines established on November 25, said staff sergeant Daniel Hottle. The three were providing security for an explosive ordnance disposal team that had begun work to make the airport safe for military and civilian use since the Marines took control of it on Friday, he said. The incident occurred outside the airport buildings, indicating the device was a mine rather than a booby trap. One of those being treated at Camp Rhino sustained an injury to his left hand while another was hit by shrapnel in his left ear and suffered a perforated eardrum as well as a bruise to the shinbone, Hottle said.``He may have a loss of hearing from the perforated eardrum,'' he added. The pair will be sent for further treatment at a U.S. hospital in the Gulf region. The accident occurred at 7:40 a.m. GMT, with the two less seriously wounded arriving at Camp Rhino in a UH-1N Huey helicopter just over two hours later. One with a bandaged left hand and another holding an intravenous drip walked out of the back of a military ambulance that had driven them to the medical tent from the Camp Rhino airfield. Before the incident the only injury sustained among the Marines was when two were slightly hurt when a helicopter crashed at Camp Rhino on Dec. 6. A CIA agent and a handful of other U.S. military personnel belonging to various branches of the armed forces have been killed since the United States launched its offensive in Afghanistan on Oct. 7. The latest injuries have not halted patrols at Kandahar airport, which was seized by U.S. troops on Friday after fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden were driven from the bomb-battered runways. Marines have been charged with clearing the airport of booby traps and mines as well as overpowering any al Qaeda or Taliban fighters who may still be lurking in culverts by the runway. Work has also started on a prison camp with facilities to house up to 300 captured fighters of bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. New U.S. Demining Official Appointed <back to top> US DEPT OF STATE: Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr. Appointed Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action --Press statement -- Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman (USA) USA, 10 dec 01 (M2 Presswire)-- President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell have given Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, an additional responsibility as the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action, effective Friday, November 30, 2001. As Special Representative, Assistant Secretary Bloomfield will oversee efforts to encourage citizens, civic groups and the private sector to reinforce official humanitarian demining programs through public- private partnerships, and to boost U.S. and foreign efforts to rid the world of landmines that threaten civilians. The Office of Global Humanitarian Demining [formally headed by Don Steinberg] has been renamed the Office of Mine Action Initiatives and Partnerships and is located within the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Copyright © 2001, M2 Communications Ltd., all rights reserved. New Landmines Resources for Youth Activists <back to top> The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has new impressive materials available for youth. For more information, visit http://www.icbl.org/youth. For more information on the issue, how to take action, and how to contribute to the campaign, visit www.banminesusa.org. |
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