<click for pdf file of original letter>

September 5, 2006

Attention: Foreign Policy and Defense Aides

Re: Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006 (S. 3768)

Dear Senator:

We write today to urge you to cosponsor the Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006 (S. 3768).  This bill, introduced by Senators Leahy (VT) and Specter (PA), prohibits the United States from procuring landmines and other victim-activated weapons in any circumstance. 

Today, innocent civilians are threatened by tens of millions of victim-activated landmines buried in at least 78 countries.  It is estimated that 15,000-20,000 people, many of them women and children, are maimed or killed by landmines each year.  Millions more suffer from the psychological impact and effects on economies and agriculture caused by of these weapons.  The threat posed by these weapons is not felt only in foreign countries; over 120 U.S. military personnel have been killed or maimed by landmines in just the past three years.

Since the early 1990s, the number of mine producing countries has dropped from 54 to 13. Unfortunately, the United States is one of the remaining 13.  Since the United States has not used antipersonnel landmines for over 15 years and has not produced them in almost 10, the military necessity for maintaining the right to produce antipersonnel mines that are activated indiscriminately by a victim is tenuous at best.  Additionally, since the United States has already developed the technology to design all weapons to be command-detonated by a “man-in-the-loop”, there is no technological impediments to alternatives that justifies future procurement of these crude weapons.

While new U.S. mines may not pose a grave humanitarian threat, the refusal of the United States to ban production of victim-activated weapons provides cover for other producers, such as Burma, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea.  As long as the most powerful military in the world believes it needs these weapons, other countries will continue to produce and use antipersonnel mines at the peril of civilian populations. 

It is time for the United State to declare an end to procurement of landmines and other victim-activated weapons, thereby ending production of these pernicious weapons once and for all.  The Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006 would enable the United States to be a world leader on this compelling humanitarian issue.  We urge you to cosponsor this vital legislation.

Sincerely,

Scott Stedjan

***

The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL) is a coalition of approximately 500 U.S.-based human rights, humanitarian, faith-based, peace, veterans’, medical, development, academic, and environmental organizations dedicated to a total ban on antipersonnel landmines. It is one of 90 country campaigns that form the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. The USCBL is coordinated by the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers), a Quaker peace lobby based in Washington, DC. For more information, go to www.fcnl.org or www.banminesusa.org.