August 5, 2003
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:
As your Administration finalizes its formal review of US landmine policy, we urge you to determine new policies that will allow our country to accede to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

As far as we understand, the US has not used antipersonnel landmines since the Gulf War in 1991, has not exported them since 1992, and has not produced them since 1997. It has destroyed more than three million antipersonnel mines from its stockpiles. It leads the world in funding for mine clearance in other nations. The US is only a small, yet very important, step away from truly embracing a ban on antipersonnel mines. We urge you to be the president to make that small but important step that will have little effect on US war plans, but a great impact on international cooperation and on those countries that do continue to plant these indiscriminate weapons.

We are also urging the Democratic candidates currently running for President to support US accession to the Mine Ban Treaty and to raise this issue during their election campaign.

Humanitarian Concerns for the Victims
The overwhelming majority of the 15,000-20,000 annual landmine victims are innocent civilians –women traveling to market, farmers tending to their fields, and children playing near their homes. Millions more suffer from the debilitating agricultural, economic, and psychological consequences wrought by the weapon’s presence in nearly 90 countries. While it can cost as little as $3 to produce one landmine, it can cost as much as $1,000 to remove one mine. With more than 80 million landmines buried throughout the world, demining poses a tremendous burden on post-conflict reconstruction and stabilization in poor countries. Iraq and Afghanistan are two recent examples of which you are certainly aware.

International Cooperation and the Mine Ban Treaty
As you may know, three quarters of the world’s nations have joined the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use, trade, production, and stockpiling of antipersonnel (AP) landmines. Parties to the treaty include all of the Western Hemisphere, except for the US and Cuba, and all of NATO, except for the US and Turkey. Turkey is currently in the accession process. Virtually all coalition forces assisting US troops were prohibited from using AP mines or assisting in AP mine use in both Afghanistan in 2002 and Iraq in 2003.

The mine ban movement has already produced tremendous, life-saving results. Since the early 1990s, the number of mine producing countries has dropped from 54 to 14. Trade of the weapon has come almost to a halt, and more than 34 million antipersonnel landmines have been destroyed. Most importantly, casualty rates from the weapon have dropped. However, US refusal to ban the weapon to date gives political cover to countries such as Russia, India, and Pakistan that have laid hundreds of thousands of mines in recent years, with devastating consequences for innocent victims.

Military Reasons to Ban the Weapon
In addition to diplomatic and humanitarian concerns, there are also very compelling military reasons for the US to eliminate antipersonnel landmines from its arsenal. A recent US General Accounting Office report on the use and effects of landmines during the 1991 Persian Gulf War stated that some US commanders were reluctant to use AP mines “because of their impact on US troop mobility, safety concerns, and fratricide potential.” After you took office in 2001, eight retired US admirals and generals wrote to you stating that antipersonnel 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 US accession [to the Mine Ban Treaty] far outweigh the minimal military utility of these weapons."

Soon after the admirals’ and generals’ letter, 500 US veterans from all 50 states sent a similar letter to you urging you to ban this weapon that has injured and killed tens of thousands of US troops since World War II.

We are very pleased to understand that US forces have not used antipersonnel mines since the first Persian Gulf War nor since the majority of the world banned the deadly weapon by joining the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty.

Historical and Current US Landmine Policy
In December of 1997, President Clinton failed to sign the Mine Ban Treaty. In 1998, however, he created Presidential Decision Directive 64, a policy that put the US on track to join the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006 and, in the meantime, search for treaty-compliant alternatives to AP mines, increase humanitarian demining and victim assistance programs, and phase out AP mine use.

Soon after September 11, 2001, 124 Members of the US House of Representatives –both Democrats and Republicans– sent a letter to you urging you to move towards banning the weapon as soon as possible.

We understand that the Defense Department recommended to you that the US abandon efforts to join the Mine Ban Treaty, to eliminate the search for alternatives, and to promote the use of self-destructing or self-deactivating (or so-called “smart”) AP mines. Both “smart” and dumb AP mines kill and maim the innocent, are banned by the majority of the world’s nations, and should be eliminated from the US arsenal. See the memo included in this packet that describes in detail the humanitarian, demining, and diplomatic dangers that “smart” AP mines pose.

Before finalizing new US landmaine policies, we hope that the Defense Department, State Department, National Security Council, and you will take into consideration the many military, humanitarian, and diplomatic reasons to support US accession to the Mine Ban Treaty.

US Campaign to Ban Landmines
As you may know, the US Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of nearly 500 medical, humanitarian, veterans’, human rights, and religious organizations advocating for the US government to join the Mine Ban Treaty and to sustain significant support for demining and victim assistance. We are based at Physicians for Human Rights, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its role in founding the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

We are currently organizing our thousands of campaign members to contact you and the Democratic candidates for President to urge you to support the Mine Ban Treaty. In the fall, we will be sending all of the candidates a letter urging you to support the Mine Ban Treaty signed by many of our country’s most prominent health professionals, including deans of medical schools and Nobel laureates in medicine. We also plan to release this letter to the media.

In Conclusion
For the millions of people living in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Mozambique, and dozens of other mine-affected countries, the antipersonnel landmine is a weapon of terror. To most American people, AP mines are outmoded weapons too dangerous to both our own troops and to innocent people. The voters in this country and the people of the rest of the world will welcome your support of the Mine Ban Treaty.Enclosed, you will find the following materials:

• More than 15 pro-Mine Ban Treaty newspaper Op Eds, editorials, and columns published in major newspapers over the past two years.
• News articles from past few years regarding devastation wrought by landmines.
• Memo regarding the dangers of self-destructing and self-deactivating AP mines.
• Copies of other letters sent to you urging you to support the Mine Ban Treaty sent by US Senators, Members of the US House, veterans, and retired US generals and admirals.

Thank you for your attention to this important issue.

Sincerely,
Gina Coplon-Newfield
Coordinator, US Campaign to Ban Landmines

The Rev. Mark Brown
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America/
Chair, US Campaign to Ban Landmines

CC: Colin Powell, Secretary of State
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor