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July 28, 2003 The Rev. Al Sharpton Dear Rev. Sharpton: As you develop your campaign platform on foreign policy, humanitarian aid, arms control, and human rights issues during your campaign for President, we urge you to come out in favor of US accession to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. 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. 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 Turkey and the US. 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. In addition to diplomatic and humanitarian concerns, there are also 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 President George W. Bush took office in 2001, eight retired US admirals and generals wrote to the President 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 President Bush urging him to ban this weapon that has injured and killed tens of thousands of US troops since World War II. Reportedly, 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. 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. The Bush Administration has been conducting a formal review of US landmine policy since the summer of 2001. Apparently now in its final stages of development, this new policy may well repudiate the Mine Ban Treaty and roll back US efforts to ban this indiscriminate weapon. Soon after September 11, 2001, 124 Members of the US House of Representatives –both Democrats and Republicans– sent a letter to President Bush urging him to move towards banning the weapon as soon as possible. President Bush should demonstrate humanitarian and military leadership by eliminating antipersonnel landmines from the US arsenal and by banning the weapon altogether. If he does not, the next administration should. 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. 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. In the fall, we will be sending you and all of the candidates running for President 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. Please do be in touch with us at 617-695-0041x228 or landmines@fcnl.org to let us know what your position is on the Mine Ban Treaty and how you plan to raise the issue during your election campaign. Also, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. In the meantime, please visit our website at www.banminesusa.org. Enclosed, you will find the following materials:
Thank you for your attention to this important issue. Best Regards, The Rev. Mark Brown
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