October 12, 2001
George W. Bush
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We commend you for your resolve to replace terrorism with justice. As you move forward with military activities in response to the September 11 attacks, we urge you to order a moratorium on the deployment of antipersonnel landmines, including those in mixed systems. We have heard conflicting reports about the possible current deployment of mixed mine systems in Afghanistan by U.S. bombers. The millions of landmines already in the ground in the country pose a grave risk to Afghan civilians and to U.S. troops if they enter the Afghan terrain. Deploying new mines would only exacerbate this danger.
As you likely know, one third of U.S. casualties in the Vietnam Conflict and the Persian Gulf War were due to landmines; the majority of these mines in Vietnam were made or laid by the United States. If U.S. ground troops were to enter Afghanistan or Iraq with new U.S. mines in the ground, history shows that these troops could be susceptible to their own munitions.
As you may recall, nine senior, retired U.S. generals and admirals, including those who commanded troops in Korea, recently wrote to you about the military benefits that would be gained by eliminating antipersonnel mines from the U.S. arsenal. In their letter, they stated that "APM are not in any way critical or decisive in maintaining the [Korean] peninsulaÂs security. In fact, freshly scattered mixed systems would slow a US and ROK counter-invasion by inhibiting the operational tempo of friendly armor and dismounted infantry units." They go on to say that "antipersonnel landmines are outmoded weapons that have, time and again, proved to be a liability to our own troops." This argument in the case of Korea also applies to combat operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world.
In addition to endangering our own troops, deploying new mines would expand the humanitarian toll of terror caused by antipersonnel mines. Each month in Afghanistan, more than 80 people step on a mine, according to Landmine Monitor 2001. Most of the victims are civilians; many of them are children. It is estimated that half of those who encounter mines die while the other half suffer from debilitating injuries, such as loss of limbs and eyesight. The medical services available in countries such as Afghanistan are so limited that most landmine victims suffer without blood transfusions, pain medication, surgery, rehabilitative services, and prosthetic limbs. A moratorium on new deployment of antipersonnel landmines will be the strategic and merciful policy for the U.S. military and the innocent civilians on the ground.
Finally, we wanted to mention that we are concerned about the possibility that fleeing refugees and civilians retrieving food from U.S. drops in Afghanistan are stepping on mines in significantly increased numbers. It is difficult to obtain specific data from the field in Afghanistan given the barriers to communication from the country. However, we have received some initial reports that indicate that an increasing number of civilian casualties may be occurring. We hope that the current and future combat and relief operations will take into account, to the full extent possible, which areas are mined and which are not.
Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.
Sincerely,
The Reverend Mark Brown
Chair, U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines/
Assistant Director for International Affairs and Human Rights,
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs
and
Gina Coplon-Newfield
Coordinator, U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines
cc: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of State Colin Powell
Members of Congress
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