Where is US Landmine Policy Headed?
Jody Williams, Nobel Laureate For Peace
Existing US policy to ultimately eliminate antipersonnel landmines appears to be in jeopardy. As with all things military, landmine policy was put under review when the Bush Administration took office. Unfortunately, the Pentagon has recommended abandoning the US policy goal of joining the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006. The State Department and National Security Council still have to weigh in prior to a final decision by President Bush.
Those of us who have worked to ban antipersonnel landmines have always recognized a limited utility of the weapon. But we also have no doubt that that utility is far outweighed by the impact of the weapon - to civilians and soldiers alike. Recent happenings in Afghanistan bring this sharply into focus.
The US and its allies prosecuted a virtually casualty free - on the allied side - air war against the Taliban and Al Queda troops. But almost immediately after the air victory and troops moved into Afghanistan there were casualties - four US soldiers and one British soldier - to landmines. US Congressional delegations to Afghanistan have been starkly warned, when de-planing, not to step off the beaten path or risking falling victims themselves to landmines - a terror most of them have not likely felt before, although the people of Afghanistan have lived with the daily risk of such death or maiming for decades. Thousands of Afghan civilians have already been mine victims and thousands more are likely to be before this scourge is completely eliminated from the planet.
In 1996, 15 high ranking retired US military officers called upon the President to sign the ban treaty - clearly stating in their open letter that such a move was both “humane and militarily responsible.” Again, in May 2001, eight officers wrote to President Bush, stating, “We feel strongly that it is in the best interests of the American soldier and our country that you ‘fast-track’ U.S. accession to the Mine Ban Treaty. APM [antipersonnel mines] 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 U.S. accession far outweigh the minimal military utility of these weapons.” They concluded their call noting that they “would not be urging this course of action if we did not believe it would enhance our combat mobility and effectiveness and, most importantly, protect our nation's sons and daughters when we send them into harm's way.”
On November 26, some 500 US veterans from all fifty states and who had fought in all US conflicts since World War II wrote to the president adding their military voice to the call for a ban.
The reality is that 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 step away from truly embracing a ban on antipersonnel mines. President Bush should take that small step and join the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, as 142 nations have already done, instead of heeding the Pentagon’s advice to take a giant step backward and abandon our commitment to rid the world of this different kind of daily terror.
16 January 2002