RADAM URGENT ACTION ALERT

Problem:

Antipersonnel Landmines continue to kill and maim thousands of victims around the world each year. The Mine Ban Treaty, which currently has been signed by 135 countries and ratified by 86 nations (as of September 16, 1999), entered into force on March 1, 1999, unfortunately, still without the United States' signature. In 1998, President Clinton mandated that the United States end the use of all antipersonnel landmines outside of Korea by the year 2006, and pledged to join the Treaty by the year 2006 if alternatives to antipersonnel and mixed-mine systems are implemented by that date.

Recently, the Pentagon has requested funding from Congress for the Fiscal Year 2000, to develop a new artillery fired mixed landmine system, called RADAM, which the President has pledged to ban. If RADAM is approved, U.S. taxpayers would have spent nearly $200 million on a weapon system, which the President has promised to outlaw after 2006.

On May 25, 1999 the Senate Appropriations Committee struck funding for RADAM from the Fiscal Year 2000 budget. This was a great advance for the United States Campaign to Ban Landmines, due to the continued activism of Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) as well as to the efforts of the coalition of USCBL grassroots supporters. However, on July 30, 1999, the House Appropriations Committee moved to financially support RADAM development at the $49 million level requested by the Pentagon. As the Senate and the House were not in agreement over RADAM funding, the debate will now move on to negotiations in the Conference Committee, which will be meeting most likely at the end of September. The Conference Committee negotiations will determine the final fate of RADAM funding for the 2000 fiscal year.
Therefore, the need to mobilize support to block RADAM is urgent.

Act now to stop the development of this new landmine system!

Action:

* Write letters to President Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen, urging them to withdraw the funding request for RADAM altogether, and take RADAM out of production immediately.

Write to:
The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20500

Via Fax: +1-202-456-2461
Via Email: president-at-whitehouse-gov

and

Hon. William Cohen
Secretary of Defense
The Pentagon
Washington DC 20301

Via Fax: +1-703-695-1219

(Please send copies of your letters, as well as copies of any responses that you receive from Senators, to Physicians for Human Rights at the address listed below in order to track the success of this effort.)

For more information, or a full action alert for American citizens, please contact Jennifer Logan at: Physicians for Human Rights, 100 Boylston Street, Suite 702, Boston, MA 02116, Tel: (617) 695-0041; Fax: (617) 695-0307; Email: jlogan-at-phrusa-org

Additional information for US citizens:

Contact Information for House and Senate Conference Committee Members

Note: When writing to the Chair of a Committee or the Speaker of the House, it is proper to address them as: Dear Mr. Chairman or Madam

Chairwomen: or Dear Mr. Speaker: