The US policy review

(Thursday 25 October 2001 )

The White House interagency policy review is expected to revise former President Clinton’s executive directive that the U.S. will join the treaty by 2006 if certain military conditions are met. Recent media reports have suggested that the Bush Administration plans to abandon this timetable altogether, moving the US further away from ever joining the international treaty.

This follows recommendations made by the Defense Department as part of the review process that the U.S abandons all efforts to join the Mine Ban Treaty in 2006 or ever, gives up its efforts to get rid of dumb mines by 2003, eliminates the search for alternatives program and asserts the need for mine use not only in Korea, but elsewhere.

However, former military leaders have repeatedly taken a stand against the weapon. In November last year, some 500 US veterans (from the fifty U.S. states) who had fought in all US conflicts since World War II submitted their appeal to the president. In May 2001, eight retired U.S. admirals and generals argued 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 U.S. accession [to the treaty] far outweigh the minimal military utility of these weapons".

A revelation by Human Rights Watch last year further called into question the military necessity of the weapons when they reported that nearly half of the U.S. mines designated to "protect" South Korea are actually stockpiled in the U.S. For the release, visit this site.

Recently 124 members of the House of Representatives – both Democrats and Republicans – came out in support of U.S accession to the treaty. Last year two and a half thousand youth from around the world petitioned Bush on the same issue. The ICBL has campaigned consistently for the U.S. to ban antipersonnel mines over the years.