ANTI-PERSONNEL MINES: AN AMERICAN PROBLEM

March 1, 1999

A little more than a year ago 122 countries came together in Ottawa and took a giant step towards the elimination of one of the most insidious weapons ever to plague the Earth. They sought a world, as President Clinton has said, “where children can walk without fear.” And rather than make excuses, or the common failure to match rhetoric with action, they did what our President, our Pentagon, other governments and millions and millions of people around the world said they want -- to outlaw anti-personnel landmines. They did it.

And today we celebrate the coming into force of the Ottawa Treaty, and the 134 countries that have signed and the 65 that have already ratified.

We are also here to demonstrate that landmines not only destroy the limbs and lives of people in Angola, Chechnya, Nicaragua, and so many other places.

They also kill and maim our soldiers, our peacekeepers, our relief workers, our missionaries, and other innocent Americans traveling abroad.

The Americans here before you are the best evidence that this is a global problem that cries out for U.S. leadership. I thank them for their courage and for their willingness to speak out. They represent tens of thousands of Americans who have been maimed or killed by mines, mostly in combat, but civilians too.

The United States, the most powerful nation history has ever known, wants other countries to give up their mines, but our government refuses to join the treaty. President Clinton deserves credit for taking some steps to move the policy of his administration. There has been progress. But the response has been slow and it has been grudging and it has fallen far short of what is needed.

Let me give you an example of the kind of leadership I am talking about:

In the dark days of the Second World War, before the invasion of Iwo Jima when U.S. forces were taking horrendous casualties, the War Department recommended a naval bombardment of the island with chemical weapons.

The President wrote back: “All previous endorsements denied. Signed: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Commander in Chief.”

President Roosevelt, after considering the heartfelt and strong recommendations of the Armed Forces and the press, refused to use chemical weapons even though it could have saved American lives.

He saw the bigger picture, the long-term humanitarian implications, and thanks in part to his leadership, chemical weapons, which the War Department had called “the most effective weapon history has ever known,” were stigmatized and have hardly been used since.

The United States will sign the Ottawa Treaty. The use of anti-personnel mines will be a war crime. And our soldiers will be safer, even though today, like 50 years ago, the Pentagon is standing in the way.

This week I will introduce legislation to encourage the administration to show the leadership that is needed. Congressman Lane Evans, who could not be here because of a family emergency, and Congressman Jack Quinn, will introduce the same bill in the House.

This legislation would bring United States policies and practices into conformity with the Ottawa Treaty by 2003 -- the date the President has said the United States will stop using anti-personnel mines everywhere except Korea.

It also imposes an immediate moratorium on the production of new anti-personnel mines. The President has already capped the number of mines in our inventory. The last thing we should do is spend more money to build more mines.

The bill calls for additional aid for landmine survivors -- and we will be working closely with “Landmine Survivors Network,” and for programs to get rid of the millions of mines that are in the ground.

Today is a day that history will remember as a milestone in a global campaign to rid the world of a weapon that has no place in civilized society. It is also a day that we resolve, as Americans, to redouble our efforts to put our own country at the forefront of this campaign.