Leahy Hits Bush Rollback Of U.S. Landmine Policy
WASHINGTON (Fri., Feb.
27) – Sen. Patrick Leahy took the Senate Floor Friday to object to
the Bush Administration’s reversal of an earlier U.S. pledge to
eventually sign the international treaty to ban the use of
anti-personnel landmines – indiscriminate munitions with little
military value that continue to kill and maim innocent civilians and
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the new policy during a
news briefing at the State Department Friday morning. Leahy issued
the below statement in reaction to Powell’s briefing. Following the
statement is a news backgrounder explaining how the Bush
Administration’s new landmine policy reverses key elements of
existing
U.S. policy on landmines.
|
Related Links:
Learn more about
Senator Leahy's efforts to abolish landmines |
_______________________
Comment of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
On The Administration’s Revised Landmine Policy
And It’s Reversal Of The U.S. Pledge
To Eventually Sign The International Landmine Treaty
Friday, Feb. 27, 2004
“Though there are some positive aspects of this policy, on the whole
it is a deeply disappointing rollback of U.S. policy on landmines.
This is another squandered opportunity for U.S. leadership on a
crucial arms control and humanitarian issue.
“Worst of all, in a reversal of current U.S. policy, it says the
United States will continue using landmines indefinitely. We are by
far the most powerful nation on earth, and the world looks to us for
leadership on this issue. When we back away from the progress we
have pledged to rid the world of these indiscriminate weapons,
others will ask why they, with their much weaker armies, should stop
using them.
“Anti-personnel landmines have only limited military utility, while
their proliferation around the world has been a plague on civilian
populations and also for U.S. troops. Many combat veterans oppose
using landmines because they have seen this. They continue to kill
or maim our soliders in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ending this scourge
not only is the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. The
Bush Administration has wasted this opportunity to move the world
toward banning these indiscriminate weapons.
“Once again the Bush Administration had the opportunity to join the
civilized world in solving a global crisis, and once again they have
chosen unilateralism and arrogance over leadership and cooperation.”
++++++++++++
NEWS BACKGROUNDER:
How The Administration’s Revised Policy Rolls Back Current U.S.
Policy On Anti-Personnel Landmines:
1.) The Bush Administration says it will eliminate “persistent”
(otherwise known as “dumb”) landmines by 2010. (These mines are not
designed to self-destruct automatically after a set period of days
or months, and remain active indefinitely.) Yet except in Korea,
the United States has not used persistent mines anywhere for
decades because of the danger they pose to innocent civilians and
our own troops. The Bush Administration is crediting itself for
eliminating a type of mine that the United States long ago stopped
using except in Korea, even though the Bush Administration’s new
policy reserves the right to use these mines for another 6 years.
2.) The Pentagon, during the Clinton Administration, pledged to end
use of all anti-personnel mines outside of Korea, including
self-destructing mines, by 2003. (Self-destructing mines are as
indiscriminate as dumb mines, until they self-destruct; they also
are subject to malfunction – more than 1000 self-destruct mines used
in the first Gulf War did not self-destruct.) The Bush
Administration abandons this pledge. This rollback now makes it
U.S. policy to allow the use of self-destructing anti-personnel
mines indefinitely.
3.) The Pentagon, during the Clinton Administration, pledged to
“search aggressively” for alternatives to self-destructing
anti-vehicle mine systems, by 2006. The Bush Administration
abandons this pledge and will allow the use of these mines anywhere,
indefinitely.
4.) In 1998, the Clinton Administration pledged that the United
States would sign the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines by
2006, if suitable alternatives to anti-personnel landmines were
fielded by then. The Bush Administration abandons this pledge.
More than 150 nations now have joined the treaty, including all our
NATO allies and all nations in the Western Hemisphere except the
United States and Cuba.
5.) The Bush Administration says it will seek a worldwide ban on
the sale or export of persistent mines. This approach was tried
back in 1994 by the United States and Great Britain. It was a
failure, as other nations (especially China, Pakistan, India and
others that have not joined the Ottawa Treaty) insisted that if the
United States – the world’s preeminent military power -- was
unwilling to give up its costlier self-destruct mines, they would
not give up their cheaper persistent mines.
6.) The Bush Administration says it will, within 2 years, begin
destroying all persistent landmines outside of Korea. This is
constructive; but in 1998 the Pentagon, during the Clinton
Administration, pledged to destroy all persistent anti-personnel
mines outside of Korea by 1999 – five years ago.
7.) The Administration proposes raising the funding of the State
Department’s Humanitarian Mine Action Program by 50 percent (over
FY03 levels) to $70 million. This is constructive.
# # # # #
