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Africa Policy E-Journalgiven the difficulty in maintaining up-to-date links in old files. However, we hope they may still provide leads for your research. Africa: Recent Landmines Documents, 2 Date Distributed (ymd): 960216 Arms Control Working Group c/o Demilitarization for Democracy 1601 Connecticut Ave. NW #600 Washington, DC 20009 Phone: (202) 319-7191 Fax: (202) 319-7194 E-mail: pdd@clark.net PRESS RELEASE January 26, 1996 Washington, D.C. ... President Clinton today signed into law a one-year moratorium on the use of anti-personnel landmines by U.S. forces. This "Leahy-Evans" (Sen. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt. and Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill.) amendment is part of the foreign operations appropriation, which is included in the Continuing Resolution keeping the government running until March 15. The moratorium on landmine use will take effect in three years, so that U.S. armed forces can make changes in doctrine and operations without disrupting combat readiness. (For more information on military alternatives to landmines, please call 319-7191 for a copy of DFD's 1995 report, which contains a three-year timetable for phasing in these alternatives.) The moratorium on landmine use is permanent law, despite the fact that the bill containing it expires March 15. Supporters of the provision expect strong efforts this coming year from the Pentagon to overturn it, but at the moment, U.S. law pointedly rejects current administration policy and points the way toward an international ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines. This is victory for a remarkable coalition of veterans, religious, humanitarian, human rights, development, and disarmament groups. DFD director Caleb Rossiter said: "This amendment points the way to a world in which landmines are illegal and their use is punished with stiff sanctions. As is the case with chemical weapons, that will lead eventually to a world without landmines, which will save lives and limbs not only for tens of thousands of civilians but also for U.S. troops on peace-keeping missions in places like Bosnia." The moratorium on landmine use passed the Senate 67-27, and then was accepted in conference by a House subcommittee chaired by Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.). The Pentagon made an attempt to weaken the moratorium in the conference on the Defense Authorization Act, but Sen. Leahy held up that bill on the Senate floor until Armed Services chair Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) agreed to remove a provision granting the President the right to waive the landmines moratorium. ************************************************************ February 2, 1996 Dear President Clinton: We represent veterans, international development, humanitarian relief, human rights, religious, and disarmament groups who support the International Campaign To Ban Landmines. We have been deeply disappointed by your decision to defer to the wishes of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Defense and instruct your representatives in recent international negotiations to thwart efforts to ban landmines. Landmines burst into press and public notice in December when Army Specialist 4 Martin John Begosh drove his vehicle over a landmine and became the first U.S. military casualty in Bosnia. He certainly will not be the last military casualty, because 6 million or more landmines are strewn across Bosnia and Croatia. In November 1995 Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili lobbied hard against a moratorium on landmine use proposed by Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Lane Evans; just two months later Secretary of Defense William Perry called landmines the number one threat to U.S. military personnel in Bosnia. Clearly, the argument that landmines are "force multipliers" that save the lives of U.S. military personnel fails the reality test in Bosnia, where landmines are deadly "force dividers" for our troops, just as they were in Vietnam, Iraq, and Somalia. A world without landmines would be far safer for U.S. troops than the world with millions of landmines they must face today. However, the overriding reality in Bosnia and other areas of armed conflict is that military casualties due to landmines are only the tip of the iceberg. Landmines are the weapons that keep on killing long after armed conflict has ended. Whom do they keep on killing? Tragically, innocent children at play, farmers cultivating land for food, and women carrying the family's supply of water are the ones killed or maimed. Over 100 million landmines in 62 countries continue to kill and maim 2000 people every month and pose a significant barrier to efforts to promote sustainable economic development abroad. Indeed, whether landmines, on balance, protect or threaten military personnel is not for us the key issue. Landmines are indiscriminate terror weapons that, like chemical weapons, should be banned from the world's arsenals. Secretary of State Warren Christopher has called landmines "weapons of mass destruction in slow motion," and we believe that weapons of mass destruction are illegal and should be banned and destroyed. We are aware that U.S. armed forces attempt to use landmines in such a way as to minimize civilian casualties, by marking permanent minefields and generally using only short-term, self-destructing mines in unmarked areas. However, it is not U.S. use but U.S. leadership that is at issue at this time. Landmines are a global problem requiring global leadership. There will be no significant movement toward a workable ban on landmines until the United States joins the countries who are removing landmines from their arsenals and then challenges other countries to agree to an international regime of inspections and sanctions to ensure that landmines are not being produced, stockpiled, or used. A ban is the only practical way to ensure that in future Bosnias our troops and those of our allies do not suffer the senseless casualties they have this time. In your September 1994 address to the United Nations you placed the United States firmly behind the goal of ridding the world of anti-personnel landmines. Since then, however, you have deferred to the Pentagon's intense opposition to meaningful steps toward achieving the goal you and we share. As noted above, last fall the Pentagon lobbied fiercely against the Leahy-Evans landmine use moratorium even after it passed the Senate by a better than two-to-one margin, and the U.S. delegation to the U.N. negotiations on conventional weapons actually opposed other countries' proposals to ban landmines. We applaud the enactment into law in January of the Leahy- Evans legislation, which establishes a one-year moratorium on the use of anti-personnel landmines by U.S. forces starting in 1998. This law should form the basis for the U.S. position in current international negotiations on landmines. Now, while America's attention is focused on the threat of landmines in Bosnia, is the time for you to take on the Pentagon's arguments and stand up for the thousands of civilian and military victims of landmines. We recall that the Pentagon in the 1980s also bitterly opposed efforts to ban the production of chemical weapons, which like landmines by their very nature did not discriminate between combatants and civilians. However, President Bush promoted the historic agreement banning all parties from having chemical weapons and setting up a system of inspections and sanctions to enforce the agreement. Only the Commander-in-Chief can instruct the Pentagon to cease its resistance to banning a weapon. We urge you to do so in the case of anti-personnel landmines, so the Pentagon can begin planning for operations in a mine-free world and the United States can return to its position of international leadership on this issue. We come to the landmines campaign from a wide variety of perspectives -- human rights groups who see landmines as indiscriminate weapons that violate existing international law protecting civilians from attack; veterans' groups who have seen first-hand the trauma these coward's weapons inflict on combatants as well as civilians; international relief groups who treat victims of mine warfare; international development groups who face the nearly impossible task of helping communities clear mines and resume economic development; and disarmament groups who oppose the transfer of weapons to irresponsible users, which for landmines means, by definition, virtually all users. We all view the International Campaign To Ban Landmines as one of the most important legacies that the troubled 1990s can offer to the world. We look forward to hearing your response to our position. Thank you for your attention to our appeal. Sincerely, Americans for Democratic Action; Amy Isaacs, National Director * American Friends Service Committee, Washington Office; James Matlack, Director * Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace; Kathryn Johnson, Interim Executive Director * Bread for the World; David Beckman, President * Center for Defense Information; Admiral Jack Shanahan, Director * Church of the Brethren, Washington Office; Timothy McElwee, Director * Church Women United, Washington Office; Nancy Chupp, Director * Council for a Livable World; John Isaacs, Executive Director * Council on Economic Priorities; Jordana Friedman, Director, International Security Program * Demilitarization for Democracy; Caleb Rossiter, Director * Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Mark Brown, Assistant Director * Federation of American Scientists; Lora Lumpe, Director Arms Sales Monitoring Project * Friends Committee on National Legislation; Joe Volk, Executive Secretary * Fund for New Priorities in America; Maurice Paprin, President * Human Rights Watch, The Arms Project; Steve Goose, Program Director * Lutheran World Relief; Kathryn Wolford, President * Maryknoll Justice and Peace Office; Terence Miller * Mennonite Central Committee, Washington Office; J. Daryl Byler, Director * National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament; Greg Bischak, Executive Director * Peace Action; Fran Teplitz, Program Director * Physicians for Human Rights; Susannah Sirken, Acting Executive Director * Saferworld; Peter Davies, United States Representative * United States Catholic Conference; John Carr, Secretary of the Department of Social Development and World Peace * Veterans for Peace; Jerry Genesio, Executive Director * Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation; Jody Williams, Coordinator, the International Campaign To Ban Landmines * Washington Office on Africa; Imani Countess, Executive Director * Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children; Mary Diaz, Director * Women's Action for New Directions; Debra Walden, Director * Women Strike for Peace; Edith Villastrigo, Director * World Federalist Association; Tim Barner, Executive Director
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Africa Policy E-Journal
