US No Longer Promoting Landmine Abolition

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122905O.shtml

 

 

US No Longer Promoting Landmine Abolition

By Haider Rizvi

OneWorld.net

 

Wednesday 28 December 2005

 

United Nations - In 1994, the United States was the first nation

to call for the elimination of landmines that killed and maimed

hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world.

 

But that was then. Today, Washington not only stands in opposition

to an international treaty that bans the use and production of

antipersonnel landmines, but intends to make new ones too.

 

In reversal of its earlier policy, the U.S. is reportedly planning

to produce a new generation of landmines called " Spider " by March

2007, a move that has alarmed civil society groups campaigning for a

global ban on the use and production of landmines for years.

 

" We are concerned about this, " says Alison Bock, president and

founder of Landmines Blow!, a U.S.-based independent group. " This

would erase many of the positive steps the U.S. has taken in the past. "

 

Landmines Blow! has joined a number of other groups in urging the

Bush administration to drop its plans for Spider production and

instead support the goals of the Mine Ban Treaty.

 

The 1997 treaty, which has been endorsed by nearly 150 countries,

calls for a ban on the production, stockpiling, and use of

antipersonnel landmines.

 

Major powers among the 40 nations who have not signed the treaty

are the United States, Russia, and China.

 

Last month, more than 100 countries sent delegates to an

international meeting on landmines in Croatia, but the United States

did not.

 

Bock thinks it was wrong on part of the United states to stay away

from the meeting. " We believe the U.S. should engage in global

discussions on the landmine issue. "

 

Ironically, the United States was at the forefront of

international efforts to adopt the landmine treaty in the 1990s. It

had not used antipersonnel landmines since the 1991 Gulf War and had

not exported them to other countries since 1992.

 

The United States would " seek a worldwide agreement as soon as

possible to end the use of antipersonnel mines, " President Bill

Clinton said at the start of his second term in the White House.

 

But the Bush administration reversed that promise last February

with the Department of State declaring that landmines still have " a

valid and essential role " in protecting U.S. forces in military

operations.

 

" No other weapon currently exists that provides all the

capabilities provided by landmines, " the official statement added.

 

Disappointed with the administration's stance, supporters of the

treaty fear that the new policy on landmines might set a bad precedent

for other nations who are still outside the fold of the treaty.

 

" It's a step backward for the United States, " says Stephen Goose,

an arms expert with U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

 

" While the rest of the world is rushing to embrace an immediate

and comprehensive ban, the Bush administration has decided to cling to

the weapons in perpetuity, " he adds.

 

Goose and others note that the administration often does not use

the word landmines while referring to new weapons, such as Spiders,

which are designed to blow up automatically after a certain period of

time.

 

" These are not safe mines, " Goose contends. " They still pose real

dangers for civilians. "

 

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people are killed or maimed by mines

each year-most civilians and most in countries now at peace-according

to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an independent

umbrella organization.

 

Landmines are especially heinous weapons of war, the group says,

because they are indiscriminate-unable to distinguish between

soldiers, civilians, peacekeepers, aid workers, or others-and

inhumane-designed to maim rather than kill but frequently killing

nonetheless.

 

The also deprive people of land and infrastructure in some of the

poorest countries in the world, hamper reconstruction and the delivery

of aid, deprive communities and families of breadwinners, and kill

livestock and wild animals, according to the group.

 

ICBL released a report last week suggesting that despite the fact

that " immense challenges " remained to be dealt with, the worldwide use

of landmines and the number of related casualties were going down.

 

Last month, in a report on landmines, the group, however,

suggested that some positive changes must still be forthcoming.

 

" Although we are making great strides in our work to rid the world

of this weapon, we need to do more, " says ICBL leader Jody Williams,

who won the Noble Peace Prize for her work in 1997.

 

That's exactly what's on the minds of anti-mines activists like

Bock and Goose, who believe that the world cannot achieve much unless

the United States decides to reverse its policy.

 

Many groups are now reaching out to U.S. lawmakers in an attempt

to prevent the administration from pursuing its retrogressive policy

on landmines. It appears they have succeeded in gaining support from

some of them.

 

" I believe that more can and must be done to stop this crisis, "

Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL) told Bock in a letter, while assuring his

support in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

 

" I will be working with my colleagues in Congress and with the

Bush administration on this issue. "

 

Whether lawmakers like Obama will succeed in their efforts remains

to be seen.

 

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