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U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines Email Newsletter In this edition. . .
INTRO/ACTION 1: HELP THE CAMPAIGN WITH MEDIA COVERAGE This week we sent a letter to the White House with 80 major US-based organizations and 30 local and state groups signed on urging President Bush to ban landmines! Please see the letter and the news release that we sent out to the media below. If you know of papers or radio stations that may be interested in this story, please forward them the news release and the letter or contact us at landmines@fcnl.org and we’ll do so. Media coverage on this issue will help us persuade policy-makers to pay attention to public concerns about the global landmines crisis and to take these concerns into account when deciding new U.S. landmine policies (expected soon). In fact, the USCBL is proud to say that in the past week, we, together with our partner groups, were successful in convincing 5 newspapers to publish editorials on the issue. See these articles below. ACTION 2: AN EASY CLICK FOR CHANGE Click on http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?ItemId=12903 and easily send a fax to the White House about your support for the Mine Ban Treaty. Thank you to the Friends Committee on National Legislation for convincing the Working Assets non-profit long distance company to post our action alert on their easy-to-use site. Apparently, thousands of people have already "clicked for change" from this alert. Let’s make it thousands more! NEWS RELEASE: 80 MAJOR GROUPS URGE BUSH TO BAN MINES On USCBL letterhead March 12, 2002 Web-site: www.banminesusa.org <http://www.banminesusa.org> EIGHTY RELIGIOUS, VETERANS, MEDICAL, HUMANITARIAN, AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS URGE PRESIDENT TO BAN LANDMINES; SUPPORT FOR TREATY BUILDS NATIONALLY AS WHITE HOUSE SETS TO RELEASE NEW MINES POLICY Eighty major U.S.-based organizations representing a wide cross-section of American values and constituencies issued a strong call today for President Bush to join the Mine Ban Treaty, an accord signed by over 140 governments, including every NATO nation except Turkey, that prohibits the production, stockpiling, transfer, and use of antipersonnel landmines. The White House is currently in the midst of an interagency review of US landmine policy. This process is expected to revise former President Clinton’s executive directive that the US will join the treaty by 2006 if certain military conditions are met. In recent media reports, there is increasing evidence that the Bush Administration plans to abandon this timetable altogether, moving the US further away from ever joining the Mine Ban. "We hope you will take this opportunity to renounce this weapon of terror that does not discriminate between soldiers and children," stated the groups in a letter to the President (see attached). "Our government’s reluctance to participate in this successful accord gives political cover to armies that continue to use the weapon." Annually antipersonnel landmines maim, blind, or kill 15,000-20,000 people, the majority of whom are civilians, in the more than eighty countries infested with these indiscriminate weapons. However, landmines, as Pentagon casualty reports have clearly shown, also pose a serious risk to U.S. troops, most recently in Afghanistan. In May of last year, eight retired senior commanders in the US armed services publicly asked the President to bring the US onboard the treaty for ostensibly military reasons. "We would not be urging [you to join the treaty] if we did not believe it would enhance our combat mobility and effectiveness and, most importantly, protect our nation's sons and daughters when we send them into harm's way… We know that the American people will support you in protecting those who defend us. We certainly will," the highly decorated generals and admirals stated, a coalition that included retired Lt. General Hal Moore, who was recently portrayed by actor Mel Gibson in the movie We Were Soldiers. "As we have seen firsthand in Cambodia, Afghanistan, and dozens of other countries around the world, landmines pose a particularly grave threat to refugees and the internally displaced as they seek to return home and rebuild their lives. The United States should join the Mine Ban Treaty immediately, lending its considerable leadership and influence to eliminate a weapon that steals land, as well as lives and limbs," stated Kenneth H. Bacon, President of Refugees International and former Pentagon Spokesman. The treaty received strong support from Congress in a recently released letter signed by 124 Members of the House of Representatives from both sides of the aisle. The correspondence from Congress came on the heels of a November letter from more than 500 veterans from fifty states urging the President to bring the US into compliance with the treaty. The letter was sent personally to the President by retired Lt. General Dave Palmer, a former Superintendent of West Point and Vice-Chair of the Veterans for Bush-Cheney National Coalition, and Richard Schultz, a landmine survivor and former legislative director of a major veterans service organization. The U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL) is a coalition of nearly 500 religious, veterans, medical, peace, humanitarian, and human rights organizations and more than 7,000 individual members who support U.S. participation in the Mine Ban Treaty. The campaign also encourages the government to increase U.S. funding for mine clearance and landmine victim assistance programs. The USCBL, a member of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines, is coordinated by and based at Physicians for Human Rights in Boston, Massachusetts. ### THE LETTER: 80 MAJOR US-BASED GROUP ASK BUSH TO BAN MINES On USCBL letterhead March 12, 2002 George W. Bush Dear President Bush: March 1 marked the 3-year anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty’s entry into force. We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to urge you to bring the United States on board this historic agreement. We understand that your administration is in the midst of a formal review of U.S. landmine policies. We hope you will take this opportunity to renounce this weapon of terror that does not discriminate between soldiers and children. Often called "weapons of mass-destruction in slow motion," landmines indiscriminately maim and kill 15,000-20,000 people each year in more than 80 nations. Most of the victims are civilians, and approximately one-third of them are children. Farming, travel, and economic development are severely inhibited by the terrifying presence of mines. For this reason, nearly three quarters of the world’s nations, including all of NATO (except for the United States and Turkey), have banned the weapon. We commend the United States for its generous support of demining and landmine victim assistance. These programs should continue and should be strengthened. However, U.S. political support of the global landmine ban is also vital. Our government’s reluctance to participate in this successful accord gives political cover to armies that continue to use the weapon with disastrous civilian consequences. Current U.S. policy mandates that the U.S. moves toward compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty by the year 2006 if certain military conditions are met. Notably, in May of 2001, 8 senior, retired U.S. admirals and generals, including a former commander of U.S. troops in Korea, wrote to you stating 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" (see attached). Moreover, last November, more than 500 U.S. veterans from all 50 states sent a similar letter, reminding you that mines have caused over 100,000 U.S. Army casualties since 1942, including one-third of all casualties in Vietnam and in the Gulf War. Sadly, it comes as no surprise that American soldiers have recently had limbs blown off by landmines in Afghanistan. It is our understanding that as part of this policy review process, the Defense Department recommended that you abandon all U.S. efforts to join the Mine Ban Treaty. However, 124 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, recently asked you not to heed these recommendations and encouraged you to eliminate antipersonnel landmines from the U.S. arsenal. Last year at this time, more than 250 Americans and additional people from more than 70 countries came together in Washington, D.C. for Ban Landmines Week where they met with more than 300 Congressional offices and asked the U.S. government to prioritize this issue. We believe that our nation is above using weapons of terror such as landmines. As humanitarian, religious, human rights, veterans, arms control, and medical organizations, we represent a wide cross-section of American values and constituencies. The humanitarian, military, and diplomatic reasons to join the Mine Ban Treaty are so compelling that we are hopeful your administration will now find a way for our country to join the global ban of this indiscriminate weapon. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, The following major organizations based in the United States: Adorers of Christ’s Blood "WE WERE SOLDIERS" FILM PORTRAYS ANTI-LANDMINE GENERAL The current box-office hit film "We Were Soldiers" portrays the leadership of Lt. General Hal Moore while he served in Vietnam. Interestingly, Moore is one of the 8 senior, retired generals and admirals who signed onto the letter to President Bush last May asking him to ban landmines. To see this letter, visit http://www.banminesusa.org/urg_act/990_generalsltr.html The film is based on the book "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" co-written by Lt. General Moore. CAMPAIGN GOT 5
MINES EDITORIALS PRINTED IN ONE WEEK! No Going Back
on Landmines WHEN Princess Diana went on a tour of land-mine carnage in Bosnia in 1997, the world paid attention. Support for a treaty to rid the Earth of land mines and their lingering destruction surged, an unprecedented groundswell of grass-roots activism. One would expect that the cleanup would be well under way, the issue of land-mine devastation a grisly thing of the past. But it's not true. People still die from stepping on land mines, at the rate of one every 22 minutes, according to Landmine Survivors Network. In Afghanistan, where the first U.S. casualties were victims of mines laid in previous wars, the carnage is readily apparent. Since the United States bagan the "war against terror," land mine injuries have jumped from three a day to 10 a day. Since 1991, land mines have killed more than 200,000 Afghans. Another 200,000 Afghans have lost limbs and eyes. In San Francisco terms, that's one out of every four people you saw this weekend on The City's streets. And the United States still hasn't signed the treaty --lagging behind 142 other countries. Treaty politics is strange and convoluted when you're a world superpower, but action is not. The United States already is in de facto compliance with the treaty. It is not building more of the slow-motion-massacre devices and it is spending more than any other country to clean up killing fields and assist their immediate and secondary casualties. President Bush has called for a review of the U.S. position on land mines, including input from the Department of Defense, the State Department and the National Security Council. Defense has finished its part, which reportedly recommends that the U.S. not sign the treaty, not remove mines from its arsenal, not search for alternatives. If true, this is criminally wrong. We are fighting in Afghanistan, and we fought in Bosnia, with great effectiveness and without using land mines. It can be done. We also have a ban on exporting the mines, so we couldn't send the ones we have in storage elsewhere if we wanted to. And, as a modern army, we have pledged to fight against a known enemy, not to randomly kill whoever happens to be walking in a field, be it man, child or cow. AFGHANISTAN is a "perfect" opportunity to show the right way to clear this scourge from a country. Some 4 million to 8 million mines litter its lands -- in cities and in fields, in forests and along roads. In the Tokyo conference in January, where countries pledged money to help his country rebuild, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai pledged to sign the mine ban treaty. Karzai looks to the United States for direction and support, and we certainly should support him in this. President Bush Sr. banned the weapon of mass destruction poison gas. The junior Bush must ban the weapon of latent mass destruction, land mines. We cannot slip backward, especially with the world watching. Affirm U.S. Commitment to Banning Landmines By James Cobey and Richard Schultz Baltimore Sun Op Ed Tuesday,March 4, 2002 BEFORE SEPT. 11, there was already a war being waged on a type of indiscriminate terror: antipersonnel land mines. Oftencalled "weapons of mass destruction in slow motion," landmines indiscriminately maim and kill nearly 20,000 people each year in more than 80 nations. In countries where surgeons, pain medication, blood transfusions and prosthetic limbs are almost nonexistent, people are losing their lives and limbs to mines every 30 minutes. Most of the victims are civilians, and about one-third of them are children. Farming, travel and economic development are made nearly impossible by the terrifying presence, or perceived presence, of mines left over from conflicts days, months or decades old. Nearly three-quarters of the world's countries have joined the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, which outlaws the manufacture, transfer, stockpiling and use of this outdated weapon. With the current war on terrorism and its condemnation of countries that produce weapons of terror, it makes more ideological sense than ever before for the United States to join the global mine ban. It makes diplomatic and life-saving sense as well. All of NATO, except for the United States and Turkey, has banned the weapon. Without political leverage on this issue, the United States has been unable to criticize India, which recently began laying mines along the border with Pakistan, or Russia, which continues to lay mines that wound and kill civilians in Chechnya. Our government's reluctance to participate in this successful accord has also given political cover to the Northern Alliance, which has allegedly used the weapon in Afghanistan in recent months. The result over decades will be countless more civilian land-mine injuries and deaths in a place that already had the distinction of being the worst mine-affected country in the world, with an estimated 5 million to 10 million mines in the ground. Sadly, it comes as no surprise that American soldiers have recently had limbs blown off by land mines in Afghanistan. President Bill Clinton's land-mine policy was for the United States to move toward compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006 if certain military conditions could be met, including those pertaining to the protection of South Korea. However, many retired military leaders have spoken out against the weapon. In May, eight retired U.S. admirals and generals, including a former commander of U.S. troops in Korea, wrote to President Bush that antipersonnel land mines "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." In November, more than 500 U.S. veterans from all 50 states sent a similar letter to the president, reminding him that mines have caused more than 100,000 U.S. Army casualties since 1942, including one-third of all casualties in Vietnam and in the Persian Gulf war. Human Rights Watch recently determined that nearly half of the land mines that are designated to protect South Korea from an unlikely North Korean invasion are actually stockpiled in the United States, not in Korea. This calls into question the notion of the true usefulness of mines to the United States or other modern armies. The Bush administration is reviewing U.S. land-mine policy. Unfortunately, as part of this review, the Defense Department recently asked the president to abandon all efforts to ban land mines by 2006 or ever and to eliminate the search for alternatives to mines. As a result, in late December, 124 members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, sent a letter to Mr. Bush asking him to not heed these recommendations but to eliminate land mines from the U.S. arsenal as soon as possible. Now is a perfect time for the administration to affirm the U.S. commitment to ban land mines. JamesCobey, a member of Physicians for Human Rights, is an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Washington and a senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Richard Schultz, who lives in Crofton, lost both legs to a land-mine explosion while serving in Vietnam. He is a retired Army sergeant and the former legislative director of a major veterans service organization. Copyright© 2002, The Baltimore Sun The Angola Mirror If we want to fathom how countries like Saudi Arabia or Pakistan could possibly support terrorists, we might peek into a mirror. Jonas Savimbi, the Angolan rebel who was killed 10 days ago, murdered and tortured countless civilians over the years; the Angolan civil war that he sustained may be responsible for more than 500,000 deaths since 1975. But he was our warlord, not the other side's, and so we were as blind to his brutality as the Saudis and Pakistanis are to the sins of their terrorists. As we engage in a new struggle today - against terrorism, not Communism, it's worth grappling with the lessons of our mistakes in Angola, so that we do not repeat them in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. It is embarrassing to look back to see how we hailed Mr. Savimbi duringt he cold war. Jeane Kirkpatrick toasted him as "one of the few authentic heroes of our time." President Reagan described him as Angola's Abraham Lincoln. Oh? Mr. Savimbi personally beat to death a rival's wife and children. He also shelled civilians, sowed land mines and then bombed a Red Cross- run factory making artificial legs for victims of mines. "We have to call him Africa's classical terrorist," said Makau Mutua, a professor of law and Africa specialist. "In the history of the continent, I think he's unique because of the degree of suffering he caused without showing any remorse." We were oblivious to Mr. Savimbi's faults because we were locked in a cold-war rivalry in which ideology trumped all else. And in any case, the Angolan government was wretched and brutal as well as pink. Mark Huband, the author of a book about the cold-war legacy in Africa, says about American involvement in countries like Angola, Zaire and Liberia:" In all cases, the results have been disastrous, creating decades of region-wide conflicts." As I see it, there are three key lessons to learn from our mistakes: LessonNo. 1: Be wary of warlords who parrot back our own lines. Mr. Savimbi was a chameleon who started off as a pro-Soviet Marxist, became a Maoist to get himself an anti-Communist to get American support in the cold war, and after the collapse of Communism declared himself a supporter of free markets. He was expert at saying what we wanted to hear, but in retrospect it's clear that he never believed in anything but power. It'sa useful caution these days, as foreign leaders jostle to whisper sweet nothings about terrorism in our ear. The Philippines has cleverly wangled$100 million from us by exaggerating the links between a gang of kidnappers and Al Qaeda. In the Horn of Africa, every faction insists that its enemies are tied to Al Qaeda and must be destroyed. Likewise,every commander in Afghanistan these days seems to regard himself as a secular humanist. Then there are the Iraqi opposition leaders, who spend much more time pushing our buttons than bothering with Saddam Hussein. LessonNo. 2: Support democracy as a whole, not simply elections. Angolaheld elections in 1992, and there's general agreement that they were held hurriedly - before rival armies could be tamed, before democratic institutions could be nurtured, before enough observers could be found - and so they solved nothing and perhaps made problems worse. As Afghanistan moves ahead, it's worth remembering that elections are not a panacea. What is needed is not just a plebiscite but a process, ranging from demobilization of combatants to freedom of speech, that creates democracy and stability. LessonNo. 3: Land mines often last longer than our alliances. The Bush administration is now conducting a review to determine its policy on antipersonnel mines. The policy makers might visit Angola, where thousands of maimed children will be one of the longest-lasting legacies of our support for Mr. Savimbi. Now that he is gone, Angola has another chance. And so do we. We should be twisting arms to try to bring about peace in Angola. And in the new battlegrounds, like Afghanistan and perhaps Iraq, let's be doubly careful about picking our next Lincoln. And rather than just anointing a winner, let's promote institutional changes - like schools, liberties and free markets - that are the third world's real freedom fighters and "authentic heroes." Don't Heed Pentagon
On Mines Recent injuries to American servicemen - one lost a leg -from land mines in Afghanistan bring to the fore once again the danger posed by those hidden killers. The United States should join the international effort to ban them. Afghanistan is riddled with mines, some 8 million to 10 million, sown during the Soviet occupation starting in 1979. There are mines lying beneath the surface of scores of countries around the world. Although land mines kill or maim 18,000 people, mostly civilians, each year, the situation has been improving because of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. In the early '90s, there were 54 mine-producing countries; now there are only 14. Ten years ago, there were 26,000 casualties a year. Yet the progress made possible by the treaty could be undermined if the Bush administration changes U.S. policy for the worse, as the Pentagon recommends. President Clinton refused to sign the treaty because of opposition from the Pentagon, but his administration's policy was to work toward compliance with the treaty's terms by 2006. At that time, this country would sign the pact if certain conditions are met, such as allowing the United States to use command-detonated mines to defend the border between North and South Korea. These mines would not blow up if accidentally stepped on, unlike the so-called dumb mines. As part of the quadrennial defense review, President Bush asked for a formal reappraisal of the nation's policy on land mines. The Department of Defense recommended that the United States abandon all efforts to comply with the Mine Ban Treaty, eliminate the search for alternatives, abandon efforts to get rid of dumb mines and assert the need to use mines wherever the United States conducts special operations. Mr. Bush has also asked for recommendations from the State Department, which are due soon. Land mines, which kill and maim many more civilians and children than combatants, are not essential to the nation's security. They actually slow operational tempo in combat. The United States needs to exert moral leadership on this issue. Russia, for example, won't sign the pact, citing the U.S. position against joining. At last count, 142 nations have signed the treaty. All NATO countries are signatories except the United States and Turkey; all nations in the Western Hemisphere have joined except the United States and Cuba. It's time that Washington got on board. U.S. Must Sign
Landmine Treaty. They Cause American Casualties, Too TO understand the case for banning land mines, listen to ``John,'' a Bosnian refugee, talk about how he was maimed and changed for life. Trying to help spirit out villagers under siege by Serbs, ``John'' and three buddies were trying to negotiate a field by dark when they stumbled upon one of many mines. Although the group escaped, ``John'' and his friends weren't so lucky. Shrapnel tore into his body, and he lost several fingers. He underwent 26 surgeries in 29 days. Now resettled in San Jose, ``John'' is afraid to divulge even his first name because he fears the attention might instigate reprisals against family left behind. He is among the more than 18,000 people killed or wounded annually by land mines. The overwhelming majority are civilians; one-third are children. Sadly, the United States appears bent on ensuring that ``John's'' story continues to be replicated many times over. Until recently, a global effort against land mines was gaining steam. A treaty to ban the production, use, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines has been signed by 142 countries and slowed the proliferation of land mines. But a major obstacle is the U.S. government, which seems poised to do an about-face after by 2006. The Bush administration has received alarming recommendations from the Defense Department to abandon plans to comply with the treaty, to not eliminate ``dumb'' mines from the U.S. arsenal by 2003, to end the search for alternatives and to insist on the indefinite need for anti-personnel mines in Korea and elsewhere. Senior retired U.S. generals and admirals disagree. In a letter to President Bush, they assert that land mines are not critical for Korean security, nor do they enhance U.S. combat effectiveness. Since 1942, land mines have caused more than 100,000 U.S. Army casualties, including one-third of those in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. In Afghanistan, perhaps the most heavily mined country in the world, mines have killed troops and civilians alike. Yes, the United States finances de-mining operations -- a slow, painstaking, expensive and daunting effort. There are at least 60 million land mines buried in 70 countries worldwide. But continuing to mine, and to scatter cluster bombs in Afghanistan, multiplies the problem many-fold. Perhaps the State Department, which is reviewing the treaty, will realize the importance of joining other civilized nations. All other NATO nations, except Turkey, and all Western Hemisphere nations, except Cuba, have signed. California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer ought to join other congressional voices and urge the White House to sign the land mine treaty. For more information about the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines or to donate on-line, please visit U.S.
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