[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1276 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1276

   To extend for three years the moratorium on the sale, transfer or 
   export of antipersonnel landmines abroad, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                July 22 (legislative day, June 30), 1993

 Mr. Leahy (for himself, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Dole, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Pell, 
 Mr. Kerrey, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Moynihan, Mr. DeConcini, Mr. D'Amato, Mr. 
     Specter, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Wofford, Mr. Simon, Mr. 
   Lautenberg, Mr. Exon, Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Mikulski, Mr. Riegle, Mr. 
 Rockefeller, Mr. Bumpers, Mr. Bryan, Mr. Harkin, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. 
Murray, Mr. Metzenbaum, Mr. Daschle, Mr. Bradley, Mr. Graham, Mr. Ford, 
Mr. Feingold, Mrs. Boxer, and Mr. Levin) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign 
                               Relations.

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To extend for three years the moratorium on the sale, transfer or 
   export of antipersonnel landmines abroad, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Landmine Moratorium Extension Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Antipersonnel landmines, which are designed to maim and 
        kill people, have been used indiscriminately in dramatically 
        increasing numbers around the world. Hundreds of thousands of 
        noncombatant civilians, including children, have been the 
        primary victims. Unlike other military weapons, landmines often 
        remain implanted and undiscovered after conflict has ended, 
        causing massive suffering to civilian populations.
            (2) Tens of millions of landmines have been strewn in at 
        least sixty-two countries, often making whole areas 
        uninhabitable. The State Department estimates there are more 
        than ten million landmines in Afghanistan, nine million in 
        Angola, four million in Cambodia, three million in Iraqi 
        Kurdistan, and two million each in Somalia, Mozambique, and the 
        former Yugoslavia. Hundreds of thousands of landmines were used 
        in conflicts in Central America in the 1980's.
            (3) Advanced technologies are being used to manufacture 
        sophisticated mines which can be scattered remotely at a rate 
        of one thousand per hour. These mines, which are being produced 
        by many industrialized countries, were discovered in Iraqi 
        arsenals after the Persian Gulf War.
            (4) At least three hundred types of antipersonnel landmines 
        have been manufactured by at least forty four countries, 
        including the United States. However, the United States is not 
        a major exporter of landmines. During the past ten years the 
        Administration has approved ten licenses for the commercial 
        export of antipersonnel landmines with a total value of 
        $980,000, and the sale under the Foreign Military Sales program 
        of one hundred nine thousand one hundred and twenty-nine 
        antipersonnel landmines.
            (5) The United States signed, but has not ratified, the 
        1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of 
        Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed To Be 
        Excessively Injurious or To Have Indiscriminate Effects. 
        Protocol II of the Convention, otherwise known as the Landmine 
        Protocol, prohibits the indiscriminate use of landmines.
            (6) When it signed the 1980 Convention, the United States 
        stated: ``We believe that the Convention represents a positive 
        step forward in efforts to minimize injury or damage to the 
        civilian population in time of armed conflict. Our signature of 
        the Convention reflects the general willingness of the United 
        States to adopt practical and reasonable provisions concerning 
        the conduct of military operations, for the purpose of 
        protecting noncombatants.''.
            (7) The United States also indicated that it had supported 
        procedures to enforce compliance, which were omitted from the 
        Convention's final draft. The United States stated: ``The 
        United States strongly supported proposals by other countries 
        during the Conference to include special procedures for dealing 
        with compliance matters, and reserves the right to propose at a 
        later date additional procedures and remedies, should this 
        prove necessary, to deal with such problems.''.
            (8) The lack of compliance procedures and other weaknesses 
        have significantly undermined the effectiveness of the Landmine 
        Protocol. Since it entered into force on December 2, 1983, the 
        number of civilians maimed and killed by antipersonnel 
        landmines has multiplied.
            (9) Since the moratorium on United States sales, transfers 
        and exports of antipersonnel landmines was signed into law on 
        October 23, 1992, the European Parliament has issued a 
        resolution calling for a five year moratorium on sales, 
        transfers and exports of antipersonnel landmines, and the 
        Government of France has announced that it has ceased all 
        sales, transfers and exports of antipersonnel landmines.
            (10) On December 2, 1993, ten years will have elapsed since 
        the 1980 Convention entered into force, triggering the right of 
        any party to request a United Nations conference to review the 
        Convention. Amendments to the Landmine Protocol may be 
        considered at that time. The Government of France has made a 
        formal request to the United Nations Secretary General for a 
        review conference. With necessary preparations and 
        consultations among governments, a review conference is not 
        expected to be convened before late 1994 or early 1995.
            (11) The United States should continue to set an example 
        for other countries in such negotiations by extending the 
        moratorium on sales, transfers and exports of antipersonnel 
        landmines for an additional three years. A moratorium of this 
        duration would extend the current prohibition on the sale, 
        transfer and export of antipersonnel landmines a sufficient 
        time to take into account the results of a United Nations 
        review conference.

SEC. 3. POLICY.

    (a) It shall be the policy of the United States to seek verifiable 
international agreements prohibiting the sale, transfer or export, 
further limiting the manufacture, possession and use, and eventually, 
terminating manufacture, possession and use of antipersonnel landmines.
    (b) It is the sense of the Congress that the President should 
submit the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to the 
Senate for ratification. Furthermore, the Administration should 
participate in a United Nations conference to review the Landmine 
Protocol, and actively seek to negotiate under United Nations auspices 
a modification of the Landmine Protocol, or another international 
agreement, to prohibit the sale, transfer or export of antipersonnel 
landmines, and to further limit their manufacture, possession and use.

SEC. 4. MORATORIUM ON TRANSFERS OF ANTI-PERSONNEL LANDMINES ABROAD.

    For a period of three years beginning on the date of enactment of 
this Act--
            (1) no sale may be made or financed, no transfer may be 
        made, and no license for export may be issued, under the Arms 
        Export Control Act, with respect to any antipersonnel landmine; 
        and
            (2) no assistance may be provided under the Foreign 
        Assistance Act of 1961, with respect to the provision of any 
        antipersonnel landmine.

SEC. 5. DEFINITION.

    For purposes of this section, the term ``antipersonnel landmine'' 
means--
            (1) any munition placed under, on, or near the ground or 
        other surface area, or delivered by artillery, rocket, mortar, 
        or similar means or dropped from an aircraft and which is 
        designed to be detonated or exploded by the presence, 
        proximity, or contact of a person;
            (2) any device or material which is designed, constructed, 
        or adapted to kill or injure and which functions unexpectedly 
        when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless 
        object or performs an apparently safe act; and
            (3) any manually-emplaced munition or device designed to 
        kill, injure, or damage and which is actuated by remote control 
        or automatically after a lapse of time.

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