[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 107 (Friday, August 5, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 5, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                               LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, 2 years ago when the U.S. Senate passed the 
moratorium on exports of antipersonnel landmines, many people were 
skeptical. They said we were naive to think that other landmine 
exporting nations would follow our lead. In fact, over and over again, 
the naysayers would mention Italy. They mentioned Italy because Italy 
produces and exports more landmines than practically anybody else. They 
said the Italians would simply take over the markets for landmines that 
the American companies lost.
  I heard the same thing when I introduced legislation last month to 
impose a 1-year moratorium on the production of antipersonnel mines. 
Some in the Pentagon called it unilateral disarmament, as if somehow 
antipersonnel landmines is the key to American military superiority. 
Others said that Italy and other countries would simply expand their 
production.
  Often around here, the pessimists win out. But interestingly enough, 
that has not happened with landmines. Time and again in the past 2 
years, the naysayers have been proven wrong. Our export moratorium was 
like a shot heard around the world. What started as nothing more than a 
whisper, suddenly became a deafening cry for global action to ban 
landmines altogether. A lot of countries took heart in what the U.S. 
Senate did.
  Since the United States stopped exporting antipersonnel landmines, at 
least eight countries have adopted their own moratoria. Six other 
countries have not enacted formal moratoria, but in practice they have 
done it because they have stopped issuing export licenses. A number of 
other countries are expected to soon. It is one of those instances 
where what we did on the floor of this body actually counted worldwide.

  And for the naysayers who kept pointing to Italy, I want them to know 
what is happening there today.
  Italian Senator Caro Ronchi introduced a resolution in the Upper 
House to ban landmines. It is cosponsored by almost half of that body. 
Parliamentarian Emma Bonino sponsored identical legislation in the 
Lower House. And the Italian Minister of Defense announced that he 
supports a moratorium on both exports and production of antipersonnel 
landmines.
  We started something here in the U.S. Senate.
  I think of the times when Tim Rieser, from my office, would talk with 
people not only in this country but in other parts of the world and 
felt like a voice in the wilderness. Now Tim gets calls and faxes from 
around the world from people who want to join with him. And I would 
note, Mr. President, my personal congratulations to Mr. Rieser for what 
he has done tirelessly.
  In the debate on Mr. Ronchi's resolution earlier this week, the 
Italian Government pledged to observe a moratorium on the exports of 
antipersonnel landmines. It further pledged to end production of 
antipersonnel mines which pose grave dangers to civilians and to work 
collectively with other countries to support landmine clearing efforts.
  I mention this because I want to commend both these legislators for 
their initiative, and the Italian Defense Minister for his support for 
this effort.
  According to my information, Italy produces over 30 varieties of 
antipersonnel landmines. Fiat, the automobile manufacturer, is Italy's 
largest producer of mines. One of its deadlier models is the Valmara 
69. If you trip it, it leaps up and then explodes at waist height, 
spewing shrapnel over a 60-foot kill zone. It can pulverize a child, 
and blind or blow the arms or legs off of anyone standing within 300 
feet.
  Thousands of Italian mines were discovered in Iraqi arsenals after 
the gulf war. Now we know these mines were used against the Kurds in 
northern Iraq.
  Mr. President, we can talk in the abstract. This is what actually 
happened. This is a photograph of a Kurdish child in northern Iraq who 
lost a leg from a mine. Look at the face of this child. Can anybody 
think of this child as an enemy? Can you imagine the tragedy he feels?
  Look at the face of his father. You can see the despair and grief he 
feels for his own child. It is obscene, what is happening. These mines 
have become a terrorist weapon against civilian populations all over 
the world.
  Mr. President, if Italy lives up to its pledge, it deserves the 
strong support of the United States. It reflects the views of over half 
the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, who 
are original cosponsors of my legislation for a 1-year moratorium on 
the production of antipersonnel landmines.
  Mr. President, in March and May of this year, government experts met 
in Geneva to begin to prepare for a U.N. conference on landmines next 
September. The third experts meeting will take place next week. It is 
absolutely essential that the August meeting achieve significant 
progress.
  How much is achieved in Geneva will depend completely on whether the 
participants, including the United States and our allies, want this to 
be an exercise in posturing or one that produces real results.
  In 1981, the United States was one of over 50 countries that signed 
the Conventional Weapons Convention, including the landmine protocol. 
There was great fanfare and congratulations, and during the next decade 
somewhere between 50 and 100 million landmines were strewn around the 
world.
  Vast areas of land in dozens of countries became virtual death traps 
for the people who live there. Landmines became the weapon of choice in 
the Third World, from Cambodia to Bosnia, and it is civilians who have 
suffered the most. Well over 100,000, and probably more than 200,000 
people have been killed and maimed. Another 1,200 casualties are added 
each month.
  So much for rhetoric. So much for an agreement that was so riddled 
with loopholes and exceptions that it was worth little more than the 
paper it was written on. I have to wonder if the diplomats who signed 
that flawed agreement ever really believed it could accomplish its 
lofty goals.

  Today, 13 years since the landmine protocol was signed, we have the 
opportunity to show that we have learned something from all the misery 
that has been caused by landmines since then.
  Several countries including the United States, France, and Germany 
have proposed modifications to the protocol. In France and Germany 
today, innocent people are still being blown up by mines left from 
World War II. These proposals contain some good ideas, but none goes 
nearly far enough. Even if every recommendation was adopted it would 
fall far short of what is needed to stop this senseless slaughter.
  I am pleased that the United States is pushing hard for the extension 
of the protocol to internal, as well as international conflicts. The 
vast majority of mine casualties are a result of civil wars.
  But far more must be achieved, and frankly I am very concerned that 
we may see something of a repeat of what happened in 1981. I am afraid 
that we may see an elaborate and wholly unenforceable control regime 
that permits the industrialized countries to continue to produce, use, 
and export to each other their high technology mines, but which does 
not stand a glimmer of a chance of changing the behavior of the Third 
World countries where the problem is most severe. That would be a 
traffic failure of governments to address an urgent humanitarian crisis 
that afflicts over 60 countries.
  I will have a number of recommendations for our negotiators during 
the coming months. I will also be urging other governments, both those 
who produce landmines and those whose citizens have experienced the 
horrors mines cause, to support these recommendations.
  Mr. President, we have all watched in horror as hundreds of thousands 
of innocent people were killed and mutilated in Rwanda. I cannot 
imagine there is a Member of the Senate who has not been sickened by 
the news accounts of children, thousands of children, mutilated or 
hacked to death by people wielding machetes in Rwanda. Our skin crawls 
at the idea. We are repulsed, as civilized people.
  But, Mr. President, that is happening year-round to thousands of 
children, not being mutilated and killed by machetes, but mutilated and 
killed by landmines. Some of those mines have been there for years, 
placed by governments no longer in power or by combatants who are no 
longer even remembered, but they have left this deadly legacy; and 
sometimes it has been combatants who placed the landmines there before 
these children were even born.
  And now those children see a metal object that might even resemble a 
toy, and they go eagerly to pick it up. And it is the last thing they 
will ever see, because even if they live, they have probably lost their 
eyes and half their face.
  Mr. President, so many people stood by for months during the genocide 
in Rwanda. We do not have to do that with landmines. We can stop the 
landmine scourge if we challenge other countries and give support to 
those who share our goals.
  As part of that effort, 3 weeks ago, U.S. Army personnel went to 
Cambodia to train Cambodian troops to clear some of the 5 to 10 million 
landmines strewn there. This mission is a result of funding approved by 
the Congress last year to support humanitarian mine clearing overseas. 
Additional funds are going to be in the 1995 Defense appropriations 
bill, as well as funds for research and development of new technology 
for detecting and destroying mines. It is not too late. There are 100 
million unexploded landmines strewn around the world.
  Mr. President, one of the things I look forward to when we are not in 
session is to be back at my home in Vermont, to walk around the fields 
and woods on my tree farm there. It is one of the prettiest places I 
know. I have been walking those same trails and fields as I did when I 
was a child. I do it with a sense of safety and security and peace.
  As many as 100 million landmines are in countries where you cannot 
walk in the fields or the woods, or let your cattle graze, or your 
children play, or reap your crops, because you know you may die from it 
by stepping on a mine.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the transcript of a 
television film on landmines, produced by the Center for Defense 
Information, entitled ``Killing Fields: The Deadly Legacy of 
Landmines,'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Center for Defense Information]

             Killing Fields: The Deadly Legacy of Landmines

       Steve Goose: The human costs of landmines are appalling. 
     The Red Cross estimates that probably some 15,000 people a 
     year are either killed or injured by landmines around the 
     world. That means that while your viewers are watching this 
     program, probably one or two people are going to be killed or 
     maimed by landmines.
       Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT): Time after time, when I've 
     talked with landmine victims in Africa, in Central America, 
     in every part of the world where I've talked to them, and 
     I've said, ``What side were you on in the conflict?'' Time 
     and time again, they say, ``I'm just trying to raise food for 
     my family. I didn't have a side.''
       Narrator: They are known as ``hidden killers'' and 
     ``weapons of mass destruction in slow motion.'' They have 
     killed or maimed more people than have been killed by 
     nuclear, biological and chemical weapons combined. They have 
     been called the perfect soldier, never sleeping and never 
     missing. Unlike other weapons, many of them are designed to 
     maim, but not kill. They are landmines.
       [``America's Defense Monitor'' program introduction.]
       Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr. (USN, Ret.): One-hundred and 
     thirty years ago, General Sherman said that ``war is hell.'' 
     Today, in some respects, war is even worse. For example, 
     there are modern weapons which go on wrecking havoc, 
     destroying lives, maiming innocent children, killing farmers 
     in their fields long after the battles are over. This program 
     will show you graphic evidence of this in images which are 
     grim and disturbing, but you will see firsthand evidence of 
     the deadly legacy of landmines.
       Kenneth Rutherford: About ten minutes into our excursion, 
     the Land Rover filled up with dust and lurched forward. I 
     looked at my Somali colleague. His face was covered with 
     dust, and then down to my legs. My right foot was gone. At 
     first, I wondered if the bone that I saw was mine or Duali, 
     my IRC colleague. It was mine.
       Several times I tried to put my right foot back on. It was 
     hanging by stretched skin towards my knee. I would attempt to 
     do a partial sit-up so I could reach up and touch my foot, 
     and the foot kept on falling off.
       Narrator: The International Committee of the Red Cross says 
     landmines kill or injure more than 1200 people per month 
     world-wide, most of them unarmed civilians.
       General Patrick Blagden: Every 15 minutes of the daylight 
     hours of every day, of every week, of every month, of every 
     year, I hit my desk and I say, ``That's another one gone.''
       Jody Williams: A report by the US State Department released 
     last year estimates 100 million uncleared landmines in the 
     world today.
       Narrator: Jody Williams is coordinator of the Landmines 
     Campaign of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, which 
     is part of an international effort to ban the production, 
     stockpiling, sale and use of landmines.
       Ms. Williams: There are also estimated to be an additional 
     100 million in stockpiles around the world.
       Narrator: Many landmines are designed specifically to main 
     rather than kill, in order to make the victims an ongoing 
     burden.
       Mr. Goose: Landmine injuries are particularly gruesome.
       Narrator: Steve Goose is the Washington Director of the 
     Human Rights Watch Arms Project, which co-authored the 
     authoritative report, Landmines: A Deadly Legacy.
       Mr. Goose: Doctors who have to deal with these things in 
     the field say that they are amongst the worst things to try 
     and treat. The blast blows up bits of shoe, and plastic, and 
     metal tear up into a leg. Almost always it results in either 
     traumatic amputation by the mine itself or by surgical 
     amputation later.
       General Blagden: Many people won't even make it out of the 
     minefield; they'll die in agony where they are. Over half 
     will be women and children. And those that survive will be 
     physically, mentally, socially, and economically crippled 
     for life.
       Narrator: The loss of a limb is just the beginning of a 
     landmine victim's problems. A victim will typically have to 
     undergo as many as six to eight operations. He or she might 
     have to have a prosthesis fitted and then learn to walk 
     again.
       Prosthetic techniques struggle to keep up with the gruesome 
     effects of landmine technology and the cost of rehabilitation 
     is hundreds the times the cost of the mine itself.
       And yet deaths and maimings are only part of the legacy of 
     landmines.
       Ms. Williams: Think of a national territory with 10 million 
     landmines in it. What does that mean to returning refugee 
     populations when they come back into areas where they used to 
     live which are now mined? How do they know where to resettle? 
     Where do they plant their crops? Where do they graze their 
     animals? Where do they build their huts? It obviously has to 
     have a long term impact on the rebuilding of a society in a 
     post-conflict setting.
       Mr. Goose: There are more than 60 countries that have 
     reported landmine incidents. There are probably about two 
     dozen countries that have very serious landmine problems, 
     where it's affecting the way that the country can operate.
       Narrator: The State Department estimates there are more 
     than 10 million landmines in Afghanistan, nine million in 
     Angola, three million in Iraqi Kurdistan, and two million 
     each in Somalia, Mozambique and the former Yugoslavia, to 
     name just a few countries.
       Ms. Williams: The only parts of the world today that are 
     not infested with landmines are North America, Antarctica, 
     New Zealand and Austrialia. Practically every other region of 
     the world has a serious landmine problem. It has to be 
     addressed.
       Narrator: Cambodia has four to seven million mines on its 
     territory. Most were laid between 1979 and 1991. According to 
     the Pentagon, 600,000 US-produced antipersonnel mines were 
     shipped to Cambodia between 1971 and 1975.
       Landmine explosions since then have resulted in more than 
     30,000 amputees. Between 300 to 700 Cambodians still lose 
     limbs each month. It is thought that for every mine victim 
     who makes it to a hospital, another dies in the field. The 
     Cambodian conflict may be the first war in history in which 
     mines claimed more victims, both combatant and civilian, than 
     any other weapon.
       Since the end of the Gulf War, landmines laid by Iraq have 
     killed more than 1700 Kuwaiti civilians. Eighty-three mine 
     cleaners have died while clearing the Kuwaiti desert of 
     mines.
       It is not only recently laid mines that are a problem.
       Mr. Goose: There are certainly still plenty of landmines 
     out there from World War II. Some people would say that there 
     are explosive devices that work like landmines that are still 
     left from World War I. But there are still people who are 
     being injured from landmines in Libya, and Poland, and France 
     every year from World War II vintage mines.
       Narrator: The tragic cost in life and limb is matched by 
     the cost of defusing the danger. The UN estimates that the 
     average cost for removing a landmine can range up to $1000. 
     The average yearly per capita income in Cambodia is about 
     $280. To completely demine Cambodia would require every one 
     of Cambodia's 10 million people devoting every single penny 
     earned to demining for the next three-and-a-half years. While 
     this is clearly impossible, it highlights the fact that 
     landmines cripple economic development long after the 
     fighting stops.
       The huge number of mines scattered around the world is 
     testimony to the wide variety of producers and exporters. The 
     Arms Project has identified more than 340 types of 
     antipersonnel mines alone.
       Mr. Goose: We've identified at least 56 nations that have 
     produced landmines. Some of those have stopped producing 
     now; maybe about a half-a-dozen or so have stopped 
     producing. There are probably other nations that we've not 
     yet identified that do make landmines. About 36 countries 
     are exporters or have been exporters.
       Narrator: In recent years, China, Italy and the former 
     Soviet Union have been the world's biggest exporters of 
     landmines.
       It is estimated that five to ten million landmines are 
     produced annually. It is difficult to track where a landmine 
     is manufactured. Some are the product of multiple 
     manufacturers, often in different countries. And the most 
     destructive, such as the US Claymore mine, are regularly 
     copied and produced by other nations.
       Senator Leahy: A landmine can be very inexpensive or very 
     sophisticated.
       Narrator: Senator Patrick Leahy is the senior senator from 
     Vermont and the originator, along with Representative Lane 
     Evans of Illinois in the House, of a landmine moratorium, 
     banning the export of US antipersonnel landmines. Originally 
     enacted in 1992, the moratorium was recently extended for 
     another three years.
       Senator Leahy: Whether inexpensive or sophisticated, they 
     can tear your limbs off or kill you. Even the simplest ones 
     can maim a person for life. And I'm talking about landmines 
     that only cost three or four dollars to make and to deploy.
       Col. Richard Johnson (USA, Ret.): I am convinced though 
     that a ban on antipersonnel mines is not a way to solve the 
     problem.
       Narrator: Before his recent retirement, Colonel Richard 
     Johnson was project manager for Mines, CounterMine and 
     Demolitions at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, where 
     landmines for the US military are developed.
       Col. Johnson: If manufactured antipersonnel mines are 
     banned, an insurgent who wants to still do that same job will 
     find the assets to manufacture his own. He'll either do it 
     from dud-fired ordinance or make his own. It's not that hard 
     to do.
       Narrator: Many other countries, however, now support 
     Senator Leahy's view. Since the United States decided to stop 
     exporting landmines in 1992, others have done the same.
       Senator Leahy: The Netherlands banned it. France, Greece, 
     South Africa. Cambodia said that they--announced that they 
     will not use them. Others are going to follow suit.
       Narrator: Landmine opponents point to the weapon's 
     inability to discriminate between combatants and civilians.
       Ms. Williams: What makes the landmine different from the 
     rifle, for example, is the soldier. The soldier can point the 
     rifle, he shoots the rifle; when the battle's over, he takes 
     it home. That is not the case with the landmine. He puts it 
     in the ground, he walks away; the landmine is there, it 
     remains there for literally decades.
       Col. Johnson: First of all, I don't think mines are 
     indiscriminate if used responsibly and controlled 
     responsibly.
       Senator Leahy: Time and time again, I asked them of the two 
     sides, or three sides that might have been fighting in your 
     country, who put the landmine there that tore off your leg, 
     or killed your children, or killed your spouse. And time and 
     time again, the answer's the same: ``I don't know. All I know 
     is my life has changed forever as a result of it.''
       Mr. Goose: We believe that landmines have been used 
     indiscriminately by most people who have, in fact, deployed 
     landmines over the course of the past several decades. But we 
     further believe that landmines are inherently indiscriminate 
     because of their time-delay function. And we think that 
     because of that, they should already be considered as illegal 
     and inhumane weapons of war under customary international 
     humanitarian law.
       Col. Burrus Carnahan (USAF, Ret.): The same criticism 
     can be made of virtually any weapon. Any weapon can be 
     used in an indiscriminate manner.
       Narrator: Burrus Carnahan is a retired Air Force lieutenant 
     colonel. He was a United States delegate to an international 
     working group which drafted a Landmine Protocol to regulate 
     their use. The protocol prohibits direct use of mines against 
     civilians. It also calls for recording and publishing 
     minefield locations.
       Col. Carnahan: Certainly the protocol on landmines that was 
     drafted in '79 and '80 has not been as successful as we had 
     hoped.
       Narrator: Unfortunately, the United States is in the 
     embarrassing position of having signed, but not yet ratified 
     the 1980 UN Convention and accompanying protocols. To this 
     day, both languish in ``ratification limbo.''
       Another problem with the protocol is that it did not really 
     take into account the changes in the way landmines are being 
     used.
       Col. Johnson: You can use mines to interdict or interrupt 
     his resupply forces coming forward. But essentially what 
     you're trying to do with mines is at a minimum expense to 
     yourself, in terms of commitment of people--what can be 
     referred to as ``economy of force.'' You're trying to mould 
     the battlefield, shape the terrain, make the enemy do 
     something you want him to do, so you can fight on your terms 
     at least cost to yourself.
       Ms. Williams: When one thinks of landmines, one generally 
     has heroic visions of World War II. When I talk to people 
     today about landmines, that is what they think of. They think 
     of barrier defense. They think of huge fields of antitank 
     mines blocking the invasion forces of the evil enemy, 
     correct? Unfortunately, since World War II, mines have not 
     been used that way.
       Mr. Goose: What we have seen increasingly over the past 
     several decades is that landmines have changed from being 
     primarily a defensive, limited theater weapon to a weapon 
     that is used offensively in a strategic sense, where it's 
     used to create refugee flows, or to empty vast stretches of 
     territory, or to deny a population its food supply. These 
     offensive uses that are directed primarily against civilians 
     are, of course, outlawed under the laws of war.
       Narrator: Landmine technology has also been changing. 
     Landmines have come a long way from the relatively large 
     plate-shaped devices that were buried by hand. Today, many 
     mines are so-called plastic mines, making detection 
     extraordinarily difficult.
       Col. Carnahan: The minimum metal content mines are--I think 
     most experts recognize now, are going to create even more 
     humanitarian problems. These mines have such a small metal 
     content that it is very, very difficult to detect them with 
     any type of mine-clearing--mine-detecting technology.
       Narrator: Mines are also becoming increasingly difficult to 
     disarm.
       Ms. Williams: They have now been fitted with anti-handling 
     devices, which are little micro chips, and they can detect 
     even a five degree tilt in the mine. And if you tilt it that 
     much, it'll blow up in your face.
       Narrator: Even more deadly is the way in which massive 
     numbers of landmines can be delivered in extremely short 
     periods of time.
       Ms. Williams: You have airborne systems that can scatter 
     thousands of mines within a minute. There's an Italian system 
     that can scatter upwards to 2000 mines in a minute. How can 
     you possibly map where those mines have gone, so that in the 
     post-conflict situation, you can go and find those mines and 
     remove them, so the civilian population can go back and use 
     the soil.
       Mr. Goose: You can't accurately mark and record a 
     scatterable minefield. You may have some general notion of 
     the perimeters of the minefield, but there's no way you can 
     accurately indicate where mines are or even really what the 
     borders of the minefield are.
       Narrator: Some, however, think technology is the solution 
     rather than the problem. In their view, smart mines are 
     better than no mines.
       Col. Johnson: The scatterable mines used by the United 
     States I think can best be categorized as a responsible use 
     of explosive ordinance. They are all--the ones produced today 
     are all electronic refused. They all have a reserve cell or a 
     battery inside them which is activated when the mine is 
     dispensed. The mine has a time set to self-destroy or self-
     destruct anywhere from four hours to 15 days after the mine 
     has been employed. If during that time, the power in the 
     reserve cell reaches a lower limit, the mine will also self-
     destruct.
       Narrator: There is, however, disagreement about the 
     reliability of such mines. But even with the very low failure 
     rate, humanitarian issues arise.
       Senator Leahy: Let's say those were the only ones, and 
     let's say they work perfectly, or as perfectly as most such 
     things would work, and so you scatter 2000 of them and 90 
     percent work. Do you want to take a chance where those other 
     200 are that didn't work? Because they're going to kill you, 
     or they're going to tear your legs off, or your arms off, or 
     blind you.
       Narrator: The advances in mine-making technology have far 
     outstripped those of mine clearance. Contrary to the systems 
     used by the military to clear a path through a minefield, the 
     ability to disarm all the mines in a field is distinctly low-
     tech.
       Ms. Williams: I spent several weeks in Cambodia in November 
     with the demining teams of CMAC, Cambodian Mine Action 
     Center. They're literally on their hands and knees with 
     something that looks like a large, fat knitting needle, a 
     prod, and they literally prod the ground centimeter by 
     centimeter.
       Now can you imagine--Even take a state the size of 
     Massachusetts, which is relatively small. Can you imagine 
     having to start at one end of Massachusetts and prodding the 
     ground of Massachusetts centimeter by centimeter to find 10 
     million landmines? Figure it out. How long's it going to 
     take?
       Multiply that by Cambodia, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, 
     Mozambique, Somalia, Rwanda, Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, 
     Peru, Colombia. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to 
     figure out it's going to take a long time to clean up the 
     mess.
       Narrator: Because of the horrific consequences of a 
     mistake, if deminers are not absolutely sure that an area is 
     completely clear, they must treat it as a live area and 
     demine it again. The United Nations standard for successful 
     mine clearance is 99.9 percent.
       Jody Williams believes that part of the problem is that 
     military forces do not take the long term view.
       Ms. Williams: When they talk about the landmine, they talk 
     about it only in the context of the engagement, of the 
     battle. They do not feel any responsibility toward cleanup 
     after the battle. They think they have the right to go in and 
     do whatever is necessary to get the job done, and then walk 
     away and leave it for the civilians to deal with.
       Narrator: But landmines are not just a problem for 
     civilians.
       Senator Leahy: More and more, I've talked with those who've 
     been in combat who tell me they wish there were no such 
     things. General Gray, the former commandant of the US Marine 
     Corps, a combat veteran, said he's seen more Americans killed 
     by American landmines than the American landmines being used 
     to destroy any enemy.
       Narrator: The UN estimates that 105 million mines, or more, 
     may be deployed in 62 nations. That's one mine in the ground 
     for every 50 people on earth. Disarming them all would cost 
     from $200 to $300 billion.
       In some respects, the position of those supporting the use 
     of landmines is analogous to the position of the National 
     Rifle Association on guns. In other words, mines don't kill 
     people, people kill people.
       Col. Carahan: If landmines are used responsibly, if they 
     are laid on an area of land that is itself a military 
     objective, if there are military forces around that know 
     where those mines are and can warn civilians away, if the 
     location of that minefield is marked so that they can be 
     cleared later after the conflict is over, then I don't think 
     the use of landmines violates any existing rule of war.
       Narrator: While even those who support banning landmines 
     acknowledge they have a military benefit, they question the 
     long term cost.
       Mr. Goose: You have to balance off the military utility 
     versus the humanitarian disaster that landmines are causing 
     around the world. And it's our strong belief that, in fact, 
     the humanitarian and economic and social consequences of the 
     use of landmines far outweigh the military utility.
       The only way to really come to grips with the landmines 
     disaster on a global scale is to have a comprehensive ban: No 
     production, no possession, no stockpiling, no use and no 
     transfer.
       Narrator: Following his call to ban mine exports, Senator 
     Leahy recently announced a new piece of legislation calling 
     for a one-year moratorium on the procurement and production 
     of anti-personnel landmines by the United States. The 
     legislation also urges the president to encourage other major 
     producers of anti-personnel landmines to adopt similar 
     moratoriums.
       The landmine issue raises a compelling question: Should 
     short term considerations of military expedience override 
     long term humanitarian and economic costs?
       One thing is certain: As long as landmines are seen as an 
     acceptable weapon of war, the world will continue to pay the 
     consequences--an arm, a leg, and a life at a time.
       Red Cross Worker: These improvised buggies and trolleys the 
     children behind me have are made out of mines, parts of a VS-
     2.2 Italian mine. We have also the integral parts of the V-
     69. The mines are collected from the minefield by the 
     children. Are then taken apart, having done the dangerous bit 
     retrieving the mines from the minefield. They're then 
     dismantled and used as components for the go-carts or 
     buggies.
       [End of broadcast.]

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I yield back the remainder of whatever time 
I have to the Senator from Iowa.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator yields back 30 seconds to the 
Sentor from Iowa.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, before my friend from Vermont leaves the 
floor, I would like to extend my appreciation for his statement and his 
advocacy to bring to the attention of the world, and the United States, 
the problem of landmines. Senators Simon, Feingold, and I were in 
Angola this past few months. It is a beautiful country, one of the most 
potentially viable countries in Africa, with 10 million people--20 
million landmines.
  We went to a prosthetic center and saw men, women, and children with 
their legs blown off. They have trouble farming anymore in Angola 
because of the landmines. And who gets hurt the most trying to farm in 
Angola? Women and children. The men are out in the civil war.
  So I join with my colleague. I join in spirit in the statement he 
gave today and extend my appreciation for the great work done on this 
issue.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, if my colleague will yield one moment, I 
thank the Senator from Nevada. I should note for the Record the Senator 
from Nevada and the manager of the bill, the Senator from Iowa [Mr. 
Harkin] have been original cosponsors of our attempts to ban these 
landmines. They have both been in the forefront of that. I thank them 
very much.

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