[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 158 (Thursday, October 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S15094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 A NATIONAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, earlier today, Save the Children, the 
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, and others joined 
together to launch a national campaign to ban the production, use, and 
transfer of antipersonnel landmines.
  They spoke of a 2-week conference that has just ended--actually, more 
than a conference, a gathering of nations--in Vienna, Austria, to reach 
agreement on ways to stop the killing and maiming of civilians by these 
indiscriminate weapons.
  At that conference in Vienna, officials from governments from around 
the world, including our own, made speeches about how terrible 
landmines are. Many of them spoke of the fact that there are 100 
million unexploded landmines in over 60 countries, and every day, every 
22 minutes, somebody--often a child--is killed or maimed by these 
landmines. That is 72 people every day of every week of the year. They 
went on to say how much they all wanted to get rid of them, but. They 
each had an exception or loophole so their landmines, or their manner 
of using them, would not be affected.
  President Clinton gave a stirring speech at the United Nations last 
year, where he called for the eventual elimination of antipersonnel 
landmines. That was an historic milestone. But in Vienna last week, the 
United States lagged behind several countries, including several of our 
NATO allies. While Belgium outlawed landmines and Austria renounced 
their use and France announced that it would no longer produce them, 
the United States continued to resist these kinds of dramatic steps.
  At least the U.S. Senate, a body that can and should be the 
conscience of the Nation, voted by a two-thirds majority to impose a 1-
year moratorium on the use of antipersonnel landmines and to continue 
our moratorium on the export of landmines.
  We here in the U.S. Senate took a leadership position that has been 
applauded around the world. Editorials around the world have said how 
far reaching we were. A number of countries have even gone farther.
  Why did Belgium, a country that sends people for peacekeeping 
missions all the time, ban the use of antipersonnel landmines by its 
own forces? Because when Belgium sends peacekeepers, even after the 
fighting has stopped and the guns have been withdrawn, there is one 
killer that remains behind--the millions of antipersonnel landmines, 
each one waiting for a peacekeeper or a nurse or a missionary to step 
on a pile of leaves or some grass or a road or walk by a watering hole 
and suddenly lose their leg or their arm or their life. The same 
happens when a child picks up a shiny object thinking it is a toy and 
loses his or her hands or face or eyes or life. That happens every few 
minutes in the 60-odd countries that are infested with unexploded 
landmines.
  Mr. President, much could be done if the United States had the 
courage to adopt as its official policy the moratorium passed by the 
U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats, some of the most conservative 
and some of the most liberal. It was a vote that spanned the political 
spectrum. I thank the distinguished Presiding Officer who voted for 
that.
  It is no denigration of any of us that we have differences in 
political philosophy. We come from different parts of the country and 
different parties. But we approach this issue with the same 
humanitarian sense.
  This is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue. The 
distinguished Presiding Officer knows from his past experience in the 
past administration--he knows how volunteers from this country, 
carrying out the highest ideals of this country, volunteers in the 
Peace Corps, go to countries like Ethiopia, and Nicaragua, and perhaps 
even Bosnia someday. What is one of the biggest dangers they face? It 
is not malaria, it is not dysentery, although those diseases are there. 
It is that when they go into a village to help somebody plant a new 
variety of corn or wheat or help build an irrigation system or teach a 
group of children how to play baseball, they may not come back alive 
because of landmines, probably left there by people who were fighting 
years ago. But the landmines remain.
  I hope our country will take more of a lead, that we will start 
catching up with some of our NATO allies and others who have 
experienced firsthand the devastation these insidious weapons cause.
  I expect we are going to send troops to Bosnia, to fulfill our 
commitments to NATO. At a meeting of the bipartisan congressional 
leadership with the President and his Cabinet the other day I said, 
``If we do send Americans into Bosnia, into the former Yugoslavia, Mr. 
President, I hope you will do one thing. I hope you will tell the 
American people that this is not a risk-free operation. That even if 
there is a cease-fire, even if there is a cease-fire that holds, the 
men and women we send in there will face one very grave danger--from 
landmines. Some estimate over 1.5 million landmines are strewn in 
Bosnia alone.'' I learned today that there are another 2 million in 
Croatia.
  We need to tell the American people that their sons and daughters may 
not be shot by one of the warring sides in the former Yugoslavia, but 
they may be injured or killed tragically by a landmine left behind. And 
it is quite possible we will not even know which side put it there.
  These are the Saturday night specials of civil wars and guerrilla 
warfare.
  So, I applaud those who came together today to renew a national 
debate on banning landmines. I thank my colleagues here in the Senate 
who joined to vote for a moratorium on their use. I commend the 
President for the position he has taken, as far as it has gone. I 
commend the Secretary of State, UN Ambassador Albright and others who 
have also, but I urge the administration to redouble its efforts. Only 
strong leadership, by the world's only superpower, will suffice.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Gorton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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