[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 188 (Tuesday, November 28, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S17547-S17548]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will just speak very briefly. I have 
spoken many, many times about the dangers of landmines, especially 
indiscriminate antipersonnel landmines. I was very proud when the 
Senate went on record by a two-thirds vote supporting my moratorium on 
our own use of landmines. That is something designed to give the United 
States the moral leadership in arguing with other nations around the 
world to eventually ban the use of indiscriminate antipersonnel 
landmines.
  It was, in my 21 years here, one of those rare occasions when people 
across the ideological spectrum joined together on one major issue, in 
this case one of the biggest humanitarian issues possible, but also 
something that could affect defense policies of nations well into the 
next century.
  Earlier today I spoke of the dangers of landmines in the former 
Yugoslavia.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent an article regarding the 
debate in Congress on landmines, written by Bob Kemper of the 
Washington Bureau of the Chicago Tribune, dated yesterday, be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Chicago Tribune, Nov. 27, 1995]

Congress Debates Land Mine Ban--110 Million Mines Planted in 60 Nations 
                              Spark Outcry

                            (By Bob Kemper)

       They are trash, the debris of war, like burned-out tanks 
     and bombed-out buildings. But long after peace treaties are 
     signed and soldiers go home, land mines go on killing.
       Bosnia may provide the latest example. There are an 
     estimated 6 million anti-armor and anti-personnel mines 
     there, only 1 million of which are mapped, according to the 
     United Nations. UN peacekeepers already have suffered 100 
     casualties from mines in Bosnia.
       Killing or maiming 70 people a day worldwide--26,000 each 
     year--land mines are especially devastating to some of the 
     world's poorest countries, according to the State Department 
     and humanitarian groups. And with 110 million mines still 
     buried in more than 60 countries, an international outcry has 
     risen and is echoing in the halls of Congress.
       Led by Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.), Congress is taking the 
     extraordinary step of ordering the Pentagon to unilaterally 
     disarm itself of anti-personnel mines, devices that in one 
     form or another have been in the U.S. arsenal since the Civil 
     War.
       The House and Senate approved a provision in a foreign 
     operations bill that would give the Pentagon three years to 
     learn to fight without anti-personnel mines.
       A one-year moratorium, which later could be extended, then 
     would be placed on the use of anti-personnel mines by 
     American forces, except along international borders or in 
     clearly marked fields.
       ``The U.S. government ought to set a moral example, to lead 
     the world to see the menace of land mines in a clear light,'' 
     said Evans, who pushed the proposal in the House while Sen. 
     Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) worked the Senate.
       No one is blaming the U.S. military for what the State 
     Department dubbed ``the global land mine crisis.'' American 
     forces routinely use ``smart mines'' that self-destruct or 
     turn themselves off after a month or so in the ground. When 
     they do use long-life mines in the field, such as the 
     claymore, the mines are typically removed as the soldiers 
     withdraw.
       However, Evans and Leahy say that by disarming its 
     military, America sets an example and can prod other 
     countries to follow suit.
       Evans and Leahy used a similar strategy three years ago 
     when they pushed for a moratorium on the U.S. export of 
     mines. Two dozen nations have since followed the U.S. lead in 
     banning or restricting land mine exports. The most recent, 
     France, went further this fall when it announced that it also 
     would stop making mines and destroy those already stockpiled.
       Though launched by liberal Democrats, the ban gained new 
     authority on Capitol Hill when pro-defense Democrats, like 
     Virginia Sen. Charles S. Robb, and 25 Republicans, including 
     Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), backed it.
       ``In Vietnam I had a number of my men killed or wounded by 
     various types of mines or booby traps,'' said Robb, who had 
     led a Marine platoon. ``I have visited around the world, in 
     combat areas, literally tens of 

[[Page S 17548]]
     thousands of amputees who were victims of mines and lots of those folks 
     are just children, children who were playing.''
       Ban proponents say they are singling out the anti-personnel 
     mine because, unlike other implements of war, it keeps 
     killing long after the fighting ends. In Denmark, some areas 
     are still unusable because of mines planted there during 
     World War II.
       Many of the 200-plus types of anti-personnel mines 
     manufactured around the world are designed to maim rather 
     than kill because a severely wounded soldier is a bigger 
     drain on enemy logistics and medical resources than a dead 
     soldier. Those same mines, ban proponents argue, are 
     transforming farmers in developing countries into financial 
     and emotional drains on their families and communities.
       Still, the Pentagon is fighting to keep the mines.
       The Army does not want to give up a weapon on which its 
     field commanders have long relied. Anti-personnel mines are 
     the perfect weapon for defending battlefield positions, 
     protecting economic assets such as power plants, slowing 
     enemy advances or detouring enemy troops into ``killing 
     zones.''
       Worried about the effect on the Army, Senate Armed Services 
     Chairman Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Sen. John Warner (R-
     Va.), a senior member of that panel, plotted with House 
     Republicans to kill the ban. They intended to place a 
     provision in the defense authorization bill giving the 
     Pentagon veto power over the moratorium. However, Warner 
     said, he dropped that plan after being lobbied by Leahy.
       ``Let him have his shot at it,'' Warner said.
       One remaining obstacle is the difficulty congressional 
     leaders have had getting the foreign operations bill to the 
     White House. The House and Senate approved the bill in early 
     November, but remain divided over a separate abortion 
     amendment, preventing the bill from moving forward.
       Momentum toward a land mine ban has been building since a 
     year ago, when President Clinton called for the eventual 
     elimination of land mines. Three months later, the United 
     Nations approved a U.S. resolution urging action. Last 
     summer, 280 members of the National Conference of Catholic 
     Bishops meeting in Chicago issued a statement singling out 
     land mines as an indiscriminate killer whose production 
     should cease.
       Meanwhile, hundreds of humanitarian groups have spent 
     months--and in some cases years--cataloging land mine 
     atrocities and lobbying for a worldwide ban on the 
     manufacture and use of land mines.
       But this fall, the push for a ban fizzled when 42 nations 
     at a UN-sponsored conference on conventional weapons failed 
     to reach agreement.
       ``I don't think there were two minutes of serious 
     discussion * * * on a total ban on land mines,'' said Stephen 
     Goose, program director of Human Rights Watch's Arms Project 
     and a delegate to the Vienna meeting.
       Contrary to Clinton's call for the elimination of mines, 
     many anti-mine groups say, the administration is actually 
     perpetuating the use of mines by pushing for expanded use of 
     ``smart mines'' rather than backing a total ban.
       ``There is no technological solution'' to the mine problem, 
     Goose said. ``A self-destructing or self-deactivating mine is 
     still an indiscriminate mine. It will still deny the fields 
     to the farmer.''
       Evans said he hopes Congress's action will redirect the 
     administration.
       ``The President is far too cautious,'' Evans said. ``We're 
     encouraging them to be bolder, to demonstrate leadership in 
     encouraging other countries'' to give up mines altogether.
       But Robert Sherman, of the U.S. Arms Control and 
     Disarmament Agency, defended the administration's push for 
     advanced mines and other measures short of a ban, including 
     requiring manufacturers to put at least eight grams of metal 
     into each plastic mine so that they can be more easily 
     detected. Such steps are a much more realistic way to protect 
     civilians, he said.
       ``We know there will not be a total ban in 1996 or 1997 or 
     whenever,'' Sherman said. ``If mines are your concern, you 
     say this is bad. If people are your concern, you say this is 
     good.''
       Anti-mine advocates argue that ``smart mines'' often fail 
     to self-destruct, compounding--rather than solving--what is 
     already a daunting problem globally: detection and removal of 
     mines.
       Some anti-personnel mines sell for as little as $2 to $3 
     and hundreds of them can be planted in seconds by special 
     artillery or trucks. In contrast, it takes 100 times longer 
     to remove a mine at a cost of up to $1,000 per mine. And 
     that's if the mine can be found.
       Many modern mines are as small as a can of shoe polish and 
     made of plastic. Their only metal part is the size of a 
     thumbtack, making detection by the 1940s-style minesweepers, 
     still in use today, nearly impossible.
       Also, for every mine removed, 20 more are planted. In 1993, 
     the UN estimated that 100,000 land mines were found and 
     removed at a cost of $70 million. During that time, 2 million 
     more mines were laid. Even if no more mines were planted 
     after today, experts said, it would take decades and at least 
     $33 billion to clear those still in the ground.
       The State Department and the Vietnam Veterans of America, 
     in separate studies, found that mines left behind after wars 
     have taken a devastating toll on civilians. Once fertile 
     fields are now too dangerous to plow. Cattle are killed or 
     maimed. Roads and major utilities hampered by mines make 
     producing and shipping goods difficult.
       ``Without a clear statement by the U.S. that demonstrates 
     that we are opposed to their use, other nations will continue 
     to sell and deploy them,'' Evans said. ``This legislation, 
     like the moratorium on exports, calls a `time out' and puts 
     us in the leadership position to challenge other nations to 
     work with us and solve this global crisis.''

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, 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. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, are we in morning business?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Yes, sir, we are.
  Mr. DORGAN. I thank the Chair.
  (The remarks of Mr. Dorgan pertaining to the introduction of S. 1427 
are located in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')

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