[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1532-S1533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 AMERICAN LANDMINE CASUALTIES IN BOSNIA

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spoken on this floor many times 
about the danger of antipersonnel landmines. In fact, I find that this 
is an issue on which I get thousands of letters and comments on my web 
page and over the Internet and telephone calls from all over the 
country and all over the world from people urging the ultimate banning 
of antipersonnel landmines and applauding steps that we took in this 
body to vote to ban them.
  Mr. President, the NATO peacekeeping operation has been underway in 
Bosnia for less than 12 weeks. During that period, at lest 40 IFOR 
soldiers have been wounded or killed by landmines. The first American 
killed in Bosnia, Sgt. Donald A. Dugan, may have died from a landmine. 
He was apparently trying to disarm it, when it detonated in his hand.
  Sargent Dugan was 38 years old. He died trying to help end the most 
brutal war in Europe in 50 years. He died so others, many of whom have 
lost parents, children, or brothers and sisters, could live.

[[Page S1533]]

  The first American wounded in Bosnia was also the victim of a 
landmine. Another American lost part of his foot from a mine. Three 
British soldiers were among those killed by landmines.
  In the 3 years that the United Nations force was there, 204 U.N. 
soldiers were injured by mines, and 25 died. As the snow melts and the 
ground thaws, there will be more landmine casualties.
  Since 1990 when the war started, thousands of civilians have been 
injured and killed by landmines, and they will continue to suffer 
casualties long after the NATO troops leave. The Army's advice is ``if 
it's not paved, don't step on it.'' That's great. That means that 99 
percent of the land in Bosnia is too dangerous to walk on. The 
landmines in Bosnia, like many other countries, will be cleared an arm 
and a leg and a life at a time for generations.
  Mr. President, I have spoken often on this subject and I will 
continue to do so. Today I want to make just one point.
  If there ever was an opportunity for American leadership to make the 
world a safer place, this is it. On February 12, President Clinton--and 
I applaud him for it--signed the foreign operations bill which contains 
my amendment to halt, for 1 year, U.S. use of antipersonnel landmines.
  Some in the Pentagon have complained that since they use landmines 
responsibly they should not have to stop using them.
  Mr. President, no one is more proud than I am of our Armed Forces. 
Our men and women in uniform, whether they are in Bosnia, Korea, or 
here in Washington, make every American proud for what they stand for, 
and their unmatched professionalism. I have voted for just about every 
defense appropriations bill since I came to the U.S. Senate.
  If I thought for a minute that getting rid of antipersonnel landmines 
would put our troops or our national security in jeopardy, I would not 
be speaking here today. On the contrary, I believe we have far more to 
gain. Antipersonnel landmines cannot be justified on military grounds 
or on moral grounds.
  I have received calls and letters from combat veterans from every 
part of this country who experienced the horrors of landmines, and who 
agree with me that they made their job more dangerous, not safer. Some 
were wounded by mines. Some saw troops under their command killed by 
mines, even by their own minefields when the battle changed direction.
  I know landmines have some military use. But consider the cost. Over 
24,000 Americans were injured or killed by mines in World War II. There 
were over 2,400 recorded landmine casualties in Korea, and over 7,400 
in Vietnam. Twenty-one Americans died in the Persian Gulf from mines--
20 percent of all our casualties there. Twenty-six percent of our 
casualties in Somalia were from mines.
  No matter how or what type of landmines are used, they are 
indiscriminate. They are triggered by the victim, and usually it is a 
civilian. Our mines, and the mines of countless other nations, are 
killing and maiming hundreds of innocent people each week.
  Mr. President, we have a tremendous opportunity. The law signed by 
the President will halt, in 3 years, our use of antipersonnel landmines 
except in very limited areas. We will not be alone. Canada and Belgium 
have unilaterally halted their production, use, and export of these 
weapons, and 20 other nations have declared support for an immediate, 
total ban.
  During the next 3 years, we can lead other nations to join with us in 
repudiating this weapon. If the Congress, the President, the Vice 
President, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, 
the Secretary of State, our U.N. Ambassador, all our Ambassadors in 
posts around the world--if we all speak loudly and with one voice, the 
message will be heard.
  Mr. President, a recent Washington Post article entitled ``A Global 
Bid To Ban Landmines,'' described how the Serbs used minefields in 
their campaign of ethnic cleansing, by forcing their Moslem captives to 
walk through minefields, triggering the mines.
  That many sound appalling, and it is. But it is little different from 
what millions of people are forced to do each day, in countries where 
survival means tilling the land, and the land is a minefield.
  So Mr. President, we remember Sgt. Donald Dugan for his sacrifice for 
peace in Bosnia. Let us also remember him by renouncing these cowardly 
weapons that have claimed the lives of so many innocent people.

                          ____________________