[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 37 (Monday, March 18, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2213-S2216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    BANNING ANTIPERSONNEL LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have some photographs here that have 
become all too familiar to the Senate. This is a photograph of a young 
boy, a victim of a landmine. You can see from the photograph, he has 
one badly injured leg, another leg that has been torn off, and an arm 
that is also missing. These are similar to photographs I have on my Web 
page in my office on the Internet. Thousands of people turn to that Web 
page, and what they see there are these photographs of landmine 
victims.
  Here is one that they turn to, this young woman. I have had somebody 
tell me that as the picture comes down on the computer screen, the page 
ends at the bottom of her long skirt. Then they click on further and 
the picture

[[Page S2214]]

continues down and they realize she has only one leg. This woman is 
from Laos. She lost her leg from a landmine.
  Mr. President, these photographs are not unusual. Each one represents 
a tragedy, of course, not only for the person involved, but also but 
for his or her family. These are only two victims. There are hundreds 
of thousands of victims of antipersonnel landmines alive today, and of 
course as many more who died. They are the victims of these tiny, 
hidden explosives that litter whole countries. They are scattered like 
seed. They are a blight on our planet, and they must be stopped. This 
mine I am holding in my hand cost $2 or $3, and is made almost entirely 
of plastic to make it harder to detect.
  These are not weapons that know the difference between a combatant or 
civilian. They are, as somebody else said, the only weapon where the 
unsuspecting victim pulls the trigger.
  A little over a year ago, President Clinton, in a courageous speech 
at the United Nations, declared the goal of ridding the world of 
antipersonnel landmines. With 100 million of these weapons in over 60 
countries waiting to explode, they have become the world's most 
devastating cause of indiscriminate, mass suffering.
  Every 22 minutes, the State Department estimates someone somewhere, 
usually an innocent civilian, is killed or maimed from stepping on a 
landmine.
  NATO forces have suffered 42 landmine casualties since they arrived 
in Bosnia in December, including 7 deaths. There were three casualties 
just last Friday, all soldiers of our European allies. Landmines are, 
by far, the worst threat to our troops there, but also to the people of 
Bosnia who will be clearing these landmines, an arm and a leg at a 
time, for decades to come.
  The entire 184-member U.N. General Assembly adopted the goal 
announced by the President. But since President Clinton's announcement, 
a debate has ensued over how to reach the goal of eliminating 
antipersonnel mines.
  The Pentagon, which says it shares the goal, pushed a strategy to 
promote the use of so-called smart mines. Mr. President, technology has 
an answer for many things, but this is not one of them. Antipersonnel 
landmines are by nature indiscriminate.
  There is nothing smart about a landmine that cannot tell the 
difference between a soldier and a 5-year-old child. These mines are 
scattered from the air by the tens of thousands, and the same areas can 
be reseeded many times during a conflict. They legitimize the use of 
landmines despite their indiscriminate effect.
  I am very pleased that Pentagon officials are now questioning the 
distinction between smart and dumb mines. Again, landmines are by 
nature indiscriminate. That is what makes them so insidious. I also 
want to commend our U.N. Ambassador, Madeleine Albright, and her Deputy 
Karl Inderfurth, who have urged a stronger policy against antipersonnel 
mines.
  A growing coalition, from our soldiers in Bosnia to retired Army 
generals to officials in the Pentagon to the Pope and the American Red 
Cross, are urging that we renounce these weapons as we have nerve gas 
and other indiscriminate killers.
  On February 12, my amendment to impose a moratorium on U.S. use of 
antipersonnel mines was signed into law by President Clinton. That 
amendment had broad bipartisan support with over two-thirds of the U.S. 
Senate of both parties voting for it. It represents a clear shift in 
U.S. policy. But it is already being eclipsed by events elsewhere.
  In the past 2 months, Canada and the Netherlands have unilaterally 
banned their use of antipersonnel mines, and they have joined 22 other 
countries that have called for an immediate international ban. Many of 
these countries have been among the largest contributors to U.N. 
peacekeeping forces, and they have seen the havoc wreaked by landmines. 
Several, like Belgium and Austria, are destroying their stockpiles of 
these weapons.
  Mr. President, yesterday's New York Times ran a front page story 
entitled ``Pentagon Weighs Ending Opposition to a Ban on Mines.'' It 
reports that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General 
Shalikashvili, has ordered a review of the landmine issue. I want to 
applaud General Shalikashvili for this. There is nothing harder than 
challenging the conventional wisdom, and when others have said 
something cannot be done, to ask why not and to look for a way to do 
it.
  I want to reiterate what I have said before. There is a tremendous 
opportunity here for U.S. leadership. We should listen to our Armed 
Forces veterans, many of whom say antipersonnel mines made their job 
more dangerous, not safer, and who remember their buddies being blown 
up by their own minefields.
  Over 7,400 of the Americans killed in Vietnam, 20 percent in the 
Persian Gulf, and 26 percent in Somalia died from landmines. We have 
more to gain if the use of landmines is a war crime.
  We should think of the devastation these weapons are causing around 
the world. Regardless of what some here may think, the world does look 
to the United States for leadership. We are the most powerful democracy 
ever known in history, by far the most powerful nation on Earth. We can 
exert great moral and political leadership when we want to lead as a 
country. The President can lead. There are few people more persuasive 
when he is convinced of something. I have seen him in meetings with 
world leaders, and I know how effective he can be. With the support of 
the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the 
President could bring enormous pressure to bear on world leaders to 
follow our example.
  It is not just the example of the Leahy amendment, but the leadership 
to press ahead for a ban on antipersonnel landmines worldwide.
  Mr. President, this is not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is not 
a matter of civilians versus the military. It is an opportunity for the 
United States to end this millennium as the leader of a global effort 
to ban a weapon that Civil War General Sherman called ``a violation of 
civilized warfare.''
  Mr. President, I commend the Congress for first adopting the 
moratorium that I proposed, the moratorium on the export of landmines 
from this country.
  I commend the President for supporting my efforts in introducing a 
resolution in the United Nations to call for the eventual elimination 
of antipersonnel landmines.
  I also commend the U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats, 
conservatives, liberals, moderates joining together to vote for a 
moratorium on the use of landmines by the United States. Each one of 
these steps, Mr. President, has given hope and encouragement to other 
countries. Each one of these steps has reinforced our leadership.
  Years ago when I first started on this quest, it seemed a lonely one. 
So many times Tim Rieser and I would visit other countries, and here on 
Capitol Hill and to the United Nations, to speak to world leaders and 
U.N. ambassadors about landmines. At first, we heard only a few 
encouraging words. But then the International Red Cross, for the first 
time since the 1920's when it condemned chemical weapons, called for a 
ban on antipersonnel mines. Then the Pope, and the leaders of so many 
other nations, especially those who had sent peacekeepers overseas, 
humanitarian organizations like the American Red Cross, religious 
organizations, veterans organizations--they are all speaking out 
against the use of these weapons.
  Mr. President, the only way to stop the use of antipersonnel 
landmines is to stop the use of antipersonnel landmines. When 100 
million of these killers are hidden in the ground in over 60 countries, 
we have to say ``enough is enough.'' Another 2 million are being added 
each year.
  The only way we will stop this is to ban their use, and to turn our 
attention to the immense job of clearing the mines that have turned so 
many parts of the world into death traps.
  This is an issue whose time has come. I commend those at the 
Pentagon, the White House, and here in the Congress, in both parties, 
who have supported this effort so far. Let us go one step further, and 
make this for all time U.S. policy, to ban their use; and then go to 
our allies around the world, and to other countries, and say, join with 
us in what is both a security and a moral imperative.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the article from 
yesterday's New York times and an Associated Press article related to 
the subject be printed in the Record.

[[Page S2215]]

  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                [From the New York Times, Mar. 17, 1996]

          Pentagon Weighs Ending Opposition to a Ban on Mines


     policy review ordered--threat to u.s. force in bosnia brings 
                reconsideration of moves against weapon

                          (By Raymond Bonner)

       Washington, March 16.--With the daily threat of land mines 
     to American soldiers in Bosnia having brought the issue home, 
     Gen. John Shalikashvili, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
     Staff, has ordered a review of the military's longstanding 
     opposition to banning the use of land mines, which kill or 
     maim more than 20,000 people a year, primarily civilians.
       In asking for the review last week during a meeting with 
     the chiefs of the military services, General Shalikashvili 
     said he was ``inclined to eliminate all anti-personnel land 
     mines,'' a senior pentagon official said.
       The Pentagon was prompted to review its policy in part by a 
     strong bipartisan anti-mine sentiment in Congress, led by 
     Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, as well as by 
     a growing international campaign to ban antipersonnel mines, 
     Pentagon officials said.
       These separate Congressional and international campaigns 
     against mines gained new momentum after American soldiers 
     began arriving in December in Bosnia, where an estimated 
     three million land mines have been planted. Three American 
     soldiers have since been wounded by the weapons.
       Nearly a dozen countries have banned the use of land mines. 
     Senator Leahy and other advocates of a ban argue that if the 
     United States renounced their manufacture, sale and use, many 
     other countries would follow. While they concede that there 
     would still be outlaw states, they counter that an 
     international ban backed by sanctions would result in a 
     substantial overall reduction in the use of land mines.
       Pentagon officials say General Shalikashvili acted after he 
     and Defense Secretary William J. Perry received a 
     confidential letter from the American representative to the 
     United Nations, Madeleine K. Albright, who has just returned 
     from a trip to Angola. That country has many young men and 
     children whose limbs were ripped off in landmine explosions.
       Ms. Albright wrote that a new policy on land mines was 
     urgently needed, because the Administration's current policy 
     would not achieve their elimination ``within our lifetimes.'' 
     She sent copies to other senior Administration officials; 
     parts of the letter were read to The New York Times by a 
     supporter of the ban who had received a copy.
       Two years ago in a speech at the United Nations, President 
     Clinton called for the ``eventual elimination'' of land 
     mines. Under current policy, the Administration supports an 
     amendment to the 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons that 
     would allow the use of only ``smart'' mines, which deactivate 
     or destroy themselves after a few weeks or months.
       The United States was barred by Congress in 1993 from 
     exporting land mines for three years. Another law prohibits 
     the United States from using land mines for one year in 1999.
       There are an estimated 100 million land mines planted in 62 
     countries, and an official with the Arms Control and 
     Disarmament Agency said last week that the number is 
     increasing by two million a year. The State Department has 
     said 600 people a month are killed or wounded by mines; the 
     American Red Cross has estimated that it is twice that many.
       This week, the Dutch Government renounced the use of land 
     mines, joining Canada, Mexico, Belgium, Austria, Norway and 
     five other countries; France recently prohibited the 
     production and export of land mines. Twenty-four countries 
     have called for an international ban, according to the latest 
     tally by Human Rights Watch, the New York-based human rights 
     organization, which has been a leader in an international 
     campaign for a ban.
       Last fall, the International Committee of the Red Cross 
     opened a campaign to ban antipersonnel land mines. It was a 
     highly unusual step for the Swiss organization, which is not 
     an advocacy organization and only once before has called for 
     a weapons ban--of chemical weapons, back in the 1920's.
       ``We've simply seen too much,'' said Urs Boegli, director 
     of the Red Cross's land mine campaign, explaining why the 
     organization had acted.
       More than any other single organization, the Red Cross 
     works in conflicts around the world, he said. He added that 
     the Red Cross had begun its ban campaign only after having 
     fought unsuccessfully to strengthen the 1980 conventional 
     weapons treaty to restrict their use.
       China and Russia, which each have stockpiles of more than 
     100 million mines, have been the major countries blocking an 
     amendment to the convention that would allow all but 
     ``smart'' mines.
       In the Pentagon, the Office of Special Operations and Low-
     Intensity Conflict has pushed for a complete ban on all 
     antipersonnel mines--``smart'' and ``dumb''--except in 
     limited situations, such as along the border between North 
     and South Korea.
       Land mines should be put in the category of chemical 
     weapons, said Timothy Connolly, principal Deputy Assistant 
     Secretary of Defense for special operations. Even though they 
     have military utility, chemical weapons have been banned 
     because of their devastating consequences, to soldiers and 
     civilians.
       ``Some day, and that day has to be sooner rather than 
     later, we are going to reach that same conclusion about 
     antipersonnel land mines,'' Mr. Connolly, who was an Army 
     captain during the Persian Gulf War, said during an interview 
     this week.
       Mr. Connolly's office rejects the ``smart'' mine 
     compromise.
       The basis of the American support for such a compromise is 
     that it is possible to develop a mine that will self-destruct 
     or self-deactivate with 99.7 percent certainty, according to 
     Robert Sherman, director of advanced projects of the Arms 
     Control and Disarmanent Agency and a negotiator in talks on 
     amending the conventional weapons pact.
       But Mr. Connolly said, ``There is no evidence in the United 
     States that we are capable of building a device capable of 
     working 100 percent or nearly 100 percent of the time.''
       Until this recent review, Mr. Connolly's voice had been a 
     lonely one in the Pentagon.
       Pentagon officials predicted that the Army and Marine Corps 
     would fight the hardest to be allowed to keep at least some 
     land mines, Pentagon officials said. Military doctrine calls 
     for land mines to reduce the number of soldiers needed in 
     certain situations, to canalize the enemy and to protect 
     vital installations, like power stations.
       In the closed-door meeting last week when Gen. 
     Shalikashvili ordered the review, the chiefs of the Army and 
     Marine Corps said they needed land mines to police the border 
     between North and South Korea, a Pentagon Official said.
       ``The U.S. Army's position is that we use land mines 
     responsibly,'' said an Army general who spoke on condition of 
     anonymity.
       Senator Leahy believes, however, that with American troops 
     in Bosnia, if President Clinton renounced the use of land 
     mines, ``he would get very substantial support in the 
     military.'' Mr. Leahy, who has led a four-year effort in 
     Congress to ban land mines, said he was constantly hearing 
     from servicemen, from sergeants to generals, who urge him on.
       Recently, he received an E-mail message from an Air Force 
     master sergeant, Dale A. Lamell, on duty in Bosnia, who 
     wrote: ``I would like to salute you for your efforts to 
     eliminate the international use of land mines. Bosnia should 
     serve as an example to the rest of the world.''
       Requesting anonymity, a senior military officer at the 
     Pentagon also said this week that there was considerably more 
     support among officers for getting rid of land mines than 
     emerges publicly.
       Freed from the constraints of being in uniform, several 
     prominent retired generals have agreed to sign an open letter 
     to the President calling for an international ban on the 
     production and use of antipersonnel land mines, said Robert 
     Muller, director of the Vietnam Veterans of America 
     Foundation, which began soliciting signers three weeks ago. 
     Among them are Gen. Frederick R. Woerner, a former commander 
     of the United States Southern Command in Panama, and Lieut. 
     Gen. Harold Moore, a former commander of the Seventh Infantry 
     Division and author of ``We Were Soldiers Once . . . and 
     Young.''
       ``I very much oppose antipersonnel land mines because they 
     are indeed indiscriminate in their killing and maiming,'' 
     Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf wrote this month in a letter to 
     Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., who was chairman of the Republican 
     National Committee during the Reagan Presidency and who had 
     written to the general asking him to join the campaign to ban 
     antipersonnel mines.
       Though he said he wanted to think a bit longer before 
     deciding whether to sign the letter to the President, General 
     Schwarzkopf said his wish to see land mines ``forever 
     eliminated from warfare'' was based on his personal 
     experiences of ``having seen hundreds of my own troops killed 
     or maimed by them,'' as well as being ``keenly aware of the 
     devastating effects'' of land mines on civilians.
                                                                    ____


               [From the Associated Press, Mar. 17, 1996]

        Senator Praises Pentagon For Reconsidering Landmine Use

                           (By Sally Buzbee)

       Washington.--A Senator long opposed to U.S. use of land 
     mines said Sunday he's delighted the Pentagon will reevaluate 
     its position that the deadly, hidden weapons are needed for 
     troop safety.
       ``There are certain weapons you just don't use,'' said Sen. 
     Patrick Leahy, D-VT.
       A Pentagon spokesman confirmed Sunday that a review of the 
     military's longstanding policy on anti-personnel land mines 
     was under review.
       ``It's been an ongoing issue here,'' said Pentagon 
     spokesman Major Steve Manuel. ``We're still in the process of 
     examining it.''
       Gen. John Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 
     Staff, ordered the review last week, The New York Times 
     reported Sunday.
       A senior Pentagon official told the newspaper that 
     Shalikashvili was ``inclined to eliminate all anti-personnel 
     land mines.''
       Worldwide, the use of land mines targeted at people, not 
     tanks, has escalated in the last 15 years, They now kill or 
     injure 26,000

[[Page S2216]]

     people each year, the State Department estimates.
       Most victims are civilians in war-torn countries like 
     Angola, Cambodia, Vietnam and El Salvador, but land mines 
     also pose risks to U.S. troops participating in the Bosnian 
     peacekeeping mission.
       U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the 
     International Red Cross have urged a worldwide ban on land 
     mines. And Canada, Austria, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Mexico, 
     the Netherlands and five other countries already have 
     renounced their use.
       But until now, U.S. military officials have insisted they 
     needed the option of using land mines to protect the lives of 
     American soldiers. They also have argued that the United 
     States should not give up a weapon if other nations won't.
       Despite Pentagon objections, Leahy pushed through Congress 
     a one-year ban on the military's use of anti-personnel land 
     mines, except along borders and in demilitarized zones. The 
     ban would begin sometime within three years, and President 
     Clinton signed it into law.
       ``The rest of the world wants the United States to lead on 
     this,'' Leahy said in an interview Sunday. ``If the most 
     powerful nation in the world can't do away with land mines, 
     how can we ever persuade other countries to?''
       Shalikashvili ordered the review of Pentagon policy after 
     he and Defense Secretary William J. Perry received a 
     confidential letter from the U.S. ambassador to the United 
     Nations, Madeleine K. Albright, the Times said.
       Albright, who had just returned from Angola, urged that the 
     current policy on land mines be changed, the Times said. 
     Parts of the letter were read to the newspaper by an 
     unidentified official who received a copy.
       Leahy argues that many military officials, both retired and 
     active-duty, also privately support a permanent ban on land 
     mines.
       ``This is not a Republican-Democratic, liberal-conservative 
     or civilian versus military issue,'' Leahy said.
       The Pentagon estimates Bosnia has 3 million land mines and 
     Croatia another 3 million. Some are sophisticated; others 
     crude or homemade. NATO officials say no more than 30 percent 
     have been mapped.

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I see nobody else seeking the floor, so I 
suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been noted. The 
clerk will call the roll.
  The assistance legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I do not see anybody seeking recognition, 
so I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak as in morning 
business for 6 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________