[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 17, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3420-S3421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROGRESS TOWARD A BAN ON ANTIPERSONNEL LANDMINES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to bring Senators up to date on the 
progress of the past 2 months since the Leahy amendment for a 
moratorium on the use of antipersonnel landmines was signed into law.
  That amendment received bipartisan support from about two-thirds of 
the Senate. It was supported by the House-Senate conference committee, 
and it was signed by the President on February 12. I want to thank all 
those Senators who voted for it. I would also like to thank those 
Senators who have come up to me since the vote who did not vote for it 
and said now they wished they had because of the havoc that the mines 
have wreaked in Bosnia.
  In fact, in Bosnia just since December, 38 NATO soldiers have been 
injured, 7 have been killed by landmines, including 3 Americans. There 
are 3 million landmines left in Bosnia. To put that in perspective, 
there are 3 million landmines in a country about the size of Tennessee. 
They will kill and maim civilians for decades after our troops leave. 
Children going to school, farmers working in their fields, and people 
going to market will be dying long after most of us have left the U.S. 
Senate.
  Over the past several years, I have sponsored legislation against 
antipersonnel landmines. The purpose of my legislation has been to 
exert United States leadership so that pressure would build on other 
countries to follow our example. During a lot of that time this was 
seen as some kind of a crusade of civilians against the military. It 
was never the case. It was never intended by me to be the case. In 
fact, one of the greatest encouragements I had in my efforts to ban 
landmines was the support I received from combat veterans around this 
country.
  Those who say we need antipersonnel landmines should read the April 3 
full-page open letter to President Clinton that appeared in the New 
York Times. In this full-page letter to the President, 15 of the 
country's most distinguished retired military officers called for a ban 
on the production, the sale, the transfer, and the use of antipersonnel 
landmines. They say such a ban would be both ``humane and militarily 
responsible.''
  Look at some of the people who signed this. These are not just wild-
eyed theorists. They include Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf; former Chairman 
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. David Jones; the former Supreme 
Allied Commander, Gen. John Galvin; former Commander in Chief of the 
U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Frederick Woerner; former Commmanding 
General, U.S. Readiness Command, Gen. Volney Warner. Mr. President, 
these are generals who know what has happened.
  I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the generals' letter be 
printed in the Record following my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. LEAHY. There is no doubt that antipersonnel landmines have some 
use. Any weapon does. But to those who would argue that whatever use 
they have outweighs the devastation they inflict on whole societies, I 
would answer that the commanders of our forces in South Korea, Vietnam, 
NATO, and Desert Storm say otherwise.
  They say we can get rid of these landmines. These generals have used 
antipersonnel landmines and have seen what they do. They say these 
indiscriminate weapons made their jobs more dangerous, not safer. They 
remember their troops being blown up by their own minefields.
  Today, it is landmines that our troops fear the most in Bosnia. No 
army is going to challenge our men and women in Bosnia, but there are 
hidden killers everywhere. A $2 antipersonnel mine will blow the leg 
off the best-trained, the best-equipped, the best-motivated American 
soldier.
  In the 2 months since February, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia 
and, yesterday, Germany, have announced they will unilaterally, 
effective immediately, ban their use of antipersonnel landmines. These 
countries have gone way out ahead of the United States in showing 
leadership to ban landmines. Several, like Germany, said they will 
destroy their stockpile of these weapons. They are taking this action, 
which far surpasses what the United States has done, to lead the rest 
of the world.
  Mr. President, next Monday, the United States will join over 50 
countries in Geneva in the final session of negotiations on a treaty to 
limit the use of antipersonnel landmines. We already know that any 
agreement is going to fall far short of what is needed to solve this 
problem. Countries have insisted on exceptions and loopholes that are 
just going to assure that landmines will continue to maim and kill 
innocent civilians for decades to come.
  In the weeks of negotiations there have not been more than 2 minutes 
of discussion on the banning of these weapons--the simplest and easiest 
thing to do, and what all of these distinguished retired American 
generals asked us to do. The only way we are going to get rid of 
antipersonnel landmines is by leadership that energizes the rest of the 
world.
  A year and a half ago in a historic speech at the United Nations, 
President Clinton declared the goal of ridding the world of 
antipersonnel landmines.
  There is no reason why today, with the world's attention focused on 
Bosnia, where we are spending tens of millions of dollars just to try 
to find the mines, we cannot join with our NATO partners, who have gone 
way out ahead of the United States, and renounce these insidious 
weapons. Let the United States--the most powerful nation on Earth--
instead of being a follower in this, become the leader. A law we voted 
for in the Senate, now on the books, says we will halt our use of these 
landmines in 3 years. It should happen immediately, and it should be 
permanent, as Germany, Canada, and the others have done. Our senior 
retired combat officers support it. Hundreds of humanitarian 
organizations support it. They have seen the limbs torn off children at 
the knee.
  If I have anything to do with it--and I intend to--this country is 
going to end this century having banned these terrible weapons once and 
for all. I hope the President and his administration will do what the 
United States Senate has already done--shown leadership in this. I hope 
that the rest of the Congress will do that, and then I hope that the 
United States will come back into a leadership role in banning 
landmines. It is what our NATO allies want, it is what our retired 
generals want, and it is what our men and women in the Armed Forces 
want.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an article in the April 8 
edition of Newsweek magazine, by David Hackworth, America's most 
decorated soldier, entitled, ``One Weapon We Don't Need,'' be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     [From Newsweek, Apr. 8, 1996]

                        One Weapon We Don't Need

                        (By David H. Hackworth)

       Last February, Sgt. 1/C Donald A. Dugan was killed 
     instantly on a snowy patch of ground in Bosnia. An 
     antipersonnel mine exploded while the veteran U.S. Army 
     reconnaissance sergeant was attempting to disarm it. The 
     explosion drove a piece of the steel disarming tool into his 
     forehead. On a dozen different killing fields around the 
     world in the past 50 years. I've seen thousands of soldiers 
     and civilians blasted apart by land mines. In northern Italy, 
     where I served as a 15-year-old soldier boy at the end of 
     World War II, I saw an army captain's legs ripped off by a 
     land mine. In Bosnia last January, I came within minutes of 
     becoming a casualty myself from a land-mine explosion. But 
     I've never seen a battle in which land mines made a 
     difference to the outcome. They are ugly and ineffective 
     weapons, and they ought to be outlawed.
       Land mines are indiscriminate killers. They kill not only 
     during the conflict, but decades after the last shot was 
     fired. The technology has improved; a modern mine can be 
     programmed to blow itself up after a few weeks or months, 
     reducing the postwar threat to civilians. But anti-personnel 
     mines are still not ``smart.'' They can't tell a good guy 
     from a bad guy, a soldier from a civilian, an adult from a 
     child. And some fail to blow themselves up. When millions of 
     mines are

[[Page S3421]]

     scattered across a battlefield by air and artillery, even a 
     tiny ``dud rate'' will leave a substantial number lying in 
     wait for innocent victims.
       Of all the instruments of terror used on the battlefield, 
     mines are the most inhumane. The wartime casualties are young 
     men whose lives are either snuffed out or ruined forever by 
     crippling injuries. Even soldiers who escape from a minefield 
     unscathed are haunted by the experience. Many cases of 
     posttraumatic stress disorder, a serious psychological 
     malady, were caused by the preying fear of mines and booby 
     traps. Years later, a walk across an open field bring back 
     the old dread: What's under those leaves? Do I dare put my 
     foot on that freshly turned earth? Walk through a minefield, 
     and you'll never be young again.
       During the Korean War, tens of thousands of soldiers on 
     both sides were felled by land mines. Many of them were 
     killed by their own mines, recklessly thrown down in haste, 
     their location unrecorded. In 1952, as a 21-year-old 
     lieutenant, I was ordered to clear a path through an unmapped 
     minefield--one of our own. I argued with my colonel about the 
     advisability of doing such work on frozen, snow-covered 
     ground. Lieutenants seldom win disputes with colonels, so the 
     mine-clearing detail proceeded as ordered until a fine black 
     sergeant named Simmons tripped the wire on a ``Bouncing 
     Betty'' mine. It popped up from the ground and blew off the 
     top of his head, covering me with his blood and brains. 
     Moments later, another noncom went nuts and stomped out 
     into the minefield, screaming: ``I'll find the f------ 
     mines, I'll find the f------ mines!'' He was tackled, 
     restrained and led away.
       In Vietnam, the U.S. Armed Forces also used land mines 
     irresponsibly, dropping millions of them at random by air. 
     The enemy quickly learned how to disarm these weapons and 
     recycle them for use against us. The infantry battalion I 
     commanded in the Ninth Division took more than 1,800 
     casualties in a year and a half, most of them caused by 
     recycled U.S. ordnance. Mines cannot secure a flank or defend 
     a position by themselves. For a minefield to be even 
     marginally effective, it must be protected by friendly 
     troops, to knock off the bad guys who want to clear a path or 
     use the mines against you.
       Mines never stopped any unit of mine from taking its 
     objective--or the enemy from getting inside my wire. Anyone 
     who has ever been in battle, especially in Korea or Vietnam, 
     has seen enemy sappers crawl through mines and barbed wire 
     and get into their positions. I once faced a Chinese ``human 
     wave'' attack in Korea. My company was dug in on high ground, 
     with plenty of weapons, ammo and artillery support. Out in 
     front of our position we laid a carpet of mines and flares. 
     The enemy attacked in regimental strength, outnumbering us 9 
     to 1. They walked through our minefield--and our gunfire--
     without missing a beat. They cut my company in half and 
     within an hour were two miles to the south, in our rear. The 
     only way out was to move north, so we trudged through our own 
     somewhat depleted minefield to escape, losing two men in the 
     process.
       Most serving generals especially the desk jockeys, are in 
     favor of mines. The real war-fighters usually want to get rid 
     of them. Whatever defensive punch is lost would be more than 
     offset by the new firearms and missiles that give today's 
     infantry platoon more killing power than a Korea-vintage 
     battalion. ``Mines are not mission-essential,'' says one 
     general, ``but they are budget-essential.'' In 1996, the U.S. 
     Army budgeted $89 million for land-mine warfare. Now the army 
     is fighting to protect every nickel.
       Still, some retired generals want to ban mines, and I agree 
     with them. Governments can declare land mines illegal, just 
     as chemical weapons were prohibited. Sure, thugs like Saddam 
     Hussein or Ratko Mladic will continue to use them. But users 
     (along with manufacturers and dealers) can be hunted down and 
     punished by an international court. If that happens just a 
     few times, anti-personnel mines will go the way of mustard 
     gas. I'll drink to that, and so will most veterans of foreign 
     wars.

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, let me say one last time that we can ban 
landmines. We can ban landmines certainly within this century. We can 
ban them if the most powerful nation on Earth, the United States, takes 
the leadership role that it must in this. If we do what so many other 
countries have already done, and if we, instead of following them, step 
out ahead of them, we can ban these landmines once and for all. If we 
do, our men and women, when sent into harm's way, will be safer. Our 
humanitarian workers will be safer, and millions of children and 
innocent civilians around the world will become safer.
  I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                [From the New York Times, Apr. 3, 1996]

                  An Open Letter to President Clinton

       Dear Mr. President: We understand that you have announced a 
     United States goal of the eventual elimination of 
     antipersonnel landmines. We take this to mean that you 
     support a permanent and total international ban on the 
     production, stockpiling, sale and use of this weapon.
       We view such a ban as not only humane, but also militarily 
     responsible.
       The rationale for opposing antipersonnel landmines is that 
     they are in a category similar to poison gas; they are hard 
     to control and often have unintended harmful consequences 
     (sometimes even for those who employ them). In addition, they 
     are insidious in that their indiscriminate effects persist 
     long after hostilities have ceased, continuing to cause 
     casualties among innocent people, especially farmers and 
     children.
       We understand that: there are 100 million landmines 
     deployed in the world. Their presence makes normal life 
     impossible in scores of nations. It will take decades of 
     slow, dangerous and painstaking work to remove these mines. 
     The cost in dollars and human lives will be immense. Seventy 
     people will be killed or maimed today, 500 this week, more 
     than 2,000 this month, and more than 26,000 this year, 
     because of landmines.
       Given the wide range of weaponry available to military 
     forces today, antipersonnel landmines are not essential. 
     Thus, banning them would not undermine the military 
     effectiveness or safety of our forces, nor those of other 
     nations.
       The proposed ban on antipersonnel landmines does not affect 
     antitank mines, nor does it ban such normally command-
     detonated weapons as Claymore ``mines,'' leaving unimpaired 
     the use of those undeniably militarily useful weapons.
       Nor is the ban on antipersonnel landmines a slippery slope 
     that would open the way to efforts to ban additional 
     categories of weapons, since these mines are unique in their 
     indiscriminate, harmful residual potential.
       We agree with and endorse these views, and conclude that 
     you as Commander-in-Chief could responsibly take the lead in 
     efforts to achieve a total and permanent international ban on 
     the production, stockpiling, sale and use of antipersonnel 
     landmines. We strongly urge that you do so.
         General David Jones (USAF; ret.), former Chairman, Joint 
           Chiefs of Staff;
         General John R. Galvin (US Army, ret.), former Supreme 
           Allied Commander, Europe;
         General H. Norman Schwarzkopf (US Army, ret.), Commander, 
           Operation Desert Storm;
         General William G.T. Tuttle, Jr. (US Army, ret.), former 
           Commander, US Army Materiel Command;
         General Volney F. Warner (US Army, ret.), former 
           Commanding General, US Readiness Command;
         General Frederick F. Woerner, Jr. (US Army, ret.), former 
           Commander-in-Chief, US Southern Command;
         Lieutenant General James Abrahamson (USAF, ret.), former 
           Director, Strategic Defense Initiative Office;
         Lieutenant General Henry E. Emerson (US Army, ret.), 
           former Commander, XVIII Airborne Corps;
         Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard, Jr. (US Army, ret.), 
           former President, National Defense University, 
           President, Monterey Institute of International Studies;
         Lieutenant General James F. Hollingsworth (US Army, 
           ret.), former I Corps (ROK/US Group);
         Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore, Jr. (US Army, ret.), 
           former Commanding General, 7th Infantry Division;
         Lieutenant General Dave R. Palmer (US Army, ret.), former 
           Commandant, US Military Academy, West Point;
         Lieutenant General DeWitt C. Smith, Jr. (US Army, ret.), 
           former Commandant, US Army War College;
         Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan (USN, ret.), former Commander, 
           US Second Fleet;
         Brigadier General Douglas Kinnard (US Army, ret.), former 
           Chief of Military History, US Army.

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