[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 88 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S6311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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              PRESIDENT CLINTON'S DECISION ON LANDMINE USE

 Mr. JEFFORDS, Mr. President, earlier this week, President 
Clinton missed an excellent opportunity to exert U.S. leadership in the 
worldwide movement to ban landmines. As an original cosponsor of S. 
1276, the Landmine Moratorium Extension Act, and having long supported 
measures to prevent the proliferation of landmines, I regret that the 
President did not take a stronger stance on banning the use of 
landmines, but instead equivocated, and again put off the ultimate U.S. 
goal of eliminating landmines. These weapons effect mainly innocent 
civilians, and in the case of so-called dumb mines, remain dangerous 
and threaten civilian populations indefinitely, often long after 
hostilities in an area have stopped. Such weapons make agriculture 
dangers, and hence hinder economic reconstruction and development.
  For the United States to play the role the President professes to 
seek, that of leading the world to negotiating an end to the use of 
landmines, the United States needs to match its rhetoric with actions. 
It is my hope that the U.S. Government will soon take action to do just 
that, and move quickly and concretely to rid the world of the scourge 
of landmines.

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