[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H7838-H7839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ANTIPERSONNEL LANDMINES

  (Mr. CAPPS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CAPPS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in great dismay over the 
President's decision not to sign the Ottawa treaty banning 
antipersonnel land mines. The administration's position defies reason. 
The only way that the United States can show leadership on this issue 
is to sign the comprehensive ban treaty on these deadly devices. One 
hundred nations courageously have changed their policy, but U.S. 
lawyers have simply changed the definition of a landmine.
  But a landmine by any other name is still a landmine, and landmines 
are immoral. People around the globe have come together to say, no 
more. No more killing, no more maiming, no more maiming of innocents. 
No more fear of leaving one's home to find food. No more social and 
economic dislocation to the world's neediest countries. I

[[Page H7839]]

ask the President to sign the treaty to ban the antipersonnel 
landmines.

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