[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7427-S7428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          KOSOVO'S MINEFIELDS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as thousands of Kosovar Albanians flood 
across the Macedonian and Albanian borders, we are getting the first 
reports of refugee landmine victims. Last week, two refugees were 
killed and another seriously injured as they hurried to return to their 
homes in Kosovo.
  Just put this in perspective. Some 25 people have been injured or 
killed by mines in Kosovo since the refugees began returning. It is a 
senseless loss of life and it is tragic, but it is predictable. It is 
predictable because tens of thousands of landmines were left behind by 
Serb forces. Others were put there by the KLA. They litter fields, 
roads, and bridges, and they have even been left in houses. They have 
been left in booby traps. As sad as anything, there are mass graves 
marking the atrocities that have occurred there. And as family members 
go back to try to find out if their loved ones are in those graves, 
even some of the graves have been booby-trapped by landmines.
  These landmines are the greatest threat to people on the ground, 
including NATO forces, and the number of innocent victims--children 
playing, farmers plowing their fields, women walking along the roads--
will continue to rise.
  It is one thing to conduct an air war with the latest laser-guided 
technology and, thankfully, there were no NATO casualties, but it is 
another thing to face an invisible enemy on the ground. In Bosnia, most 
U.S. casualties were from landmines. In Kosovo, too, mines are the 
invisible enemy. They can't distinguish between friend or foe, soldier 
or civilian, adult or child.
  A June 15 article in the Los Angeles Times entitled, ``A Strategy on 
Land Mines is Needed Now,'' described the problems mines pose in 
Kosovo, and they called on the international community to develop a 
comprehensive strategy for clearing the mines and aiding the victims.
  Such a strategy is critical to promoting peace and moving forward 
with reconstruction and economic development. The United States, as the 
leader of NATO, will play a key role in designing and financing that 
strategy.
  But the article neglects to address another key part of the problem--
the continued use of mines. It is a bit similiar to trying to keep 
garbage out of a river. You can clean up the garbage, but if people 
keep dumping it into the river, you haven't solved the problem. You 
need to stop garbage from being dumped. We need to stigmatize 
antipersonnel mines so they are

[[Page S7428]]

not put into the ground in the first place by anybody, by any country, 
by any combatant, by anyone anywhere.
  That is what most countries are trying to do. Now, 135 countries have 
signed the Ottawa Convention that bans the use of antipersonnel mines, 
and 81 countries have ratified it. That convention sets a new 
international norm outlawing a weapon that has caused enormous 
suffering of innocent people in some 70 countries.
  Like booby traps, which are also outlawed, mines are triggered by the 
victim. They are inherently indiscriminate and the casualties are 
usually noncombatants.
  Unfortunately, the most powerful Nation on earth, the United States, 
has not joined the convention. So despite the leading role the United 
States has taken in demining and helping victims, we, like Russia, 
China, and some other countries that manufacture mines, are standing in 
the way of the effort to outlaw this weapon.
  Ironically, every member of NATO, except the United States and 
Turkey, has signed the Ottawa Convention. We not only weaken the 
convention by our absence, we also complicate joint military operations 
with our NATO allies.
  Now, the United States can send deminers, those who remove the mines. 
We can give millions of dollars in aid to mine victims. The Leahy War 
Victims Fund does that every year in the sum of many millions of 
dollars. We can sit down with other nations to rebuild as many 
countries as there are conflicts. But the truth is, the only effective 
strategy to stop the carnage caused by landmines has three parts: 
Demining, victims assistance, and most importantly, banning their use 
today, tomorrow, and forever. That is what the Ottawa Convention does. 
Unless countries such as the United States, Russia, Pakistan, India, 
and China join, they invite others to keep using mines. It is in Kosovo 
today but somewhere else tomorrow.
  The United States is not causing the landmine problem, but the United 
States is blocking a total solution because, without us, there is no 
solution.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of the Los Angeles Times 
article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              [From the Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1999]

                 A Strategy on Land Mines Is Needed Now

          (By Robert Oakley, Lori Helene Gronich, Ted Sahlin)

       Tens of thousands of land mines will be left behind as Serb 
     forces withdraw from Kosovo, and nobody has a long-term plan 
     for removing them. The international community must begin 
     work together now to develop an integrated approach or 
     prospects for peace and economic recovery in Kosovo will be 
     thwarted.
       Knowledge about the relationship between land mine 
     problems, peace settlements and rebuilding shattered 
     communities is scarce. Operation Provide Comfort in Iraq and 
     the stabilization of affairs in Bosnia are experiences that 
     can help shape effective planning for Kosovo. In northern 
     Iraq, there were recognizable phases to the refugee 
     operation. First, the military entered and secured the area. 
     Mines were removed from refugee reception zones and core 
     transportation routes. Then, international relief 
     organizations came forward and restarted their local 
     operations.
       But the next step--taking these mines out of the ground--
     did not take place. Despite the valuable mine location 
     information provided by area residents and some international 
     relief workers, land mines were treated as an acceptable, if 
     pernicious, danger to the population. Wise planners will 
     include the accounts of local residents and international aid 
     workers in Kosovo.
       Large-scale mine removal normally occurs when the threat of 
     violence has receded, armed forces have departed, and local 
     governance has been restored. National and international 
     organizations then work with local leaders to develop long-
     term aid plans and mine-removal programs.
       In Bosnia, soldiers and civilians alike were aware of the 
     land mine threat. Allied military forces, after several 
     fatalities and traumatic injuries, made land mine awareness 
     among the troops a high priority. These troops, however, 
     primarily removed mines when it was necessary for force 
     protection. International companies, local contractors and 
     local forces tackled the larger mine problem, and they are 
     still at work today. Not only do they compete for funding, 
     they influence priorities as well. This is not a 
     comprehensive master plan.
       All five components of mine action--awareness; surveying, 
     mapping and marking; removal; destruction; and victim 
     assistance--should be an integral part of any comprehensive 
     international operation. First, all minefield information 
     must be given immediately to allied leaders. Should any of 
     the combatants have only incomplete or inaccurate mine 
     records, their soldiers should show the entering forces 
     just where the mines have been placed. This will save 
     lives. It was not done in Bosnia, and it exacted a high 
     price. Human suffering remains, and economic output is 
     still less than half of what it was in 1990.
       In the initial phase of the Kosovo peace, international 
     military forces will clear mines to protect themselves and 
     allow for the necessary freedom of movement to accomplish 
     their mission. This mine-clearing effort should also support 
     the rapid return of refugees and the swift resumption of 
     local commerce. Military mine-clearing and mine-awareness 
     training should be supplemented by mine-awareness education 
     for refugees and internally displaced persons. Assuring 
     adequate medical supplies and attention for mine casualties 
     should be a high priority.
       Once the initial phase of a Kosovo deployment is completed, 
     the international protection force is likely to limit and 
     then stop its mine-clearance work. Civilian groups must then 
     take over. International experts often are brought in to help 
     training local residents in mine safety and removal. Local 
     security forces can also be trained and equipped to 
     participate. Despite the widespread belief that mine 
     clearance is an integral part of post-conflict peace-
     building, economic revitalization and sustainable 
     development, there is no agreed model for addressing or even 
     coordinating these different needs and roles.
       If the work in Kosovo is to be effective, international 
     planners must develop a comprehensive strategy now. 
     Otherwise, the fighting may cease, but the casualties will go 
     on.

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I will close with this, as I have many 
other times. In the use of any weapons, there always will be questions 
as to who is right and who is wrong. But I have to think the use of 
landmines raises beyond a strategic question, raises the real moral 
question, and because the victims of landmines are so 
disproportionately civilian, we do get into moral questions. As the 
most powerful Nation on earth, and also the Nation most blessed with 
resources and advantages of any nation in history, I think we fail a 
moral duty if we don't do more to ban the use of antipersonnel 
landmines.
  It is a child walking to school. It is a mother going to a stream to 
get water. It is a parent tilling what little fields they have. It is 
somebody trying to help out with medical care. It is a missionary. It 
is so many others--all on peaceful, proper pursuits of their lives. 
They are the ones who step on these landmines and are killed or maimed. 
The child who sees a shiny toy in the field and loses his arm and his 
face. It is the person who tries to save the child who steps on the 
mine itself. It is the refugee family trying to go back to the country 
that they were expelled from who are dying from them. We have to do 
more.
  I wish there would be a day when there would never be another war. 
There will not be. We can't stop that. But we can take steps to stop 
the day that landmines will ever be used again.
  I yield the floor.

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