[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 112 (Tuesday, August 3, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10070-S10071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         KOSOVO'S DEADLY LEGACY

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as NATO soldiers struggle to keep the peace 
in Kosovo, war crimes investigators labor to identify and exhume bodies 
from hundreds of mass graves, and the costly effort to rebuild homes 
and communities gets underway, we are seeing a repeat of many of the 
challenges that confront any post-conflict society.
  One I want to mention today is a threat that is hidden among the 
debris, killing and horribly injuring civilians and NATO peacekeepers 
indiscriminately as they work to rebuild what was destroyed in the war.
  The threat is unexploded ordnance, and in Kosovo that means landmines 
left by the Serbs and the Kosovo Liberation Army, and cluster bombs 
dropped by NATO forces, mostly by American aircraft.
  I have often spoken about the problem of landmines. There are tens of 
thousands of them scattered in the fields, forests, and roads of 
Kosovo.
  Each one is designed to blow the legs off the unsuspecting person who 
triggers it. Usually it is a farmer, or child, or some other innocent 
person trying to rebuild a normal life. The United States is helping to 
clear the mines, but it is a tedious, costly, and dangerous job.
  But even more than landmines, it is unexploded cluster bombs which 
pose the greatest danger to civilians and NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo.
  Cluster bombs are a favorite antipersonnel weapon of the U.S. 
military, and hundreds of thousands of them were dropped by NATO planes 
over Kosovo. They cover wide areas, are designed to explode on impact, 
and they spread shrapnel in all directions.
  People and lightly armored vehicles are the usual targets, but since 
cluster bombs are often dropped from high altitudes they often miss the 
target.
  Not only do they too often miss the target, between 5 and 20 percent 
of cluster bombs do not explode on impact. According to the State 
Department, there may be as many as 11,000 of these deadly bomblets 
currently lying on Kosovo soil, waiting for someone, anyone, to walk or 
drive by and set them off.
  Unlike landmines, their location cannot be accurately mapped. We do 
not know where they are. Like landmines, it is the victim who pulls the 
trigger.
  The usual victims of these explosions, like landmines, are innocent 
civilians, not military targets. And they remain active for years. In 
Laos, where millions of United States cluster bombs were dropped during 
the Vietnam war a quarter century ago, people are still losing their 
lives, their limbs, and their eyesight from these weapons.
  Cluster bombs do not discriminate. NATO peacekeepers are not immune. 
Children are not immune. Approximately 5 Kosovars each day are killed 
by unexploded ordnance, mostly U.S. cluster bombs. Over 170 people have 
died this way since the war ended.
  Even though we have known about this problem for decades, little has 
been done to try to minimize the harm to civilians from cluster bombs.
  Recently, to its credit, the Pentagon began studying this problem. 
There are two things that could and should be done immediately.
  First, we need to significantly reduce or eliminate the problem of 
dud cluster bombs that remain active and dangerous. We have the 
technology to make landmines self-destruct or self-deactivate after a 
short period of time.
  Why can't that same technology--usually a simple battery that runs 
out after a few hours--be applied to cluster bombs? It needs to be 
done.
  Second, the Pentagon should revisit its rules of engagement for using 
cluster bombs. In Kosovo, NATO showered cluster bombs over densely 
populated areas. Was this militarily necessary or justified? Was it 
consistent with international law?
  Since too often they miss the target, what limits should be imposed 
on where and when cluster bombs can be used so the innocent are not 
harmed? These questions need answers.
  I am not the only one concerned about this. The same concerns have 
been conveyed to me by active duty and retired members of our Armed 
Forces. Just recently, the House Armed Services Committee included 
language in its report accompanying the fiscal year 2000 National 
Defense Appropriation Act, which directs the Secretary of Defense to 
establish a defense-wide program to develop affordable, reliable self-
destruct fuses for munitions.
  I see a real problem, and countless tragedies, resulting from the way 
these munitions are designed and used. We can do better.
  There is always too much death and destruction in any military 
conflict. The lingering threat of landmines and unexploded bombs can be 
significantly reduced. If implemented, the changes I have suggested 
could save many innocent lives in the aftermath of war.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a brief article and a 
letter to the editor about cluster bombs that appeared in the August 3 
Washington Post, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, August 3, 1999]

                           The Remains of War

       U.S. warplanes dropped 1,100 cluster bombs during Operation 
     Allied Force against Yugoslavia, says the Defense Department. 
     Each contained 202 bomblets. That's 222,200 bomblets each. 
     With a dud rate of 5 percent, it is likely, a DOD spokesman 
     said, that about 11,110 bomblets are sitting around 
     unexploded.
                                  ____


                          Duds Keep On Killing

       The problem of high dud rates in cluster bombs has been 
     well known to the military for years. The 5 percent dud rate 
     mentioned in ``NATO `Duds' Keep Killing in Kosovo'' [front 
     page, July 19] must be characterized as more of a prayer than 
     a fact: Dud rates among cluster munitions were as high as 30 
     percent during the Vietnam War. Dud rates during the Gulf War 
     were as high as 20 percent.
       Laos remains littered with millions of duds in unmarked 
     minefields. They continue to kill farmers who strike them 
     with implements and children who mistake them for toys. Many 
     young victims' parents were not even born when the United 
     States dropped these weapons in unprecedented numbers. The 
     grandchildren of Kosovars and Serbs

[[Page S10071]]

     alike will die as they discover unexploded bombs in the 
     future.
       The military was aware of how attractive these ``bomblets'' 
     are. Numerous similar stories came out of the Gulf War 
     explaining that the brightly colored and appealing shapes 
     made unexploded cluster bombs irresistible to child and 
     soldier alike.
       These weapons should be banned from the U.S. arsenal and 
     arsenals around the world.--Virgil Wiebe.

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