[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 158 (Thursday, November 15, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2096-E2097]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     FOOD RATIONS, CLUSTER BOMBS AND NATION BUILDING IN AFGHANISTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CYNTHIA A. McKINNEY

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 15, 2001

  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, today we have been bombing Afghanistan for 
one month. During that time, we have also dropped about 1.1 million 
humanitarian daily rations. I find it unfortunate that, from the entire 
spectrum of colors, both the cluster bomblets and the food rations we 
are dropping are bright yellow. Though recent reports from the Pentagon 
stated that the food rations would be changed to blue packages, 
apparently this color will not work either. Radio broadcasts from our 
psychological operations planes that are trying to explain the color 
discrepancy because many Afghans neither hear the broadcast nor trust 
them, will not solve this problem. I can only hope that the Pentagon 
will soon find a solution, before innocent Afghan children try to pry 
open a cluster bomb, hoping to cure their hunger but killing them 
instead.
  There are many problems associated with this war, and they go far 
beyond the similar color of food rations and cluster bombs.
  Six years ago, the use of cluster bombs was prohibited during the 
1995 bombing campaign in Bosnia by Air Force Major General Michael 
Ryan, then-commander of Allied Air Forces Southern Europe and of NATO's 
air campaign in Bosnia. The logic behind this decision was simple. 
General Ryan recognized the inherent danger from cluster bombs to 
Bosnian civilians, the very people whom we were supposedly fighting to 
protect. He knew that cluster bombs landed in villages and near 
hospitals, that dud cluster bombs were picked up and played with by 
children and that innocent Bosnians were being killed. An Air Force 
study on cluster bombs stated ``the problem was that the fragmentation 
pattern was too large to sufficiently limit collateral damage and there 
was also the further problem of potential unexploded ordnance.'''
  Despite General Ryan''s wise action, cluster bombs were again used in 
Kosovo and now again in Afghanistan. Nonetheless, little has changed, 
and the array of problems and dangers with cluster bombs continues to 
exist. In Kosovo, the first casualties to peacekeeping forces occurred 
when two British soldiers attempted to disarm an unexploded cluster 
bomblet. The International Committee of the Red Cross found that, in 
one year's time, there were over 150 civilian casualties in Kosovo from 
cluster bomblets. In 1999, the Pentagon admitted that more than 11,000 
unexploded cluster bomblets remain in Kosovo. In Afghanistan, the 
United Nations has reported that villagers near the City of Herat fear 
leaving their home because little yellow cluster bomblets litter the 
ground. Or perhaps they're yellow food rations, who knows . . .
  Cluster bombs are neither safe, nor are they humane. They can be 
dropped from nearly any Marine, Navy or Air Force plane. Once released, 
cluster bombs open up and release 200 to 2000 bomblets, which fall to 
the ground and cover football field size areas. As many as 10% of these 
bomblets don't explode, and end up scattered across the ground, waiting 
for a farmer to plow it, a child to play with it, or an unknowing 
hungry mother to pick it up. As a United Nations mine clearance expert 
noted ``it is highly likely that many in Afghanistan will not know the 
difference between aerially delivered food aid and aerially delivered 
munitions.''
  But, Mr. Speaker, the situation in Afghanistan only gets worse. It is 
estimated that 724 million square meters of land in Afghanistan are 
tainted with landmines. Unexploded cluster bomblets will only expand 
this area, undoubtedly to include farms, villages and holy sites. 
Further, winter is coming soon in Afghanistan, and as snow falls in the 
mountains, cluster bomblets will become buried and frozen, silently 
waiting for an unexpecting civilian or allied soldier to walk by.
  It is no surprise that Human Rights Watch has called for a global 
moratorium on the use of cluster bombs. They realize that unexploded 
cluster bombs become in effect landmines. A recent report by the group 
finds that cluster bombs ``have proven to be a serious and long-lasting 
threat to civilians, soldiers, peacekeepers, and even clearance 
experts, because of the high initial failure rate of the bomblets, 
because of the large number typically dispersed over large areas, and 
because of the difficulty in precisely targeting the bomblets.'' For 
these same reasons, many believe that the use of cluster bombs is a 
violation of the Geneva Convention's prohibition against weapons that 
cause superfluous injury and suffering. If we can't guarantee that only 
military targets will be hit, and if we can't guarantee that all 
cluster bomblets will explode, then we simply should not use them. I 
have written President Bush to urge him to end the use of cluster 
bombs, and I anticipate his response.
  Our use of cluster bombs leaves much to be considered for when the 
bombing in Afghanistan ends. Will the United States work to cleanse the 
landscape of cluster bomblets as it tries to build a new government in 
Afghanistan? I have no doubt that landmines and cluster bombs will be 
cleared from the areas that Unocal wants to build its pipeline. The oil 
giant's consultant, Dr. Henry Kissinger, may well use his vast 
influence to protect Unocal's interest, to have cluster bomblets 
removed from a swath through southern Afghanistan leading from 
Turkmenistan to Pakistan. But I wonder about their opinions of cluster 
bomblets elsewhere. Will Unocal and Kissinger see cluster bomblets as a 
buffer, insulating their interests from the threat of angry, 
antiAmerican Afghans? Will it serve the oil company's interest to have 
a maimed population and to restrict the Afghan government? Time will 
only tell. . .
  What ever the case may be, the need for the U.S. to take the lead in 
ending its use of cluster bombs has never been more apparent. We need 
to protect the Afghan citizenry and instill trust with the people; we 
need to protect the Afghan land and insure a viable economic future; 
and we need to assist in developing a government for Afghanistan that 
will serve peace in the region, not profits abroad. Cluster bombs only 
serve a short-term goal of death, and have no role in the long-term 
strategy of peace.

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