[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 62 (Tuesday, April 29, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2428-S2429]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be a 
period of morning business until 11 a.m., with Senators permitted to 
speak therein for up to 10 minutes each, with the time equally divided 
between the two leaders or their designees, with the majority 
controlling the first half and the Republicans controlling the final 
half.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.

[[Page S2429]]

  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            LANDMINE SCOURGE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spoken several times in the past few 
weeks--and I have spoken many times in the past 20 years--about the 
scourge of landmines.
  They are inherently indiscriminate weapons. They are triggered by the 
victim, and usually the victim is an innocent civilian who is either 
killed or horribly maimed.
  The United States has not exported, produced, or used antipersonnel 
mines for more than 20 years. But notwithstanding that--even though 161 
nations have joined the international treaty banning them--one nation 
stands out for not having joined the treaty. That is the United States, 
and it is a shame on this country.
  As the world's only superpower with by far the most powerful 
military, one would have thought the United States would set an example 
of moral leadership. Instead, we are among those who are preventing the 
universality of the treaty.
  This is doubly disappointing, considering that it was President 
Clinton who, 20 years ago, called for the elimination of antipersonnel 
mines. Two years later, in 1996--back in the last century--he said: 
``Today I am launching an international effort to ban anti-personnel 
landmines.'' But his administration did not sign the treaty.
  Then we had the Bush administration. They did nothing on the issue.
  Now we have the Obama administration. Nothing has changed. The Obama 
administration is following the Bush administration's policy of doing 
nothing. So we are still waiting.
  Last week I was in Vietnam, along with Senators Shelby and Crapo and 
Representatives Cooper from Tennessee and Welch from Vermont. We had 
conversations with President Sang, with the Minister of Defense, and 
other Vietnamese officials. But we also met with nongovernmental 
organizations--many of them Americans--that work to locate and clear 
landmines and other unexploded ordnance.
  It is costly, dangerous work. They have been doing it for decades. At 
the current rate, when you consider that millions of landmines and 
bombs were dropped in Vietnam during the war, it is estimated that it 
will take another 100 years before it is safe to walk in that country 
without fear of triggering a deadly explosion.
  I have met countless people in Vietnam who have been crippled and 
disfigured by landmines. Many of them are children the age of my 
grandchildren. Here is a photograph of two Vietnamese men I met last 
week. You can see what landmines do. My wife Marcelle and I were deeply 
touched when we spoke with them. After all the pain and hardship they 
have suffered, they were thanking us for helping to get them 
wheelchairs.
  Their lives have been changed terribly forever, yet they are lucky 
because they survived. They lost their legs, their arms, but thankfully 
they are not among the tens of thousands who died from landmines during 
that war and in the decades since the war ended.
  In Vietnam, we have used the Leahy War Victims Fund to provide 
medical care and rehabilitation to thousands of mine victims.
  As a Democrat, I want to compliment a Republican President, George 
H.W. Bush, who worked with me and with the inspired founder of the 
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Bobby Muller, to start using 
the Leahy War Victims Fund in Vietnam.
  We have spent many millions of dollars to help get rid of the mines. 
As I said earlier, 40 years after the war, there are still vast areas 
of Vietnam littered with unexploded mines and bombs.
  Yet Vietnam is only one of dozens of countries whose people have been 
terrorized by landmines--some from our country, some from others.
  When you talk to the Department of Defense about this, they say their 
mines are ``smart'' because they are designed to deactivate after a 
finite period of time. Of course, that is better than mines that remain 
active for years. But if a child steps on one before the time they are 
deactivated, that child does not know whether this is a smart mine or a 
dumb mine because as long as they are active, they are no better at 
distinguishing between a child and a soldier.
  I remember the young woman I met in a hospital after the Bosnia war. 
She was sent away by her parents to be safe during that conflict. But 
when the war ended she was running down the road to greet her parents 
and had both legs blown off. The war was over, but it never ended for 
her.
  I have never argued that mines have no military utility. Every weapon 
does. So does poison gas, so do IEDs. But we would not use them, and we 
consider it immoral for other people to use them. They are the 
antithesis of a precision weapon. They do not belong in the arsenal of 
civilized countries, least of all in the United States. The United 
States ought to have courage enough to sign the landmine treaty.
  You have to wonder, if Pennsylvania or Oklahoma or Utah or Georgia or 
Vermont or New Jersey or any of our 50 States were littered with 
landmines, killing and maiming innocent Americans, would we tolerate 
it? Of course not. We would not make excuses about needing to use these 
weapons. The outcry would be deafening and the United States would join 
the treaty, as we should have 15 years ago.
  Some might ask why this matters. The United States has not used mines 
for two decades, even while we fought two long land wars. That is 
because the political price of using them--particularly in Afghanistan 
where more innocent civilians have been killed or injured from 
landmines than perhaps anywhere else--would have been prohibitive.
  It matters because, like any other issue, even when the United States 
is not part of the problem, we have to be part of the solution. We 
ought to set an example on this. We ought to be strong enough to do 
what 161 other countries have done and join the treaty.
  I have spoken to President Obama about this. I know he shares my 
concern about the toll of innocent lives from landmines. As a Senator, 
he cosponsored my legislation. So did Secretary Hagel.
  This is an unfinished job. It began with President Clinton. It is 
time to put the United States on a path to join the treaty. Only the 
Commander in Chief can do that. The world cries out to him to show that 
kind of moral leadership.

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