[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 104 (Thursday, June 20, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4163-S4164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LANDMINES IN YEMEN

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spent much of my career in the 
Senate working to eradicate landmines, which kill and maim far more 
civilians than combatants. These insidious, inherently indiscriminate 
weapons often remain active for years or even decades after the 
fighting has ended and the soldiers have left, lying in wait for the 
unsuspecting footstep of a child on her way to school, or a farmer 
working in a field.
  In 1997, the Yemeni Government signed the Mine Ban Treaty which 
outlaws the production, stockpiling, export, and use of anti-personnel 
mines. With the help of international donors, they made great strides 
in humanitarian demining, to the point that, by 2012, they were on the 
cusp of declaring the country landmine free. Unfortunately, the civil 
war between the Houthi rebels supported by Iran, and the Yemeni 
Government supported by the Saudi-led coalition, changed everything. 
The use of landmines made a resurgence, due to Iranian mines that the 
Houthis have planted by the thousands throughout the country. More than 
9,000 Yemenis have reportedly been killed or injured by landmines, the 
overwhelming majority of them innocent civilians.
  Children are especially vulnerable to mine accidents. They run and 
play; they explore open fields; they are curious about strange objects. 
Most children who step on a landmine will die from loss of blood before 
they can obtain medical attention, and the survivors often do not have 
access to the specialized care and support they need. Even children who 
do not become victims are affected by landmines in their communities. 
They cannot play or go to school without fearing for their lives, and 
they suffer from malnutrition when militants turn farmland into 
minefields.
  As I have said many times before, the use of landmines is an affront 
to civilized societies. Regardless of who uses them, they are an 
illegitimate weapon, triggered by the victim, and are often used to 
terrorize and brutalize the innocent. They impede development for 
decades, even generations. In Vietnam today, for example, landmines 
continue to kill and injure civilians 44 years after the war ended. The 
Houthis' use of landmines cannot be justified any more than their use 
of child soldiers and other violations of the laws of war, and should 
stop immediately.
  Similarly, the United States should stop supporting Saudi Arabia's 
indiscriminate bombing in Yemen which has caused thousands of civilian 
casualties. This war will not be won militarily, and the longer it 
drags on the more innocent people will pay the price, with their limbs, 
their livelihoods, and their lives.
  The Department of State is supporting efforts to help locate and 
destroy landmines in Yemen, but far more needs to be done. Even though

[[Page S4164]]

the Yemeni army, the UN Development program, and nongovernmental 
organizations have cleared more than 300,000 mines in the country, it 
is estimated that at least 1 million remain.
  The Leahy War Victims Fund, administered by the U.S. Agency for 
International Development, has provided artificial limbs, wheelchairs, 
rehabilitation, and vocational assistance to landmine survivors in many 
countries, and could be used in Yemen.
  Yemen was an impoverished country before Iran and Saudi Arabia 
decided to go to war there, which has caused immense suffering among 
the Yemeni people. War crimes have been committed by both sides, and by 
providing weapons to the Saudis, we also are implicated. Every effort 
should be made to pressure the Houthis to stop using landmines and 
child soldiers, and the Saudis to stop their bombing of civilian areas. 
The Department of State should increase its support for humanitarian 
demining in Yemen, and the U.S. Agency for International Development 
should increase its support for organizations that help mine victims 
rebuild their lives.

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