landmines
A Message to President Clinton: Help Us Ban Landmines

The following press release was issued today by the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition of over 225 non-governmental organizations, including CARE. The U.S. Campaign is one of over 50 country campaigns comprising the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Washington DC, July 16, 1997 -- Today, as senior U.S. officials from the State Department, Pentagon, National Security Council, and Arms Control and Disarmament Agency meet to discuss and possibly decide on a new direction for U.S. policy on antipersonnel (AP) landmines, the US Campaign to Ban Landmines is sending a letter to President Bill Clinton demanding that he abandon his current obstructionist position regarding a ban.

The letter, signed by more than 60 other organizations, calls for President Clinton to commit the United States to join the diplomatic initiative known as the Ottawa Process which will result in the conclusion of a legally-binding international treaty banning all AP mines this December.

The administration is engaged in a review of its landmine policy which is expected to be completed in no more than two weeks, and possibly as early as today. The basic choice is whether to stick with last January's decision to pursue a ban through the Conference on Disarmament -- which U.S. officials admit has made no significant progress thus far -- or to join more than 100 other nations that are prepared to sign a ban treaty this year. Those supporting the Ottawa Process include key NATO allies such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, as well as many of the nations where mines have been used the most extensively, such as Angola and Bosnia.

The US Campaign's letter urges Clinton "to abandon the caveats which constrain your current policy in order to fully participate in ban treaty negotiations this September in Oslo and sign the ban treaty in Ottawa this December ... The US Campaign to Ban Landmines wants a simple, comprehensive ban treaty with no reservations, no exceptions and no loopholes; yet current U.S. policy prohibits U.S. participation in a true ban treaty. Current U.S. policy requires an exception for continued use of so-called 'dumb' AP mines in Korea and American use of so-called 'smart' mines worldwide."

The US Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of over 225 non-governmental organizations and is one of over 50 country campaigns comprising the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. The letter to President Clinton is signed by the heads of more than 60 organizations, including CARE.

Here is the text of the letter:

July 16, 1997

The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton
President of the United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We represent a sampling of the veterans, international development, humanitarian relief, peace, women's, human rights, medical, children's, policy and research, environmental and religious groups who form the US Campaign to Ban Landmines, a coalition of over 225 non-governmental organizations and one of over 50 country campaigns comprising the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.

Knowing that the administration is currently engaged in a review of its policy on antipersonnel (AP) landmines, we write to respectfully urge you to abandon the caveats which constrain your current policy in order to fully participate in ban treaty negotiations this September in Oslo and sign the ban treaty in Ottawa this December. We urge you to join over 100 countries supportive of this process including key NATO allies such as Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and President of the United States your decision must take into account the advice of the military, the advice of Congress, and the advice of the people. You have support from all these constituencies for a comprehensive international ban on all antipersonnel mines - including so-called "smart" and "dumb" mines. Retired military generals including General Norman Schwarzkopf, General David Jones, and General John R. Galvin have strongly urged you to take the lead in efforts to achieve a total and permanent international ban on the production, stockpiling, sale and use of AP mines. The majority of the Senate has endorsed S.896, the Leahy-Hagel Landmine Elimination Act, that would ban new deployments of AP mines by the U.S. after January 1, 2000, and put the U.S. in a position to sign the Ottawa ban treaty. 164 Members of the House of Representatives have written to urge you to participate fully in the Ottawa Process. Over 100,000 people nationwide have signed petitions calling on you to permanently ban AP mines by signing the Ottawa treaty.

The US Campaign to Ban Landmines wants a simple, comprehensive ban treaty with no reservations, no exceptions and no loopholes yet current U.S. policy prohibits U.S. participation in a true ban treaty. Current U.S. policy requires an exception for continued use of so-called "dumb" AP mines in Korea and American use of so-called "smart" mines worldwide. In May 1996, you pledged to "seek a worldwide agreement as soon as possible to end the use of all anti-personnel land mines." Yet current U.S. policy makes US participation in the Ottawa ban treaty impossible and leaves the U.S. in the company of nations, including China, Cuba, India, Iran, Pakistan and Russia who do not want to see AP mines banned anytime soon.

We urge you to demonstrate US leadership against these indiscriminate, abhorrent weapons by immediately banning the use and production of all AP mines, by destroying our stockpile of 14 million AP mines and by joining the majority of the world in negotiating and signing an AP mine ban treaty this December. We urge you to act now to take these essential steps to make this world a place where, as you have said, "children can walk without fear on the earth beneath them."

Yours sincerely,

Ambassador Alvin P. Adams
President & CEO
United Nations Association of the United States of America

Vicky Armour-Hileman
Center Coordinating Team
Maryknoll Mission Association of the Faithful

Peter D. Bell
President
CARE

Mark B. Brown
Acting Director
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Betty Burkes
President
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Robin Caiola
Executive Director
20/20 Vision

John Carr
Secretary, SDWP
US Catholic Bishops Conference

Gordon S. Clark
Executive Director
Peace Action

Mary Diaz
Director
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children

Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory
Director, Washington Office
Presbyterian Church (USA)

David Hart
Executive Director
Veterans for Peace

John Harvey
Director, Washington Office
Church of the Brethren

Rev. Dan C. Hoffman
President
Washington Office on Africa

John Isaacs
President
Council for a Livable World

Very Rev. David Kalert OMI
President
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate

May Khadem, M.D.
Secretary, Board of Directors
Health for Humanity

John H. Kim
General Secretary
National Association for Korean Americans (NAKA)

Anthony Kozlowski
President & CEO
American Refugee Committee Renold Levy
President
International Rescue Committee

Charlie McCormick
President
Save the Children USA

Prema Mathai-Davis
National Executive Director
YWCA of the U.S.A.

Ronald J. R. Mathies
Executive Director
Mennonite Central Committee

Mary Miller
Executive Secretary
Episcopal Peace Fellowship

Terence Miller
Director
Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Justice and Peace Office

Robert O. Muller
President
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation

Dr. Robert K. Musil, Ph.D
Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Kara Newell
Executive Director
American Friends Service Committee

Dan O'Neill
President and Co-Founder
Mercy Corps International

Raymond C. Offenheiser
President
Oxfam America

Rodney I. Page
Executive Director
Church World Service

Maurice Paprin
Co-Chairman
Fund for New Priorities in America

Dan T. Plesch
Director
British American Security Information Council

Rev. Thomas H. Quigley
President Director
The Church Council of Greater Seattle

Martin Rendon
Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy
U.S. Committee for UNICEF

Harold Robles
President
Albert Schweitzer Institute

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch

Lionel A. Rosenblatt
President
Refugees International

Caleb Rossiter
Director
Demilitarization for Democracy

Len Rubenstein
Executive Director
Physicians for Human Rights

Rev. Richard Ryscavage, S.J.
Director
Jesuit Refugee Service USA

Catherine Sarther, SSND
President
School Sisters of Notre Dame, North American Leadership Conference

Victoria M. Sheffield
Executive Director
International Eye Foundation

Evely Laser Shlensky
Chairperson
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism

Stephen Schlesinger
Director
World Policy Institute
New School for Social Research

Larry Schwab
Chairman, Committee of International Ophthalmology
American Academy of Ophthalmology

Robert A. Seiple
President
World Vision USA

John J. Shanahan
Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
Director
Center for Defense Information

William Kennedy Smith, MD
President
Physicians Against Landmines

Nancy Small
National Coordinator
Pax Christi USA

Joyce D. Sohl
General Secretary, Women's Division
General Board of Global Ministries
United Methodist Church

Steve Starr
Supervisor, Social Services
American Red Cross, St Louis bi-state chapter

Jeremy J. Stone
President
Federation of American Scientists

John E. Sutphin, M.D., Capt MC USN (Ret)
Chairman, Disaster Preparedness Subcommittee
American Academy of Ophthalmology

Joelle Tanguy
Executive Director
Doctors Without Borders

Kathy Thornton, RSM
National Coordinator
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby

Kathleen Uhler OSF & Ignacio Harding OFM
Co-Directors
Franciscans International

Edith Villastrigo
Director
Women Strike for Peace

Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quakers)

Susan B. Walker
Director
Handicap International

Mary Wareham
Coordinator
US Campaign to Ban Landmines

Stephen Whisnant
Executive Director
World T.E.A.M. Sports

Jerry White and Ken Rutherford
Co-directors
Landmine Survivors Network

Roger P. Winter
Director
U.S. Committee for Refugees

Kathryn F. Wolford
President
Lutheran World Relief

Lynette Youndt Meck
Executive Director
Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Miriam A. Young
Executive Director
Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace

CC:

Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State

Sandy Berger, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs

Robert Bell, National Security Council

William Cohen, Secretary of Defense

John Holum, Director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency

J. Brian Atwood, Director, U.S. Agency for International Development

General John Shalikashvili, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff