landmines

Take a Stand for the Ban:

Tell President Clinton Your Views on Land Mines

More than 100 nations are currently gathered in Oslo, Norway, to negotiate a treaty for a comprehensive ban on anti-personnel land mines by the year 2000. These land mines kill or maim 26,000 people each year - most of them civilians, many of them women and children.

After a fruitless year of pursuing a ban through the UN Conference on Disarmament - a process that can take decades - the United States has changed course "in favor" of the fast-track Ottawa process, which aims at a binding treaty for a comprehensive ban to be signed in December of this year. Unfortunately, the United States is threatening to dilute the treaty by seeking changes that would:

• Permit the use of land mines on the Korean Peninsula.

• Allow the use of so-called "smart mines" that self-destruct after a specified period of time.

• Reduce the time period for withdrawing from the treaty from one year to 90 days.

Most nations participating in the Oslo Conference are holding fast to the goal of a treaty with no exemptions, no reservations, no loopholes. But others are being influenced by the United States. Clearly, an exemption-riddled treaty will be little better than no treaty at all. And such a treaty will be no help to the thousands of people whose lives and limbs are threatened every day by the reality of land mines.

Your views can make a difference. Please take a minute to call the White House at 202-456-1111. Tell the President that, policy implications aside, the land mines issue is essentially a humanitarian one. Let him know that the only moral course is to support an unambiguous treaty with no exceptions, no reservations, no loopholes.

He needs to hear your voice.