05 August 2005
Rights group: US planning to produce landmines
ISN SECURITY WATCH (05/08/05) - An international human rights group has accused the Bush administration of planning to resume the production of antipersonnel mines, the making of which has been suspended in the US since 1997.
A decision on production of a new antipersonnel mine called Spider is due in December, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released earlier this week. The Pentagon also sought $1.3 billion for another antipersonnel mine called the Intelligent Munitions System, HRW reported, adding a full production decision was expected in 2008.
In 2004, the US shocked anti-landmine activists when it said it will not sign the 1997 global Mine Ban Treaty, a pact it was expected to agree to by 2006 and which had been signed by more than 140 countries around the world. Most Western nations had signed on to the treaty. Those signatories to the global pact would, under its terms, have to consider ending investments in US companies producing or exporting the new antipersonnel mines.
US officials said American mines are not a significant global problem because most of the damage wreaked by such weapons had been in nations such as Afghanistan, which had suffered decades of war and destruction. But HRW noted that the US exported more than 5.6 million antipersonnel mines to 38 countries between 1969 and 1992; US mines had been found in 29 mine-affected countries, it said.
At the time it rejected the pact, the Bush administration said it would push back the date to eliminate some of its mines to 2010, and would maintain the right to use other types of mines indefinitely.
The 1997 treaty aims to ban the use, trade, production or stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. On Wednesday, the human rights group said the US policy adopted last year was seeing results now.
“We are beginning to see the bitter fruit of the new Bush administration landmine policy,” said Steve Goose, director of the HRW Arms division. “The US appears well on the way to resuming production of antipersonnel mines. Renewed export and renewed use of these inhumane weapons may not be far behind.”
Although the US had not exported antipersonnel mines since 1992 and had not used them since 1991, Human Rights Watch quoted news reports as saying the Army was planning to deploy a new remote-controlled landmine system called Matrix in Iraq. The technology for Matrix, it said, was the same as the one for Spider.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the nongovernmental organization whose efforts to stop the use and spread of mines across the world won it a Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, criticized the Bush administration in a statement.
“The ICBL is extremely concerned about these US plans which open the door for new production and possibly export of antipersonnel mines,” it said on Wednesday. “This stands in stark contrast to the reality in the rest of the world, where the norm of a total ban of the weapon is firmly taking hold.
There are 145 States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty, and many countries that have not yet joined the treaty have instituted a moratorium on production, exports and even use of antipersonnel mines.”
The Bush administration’s own proposal, made after it rejected the global ban on landmines, would ban the export of non-self-destructing landmines but allows the export of those antipersonnel mines that do.
Self-destructing mines blow themselves up after a given period of time, which can range for US mines from 4 hours to 15 days. If they fail to blow up, a self-deactivation system ensures the landmine cannot function for more than 90 days. The US says these are safer than non-self-destructive mines because they do pose risk a long-term risk to civilians.
Goose, of HRW, criticized that idea, saying it was out of step with global opinion. “Any future production, trade or use of antipersonnel mines would put the United States squarely at odds with the emerging international consensus against the weapon, and would draw strong criticism from its closest allies,” he said.
(By Krishnadev Calamur in Washington)
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