24. This information was first provided to Human Rights Watch in a telephone interview with Robert Cowles, Demining Office, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, April 8, 1997. 25. OAS Resolution AG/RES. 1411 (XXVI-0-96), "Western Hemisphere as an Antipersonnel Landmine Free Zone," June 7, 1996. 26. Transcript, White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Press Briefing, January 17, 1997; transcript, Pentagon Press Briefing, unnamed senior military official, January 17, 1997. A White House official clarified in the same briefing: "It's not tens of millions." 27. Hambric and Schneck, p. 29. The breakdown is as follows: M14 (3.5 million); M16 (1.5 million); Claymore M18A1 (973,932); ADAM (5,947,000); PDM (16,800); Volcano (107,300); MOPMS (9,200); GEMSS (71,200); Gator (U.S. Air Force, 238,612; U.S. Navy, 45,375). 28. Human Rights Watch telephone interview, January 1997. Other Pentagon officials have also told Human Rights Watch that the U.S. was having difficulty determining just how many mines are in the current arsenal. 29. Letter from George R. Schneiter, Acting Director, Tactical Warfare Programs, Acquisition and Technology, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, to Rep. Lane Evans, October 27, 1994. Table 4, "Landmine Inventory, Conventional Mines," gives a breakdown of 4,541,208 M14 mines; 1,702,879 M16 mines; and 20,700 M26 mines.     Official information on the number of dumb mines has been inconsistent. Leaving Claymore mines aside, Schneiter in 1994 cited 6.3 million, Hambric and Schneck in 1996 cited five million, and in the January 17, 1997 Pentagon press briefing, the spokesperson cited four million—three million slated for destruction and one million in Korea. 30. The Joint Chiefs of Staff later provided a similar percentage. In a letter dated September 12, 1995, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John Shalikashvili told Rep. Ron Dellums that smart mines "represent approximately 65% of the US total anti-personnel mine inventory." 31. White House and Pentagon press briefings, January 17, 1997. A Pentagon official told Human Rights Watch in March that nearly 300,000 dumb mines had been destroyed since the May 16, 1996 announcement, and that 80% of the three million slated for destruction were in inactive status, awaiting destruction. Telephone interview with Robert Cowles, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, March 14, 1997. 32. Telephone interview with Lt. Col. Michael W. Thumm, Technology Transfer Action Center, Joint Staff Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate, February 14, 1997. 33. Human Rights Watch Arms Project and Physicians for Human Rights, Landmines: A Deadly Legacy, p. 64. This book contains a country-by-country breakdown of U.S. mine exports since 1969.

In April 1997, the Pentagon announced that there are fourteen million antipersonnel mines in U.S. stockpiles, including ten million "smart" self-destructing mines and four million "dumb" non-self-destructing mines. Three million non-self-destructing mines are slated for destruction, with the other one million reserved for use in Korea. The inventory cap announced by Clinton in January 1997 will thus be eleven million antipersonnel mines. Not included in any of those numbers are nearly one million Claymore mines which the Pentagon now classifies as command-detonated munitions rather than mines. (See Appendix D).24 The stockpile number was apparently revealed in response to the landmines resolution adopted by the Organization of American States in June 1996, and endorsed by the U.S., which calls on all states in the hemisphere to make public details of their mine inventories.25 Until April, DoD was unable, or unwilling, to account for the precise number of antipersonnel mines in its inventories. In announcing the cap on inventories on January 17, 1997, both the White House and Pentagon spokespersons would be no more specific than "several million."26 The only previous public statement regarding overall antipersonnel mine totals known to Human Rights Watch was a 1996 U.S. Army Humanitarian Demining Project symposium paper indicating that there are 12.4 million antipersonnel mines in the national arsenal, including six million M14, M16, and M18A1 Claymore dumb mines, and 6.4 million ADAM, Gator, Volcano, GEMSS, PDM, and MOPMS smart mines.27 However, an Army official who helped prepare the document told Human Rights Watch that the numbers should not be treated as definitive.28 A 1994 DoD document gave a detailed breakdown of nearly 6.3 million dumb mines in the U.S. inventory, not including Claymore mines.29 The same document noted that the U.S. antipersonnel mine inventory, not including Claymores, consisted of 37% dumb and 63% smart mines,30 which would translate into a stockpile of eighteen million mines: nearly eleven million smart mines, more than six million dumb mines, and nearly one million Claymore mines.31 The January announcement was not the first time the U.S. failed to be forthcoming regarding the number of antipersonnel mines in its arsenal. A similar situation occurred in May 1996 when the President announced that the U.S. would, by the end of 1999, destroy all dumb mines not needed for the defense of Korea or for training purposes, yet did not publicly reveal either the number that would be destroyed or the number that would be kept. Shortly after the May announcement, several Pentagon officials privately indicated to Human Rights Watch that some four million to six million mines would be destroyed. Yet, at the time of the January 1997 announcement, the Administration said that it would be destroying about three million dumb antipersonnel mines.32 A Pentagon official has told Human Rights Watch that the destruction of these mines will not free up space for new production under the inventory cap; that is, the U.S. will not replace those three million dumb mines with new smart mines.33