"One of the biggest disappointments I've had as President, a bitter disappointment for me, is that I could not sign in good conscience the treaty banning land mines...."

President William Jefferson Clinton
                                                            October 6, 1999¹

It is not too late for President Clinton to change his landmine legacy from one of good intentions but unfulfilled promises, to one of true global leadership. While laudably increasing resources for humanitarian mine action programs, President Clinton has not summoned enough political will on his watch to ban antipersonnel mines. Instead, he has deferred to a military that has agreed only reluctantly to get rid of the weapon six years from now, and then only if their conditions are met at that time.

Current U.S. policy, as announced in May 1998, is that by the year 2003 the United States will cease to use antipersonnel mines, except those contained in "mixed systems" with antitank mines, everywhere in the world except for Korea. By the year 2006, if alternatives have been found, the U.S. will cease all use of all antipersonnel mines and will join the Mine Ban Treaty.

The president has in essence left the decision to ban antipersonnel mines and join the Mine Ban Treaty to the next administration, or the one after that. By postponing the decision to join the treaty until 2006, the president has ceded leadership and abdicated responsibility on a crucial humanitarian issue that he in no small part personally brought to the attention of the rest of the world.

Unless President Clinton takes actions before departing office, his landmine legacy will include these elements:
· in refusing to join the Mine Ban Treaty now, the U.S. is keeping company with Russia, China, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Burma, Syria, and Cuba;
· the U.S. is one of just two of NATO's nineteen nations that have not banned the use of antipersonnel mines;
· the U.S. still insists on the right to use antipersonnel mines in joint military operations with NATO and other military allies that are party to the Mine Ban Treaty, undermining the global movement toward a complete ban and possibly putting those nations at legal risk. The U.S. reserved the right to use antipersonnel mines during the Kosovo air war;
· the U.S. is one of just sixteen antipersonnel mine producing nations left in the world;
· the U.S. has the third or fourth largest stockpile of antipersonnel mines in the world, totaling more than 12 million, including 1.2 million of the long-lasting "dumb" (non-self-destructing) mines;
· the U.S. still maintains antipersonnel mine stockpiles in a number of countries that are party to the Mine Ban Treaty.

Moreover, the president may leave office without stopping several disturbing developments under consideration that are clearly contrary to a ban:
· sometime in fiscal year 2001, the U.S. is to make a decision about producing at a cost of $150 million a new mine system called RADAM that contains antipersonnel mines and would be prohibited under the Mine Ban Treaty;
· some in the Pentagon are insisting that the U.S. replacement munition for dumb mines contain a "battlefield override" feature that when used would revert the munition to dumb, indiscriminate status, and thus would be prohibited under the ban treaty. A production decision is expected in fiscal year 2002;
· the Air Force apparently has new plans to begin stockpiling Gator antipersonnel mines in Qatar, a party to the Mine Ban Treaty;
· the Air Force has plans to upgrade the dispensers carrying Gator antipersonnel mines in 2005, even though the stated objective is to have alternatives in place in 2006.

President Clinton will rightfully be able to claim that his legacy includes the fact that the U.S. spends more resources on mine clearance and victim assistance programs than any other nation, contributing more than $300 million dollars during his term in office. He has also declared a permanent ban on the export of antipersonnel mines, destroyed three-fourths (3.3 million) of U.S. dumb mines, and put a cap on the U.S. inventory of all antipersonnel mines.

But it should be evident that President Clinton cannot claim to be a leader in the total eradication of antipersonnel mines when the U.S. continues to be one of the few nations insisting on the right to use and produce antipersonnel mines, and maintains more than 12 million mines with which to fight around the globe. The U.S. is a leader in treating the effects of the mine plague, by helping to remove mines from the ground and assisting victims, but it still accepts as necessary the cause of the plague-use of the weapon.

It appears very unlikely that the Pentagon will meet the 2006 target date if it proceeds as planned in its search for antipersonnel landmine alternatives. A reluctant and unenthusiastic Pentagon made very little progress from 1996 to 1998. Now, with prodding from Congress, the Pentagon has plans to spend more than $820 million to develop alternatives. But it is still very uncertain if the search will be successful at all, and it is increasingly clear that it will not be completed by 2006. The search for alternatives for non-self-destructing mines is apparently producing results, but may be completely undermined by the inclusion of the "battlefield override" feature that would violate the treaty. The search for alternatives to self-destructing antipersonnel mines, particularly those in mixed systems, is still at the very early stages of identifying concepts.

On the positive side, the U.S. has increased its humanitarian contributions to mine affected countries across the world. The budget allocation for humanitarian mine action is important and reflects a commitment to alleviate human suffering. The U.S. is to be commended for its efforts in these areas. It should be noted, though, that about 20 percent of the funds U.S. officials cite as "humanitarian mine action" go to Pentagon research and development programs. Research and development aside, the bulk of spending on humanitarian mine action is done by the State Department, not the Defense Department. The State Department typically funds such things as establishment of mine action centers, mine surveys, mine awareness programs, and demining training programs.

It is little understood that U.S. military personnel are prohibited by law from entering minefields or removing mines during humanitarian demining missions. The Pentagon's activities primarily consist of training deminers in other countries. Nearly eighty percent of the Pentagon's appropriation for demining assistance is used for travel costs, allowances for U.S. military personnel, and other logistical aspects of moving personnel and equipment around the world. The percentage of U.S. funding that actually reaches the field and is used to directly support demining has never been quantified.

The focus of this report is the current status of U.S. landmine policy, landmine programs, and the actions taken in 1999 and 2000. For a detailed description of the history of U.S. mine policy and programs, see the U.S. country report written by Human Rights Watch in Landmine Monitor Report 1999.³

Recommendations
President Clinton still has the opportunity to vault the U.S. back into a leadership role in the international community on the landmine issue. As many other leaders around the world have done, President Clinton should exercise his authority to override the weak and flawed objections of the U.S. military and announce that the U.S. is prepared to join the Mine Ban Treaty.

· Before leaving office, President Clinton should submit the Mine Ban Treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent for accession, and should through executive actions begin immediate implementation of the treaty's provisions.⁴

Short of joining the treaty, there are other important steps in the right direction that President Clinton could take:

· Set a definitive deadline for joining the Mine Ban Treaty, not a conditional objective. Instruct the Department of Defense to develop plans to meet this deadline, using concrete milestones. Better still, make the deadline no later than 2003, instead of 2006. Current policy already calls for ending antipersonnel mine use by 2003, with exceptions for Korea and mixed mine systems. Removing those exceptions and joining the treaty would allow the U.S. to participate in the first Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in 2004.

· Instruct the Department of Defense to begin the process of making the changes in war plans, doctrine, training, and manuals necessary for future combat without antipersonnel mines.

· Declare a ban or an indefinite moratorium on the production of antipersonnel landmines.

· Call upon Congress to make the declared permanent ban on the export of antipersonnel landmines a law this year.

· Commit the United States immediately to a policy of no use of antipersonnel mines in joint operations (NATO and otherwise) with states that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty. Similarly, commit the United States to a policy of no transiting of antipersonnel mines across the territory, air space or waters of Mine Ban Treaty signatory states.

· Instruct the Department of Defense to establish plans, procedures, and timetables for the destruction of all antipersonnel mines, and begin by placing in inactive status ADAM and other mines immediately.

· Instruct the Department of Defense to withdraw immediately all U.S. stockpiles of antipersonnel mines from countries that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty.

· Accelerate the Pentagon's search for alternatives for antipersonnel mines. The search should address not just new weapons and technologies, but also changes in tactics and operational concepts to achieve comparable military objectives.

· Take steps necessary to insure that any systems resulting from the Pentagon's landmine alternative programs are compliant with the Mine Ban Treaty.

· Remove from consideration the "battlefield override" feature of the non-self-destructing landmine alternatives program.

· Eliminate the RADAM program.

1 The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Remarks by the President at Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Event, October 6, 1999.

2 The formal title is the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. Opened for signature in Ottawa, Canada on December 3, 1997. It is also sometimes called the Ottawa Convention or Ottawa Treaty.

3 International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward A Mine-Free World (Washington, D.C.: Human Rights Watch, 1999), pp. 318-342. Human Rights Watch contributed the U.S. chapter of this global survey.

4 Since the treaty entered into force on March 1, 1999, governments can no longer sign the treaty, but must accede (in essence a one-step process of signing and ratifying). See articles 15 and 16 of the treaty.