Exposing the Source

Despite the Clinton Administration's attempts to lay claim to the mantle of global leadership in the effort to ban antipersonnel landmines, the United States has refused to ban or even formally suspend the production of antipersonnel mines. From 1985 through 1996, the U.S. produced more than four million new antipersonnel mines. At the same time that President Clinton was urging the rest of the world to move toward the total elimination of the weapon, the Pentagon was awarding contracts to dozens of U.S. companies to manufacture antipersonnel mines to replace those used in the Persian Gulf War. The U.S. currently has a stockpile of 15 million antipersonnel mines, although three million older mines are scheduled to be destroyed by the end of 1999. In this report, Human Rights WatchCas part of a coordinated national effort to promote a total ban on antipersonnel landmines identifies forty-seven U.S. companies that have been involved in the manufacture of antipersonnel mines, their components, or delivery systems. That is more than twice the number of companies previously acknowledged by the Department of Defense (DoD). This report is to be the basis for a "stigmatization" campaign by the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL) to press all companies that have been involved in antipersonnel mine production in the past to renounce any future activities related to antipersonnel mine production.