Ban mines, activists urge Clinton,
Congress
By DOROTHY VIDULICH
Special to the National Catholic
Reporter Washington
Forty thousand post cards from Belgium were on their way to the
White House, and 100 activists from around the United States were in the
nations capital July 9-11 to prod the Clinton administration and Congress
to move more quickly on signing the international convention against land
mines.
Six years from now isnt good enough, said land
mine survivor Jerry White, referring to President Clintons claim that the
United States will sign the treaty by 2006, providing the Pentagon has
developed alternatives to anti-personnel mines. White, director of the
Landmines Survivors Network, said Clinton reneged on his 1994 call before the
United Nations for the eventual elimination of land mines.
The gathering in opposition to land mines was part of the 40-day
Peoples Campaign for Nonviolence, sponsored by the Fellowship of
Reconciliation and supported by a broad array of religious and secular peace
and justice groups. The action began on July 1 and will continue through Aug.
9.
In December 1997, in Ottawa, Canada became the first to sign the
1997 Convention on The Prohibition on the Use, Stockpiling, Production and
Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. More than 135
nations have since signed it. The United States and Turkey are the only two
NATO members who have not signed the treaty. The United States insists on the
right to use anti-personnel mines in joint military operations with military
allies who have signed the Mine Ban Treaty.
In 1997, Clinton - ironically the first head of state to promote a
land mine ban - bowed to the U.S. militarys wishes to defer signing until
the military-industrial complex develops alternatives. The United States has 11
million land mines stockpiled and is one of only 16 countries that refuse to
halt production of land mines.
Mine Ban Treaty nations are obliged to destroy stockpiles within
four years and clear mines within their own territories in 10 years. Meanwhile,
said Nathaniel Raymond, media coordinator of the U.S. Campaign To Ban
Landmines, anti-personnel mines are still killing thousands of innocent
men, women and children every year (the U.S. State Department estimates
26,000 deaths and maimings annually from the 60 million to 70 million land
mines scattered throughout nearly 70 countries.
Vietnam is a major sufferer from land mine injury and death.
Thirty-three percent of all Vietnam War casualties were from land mines, and
the toll continues today, he said. In addition to Vietnam, other heavily mined
countries include the Persian Gulf area, Angola, Cambodia and Iran.
Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel Peace laureate honored for her work on
the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, arrived back in the United States
July 10 from a Guatemala land mines forum also attended by Mayan Indian
activist Rigoberta Menchú. Williams told a Washington reception honoring
anti-land mine activists that thousands of land mines lie hidden in war-ravaged
Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
The post cards from Belgium were presented to Rep. James McGovern,
D-Mass., for transmittal to the White House.
National Catholic Reporter, July 28,
2000
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