USA Reviews Controversial Landmine Policy

The Obama administration clearly reacts to public pressure when it comes to landmines. Now, at least the ban is supposed to be reviewed.

On Tuesday a speaker from the U.S. State Department said that an inspection had revealed that the USA could not fulfill its security obligations without landmines. However, on Wednesday there came other news: currently, the government is set to review the present position rejecting the international agreement banning this kind of weaponry, a representative from the State Department made known. As a result, the USA is not excluding a ban on landmines.

The current position remains valid as long as the inspection is being carried out. “This inspection will take some time, considering the fact that this is the first since 2003,” said the representative.

Human rights organizations and members of Obama’s Democratic Party heavily criticized the initial position of the State Department, who shaped past policy on this issue in Washington. “It is about time that the USA turned its practice into policy,” commented a member of Human Rights Watch.

The United States of America is the sole NATO member which has not formally banned the use of landmines.

Russia and China have also not signed the convention banning the use of landmines, which has already been signed by 156 countries. Over the weekend, the countries that signed the convention are meeting in the Colombian town of Cartagena for a conference. The USA takes part only as an observer.

According to the information of the German coalition for banning landmines (www.landmines.de), people in over 80 countries of the world are threatened by mines and cluster munitions in the ground. About 500,000 mine victims throughout the world must be provided for.

During the twelve years since the existence of the 1997 Anti-Landmine Convention, which forbids application, production, storage and proliferation of this kind of weaponry, no mines were produced in or used by the USA.

However, the U.S. army still stores the banned weapon.

At the same time, the USA is the world’s greatest benefactor for humanitarian projects to remove these malicious weapons of war.

$1.3 billion have flowed to appropriate programs since 1993.