|
CIVILIAN
DANGER
US is criticized for its plans to use land mines with timers
By Ross Kerber, Globe Staff, 3/20/2003 Leftover land mines take a
huge toll on civilians, 800 deaths per month worldwide, according to the United
Nations Children's Fund.
To minimize civilian
casualties during and after an assault, US military doctrine calls for almost
all mines to include timers that cause them to self-destruct after a preset
period.
The mines also include
deactivation features, so they will eventually disarm themselves, even if the
timers fail. A newer generation of computer-controlled land mines meant to
further reduce civilian casualties won't be ready in time for an invasion of
Iraq.
But the US policy on mines is
at odds with that of Britain and most other nations, which have agreed not to
use land mines. In Britain, members of Parliament are demanding that their
forces stick to a treaty it has signed banning use of land mines.
There is a dispute whether
the kind of mines that US forces plan to use would be a violation of the treaty,
although the United States has not signed it.
In the United States,
opponents of land mines say that the use of such munitions in an attack on Iraq
would be a blow to the campaign to ban their use. That campaign took off in the
1990s with the backing of figures like Vermont activist Jody Williams, who
shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy against land mines, and the
late Princess Diana.
''The more the US uses or
retains the right to use land mines, the more the government is on the outside
of the international norm banning these indiscriminate weapons of terror,'' said
Gina Coplon-Newfield, coordinator of US Campaign to Ban Landmines, a Boston
group that first called attention to the Pentagon's intentions. ''No land mine
is smart enough to distinguish between a soldier and a child.''
Members of Congress including
Representative James P. McGovern, Democrat of Worcester, have also called on
President Bush not to use land mines in Iraq.
In a letter last month to
Bush, McGovern said that spreading land mines in Iraq ''would pose serious
dangers to innocent civilians, our own troops, and future peacekeepers involved
with post-conflict reconstruction.''
Since 1997, 131 countries
have ratified a treaty banning such weapons. Neither the United States nor Iraq
has agreed to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling,
Production, and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, which
is better known as the Ottawa convention.
The Clinton administration
said it would try to end the use of land mines everywhere except Korea by 2003
and in Korea by 2006. The Bush administration is reviewing the policy.
''We are committed to
developing a policy that addresses both humanitarian and war-fighting
concerns,'' said a Pentagon official who would only respond to questions on
condition of anonymity. In an e-mail message, the official said that any use of
land mines by the United States would be consistent with international laws on
conventional weapons and that allied nations ''that are parties to Ottawa would
follow their own obligations in accordance with that treaty.''
''At the same time, the
United States has a responsibility to protect its men and women in uniform,''
the official wrote. ''The use of land mines by US forces does not contribute to
the global land mine problem.'' Members of Britain's Parliament have asked the
government of Prime Minister Tony Blair to seek assurances from US officials
that mines won't be used in an attack on Iraq.
''It would be a tragic irony
if a conflict that is supposed to be about upholding international arms controls
resulted in the UK and others effectively tearing up their commitments,'' said
Richard Lloyd, director of Landmine Action, a London organization that lobbies
against the weapons and runs mine-clearing operations in Africa. Steve Atkins, a
spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington, said Britain remains ''fully
committed to our obligations under Ottawa.''
''The US is well aware of our
position on antipersonnel land mines,'' he said.
But the use of mines
described by the Pentagon might not violate the Ottawa convention under an
interpretation in which the mines could be classified as ''antihandling
devices,'' Atkins said. Unlike mines, which are meant to kill or injure, Atkins
said, antihandling devices are meant to prevent the enemy from using equipment
or facilities, like a weapons factory.
US plans to deploy land mines
came to light at a press briefing at the Pentagon March 5 that focused on how US
forces would try to minimize civilian casualties in Iraq.
During the briefing, a
defense official described how small land mines could be used to prevent enemy
forces from gaining access to a site containing chemical or biological weapons.
''You might deny access to
that [site] by using self-destructing small mines -- and these are
air-deliverable -- that have a 24-hour or 48-hour self-destructing capability.
And so you could keep people from going in and taking something out of that
facility,'' the official said.
US military spokesmen
declined to identify the official who gave the March 5 briefing, except to
describe the official as a senior officer from the US Central Command in Tampa,
which directs operations in the Middle East.
The official didn't specify
which mines could be used. But military specialists said what the official
described was a cluster bomb like the CBU-78 Gator, a 500-pound cannister that
scatters 45 tank and 15 antipersonnel mines.
An antipersonnel mine ejects
tripwires when it hits the ground and kills or maims by a blast of fragments.
The US military said safety devices that disarm the weapons after 48 hours
should reduce civilian casualties.
But activists in the campaign
against land mines said such weapons are little different than older
antipersonnel devices that kill thousands of civilians a year long after
conflicts have ended. They said that within the first two days the weapons can
injure medical personnel and other noncombatants and that the self-destruction
timers can fail.
US defense contractors are
working on a replacement mine, known as the ''non-self-destructing antipersonnel
land mine alternative.'' Designers envision a mine activated only after a US
soldier has verified the enemy's presence.
Ross Kerber can be reached at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
This story ran on page A32 of
the Boston Globe on 3/20/2003. |
