THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

Fact Sheet

U.S. Policy on a Landmine Control Regime

Today at the UN General Assembly, President Clinton announced a new landmine control regime initiative designed to reduce the suffering caused by the illegal and indiscriminate use of anti- personnel landmines (APLs).

People in 62 countries, mostly in the developing world, daily face the threat of being killed or maimed by the more than 85 million landmines in place today. They claim an estimated 800 casualties each month, obstruct economic development and keep refugees from returning to their homeland. As more than a million mines are still being laid each year, they will remain a growing threat to civilian populations for decades unless action is taken now.

The President today called for the eventual elimination of antipersonnel landmines. As a first step toward that ultimate goal, he proposed the negotiation of a multilateral landmine control regime. The regime's provisions are aimed at addressing in particular the problem caused by long-lived landmines -- those APLs that do not self-destruct and self-deactivate. Through a combination of export, production and stockpiling restrictions, the regime will:

• Reduce reliance on those types of anti-personnel landmines that cause the greatest danger to civilians. Most civilian casualties occur in post-combat situations and are attributable to those anti-personnel landmines with a long lifespan. Once such mines are deployed, they remain armed and lethal indefinitely. The U.S. proposal calls on countries to modify their stockpiles so that only a small percentage will consist of these long-lived mines. It also calls for a future conference to consider the feasibility of eliminating these types of mines entirely.
• Restrict the availability of anti-personnel landmines. The regime is designed to keep APLs out of the hands of irresponsible users. It would allow the export of APLs only to those countries which have ratified and adhere to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) governing landmine use. It would prohibit exports to any state whose actions have been condemned by the UN Security Council or any state found to have provided landmines to an ineligible recipient. It prohibits entirely the export of long-lived APLs.
• Reinforce the landmine use restrictions contained in the Convention on Conventional Weapons. The U.S. is participating in an international effort to strengthen the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its protocol on landmine use. We are pressing, for example, for a prohibition on the use of those mines which are not easily detectable in mine clearing operations. The proposed control regime would also prohibit the production, stockpiling, and export of any mine that is illegal to use under the terms of the CCW.

The United States is currently in the second year of a four-year moratorium on the export of all anti-personnel landmines. The United States will continue to urge other countries to join in imposing unilateral moratoria while the proposed control regime is being negotiated and put in place.

The U.S. and other countries can move most effectively toward the ultimate goal of the eventual elimination of APLs as viable and humane alternatives are developed. The United States will also continue its efforts to assist mine-plagued countries in clearing minefields after conflicts have ceased.