February 06, 2020

Trump lifts ban on landmines usage

topic:	Human Rights
located:	USA
editor:	Yair Oded

Last month, the Trump administration reversed an Obama-era policy banning the usage and production of antipersonnel landmines, effectively giving the U.S. military free rein to use landmines in their operations across the world. 

For years, U.S. administrations dragged its feet on joining the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. The treaty, which went into effect in March 1999, is signed by 164 countries and aims at eliminating all antipersonnel landmines across the world. 

The Clinton administration had set a goal of joining the treaty by 2006, but this aspiration had been thwarted by the subsequent Bush administration.

Finally, President Obama instituted a policy in 2014 which banned the usage of landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula, outlawed the production and acquisition of landmines, committed to study alternatives, and set the U.S. on a path toward accession to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. 

Now, the government’s decision to repeal the ban gives the military a green light to produce, purchase and use antipersonnel landmines as well as encourage their proliferation by other nations.

While the administration stated that landmines are critical to guarantee U.S. military power, the fact is that landmines had not been used by the U.S. armed forces since 1991 and had not been purchased since 1997. 

According to data by the United Nations, 78 countries are presently contaminated with landmines, and between 15,000 and 20,000 people are killed and many more maimed each year as a result. It is further estimated that 80 per cent of the victims are civilians, and that children are the most affected group. 

Some of the most notorious instances of civilians paying the price for the usage of landmines took place in post-war Vietnam, where an estimated 40,000 people died as a result of landmines left in the wake of the conflict.

Alas, Vietnam is merely one of many countries and territories laced with antipersonnel landmines, which, for decades, continue to threaten the safety and claim the lives and limbs of innocent people. 

“Most of the world’s countries have embraced the ban on antipersonnel landmines for more than two decades, while the Trump administration has done a complete about-face in deciding to cling to these weapons in perpetuity… Using landmines, which have claimed so many lives and limbs, is not justified by any country or group under any circumstances,” stated Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch. 

It can be surmised that the lifting of the ban serves the financial interests of many in the arms manufacturing industry. It also, undoubtedly, portrays Trump as a fierce military leader in the eyes of those who view the infliction of unbridled violence as an indication of strength.

Americans must be aware of the catastrophic consequences their leader’s decision to repeal the 2014 ban will have on fellow humans around the world. 

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