Letter to Pres. Bush regarding landmines

March 5, 2002 - also published in 3/13 Chapel Hill News

March 5, 2002
President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500
FAX: 202-456-2461

Dear Mr. President:

On behalf of the Committee for an Active Non-Violent Response to Terrorism I urge you to uphold the current goals of stated U.S. policy on anti-personnel landmines and join the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006.

There are an estimated 80 million landmines buried in over 80 countries. Antipersonnel landmines maim and kill upwards of 18,000 people each year, mostly children, farmers and other innocent civilians. In addition, these weapons render land useless for cultivation and thereby inhibit economic development in many struggling countries.

President Clinton had committed the U.S. to make every effort to join the Mine Ban Treaty by 2006. Most nations of the world, including almost all NATO members, have joined this treaty which entered into force as international law on March 1, 1999.

As of this date the U.S. has refused to sign the Mine Ban Treaty, and the Department of Defense has been conducting an official review of U.S. landmine policy that will reportedly advise you as President to abandon all efforts to join with this treaty that is so vital to the protection of innocent lives.

March 1-8, 2002 is Ban Landmines Week and marks the 3rd anniversary of the Mine Ban Treaty?s entry into force as international law. We ask that you give careful consideration to the Mine Ban Treaty and the positive effect that keeping the U.S. commitment to join this treaty could have on so many lives. We ask that you as civilian commander-in chief exercise appropriate civilian control over the military by informing them that U.S. policy is and will be to not use these indiscriminate weapons.

Please Mr. President, do not go backward on U.S. landmine policy, but instead lead the way forward to full U.S. compliance with the Mine Ban Treaty.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this matter so important to so many lives.

Sincerely,

Cherie Scheer for the Committee for an Active Non-Violent Response to Terrorism of the Religious Society of Friends (Quaker), Chapel Hill, NC 27514