U.S. says will abide by Mine Ban Treaty except on Korean Peninsula
By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States edged closer on Tuesday to compliance with the international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines, saying it would abide by key requirements of the 1999 accord everywhere except on the Korean Peninsula. Advocates of the landmine ban welcomed the administration's efforts to adhere to provisions of the treaty, but said there was no justification for its continued insistence on the right to use them on the Korean Peninsula. "It's good that the Obama administration continues to inch toward joining the Mine Ban Treaty. But it cannot make the case that it is OK to use anti personnel mines in Korea but nowhere else on earth because of the long-term danger to civilians," said Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch. A 2008 United Nations report said landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people every year. The announcement by the White House came nearly three months after the United States pledged for the first time it would no longer make or buy anti-personnel landmines and would strive to eventually join the global treaty, which has been accepted by more than 160 countries. The National Security Council said in a statement the decision on Tuesday meant the United States would no longer use anti-personnel landmines outside the Korean Peninsula or encourage any country outside the peninsula to engage in activity prohibited by the mine ban. It also said the administration would undertake to destroy any anti-personnel landmines not needed for the defense of the Korean Peninsula. The United States has a stockpile of some three million mines. "Defense Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel fully supports the changes to U.S. anti-personnel landmine policy announced by the president today," Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement. The 1999 Ottawa Convention prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel landmines. While it has been endorsed by most countries, several key countries have not agreed to its provisions, including Russia, China, India and the United States. The United States stopped using long-life anti-personnel mines in 2011 and agreed to destroy its stockpile of 1.3 million of them. It maintains a supply of so-called smart landmines that can deactivate or self-destruct. The United States has not produced landmines since the late 1990s, but until June had reserved the right to resume production. Since the 1991 Gulf War, U.S. forces are known to have used anti-personnel mines only once, a single mine in Afghanistan in 2002, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. While the United States has just over 3 million anti-personnel landmines, all are in inventory and none are deployed. The United States has some 29,000 troops based in South Korea, which has remained technically at war with communist North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended in stalemate. (Reporting by David Alexander, editing by G Crosse)
