Mine ban policy overview

Policy

The United States of America (US) has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In June and September 2014, the US government announced new policy measures to ban production and acquisition of antipersonnel landmines and to halt use except on the Korean Peninsula. The new policy also commits the US to destroy its antipersonnel mine stockpiles “not required for the defense of the Republic of Korea” and also to “not assist, encourage, or induce anyone outside the Korean Peninsula to engage in activity prohibited” by the Mine Ban Treaty.

On 23 September 2014, the US announced the new policy committing to not use antipersonnel landmines outside of the Korean Peninsula and committing not to assist, encourage, or induce other nations to use, stockpile, produce, or transfer antipersonnel mines outside of Korea.[1] President Barack Obama commented, “We’re going to continue to work to find ways that would allow us to ultimately comply fully and accede to the Ottawa Convention.”[2] The White House press secretary said the new landmine policy “means…we were signaling our clear aspiration to eventually accede to the Ottawa Convention” describing the fact that “we are now articulating our desire to be able to accede” to the treaty as a “notable adjustment of U.S. policy.”[3]

On 27 June 2014, the US announced the policy foreswearing future production or acquisition of antipersonnel landmines and said the Defense Department will conduct a detailed study of alternatives to antipersonnel mines and the impact of making no further use of the weapon.[4]

The policy announcement follows years of efforts by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and NGOs organized under the US Campaign to Ban Landmines (USCBL). In a January 2014 letter to President Obama, the USCBL urged the President to conclude the landmine policy review—initiated in 2009—by the time of the Third Review Conference.[5] On 19 February 2014, the USCBL together with the Mine Ban Convention’s Implementation Support Unit hosted a symposium on the US and the Mine Ban Treaty in Washington, DC attended by representatives from more than 30 diplomatic missions.[6] On 12 September 2014, the USCBL sent another letter to President Obama urging him to take another step toward the Mine Ban Treaty by completing the policy review and pledge to not use antipersonnel mines.[7]

In commenting on the US commitment to no longer use antipersonnel mines outside of the Korean Peninsula, Senator Leahy said, “This is a crucial step that makes official what has been de facto U.S. practice.”[8] USCBL chair Human Rights Watch (HRW) welcomed the landmine policy measures as “an important acknowledgement that the Mine Ban Treaty provides the best framework for eradicating antipersonnel mines” but found “the US needs to get past the exception permitting landmine use on the Korean Peninsula and join the treaty.”[9] A New York Times editorial on the policy observed, “the Pentagon could easily draw up plans for South Korea that exclude American landmines.”[10]

The US was the first country to call for the “eventual elimination” of antipersonnel mines in September 1994 and it participated in the Ottawa Process that led to the creation of the treaty, but did not sign it in 1997. The Clinton administration set the goal of joining in 2006. However, in 2004 the Bush administration announced a new policy that rejected both the treaty and the goal of the US ever joining.[11] It is not yet known how the 2014 landmine policy announcements by the Obama administration will be codified, but previous landmine policies announced in 1996, 1998, and 2004 were all issued as presidential directives.

In making the 2014 announcement, President Obama credited the advocacy efforts of the ICBL and Jody Williams, who jointly received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for their role in bringing about the Mine Ban Treaty, stating: “This started in civil society. That’s what prompted action by President Clinton and by myself. And promoting civil society that can surface issues and push leadership is not just in keeping with our values, it’s not charity. It’s in our national interests.”[12]

Since the Mine Ban Treaty’s Second Review Conference in Cartagena in 2009, the US has attended every Meeting of States Parties as an observer, including the Thirteenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in December 2013 and intersessional meetings held in April 2014. The US attended the Third Review Conference of the Mine Ban Treaty in Maputo in June 2014, where it made the policy announcement on the final day during the high-level segment.

On 5 December 2013, the US abstained from voting on UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 68/30 calling for universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty, as it had in previous years. It was one of only 19 countries to abstain.

The US is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war. It submitted its annual national report for Amended Protocol II on 31 March 2014, as required under Article 13, and a national annual report for Protocol V on 31 March 2014, as required by Article 10.

Use

The Monitor has long reported that the last confirmed US use of antipersonnel mines was in 1991.[13] However, as part of the June 27 policy announcement, the US acknowledged using one antipersonnel mine in Afghanistan in 2002.[14] There were reports in 2009 and 2010 of US forces in Afghanistan using Claymore directional fragmentation mines.[15] However, these munitions are not prohibited under the Mine Ban Treaty if used in command-detonated mode.[16]

According to a September 23 White House fact sheet, “the unique circumstances on the Korean Peninsula and our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea preclude us from changing our anti-personnel landmine policy there at this time.”

Two concerns regarding Korea have emerged as sticking points during the US policy review. One relates to the arrangement for a joint combined command structure that would put a US general in charge of South Korean military forces in the event of active hostilities, and the potential problems that might cause if the US were party to the Mine Ban Treaty but South Korea were not. However, in October 2014, US and South Korean officials agreed to delay return of wartime control of South Korean forces to its government until those forces are better prepared to deter North Korea.[17] A second concern is the possible need for the US to use antipersonnel mines in the event of an invasion by North Korea.

The landmines already emplaced in and near the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea are the responsibility of South Korean forces and not the US.

Numerous retired military officers have questioned the utility of antipersonnel landmines in South Korea and elsewhere, citing the overwhelming technological superiority of other weapons in the US-South Korean arsenal in comparison with North Korea’s as sufficient to compensate for not using mines. In addition, a former commander of US forces in South Korea, the late Lt. Gen. James Hollingsworth, said in 1997 that antipersonnel landmines’ “minimal” utility to US forces is “offset by the difficulty…[they] pose to our brand of mobile warfare…Not only civilians, but US armed forces, will benefit from a ban on landmines. U.S. forces in Korea are no exception.”[18]

Under the new policy, the Defense Department has been tasked with conducting “a high fidelity modeling and simulation effort to ascertain how to mitigate the risks associated with the loss of anti-personnel landmines.” In a 27 June statement, the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that landmines remain “a valuable tool in the arsenal of the United States,” but expressed support for the new US policy, which it said “protects current capabilities while we work toward a reliable and effective substitute.”[19] Previously, according to budget documents released in February 2005, the Pentagon requested $688 million for research on and $1.08 billion for the production of new landmine systems between fiscal years 2006 and 2011.[20]

Until the 2014 policy banning any US antipersonnel mine use outside of Korea, the previous policy of President George W. Bush remained in effect, prohibiting from 2011 any US use of “dumb” or “persistent” antipersonnel landmines lacking a self-destruct and self-deactivate feature.[21]

The US is retaining a small quantity of “persistent mines” for demining and counter-mine testing and training.[22]

Transfer

US law has prohibited all antipersonnel mine exports since 23 October 1992, through a series of multi-year extensions of the moratorium.[23]

The US exported antipersonnel landmines in the past, including more than 5.6 million antipersonnel mines to 38 countries between 1969 and 1992. Deminers in at least 28 mine-affected countries have reported the presence of US-manufactured antipersonnel mines, including non-self-destructing and self-destructing/self-deactivating types.

Production

The last US antipersonnel mines were produced in 1997.[24] On 27 June 2014, the US announced the policy foreswearing future production or acquisition of antipersonnel landmines and said the Defense Department will conduct a detailed study of alternatives to antipersonnel mines and the impact of making no further use of the weapon.[25]

No victim-activated munitions are being funded in the procurement or the research and development budgets of the US Armed Services or Defense Department, but two related programs are being funded: the XM-7 Spider Networked Munition and the IMS Scorpion. These once had the potential for victim-activated features (thereby making them antipersonnel mines as defined by the Mine Ban Treaty), but are now both strictly “man-in-the-loop” or command-detonated and therefore permissible under the treaty.[26]

Stockpiling and destruction

As part of the 2014 policy announcements, the Department of Defense disclosed that the US has an “active stockpile of just more than 3 million anti-personnel mines in the inventory.”[27] This represents a significant reduction from the previous total reported in 2002 of approximately 10.4 million antipersonnel mines.[28]

The US stockpile consists mostly of remotely-delivered mines that are scattered over wide areas by aircraft, artillery, or rockets, and equipped with self-destruct features designed to blow the mine up after a pre-set period of time, as well as self-deactivating features. The active stockpile consists of the following types and quantities:

US stockpiles of antipersonnel mines in 2010[29]

Note: * The accounting for GATOR includes CBU-89 [22], CBU-104 [22], and CBU-78 [15] air-dropped bombs.

The shelf-life of existing antipersonnel mines stockpiled by the US decreases over time, including deterioration of batteries embedded inside mines as they age. The new policy precludes the US from extending or modifying the life of the batteries inside the existing stockpile.[30]

In response to a journalist’s question about the shelf-life of existing antipersonnel mines, the Defense Department spokesperson stated that, “We anticipate that they will start to decline in their ability to be used about -- starting in about 10 years. And in 10 years after that, they’ll be completely unusable.”[31] Previously, in 2010, the Department of Defense indicated that the batteries in self-destructing and self-deactivating mines have a shelf-life of 36 years and estimated that the shelf-life of batteries in the existing stockpile of antipersonnel mines would expire between 2014 and 2033.[32]

The 2014 policy commits the US to destroy its antipersonnel mine stockpiles “not required for the defense of the Republic of Korea.”

Under the new policy, all US stockpiles of weapons containing antipersonnel mines as well as munitions containing a mix of both antipersonnel and antivehicle mines that are not required for Korea will need be removed from stocks located in the US, on supply ships, and in storage facilities overseas, then transported to a destruction facility.

Human Rights Watch has noted that transparency is needed in carrying out the new landmine policy, including on the types and quantities of antipersonnel landmines to be removed from active inventory and destroyed, as well as on the stockpile destruction plan, with its timeline and cost.[33]