Obama to halt production of land mines, move to end use by US
The policy moves the US closer to joining the international treaty, which was originally drafted and signed in 1997
Washington: The US will halt the production of anti-personnel land mines and move toward doing away with their use, the Obama administration said on Friday.
“The US is also diligently pursuing solutions that would allow it comply with the Ottawa Convention, a treaty that banned the use, stockpiling and production of the mines," Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
The US delegation attending a review conference of the treaty in Maputo, Mozambique delivered the US policy change, which includes the decision to no longer acquire the land mines, according to the White House. Shifts on other aspects of the US land mine policy remain under review.
The policy moves the US closer to joining the international treaty, which was originally drafted and signed in 1997. Activists have long pressured the administration to take the step, forcing US officials to balance the use of the weapons with their own overseas efforts to remove and destroy land mines.
Underscoring the Obama administration’s balancing effort, the delegation said the US is conducting “a high fidelity modeling and simulation effort" to gauge “the risks associated" with a decision to stop using the land mines, Hayden said.
Republican Pushback
Still, with the US military saying that mines still are needed in warfare, pushback came quickly from House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon.
McKeon, a California Republican, said the decision demonstrates Obama’s “willingness to place politics above the advice of our military leaders."
Advocates pressing the US to sign the treaty called the US announcement an important first step, even as they warned that ambiguity in its time line and the size of the US stockpile raised concerns.
“By not setting a timeline to complete this task, the US runs the risk of allowing its land mine policy review to drift beyond President Obama’s term in office," Elizabeth MacNairn, executive director of Handicap International US, said in a statement. Bloomberg
Roxana Tiron in Washington also contributed to this story.
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