President Joe Biden announced on November 20 that the United States plans to transfer indiscriminate antipersonnel landmines to Ukraine. These weapons threaten civilians, particularly children – in 2023, civilians made up 84% of all recorded casualties from antipersonnel landmines (APLs). Of civilians hurt, over a third of them were children.
FCNL joined the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmines, and civil society more broadly, in condemning the White House’s decision. This move goes against current U.S. policy set by President Biden, which says that the United States would not support any country to violate the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty – which this decision does!
This move goes against current U.S. policy set by President Biden.
The use of these internationally banned weapons by Russian forces in Ukraine led to Ukraine having the second highest number of casualties globally from antipersonnel landmines in 2022, a 10-fold increase in the number of civilian casualties from 2021. This transfer will only add to that toll.
What’s more, the APLs President Biden plans to ship to Ukraine are falsely advertised as “non-persistent.” Such “non-persistent” APLs have self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms, but these have failed to function as advertised when actually deployed, with a failure rate 150x higher than the Pentagon reported. Additionally, while these mechanisms may shorten the lifespan of the trigger, the explosive materials remain, lying in wait for a farmer’s plow, a builder’s excavator, or other civilian work to set it off years after the war ends.
If U.S. military commanders don’t trust the “non-persistent” claims, how can the U.S. ask Ukrainian civilians to?
APLs are widely considered to be militarily ineffective, with US commanders in the Gulf War expressing reluctance to use them due to a range of serious safety concerns. If U.S. military commanders don’t trust the “non-persistent” claims, how can the U.S. ask Ukrainian civilians to?
There is a global consensus against the use of landmines. The 164 countries that are party to the Mine Ban Treaty represent over 80% of the world’s states. The U.S. is an outlier.
As has been the case with U.S. transfers of cluster munitions, we are gravely concerned that this decision will result in an erosion of global norms. With Lithuania leaving the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions following over a half dozen transfers of cluster munitions to Ukraine, we risk similar backsliding in important progress to prevent the use of antipersonnel landmines globally.
The U.S. should be a leader in the global movement to ban these devastating, indiscriminate weapons - not a contributor to their use. We implore President Biden to immediately reverse this decision and urge all members of Congress to strongly speak out against it. Thank you to Representatives Jim McGovern (MA-2), Sara Jacobs (CA-51) and Jason Crow (CO-6) who have spoken out about this deadly decision.
Antipersonnel landmines kill kids. They don’t serve a military purpose. They poison the landscape for generations to come. The United States needs to join the consensus of the international community and end the use of these indiscriminate weapons.
