[ad_1]
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration introduced Tuesday that it could prohibit the usage of anti-personnel land mines by the U.S. army, aligning the nation’s coverage extra carefully with a world treaty banning the lethal explosives.
“The president believes strongly that we have to curtail their use worldwide,” John Kirby, a nationwide safety spokesman, stated at a White Home briefing.
The US has not extensively deployed the mines for the reason that Gulf Warfare in 1991. However the announcement represents a shift from a extra permissive stance below then-President Donald Trump, and it concludes a evaluation that has lasted for greater than a yr.
Bonnie Jenkins, the State Division’s undersecretary for arms management and worldwide safety, stated the brand new coverage fulfills “a dedication that President Biden made as a candidate,” when he described Trump’s determination as “reckless.”
Anti-personnel land mines are buried underground or scattered on the floor, they usually can pose a deadly menace to civilians lengthy after fight has ended.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., described the White Home announcement as a “lengthy overdue recognition that the grave humanitarian and political prices of utilizing these weapons far exceed their restricted army utility.”
“As welcome as this step is, the White Home must put the U.S. on a definitive path to affix the treaties banning anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions,” he stated in a press release. “Neither of those indiscriminate weapons, the horrific penalties of which we’re seeing in Ukraine right this moment, belong within the arsenals of civilized nations.”
Beneath the brand new coverage, the U.S. will prohibit the usage of these explosives exterior of its efforts to assist defend South Korea from a possible North Korean invasion. Though the U.S. doesn’t at present have any minefields deployed there, Washington has pledged assist for Seoul’s protection, which incorporates anti-personnel mines.
The U.S. has a stockpile of three million anti-personnel land mines. Beneath the brand new coverage, any that are not wanted to guard South Korea can be destroyed. The Pentagon didn’t instantly reply to a query about whether or not any can be discarded.
FILE – On this Aug. 1, 2010 file photograph, South Korean Military troopers seek for landmines close to the demilitarized zone that separates the 2 Koreas in Yeoncheon, north of Seoul, South Korea. The White Home introduced Tuesday a brand new coverage curbing the usage of anti-personnel land mines by the U.S. army, reversing a extra permissive stance that was enacted by former President Donald Trump. Beneath the coverage, such explosives will nonetheless be allowed to defend South Korea in opposition to a possible assault by North Korea, however in any other case they are going to be banned. (Lim Byung-shick/Yonhap by way of AP, File)[ad_2]
Source link
