14 March 2002

Milestones in Humanitarian Demining

(The following fact sheet on "Milestones in Humanitarian Demining" was issued by the State Department on February 22.)

FACT SHEET
Department of State
Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Washington, DC, February 22, 2002

Milestones in Humanitarian Demining: Development of the Landmine Threat and the Discipline of Humanitarian Demining

These milestones were compiled with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Defense and the Mine Action Information Center at James Madison University.

1862 -- One of the earliest known casualties of a landmine as defined today -- a victim-activated device filled with explosive -- is a Union soldier killed by a Confederate landmine during the U.S. Civil War. Five lethal Confederate landmines were discovered near Mobile, Alabama, in the 1960s still lying in wait.

1914-1918 -- Anti-personnel landmines are employed on a relatively small scale in some 19th century colonial campaigns and during the Russo-Japanese War (1902-1906) but do not become a major weapon of war until about 1918, late in the First World War.

1939-1945 -- During the Second World War, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines are employed in large quantities in all of that war's theaters. Some remain a menace to this day.

1945 -- The French, employing 49,000 German POWs as well as French civilians and military personnel, begin one of the earliest post-war efforts to methodically and comprehensively clear landmines and unexploded ordnance.

1970s -- The U.S. Department of Defense begins replacing persistent ("dumb") anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines in its stockpiles with self-destructing and self-deactivating ("smart") landmines to prevent enemy use of U.S. landmines against U.S. forces and minimize the threat to non-combatants.

1980 -- The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons is created to regulate the use of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines. The United States takes the lead in drafting Protocol II, known as the Amended Mines Protocol, specifically to address landmines, booby traps, and other delayed-action devices.

October 1988 -- Following careful analysis of the extraordinary landmine threat in Afghanistan, the United States helps establish a comprehensive program to clear landmines. Today, this program, the Mine Action Program for Afghanistan, is the world's largest and most productive demining effort. The founders of the Halo Trust, a private demining organization engaged in the earliest mine clearance programs in Afghanistan, are credited with coining the term "humanitarian demining" to differentiate the activities in Afghanistan from traditional military mine clearance and to reflect the scope of the landmine threat to civilians, their land and infrastructure.

October 1992 -- The United States unilaterally bans the export of its anti-personnel landmines. Congress later formalizes this ban, per Public Law 102-484, Section 1365; 22 United States Code, 2778 note. That law expires in 2003.

October 1993 -- The United States formally establishes the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program, an inter-agency (Department of State, Agency for International Development, Department of Defense) effort to provide a full range of assistance to mine-affected countries that seek U.S. help. Previously established U.S. humanitarian demining programs (Afghanistan 1988, Cambodia 1991, Kuwait 1991, Northern Iraq 1992, Somalia 1991, El Salvador 1993, and Mozambique 1993) are brought into the Program. It is difficult to quantify U.S. humanitarian demining funding outlays prior to October 1993, but since then the United States has spent over $500 million dollars.

September 1994 -- In an address to the UN General Assembly, President Bill Clinton becomes the first world leader to call for the eventual elimination of anti-personnel landmines.

December 1994 -- The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs releases "HIDDEN KILLERS: The Global Landmine Crisis," the first report to estimate the magnitude of the landmine threat in terms of numbers of mines laid and numbers of mine-related deaths and injuries. The newest edition of "HIDDEN KILLERS," released Fall 2001, with current statistics on the generally reduced numbers of extant landmines and landmine casualties is appended to "To Walk the Earth in Safety," the annual report of the Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs. The fourth edition of "HIDDEN KILLERS," is available on line at http://www.state.gov/t/pm/rls/rpt/hk/2001/6961.htm.

May 1996 -- The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Review Conference adopts the Amended Mines Protocol (AMP), which significantly improves the original 1980 Protocol. The AMP is made applicable to internal armed conflicts as well as international armed conflicts.

June 1996 -- The U.S. Secretary of Defense directs implementation of the President's new policy on anti-personnel landmines (APL). Key elements of the policy include: research and procurement of alternatives to APLs, development of operational doctrine tactics and plans to reduce or eliminate the reliance on APLs, removal of non self-destructing landmines from basic ammunition loads (South Korea excepted), expansion of humanitarian demining research and development, and expansion of humanitarian demining efforts.

September 1996 -- The United States unilaterally begins removing its anti-personnel and anti-tank mines from the perimeter of the U.S. Naval Base, Guantanamo, Cuba. Clearance is completed in 1999. Quality assurance/verification is completed in May 2000.

October 1997 -- The United States designates a Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Global Humanitarian Demining and establishes a supporting office, now called the Office of Mine Action Initiatives and Partnerships in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, at the U.S. Department of State. The mission is to increase international cooperation and coordination for humanitarian demining, raise U.S. public awareness of and support for humanitarian demining via public-private partnerships, and coordinate research and development in humanitarian demining.

December 1997 -- The 1997 Convention on the Prohibition and the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, commonly referred to as the Mine Ban Treaty or Ottawa Convention, is opened for signature in Ottawa, Canada. The United States participates in the Convention but ultimately declines to sign it due to unmet concerns relating to the protection of its forces and allies and the lack of exemptions for mixed munitions.

December 1997 -- The first edition of ORDATA, "The International Deminers Guide to Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Identification, Recovery and Disposal" is released to the public in CD-ROM format by the U.S. Department of Defense. It achieves immediate success in providing the international demining community with a free, first-of-its-kind unclassified reference tool for identifying, recovering and disposing of unexploded ordnance and landmines. ORDATA has since been followed by ORDATA II and KORDATA, and is expected to go on-line in May 2002. To date, over 18,000 copies of the ORDATA series database have been distributed free of charge to the international demining community, as well as U.S. and foreign military and civilian bomb disposal technicians.

June 1998 -- The United States completes destruction of over 3.3 million of its non-self-destructing landmines, retaining only those necessary for training, research, and the defense of South Korea.

June 1998 -- The United States establishes the Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. This office is the lead U.S. government entity for managing humanitarian mine action assistance in 36 countries (as of February 2002) as well as in Kosovo and Northwest Somalia.

December 1998 -- The U.S.-drafted Amended Mines Protocol to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons enters into force.

May 1999 -- The United States ratifies the Amended Mines Protocol of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

February 2000 -- The Deminer Injury Study, conceived, initiated and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, is released to the international demining community. Initially intended to help the U.S. government design personal protective equipment, it breaks new ground and provides a baseline for future collection of deminer injury data. The study has since been undertaken as a long-term project by the Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining.

July 2000 -- The United States, European Commission, Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden sign the International Test and Evaluation Program (ITEP) for Humanitarian Demining Equipment, Processes and Methods.

August 2000 -- The U.S. Department of Defense releases the final report of its Lower Extremity Assessment program which utilized full-body human cadavers to fully evaluate the mechanism of injury and determine current levels of protection provided by commercially produced landmine protective footwear. The research breaks new ground in the use of test instrumentation, in particular high-speed radiographic imaging (cineradiography).

June 2001 -- The United States proposes a Protocol to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to deal with mines other than anti-personnel landmines, in particular anti-vehicle mines.

June 2001 -- "Broken Earth," a documentary produced by the U.S. Department of State on the global landmine problem, which includes vignettes on three mine-affected countries, is released. "Broken Earth" is broadcast by the PBS television network in approximately 70 U.S. markets and overseas in 26 countries.

July 2001 -- The results of the International Pilot Project for Technology Cooperation are published. The U.S. Department of Defense conceived this milestone report, also known as the metal detector "consumer report," the first-ever attempt to conduct a multinational test and evaluation venture. Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the European Commission's Joint Research Center eventually joined the United States in evaluating 25 different detector models from 13 manufacturers. The project determined the best detector(s) for a given set of operational parameters and served as a pilot project for the International Test and Evaluation Program.

November 2001 -- "Landmines: Clearing the Way," a comprehensive resource of information and field experience on the global landmine issue in CD-ROM format, is released by the U.S. Department of State. The CD-ROM is a cooperative effort by the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and the Rockefeller Foundation, produced by Huntington Associates.

December 2001 -- At the Second Review Conference pertaining to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, 11 countries co-sponsor the U.S.-proposed protocol on anti-vehicle mines. The Conference decides to continue work on the proposed protocol in 2002.