TEXT: Address at the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Conference

An Overview of the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program

Distinguished guests, representatives of the Asia-Pacific region. On behalf of my government, I wish to thank you for the opportunity to address this conference on the United States Humanitarian Demining Program. I also wish to express my thanks to the Government of Thailand for its wisdom in placing the issue of landmines on the agenda of an arms control and nonproliferation conference.

Even more, as General Vasu has announced, I am very pleased to hear of the establishment of the Thailand Mine Action Center.

Overview

Each year, landmines kill and maim more than 25,000 people around the world, the vast majority of whom are civilians. Today, there are between 60-70 million landmines buried in the soil of more than 60 countries on five continents.

These mines not only kill and maim, they also wither the hopes and dreams of landmine victims and their families, hinder the political growth of societies, and retard economic recovery.

The United States Humanitarian Demining Program is trying to erase this blight on humanity, and to make the earth mine-safe for civilians by the end of the next decade, which is the goal of President Clinton's Demining 2010 Initiative.

THE U.S. HUMANITARIAN DEMINING PROGRAM

Background

This program began in 1993 with eight countries; today the United States is providing demining assistance to 24 countries, including many of the most mine-affected ones. We will add more countries this year and in fiscal year 2000.

The program receives strong Congressional support; the U.S. Congress has authorized over $100 million dollars this year for all facets of the program, from research and development through mine training, awareness and clearance, to victim assistance.

The U.S. Government's Interagency Working Group on Humanitarian Demining, referred to as the IWG, decides which countries will receive U.S. assistance. The U.S. State Department chairs the IWG; the U.S. Department of Defense provides the vice-chair.

The Selection Process

Let me explain now how a country becomes a participant in our program. Generally, the selection process begins when a mine-affected country sends a request for U.S. demining assistance to the U.S. embassy for endorsement. These requests are forwarded to the IWG.

However, if armed conflict is going on in the country, we will hold in abeyance the request until hostilities cease.

Given no fighting in the country, the IWG then sends a Policy Assessment Team to the requesting country to ascertain the nature and scope of the landmine problem and the ability of the country to develop and sustain an indigenous demining capability. Following its visit, the Policy Assessment Team will make recommendations to the IWG.

Once the IWG accepts a country's request for demining assistance, the IWG sends a Requirements Determination Site Survey Team to the country. The team identifies the nature and amount of training and equipment the country will need to implement a humanitarian demining program. The team also assesses the possible role of private contractors and nongovernmental organizations.

The ultimate goal of the United States is to have the host nation establish an indigenous demining capability, which will enable it to become mine-safe. Indeed, the country's establishment of an indigenous demining capability is the measure of success for the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program.

Implementing the Program

Turning now to the implementation of a humanitarian demining program, depending upon the needs of the country, the United States will assist the country in developing its capability in one, or some, or all of the four general demining activities, which fall under the rubric of "mine action." These are mine awareness, mine detection, mine clearance, and victim assistance.

Mine awareness uses a variety of materials and media to teach people how to recognize, avoid, and inform appropriate authorities of the presence of landmines.

Within the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense's Special Operations Forces are the primary providers of mine awareness training. U.S. Army Civil Affairs personnel also assist the host nation in training management and staff personnel and equipping the national demining office.

Mine detection is extremely difficult. The locations of the majority of the mines in the ground today are unknown because those who emplaced them, whether combatants in a war between nation-states or factions in a civil war, often did so indiscriminately, at random, and did not keep records.

However, satellite photography, reports of mine incidents from indigenous citizens and representatives of nongovernmental organizations in the country, testimony of those who laid the mines, and mine-sniffing dogs all give us clues as to the mines' locations

To verify the information, we support several types of surveys of suspected landmine-affected sites, beginning with an area, or Level I survey, and moving through ever more refined surveys, which enable demarcation of the boundaries of minefields to include determination of types of mines.

Mine clearance is a host nation's responsibility. U.S. law prohibits American military personnel from entering a live minefield or from clearing mines wherever they are located. The host nation, therefore, provides the personnel, who will be trained to remove the mines.

U.S. Special Operations Forces, using the "Train the Trainer" method, instruct an initial cadre of the host nation's citizens in mine clearance techniques. This cadre, in turn, trains another group and so on until a sufficient number of the country's citizens are competent to clear mines themselves.

Once a mine is found, it usually is not removed. Instead, it is marked and usually detonated in place.

Victims assistance is the final aspect of mine action. The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, or PRM, also contribute funds to the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program to alleviate the suffering of mine victims and their families.

USAID uses the money, which the Senator Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Assistance Fund makes available, to provide medical care, prosthetics, and recovery assistance to land mine casualties.

PRM assists the resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons, many of whom became landmine victims as they fled from strife in their counties.

Funding the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program

Mine Action activities are expensive. Since 1993, the United States alone has provided over a quarter of a billion dollars in demining assistance.

We provide the assistance either through bilateral programs or, if the political relationship between the United States and the mine-affected country prevents this, through third parties, such as the UN or other international and nongovernmental organizations -- for example, in Afghanistan and Angola.

The United States Congress provides funds for the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program to the Departments of State and Defense and USAID.

The bulk of DoD's demining funds is in an account known as Overseas Humanitarian Disaster and Civic Assistance (OHDACA). Additional DoD funds are in its Humanitarian Demining Research and Development Program, which evaluates new and promising demining technologies.

State Department funding for humanitarian demining is contained in the account known as Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining, and Related activities, or NADR.

NADR funds can be used in a variety of ways. They can be used to support the programs of international organizations such as the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance in Afghanistan. They can also be used to support the operations of NGOs. Finally, through NADR funds, the Department of State is able to transfer money to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency directly to a U.S. embassy or to some operational element of the Department of defense.

As I mentioned previously, the goal of this program is to have the host nation establish its own indigenous demining capability. U.S. funds are provided to support the start-up phase of a nation's demining program. Although modest funding can be provided in follow-on years, the host nation is encouraged to develop other sources of funding, to include public and private donations as well as assistance from the United Nations.

Conclusion

The most recent edition of "Hidden Killers," the State Department's reference publication on the world's landmine crisis, portrays the challenge we face as daunting, but not insurmountable.

The success of the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program is one of the main reasons for our hope. We are destroying mines, reducing casualties, and restoring land to productive use.

By next year, we expect more than half of the mine-afflicted countries in the world, including those most heavily mined, will be included in the U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program.

I will close now with an important insight our Program has taught us. While eliminating landmines -- these "hidden killers" -- is important, what is more meaningful is that we are enabling the people of mine afflicted countries to resume a normal way of life.

We want, and we believe we will have, mine-safe countries where people may once more, in the words of our President, "walk the earth in safety."

Thank you, thank you very much.

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