The Department of Defense today released its Status Report
on DoD's Implementation of the U.S. Anti-Personnel Landmine (APL)
Policy. This report, prepared for the Secretary of Defense,
discusses DoD's accomplishments thus far in response to the
Secretary's direction to implement the APL policy announced by
President Clinton on May 16, 1996.
The comprehensive APL policy directs that the United States
seek an international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling,
production, and transfer of APL. The policy also directs the
elimination of three million non-self-destructing APL from the
U.S. inventory; prohibits the use of non-self-destructing APL;
and directs fundamental changes in war plans, doctrine, and
tactics of the U.S. military with the goal of eliminating,
reliance on APL. In addition, the President directed a
significant expansion of the DoD role in humanitarian demining
and necessary research and development to support humanitarian
demining.
DoD's implementation of the U.S. APL policy is on schedule,
and significant progress has been made. In a memorandum
forwarding a copy of the status report to the National Security
Council, Secretary Cohen stated, This subject has generated much
interest and concern nationally, as well as internationally. My
staff intends to report to me on the status of APL policy
implementation every six months.
In the one year since the U.S. APL policy announcement, DoD
has made significant head-way in several major areas:
Reach an APL Ban: The Department of Defense is working
closely with other government agencies and the international
community to pursue a global APL ban through the Conference on
Disarmament. One of the top U.S. priorities in the 1997
Conference on Disarmament session is to establish an ad hoc
committee with a negotiating mandate to ban APL. To give further
impetus to this effort, on January 17, the President decided to
take two additional unilateral steps: a permanent ban on APL
export and transfer, and a stockpile cap at current inventory
levels.
Begin Research and Procurement of Alternatives: The
Department has
begun an aggressive research and development program to provide
effective APL alternatives which will ultimately permit the
United States to end its reliance on APLs.
Revise Doctrine. Revision and modification of doctrine by
the Services
and the review of war and contingency plans to reflect the
changes necessitated by the U.S. APL policy are on schedule.
Demilitarize Non-Self-Destructing APL. Except for the
purposes
of training and defense of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, non-
self-destructing APLs are being removed from actual stocks; this
effort is approximately 80 percent complete at this time. To
date, approximately 888,000 non-self-destructing APLs have been
destroyed.
Expand Humanitarian Demining Research and Development.
APL
detection and removal have been accelerated by providing
meaningful, short-term improvements to current equipment to meet
the program users' needs. Several prototypes already have been
fielded in Bosnia, Cambodia, Laos, and Rwanda, with additional
projects to be fielded within the next two years.
Expand Humanitarian Demining Operations. The number of
countries
eligible to establish their own Humanitarian Demining Programs
has increased from 12 in FY 1996 to 14 in FY 1997, with 10
additional countries being considered. During the same period,
the number of DoD personnel deployed for humanitarian demining
operations has increased by 77 percent; the number of indigenous
forces trained has increased by 133 percent; and the dollar value
of equipment transferred has increased by 32 percent.
The Status Report on DoD's Implementation of the U.S. Anti-
Personnel Landmine (APL) Policy will be accessible via the
internet on DefenseLINK under "publications" at: http://www
.dtic.mil/pubs/landmines/
