New U.S. Land Mines to Pose Less Long-Term Danger

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

NEW YORK TIMES
New U.S. Land Mines to Pose Less Long-Term Danger
By Steven R. Weisman
Published: February 27, 2004

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 -- The Bush administration announced today that in a
step to lessen the dangers of land mines, it would end the use of
long-lasting mines in warfare and instead concentrate on mines that go
inert within hours or days.

The State Department said the policy would be coupled with a doubling in
American assistance to other countries to remove mines remaining from
past conflicts. The increase will bring such aid to $70 million a year,
the department said.

"The new policy demonstrates that our humanitarian and military goals
are fully compatible," an assistant secretary of state for
political-military affairs, Lincoln Bloomfield, said. "One does not have
to be achieved only at the expense of the other. We can and will prevent
unnecessary harm to innocent civilians and at the same time protect the
lives of American servicemen and women."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/27/politics/27CND-MINE.html

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