Clinton Stops Short of Banning Land Mines

WASHINGTON — President Clinton ordered immediate limits Thursday on the military use of land mines but disappointed some policy activists by refusing to ban them altogether.

The White House action was derided by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Human Rights Watch officials, who have led a worldwide campaign for the elimination of mines, which kill or maim 25,000 people every year.

“President Clinton has missed a golden opportunity to assert leadership on what his administration has acknowledged as one of the most important international humanitarian issues,” said Stephen Goose of the New York-based human rights organization.

The president ordered U.S. armed forces to destroy 4 million “dumb” land mines by 1999. But such mines, which do not self-destruct, will still be used for training and to defend American and South Korean troops along the demilitarized zone in Korea.

Clinton took no action against “smart” land mines, which self-destruct after a certain amount of time. But he pledged to work for an international agreement to ban “these terrible weapons” in the future. “We must act so that the children of the world can walk without fear on the earth beneath them,” Clinton said.

At a recent international disarmament conference in Geneva, the United States opposed an all-out ban on mines, pushing instead for an agreement that calls on armies to destroy all “dumb” land mines within nine years. Leahy denounced the agreement as “a deplorable failure.”