Bush landmines policy stays

The Obama administration said on Tuesday it would keep Bush-era policy on landmines, resisting pressure from campaigning groups to accede to a treaty to ban antipersonnel mines altogether.

Although many governments and activist groups say landmines should be scrapped, to avoid endangering innocent people and children, the Pentagon has long argued that such a policy would tie US hands.

The move is the latest sign that in certain areas of national security policy the Obama administration is providing much less of a break with the policies of George W. Bush than some of its supporters had hoped.

The accord, which bans the use, storage and production of antipersonnel mines, has been backed by more than 150 countries and was championed by Diana, Princess of Wales.

“This administration under­took a policy review and we decided that our landmine policy remains in effect,” a state department spokesman said. “We determined that we would not be able to meet our national defence needs, nor our security commitments to our friends and allies, if we signed this convention.”

The Obama administration has also announced that it is attending a review conference in Colombia, known as the Cartagena summit on a mine-free world, as an observer – the first time the US has taken part in such a gathering.

But the substance of US policy remains as under the Bush administration: a focus on developing self-deactivating landmines designed to avoid any threat after use in battle.

Military officials say the US needs to keep the option of deploying landmines, particularly to protect perimeters such as the boundary between North and South Korea.

But campaigners respond that no “self-deactivating” mine is 100 per cent reliable and that such munitions do not discriminate between children and combatants. By refusing to accede to the convention, they say, Washington is encouraging more than 30 other hold-outs to persist in their stance.