Trump to reportedly allow use of landmines, reversing Obama-era policy

The US will end its moratorium on the production and deployment of landmines, in another reversal of Obama-era policies and a further breach with western allies, it has been reported.

The defence secretary, Mark Esper, confirmed that a policy change was imminent but refused to describe it. Vox published a leaked state department cable rescinding Barack Obama’s 2014 ban on production or acquisition of anti-personnel landmines (APLs).

The 2014 directive brought US policy more in line with the 1997 mine ban treaty outlawing the weapons because of their disproportionate harm to civilians.

“Mr Trump’s policy rollback is a step toward the past, like many of his other decisions, and sends exactly the wrong message to those working to rid the world of the scourge of landmines,” said Jody Williams, who won the 1997 Nobel peace prize for her work campaigning against the weapons.

“Mr Trump’s landmine move would be in line with all of his other moves to undercut arms control and disarmament in a world much in need of them.”

Rob Berschinski, who was in charge of US landmine policy in the Obama White House said that the weapons were not only a humanitarian threat but also militarily obsolete.

“The main point is that they’re not only massively harmful to civilians after war’s end, but they’re also of very negligible military utility,” Berschinski, now at Human Rights First, said on Twitter. “In fact, [defence department]-commissioned studies have shown that during the Gulf war they mainly served to limit US ground forces’ maneuver capability.”

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Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/30/trump-policy-change-landmines-obama