U.S. Demands Land Mines/Korea Targeted id IAA09283; Sat, 27 Sep 1997 08:33:24 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 2, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- KOREA TARGETED: U.S BRASS DEMAND LAND MINES--CLINTON COMPLIES By John Catalinotto In 1994 President Bill Clinton proposed a treaty banning land mines to the United Nations. This Sept. 17, as 100 countries accepted an anti-land-mine treaty in Oslo, Norway, the U.S. was its most active enemy. Clinton got caught in the usual contradiction. He poses as leader of a democratic, humanitarian world power. In reality, he heads a far-flung empire that uses the Pentagon for its domination. Land mines currently kill or maim 25,000 people yearly, mostly in Angola, Mozambique, Cambodia, Afghanistan. Farmers and their children, the mines' main victims, still get blown up in Vietnam today. But the Pentagon brass still want to use anti-personnel mines, especially in Korea. The administration itself appeared divided on this question. Former Press Secre tary George Stephanopoulos wrote in Newsweek asking that Clinton back the treaty. Vermont's Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy regretted Clinton's refusal. But 10 retired four-star generals, including former Secretary of State Al "I'm in charge" Haig, wrote an open letter demanding the U.S. oppose the treaty. When the generals demand, Clinton complies. That's been his record since he caved in on his 1993 proposal for gay rights in the military. Treaty signers agree never to use, develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer anti-personnel land mines. They agree to destroy their current stocks of land mines and remove all mines they have put in place. Participants have the right to withdraw from the agreement with six months' warning, unless they are engaged in a war when the six-month period expires. They agree to provide assistance for the care and rehabilitation of land-mine victims. The treaty is to be signed in Ottawa in December, and to take effect six months after the 40th country ratifies it. According to the New York Times, the main focus of Pentagon opposition to the treaty has been the land mines used in Korea against the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea. ATTEMPT TO THREATEN PEOPLE'S KOREA U.S. delegates in Oslo proposed what they called a "compromise" treaty, one that would allow the U.S. specifically to keep land mines in Korea an additional nine years. This specific U.S. threat against north Korea is consistent with Washington's openly aggressive statements. The attempts to intimidate Pyongyang have stepped up since alternating years of flood and drought have brought food shortages to that country. These force Pyongyang to keep its military on alert. Last spring U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen went to the demilitarized zone in Korea and announced that the 37,000 U.S. troops would remain in Korea indefinitely. Then in the summer, the Pentagon said it would move its depleted-uranium weapons from Okinawa to Korea, "where they would be closer to the battle lines." PROTECTING THE EMPIRE The generals' hostility to this treaty also fits the overall Pentagon strategy to keep the United States the only world superpower, a strategy it outlined in a position paper leaked and published in the March 8, 1992 New York Times. That so many U.S. allies opposed Washington in Oslo shows how unpopular this strategy is abroad. As of last spring, the U.S. Army had units in 100 countries worldwide carrying out this policy. The mostly working-class U.S. troops, including many people of color, are put at risk to protect big-business interests abroad. While there is widespread sympathy for these troops inside the U.S., people in the countries they're deploy ed in correctly see them as occupiers. Playing on the domestic sympathy, Clinton tried to justify his refusal to back the treaty Sept. 16 by claim ing it would endanger these U.S. troops. Clinton's ploy flew in the face of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foun da tion's strong support for the treaty. The VVAF pointed out that many GIs were killed in Vietnam by U.S. Claymore mines captured by the Vietnamese guerrillas. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytas-09.27.97-08:33:46-30435