US Bans Non-Detectable Landmines

United States Bans Non-Detectable Landmines

The United States has become the first major military power to terminate its use of any landmines that cannot be located with the standard metal detectors used by military and humanitarian deminers around the world.

“The U.S. landmine policy recognizes that non-detectable landmines pose a particularly insidious threat to humanitarian deminers as well as innocent civilians in a post-conflict environment,” remarked Lincoln P. Bloomfield, Jr., the Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Mine Action who also serves as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. “Our action meets the first major goal in our new policy, which forswears the use by the United States of non-detectable mines now and all persistent mines after 2010.”

This prohibition on the use of non-detectable landmines covers both anti-personnel as well as anti-vehicle mines. The United States action surpasses the detectability requirements of both international landmine treaties: the Amended Mines Protocol to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons to which the United States is a party, and the “Ottawa Convention” which relates to anti-personnel mines.

To learn more about United States landmine policy and the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, visit To Walk the Earth in Safety: The U.S. Commitment to Humanitarian Mine Action 2005/24 [End] Released on January 3, 2005 Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC January 3, 2005

Asa Hutchinson DHS Entry-Exit System

DHS Entry-Exit System Meets 2004 Goals Ahead of Schedule

Monday, Jan 3, 2005 Asa Hutchinson, Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security at the United States Department of Homeland Security, announced today that the Department of Homeland Security met a major milestone by implementing the US-VISIT entry-exit system at the 50 busiest land ports of entry ahead of schedule. Congress mandated that DHS complete this phase of an entry-exit system by December 31, 2004. As of December 29, 2004, US-VISIT was operational at the 50 busiest land border ports. The first results indicate that these new US-VISIT biometric procedures at land border ports of entry are also saving visitors time crossing the border. FULL TEXT DHS Entry-Exit System Meets 2004 Goals Ahead of Schedule

For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary Contact: 202-298-5200 (Kimberly Weissman January 03, 2005