LANDMINE EXPORT MORATORIUM.

SEC. 1365. [22 U.S.C. 2778 note] LANDMINE EXPORT MORATORIUM. (a) Findings.—The Congress makes the following findings: (1) Anti-personnel landmines, which are specifically designed to maim and kill people, have been used indiscriminately in dramatically increasing numbers, primarily in insurgencies in poor developing countries. Noncombatant civilians, including tens of thousands of children, have been the primary victims. (2) Unlike other military weapons, landmines often remain implanted and undiscovered after conflict has ended, causing untold suffering to civilian populations. In Afghanistan, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Angola, tens of millions of unexploded landmines have rendered whole areas uninhabitable. In Afghanistan, an estimated hundreds of thousands of people have been maimed and killed by landmines during the 14-year civil war. In Cambodia, more than 20,000 civilians have lost limbs and another 60 are being maimed each month from landmines. (3) Over 35 countries are known to manufacture landmines, including the United States. However, the United States is not a major exporter of landmines. During the past ten years the Department of State has approved ten licenses for the commercial export of anti-personnel landmines valued at $980,000, and during the past five years the Department of Defense has approved the sale of 13,156 anti-personnel landmines valued at $841,145. (4) The United States signed, but has not ratified, the 1981 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed To Be Excessively Injurious or To Have Indiscriminate Effects. The Convention prohibits the indiscriminate use of landmines. (5) When it signed the Convention, the United States stated: “We believe that the Convention represents a positive step forward in efforts to minimize injury or damage to the civilian population in time of armed conflict. Our signature of the Convention reflects the general willingness of the United States to adopt practical and reasonable provisions concerning the conduct of military operations, for the purpose of protecting noncombatants.”. (6) The President should submit the Convention to the Senate for its advice and consent to ratification, and the President should actively negotiate under United Nations auspices or other auspices an international agreement, or a modification of the Convention, to prohibit the sale, transfer or export of anti-personnel landmines. Such an agreement or modification would be an appropriate response to the end of the Cold War and the promotion of arms control agreements to reduce the indiscriminate killing and maiming of civilians. (7) The United States should set an example for other countries in such negotiations, by implementing a one-year moratorium on the sale, transfer or export of anti-personnel landmines. (b) Statement of Policy.—(1) It shall be the policy of the United States to seek verifiable international agreements prohibiting the sale, transfer, or export, and further limiting the use, production, possession, and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. (2) It is the sense of the Congress that the President should actively seek to negotiate under United Nations auspices or other auspices an international agreement, or a modification of the Convention, to prohibit the sale, transfer, or export of anti-personnel landmines. (c) Moratorium on Transfers of Anti-Personnel Landmines Abroad.—During the 22 year period beginning on October 23, 1992— (1) no sale may be made or financed, no transfer may be made, and no license for export may be issued, under the Arms Export Control Act, with respect to any anti-personnel landmine; and (2) no assistance may be provided under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, with respect to the provision of any anti-personnel landmine. (d) Definition.—For purposes of this section, the term “anti-personnel landmine” means— (1) any munition placed under, on, or near the ground or other surface area, or delivered by artillery, rocket, mortar, or similar means or dropped from an aircraft and which is designed to be detonated or exploded by the presence, proximity, or contact of a person; (2) any device or material which is designed, constructed, or adapted to kill or injure and which functions unexpectedly when a person disturbs or approaches an apparently harmless object or performs an apparently safe act; (3) any manually-emplaced munition or device designed to kill, injure, or damage and which is actuated by remote control or automatically after a lapse of time.