Booby Traps: Amended Protocol II of the 1980 Conventional Weapons Treaty also prohibits use of booby
traps on the dead, wounded, children's toys, medical supplies, and religious objects, among other objects (art. 6).
Amended Protocol II (Mines Protocol). The Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification of Amended
Protocol II and the President subsequently signed the instrument of ratification in May 1999. Amended Protocol II:
(1) Expands the scope of the original Protocol to include internal armed conflicts;
(2) Requires that all remotely delivered anti-personnel land mines (APL) be equipped with self-destruct
devices and backup self-deactivation features;
(3) Requires that all non-remotely delivered APL not equipped with such devices ("dumb mines") be used
within controlled, marked, and monitored minefields (Falls short of President's APL policy statement
of 16 May 1996 that prohibited U.S. military use of "dumb" APL except on the Korean Peninsula and
in training);
(4) Requires that all APL be detectable using available technology;
(5) Requires that the party laying mines assume responsibility to ensure against their irresponsible or
indiscriminate use; and
(6) Provides for means to enforce compliance. In his letter of Transmittal, the President emphasized his
continued commitment to the elimination of all APL.
U.S. policy on anti-personnel land mines. U.S. forces may no longer employ APL that do not self-destruct
or self-neutralize, (sometimes called "dumb" anti-personnel land mines) according to a 16 May 1996 policy statement
issued by the President. Exceptions to this policy: the use of non-self-destructing APL on the Korean Peninsula and for
training purposes. See Antipersonnel Land Mines Law and Policy, Army Lawyer, Dec. 1998, at 22; see generally
Presidential Decision Directive 48 (on file with the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Legal Counsel).
Ottawa Process. Initiated by the Canadian Foreign Minister. One hundred nations and assorted NGOs met
in Oslo, Norway in September 1997 to draft the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and
Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines (APL) and on Their Destruction. The Convention was signed in Ottawa, Canada in
December 1997. As of April 1999, 133 nations had signed the convention and 67 had ratified it. The treaty entered into
force on 1 March 1999. Although the U.S. joined the Process in September of 1997, it withdrew when other countries
would not allow exceptions for the use of APL mines in Korea and other uses of self-destructing/self neutralizing APL.
U.S. Developments. On 17 September 1997, the President announced the following U.S. initiatives in
regards to anti-personnel land mines:
Develop alternatives to APL by the year 2003; field them in South Korea by 2006.
Appointed a Presidential advisor on land mines.
Pursue a ban on APL through the UN Conference on Disarmament.
Increase de-mining programs.
APL moratorium. Section 580 of the Foreign Operations Authorization Act of 1996 (110 Stat. 751) was to
establish a moratorium on the use of antipersonnel land mines for one year beginning 12 February 1999. Section 1236 of
the FY 99 DoD Authorization Act repealed Section 580: no moratorium will take place.
Incendiaries. (FM 27-10, para. 36.) Examples: Napalm, flame-throwers, tracer rounds, and white phosphorous.
None of these are illegal per se or illegal by treaty. The only U.S. policy guidance is found in paragraph 36 of FM 27-10
which warns that they should "not be used in such a way as to cause unnecessary suffering."
Chapter 2
10
Law of War
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