The US Campaign to Ban Landmines joins the condemnation of President Bush's new mine policy.

"This is another squandered opportunity for US leadership on a crucial arms control and humanitarian issue," says Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

"Worst of all, in a sharp departure from past policy, it says the United States will continue using landmines indefinitely.

"We are by far the most powerful nation on earth, and the world looks to us for leadership on this issue. When we back away from the progress we have pledged to rid the world of these indiscriminate weapons, others will ask why they, with their much weaker armed forces, should stop using them.”

USCBL spokeswoman Gina Coplon-Newfield adds:
"US refusal to join this treaty sets a dangerous, isolationist example to mine-using countries such as Russia, India, and Pakistan that have laid hundreds of thousands of mines in recent years with devastating consequences to civilians."