[Presidential Decision Directives - PDD]

Humanitarian Demining
Presidential Decision Directive PDD 64
May 1998

PDD/NSC-64 embodies a clarification of US policy on landmines, in which the United States Government agreed to sign, by 2006 or sooner, the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning landmines, if suitable alternatives to anti-personnel landmines and "mixed munitions" can be identified. With the US commitment to sign the Ottawa Treaty by 2006 -- assuming suitable landmine alternatives are found -- and Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat-Vermont) agreed to a presidential waiver of the moratorium on landmines beginning in February 1999. The administration's position was explicated in a 15 May 1999 letter from National Security Affairs Adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger to Leahy. Berger's letter was the result of a several-month review of landmine policy codified the new Presidential Decision Directive.

The policy includes the following features, as articulated in the letter from Berger to Senator Leahy:

• The United States will destroy by 1999 all of its non-self-destructing APL's, except those needed for Korea.
• The United States will end the use of all APL's outside Korea by 2003, including those that self-destruct.
• The United States will aggressively pursue the objective of having APL alternatives ready for Korea by 2006, including those that self-destruct.
• The United States will search aggressively for alternatives to our mixed anti-tank systems by (a) actively exploring the use of APL alternatives in place of the self-destructing anti-personnel submunitions currently used in our mixed systems and (b) exploring the development of other technologies and/or operational concepts that result in alternatives that would enable us to eliminate our mixed systems entirely.
• The United States will sign the Ottawa Convention by 2006 if efforts succeed to identify and field suitable alternatives to US anti-personnel landmines and mixed anti-tank systems by then.