Bush Urged to Back Ban on Land Mines

Four years after former President Bill Clinton refused to sign an international treaty banning the production and use of land mines, religious leaders and activists opposed to the weapons gathered this week on Capitol Hill to urge President Bush to support the agreement.

“Land mines have failed as a military weapon, only to become a constant daily threat to the lives of civilians,” said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches. “More than 80% of land mine victims are civilians, mostly children. In many parts of the world that have been mined, herding cattle, playing in a field, even farming are automatically made high-risk activities by the presence of land mines.”