Patrick Leahy: “Mr. President, the Leahy-Hagel bill on antipersonnel landmines is the result of years of work. I commend the Senator…”

“Mr. President, the Leahy-Hagel bill on antipersonnel landmines is the result of years of work. I commend the Senator from Nebraska for his efforts in this. We have talked about the need to have a ban on these weapons, a need that is felt throughout the world, both by countries that have used landmines, such as ours, and also by countries that have been devastated by what has become a plague of landmines. As I have said on the floor many times, this human disaster was described to me by a Cambodian I had in my office on a snowy winter afternoon at Christmastime in Vermont--one of the most beautiful times of year in our State--and it became far less beautiful as he said, ``We clear our landmines in Cambodia an arm and a leg at a time.'' Fifty-seven Senators--Democrats, Republicans, conservatives, men and women alike--joined together last Thursday to introduce legislation to ban new deployments of antipersonnel landmines beginning in the year 2000. Our purpose is to enable the United States to join other nations around the world that have already shown both the moral and strategic courage and leadership by saying that they will ban unilaterally ban antipersonnel landmines.”