WHEN is a landmine not a landmine? When it鈥檚 intelligent or remote
controlled, seems to be the answer. Around 135 countries have signed the Ottawa
Convention outlawing antipersonnel mines. But there鈥檚 a disturbing trend towards
technologies designed to change the definition of what constitutes a banned
mine.
Japan, a signatory to Ottawa, believes that explosive devices strewn on
beaches are not antipersonnel mines just so long as they are remote controlled.
This seems to imply that a soldier in a watchtower can choose whether or not to
blow off someone鈥檚 limbs. Instead of calling it a landmine, it鈥檚 dubbed a
鈥減rojectile scattering device鈥�.
Today, the US military uses antipersonnel mines to protect anti-tank
mines鈥攂ut this will not be possible after the country signs the Ottawa
Convention in 2006. So they鈥檙e working on anti-tank landmines that literally hop
around to scupper attempts to clear a minefield
(see p 4).
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But what happens when the war is over? Where will hopping mines hop to? And
what if rogue states adapted the technology to respond to footfalls rather than
tanks?
In the bizarre words of the military, this proposed minefield technology has
been dubbed 鈥渟elf-healing鈥�. This is self-justifying doublespeak. And it鈥檚 little
more than sleight of hand that breaks the spirit, if not the letter, of the
Ottawa Convention.