U.S., Nato afraid of Diana's Landmine Ban --
Irish_Val
By Rob Evans and Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday September 1, 1999
Princess Diana made the campaign to ban landmines an emotional issue,
threatening to sour relations between Britain and the United States and
to have an adverse effect on Nato, according to a US intelligence
assessment obtained by the Guardian.
The report, written by an official at the US embassy in London and
classified to be withheld from foreign governments, also reveals a
frank assessment by the US defence intelligence agency of divisions
within Whitehall over the issue.
Disagreement between the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence -
which was more sympathetic to US concerns - led to a US-prompted
loophole in the 1998 Landmines Act. The loophole was attacked last week
by a Nobel peace prize-winning independent campaigning group supported
by the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
The UK Working Group on Landmines criticises the act for excluding anti-
tank mines, and for allowing British troops to participate in Nato
military operations involving minelaying so long as they do not
actually handle mines themselves. It also says British and US cluster-
bombs - many of which lie unexploded in Kosovo - should be treated as
anti-personnel mines.
The US intelligence report, dated December 1997, describes a landmine
ban as "a very emotional issue because of the late Princess Diana's
involvement in humanitarian demining and APL [anti-personnel landmine]
abolition".
The Ottawa treaty outlawing anti-personnel mines - which the US has
refused to sign - "could have negative effects upon the Nato alliance
and become a divisive issue between the US and UK", it says.
The report - which was forwarded to the US National Security Agency -
warned that "decisions were being made in the heat of emotion rather
than cold common sense". It added: "Nato countries could get rid of a
defensive weapon that in a few years' time they might need in an
unforeseen region of Europe or the world."
It describes the MoD as "sympathetic to the United States requirement
for landmines in Korea" and says that the ministry "understands the
types of 'smart' mines the US wants to keep".
It continues: "The same could not be said for the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office. The FCO has just presented its ethical foreign
policy against the sale of weapons to and support for authoritarian
regimes. Its policy toward landmines will be in favour of a zero
tolerance application of the [Ottawa treaty].
"The pressure that the Labour government will be subjected to should
not be underestimated," it says. "Special interest groups and public
opinion will press the government to apply the articles of the treaty
to the letter, once it is ratified by the 40 required countries."
It cites, as "an example of the emotional impact of the landmine
debate", public support in 1997 for the Defence Secretary, George
Robertson, to build on Diana's legacy "to make sure that innocent,
ordinary, decent people in areas of conflict don't have to suffer from
the poisonous legacy of those who were engaged in conflict".
Princess Diana's involvement in the drive to outlaw landmines
transformed the campaign here and increased pressure on governments to
produce a global ban. In high-profile trips to Angola and Bosnia, she
drew attention to the suffering of mine victims.
However, she was criticised by Conservative politicians for straying
into the political arena and being "a loose cannon", "ill-advised"
and "not helpful or realistic" in demanding the abolition of landmines.
The Labour government rushed through an act to sign up to the Ottawa
treaty outlawing mines shortly before the first anniversary of Diana's
death.
The US defence intelligence agency report was disclosed to the Guardian
following a request under the US freedom of information act.
--
LOL & Godspeed,
Val
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