wfn.org | Jody Williams Addresses NCCCUSA on Landmines

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC News, 212-870-2227

NCC11/13/97

NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE DELIVERS THANKS TO NCC FOR 
ANTI-LANDMINE EFFORTS,
SENDS STRONG MESSAGE TO PRESIDENT CLINTON TO SIGN ON 
TO OTTAWA BAN
Points to More Work Ahead on Landmines Issue

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 13 ---- In her first 
formal public appearance since she was named co-
winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize, Jody Williams 
delivered a special address to the National Council 
of Churches (NCC) which included a clear, strong 
call for President Clinton to sign on to the 
International Landmines Ban treaty in Ottawa in 
December 1997 and thanks to the NCC, especially 
Linda Hartke, for their awareness, education and 
advocacy work on the landmine issue.

“I understand the President’s need to confer 
with the Pentagon,” Ms. Williams said.  “But if he 
hears only the voices of generals and not the voices 
of the poorest of the poor, then he has forgotten 
that as our head statesman, he needs to listen to 
all the people.”

 She continued, “It is his choice.  He can 
either stand on the side of humanity and history and 
sign on to the international ban in Ottawa, which 
will probably be signed by 120 governments, or he 
can stand outside the tide of history.”

 The Nobel Laureate’s address came in the 
context of a Church World Service and Witness 
Resolution renewing the call for a complete ban on 
anti-personnel landmines which was before the NCC’s 
General Assembly for consideration at its annual 
meeting.  The resolution passed unanimously 
following Ms. Williams’ speech.

 In introducing Ms. Williams, the Rev. Dr. 
Rodney Page, Executive Director of CWS, pointed out 
that “Every twenty minutes – 80 times since this 
meeting began yesterday morning – a mother, child, a 
grandfather has stepped on an anti-personnel 
landmine somewhere in the world.  Jody Williams has 
spent more than five years nurturing a grassroots 
effort that has knit together an unlikely band of 
generals and peace activists, union members and a 
princess, faith-based organizations and artists, 
deminers and landmine survivors, and people in every 
corner of the world who understand the simple 
morality of a ban on landmines.”

 Dr. Page took the opportunity to announce an 
additional appeal for $200,000 for CWS mine 
awareness/education and landmine removal programs, 
saying, “With this $200,000, we will have garnered 
over $2 million for these programs.”

Ms. Williams thanked the NCC for its work on 
the landmines issue.  “Too often (the effort to ban 
landmines) has been called ‘one woman’s campaign,’” 
Ms. Williams said.  “It isn’t.  I am honored  to 
work with a broad coalition, including the churches” 
through CWS, the NCC’s human development, emergency 
relief and refugee assistance ministry.

 Ms. Williams singled out CWS Director of 
Operations Linda Hartke for appreciation, who was 
the CWS Country Director in Cambodia for many years.  
“Her contribution, through the demining and mine 
education program and the ‘Cambodia Campaign’ was 
pivotal” in the international campaign, Ms. Williams 
said.

 “We achieved this ban because we were right and 
we never wavered,” Ms. Williams said.  “We were able 
to keep our eye on the goal and to get governments 
to take a position, something they are reluctant to 
do.  Once the momentum got going, this campaign has 
moved at lightning speed, because civil society has 
pressured their governments.”

Takes U.S. Government, Clinton Administration to 
Task

 “Originally, the U.S. government was a leader 
around this issue,” Ms. Williams explained.  
“Senator Patrick Leahy, from my home state of 
Vermont, pushed through a legislative moratorium on 
the export of landmines in 1992.  That such a world 
military power took this action made other 
governments believe they could do something.”

 “Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the 
U.S. government lost sight of the goal,” Ms. 
Williams continued.  “The Clinton Administration has 
abdicated the statesman role to the Pentagon.  I 
find it frightening that the military is determining 
policy on this issue.”

Ms. Williams also stated that if President 
Clinton does not sign on to the treaty by December, 
“there is still time to do something.  The campaign 
is not over in December,” she said.  “We still have 
our work cut out for us in terms of making the 
treaty binding, getting all the mines removed and 
helping victims of landmines to lead full lives.”

 She quipped, “Maybe the U.S. could put up the 
entire $1 billion (for a demining and mine awareness 
initiative) – If Ted Turner can do it, the U.S. 
government can do it.” 

Points to Larger Issues of Arms Control

 In discussing the complexity of the landmine 
issue, Ms. Williams said, “it is a reflection that 
even within the Administration and the Pentagon, 
there is debate about how this issue should be 
handled.”

 “This is the first time that a weapon which is 
widely used is being banned,” she said.  “The U.S. 
military is reluctant to allow humanitarian concerns 
weigh in on which weapons can and cannot be used,” 
because as one general argued, it might lead to a 
“slippery slope.”

 “There are larger issues involved, too,” Ms. 
Williams explained.  Part of what the campaign has 
done subtly is to stress that there are in fact laws 
of war and that governments should abide by them and 
not allow militaries to act with impunity.”

 “This is also an opportunity to point out the 
larger devastation” of war in this century with its 
targetting of civilians, she said.  “This goes all 
the way back to World War I and the U.S. was at the 
forefront of this change.”

 “The Nobel Prize Committee hoped to highlight 
the ban campaign and to increase the pressure on 
recalcitrant governments, which has certainly 
happened,” Ms. Williams said, “but I like to push it 
even farther and point to the way this treaty 
process has changed history and changed arms 
control.”

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