WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Friday that the United States will no longer produce or acquire anti-personnel land mines and plans to join an international treaty banning their use.
Human-rights advocates have long pushed the United States to join 161 other nations in signing the 15-year-old Ottawa Convention, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of the mines. President Bill Clinton had a goal of joining the treaty, but the Bush administration pulled back amid objections from military leaders.
Obama ordered up a review of the U.S. policy when he came to office five years ago, and a U.S. delegation to a conference in Maputo, Mozambique, announced the result Friday.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.