Trump allows landmines in 'exceptional circumstances'

NEW YORK

United States forces will be allowed to use landmines in “exceptional circumstances,” as President Donald Trump rolls back restrictions on the controversial military devices that were imposed by the Obama administration.

In a statement on Friday, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said ex-president Barack Obama’s 2014 curbs on the use of landmines put U.S. forces at a “severe disadvantage during a conflict against our adversaries”.

“The Department of Defense is issuing a new landmine policy. This policy will authorize combatant commanders, in exceptional circumstances, to employ advanced, non-persistent landmines specifically designed to reduce unintended harm to civilians and partner forces,” said the statement.

“This action is yet another in a series of actions taken by the Trump administration to give our military the flexibility and capability it needs to win.”

Michael Payne, an advocacy director for Physicians for Human Rights, a campaign group, said landmines were “indiscriminate and destructive” and that the U.S. policy reversal was alarming.

“The U.S. is doing a 180 on the near-global consensus to ban the abhorrent and inhumane use of landmines. These indiscriminate weapons maim and kill. They destroy families and communities, arable land and livestock,” said Payne.

“By rolling back longstanding U.S. restrictions on the use of landmines, the Trump administration is yet again showing a complete disregard for established international norms.”

According to the United Nations, anti-personnel landmines have “caused great suffering in the past decades” and are prohibited under a convention that was adopted in 1997 and now has more than 150 signatory nations.