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For countries bordering Russia, these are nervous times. Particularly for nations that have been invaded and occupied by Moscow in the past, watching Russia’s atrocity-ridden invasion of Ukraine today brings about understandable fears of “who’ll be next?”
But fear can sometimes lead to bad decision-making.
In recent months, the governments of five countries – Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland – have all taken steps towards withdrawing from the international ban on antipersonnel landmines. It’s a terrible trend.
These are particularly nasty weapons. Antipersonnel landmines cannot discriminate between civilian and combatant. They explode regardless of who steps on them or picks them up. And they can go on killing for decades, long after a war is over.
Antipersonnel landmines kill and maim more civilians than soldiers. Civilians made up 85 percent of all recorded landmine casualties in 2023. When the age of victims was recorded, children accounted for 37 percent of the casualties.
It’s clear why there’s an international treaty against antipersonnel landmines, signed by 165 countries.
However, politicians in five countries bordering Russia now claim leaving the Mine Ban Treaty is somehow essential for national security.
They never make clear exactly how national security would be improved by embracing these banned weapons. Arguments come more from the gut.
Last month, for example, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, told parliament leaving the landmines treaty was necessary “so that we are not bound by a straitjacket that prevents us from defending our homeland with all our might.”
The argument in Poland and elsewhere has been: anything is acceptable in the defense of the nation. That may seem reasonable. Until you think about it a bit.
If anything is allowed, why not chemical and biological weapons, too? Why not nuclear weapons? Or torture?
But no. Not everything is allowed in the name of national defense. There are rules of human decency – and international agreements and customary laws – even in war.
These countries should be on the side of the rules, of the law, and of decency.
Yes, there are some rule-breakers on antipersonnel landmines, notably Myanmar and Russia, whose forces have also committed countless war crimes and other atrocities. No country should want to join that club.
The debate in Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland has focused on misguided arguments. Using widely banned weapons that would put more civilians at risk will not help any nation’s defense.
This morning saw a new joint appeal by 100 Nobel Prize winners, including former dissident and president of Poland Lech Wałęsa, protesting withdrawals from the Mine Ban Treaty. The five governments should heed their call.
