CLINTON MAINTAINS OPPOSITION TO TREATY BANNING LAND MINES.Byline: The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times The White House said Friday that President Clinton was ``rock solid'' in his opposition to an international treaty banning all land mines, even though pressure was sure to build on the White House to reconsider after the Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. was awarded to an American anti-mine activist and her organization. ``The president is absolutely rock-solid confident that he's got the right approach that protects our interests and works in the interest of eliminating the scourge of land mines,'' said White House spokesman Mike McCurry. His comments came after the announcement that the Nobel had been awarded to Jody Williams Jody Williams (born October 9, 1950 in Putney, Vermont) is an American teacher and aid worker who received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the campaign she led, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL). of Putney, Vt., and her organization, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines The International Campaign to Ban Landmines is a coalition of non-governmental organizations whose goal is to abolish the production and use of anti-personnel mines. . Last month the president announced that the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. would not sign a treaty supported by nearly 100 other nations to ban the use of anti-personnel land mines. The United States had offered to sign the treaty only if it was amended to allow the continued use of land mines along the tense border between North and South Korea for at least 19 more years, and to allow the use of anti-personnel mines in conjunction with anti-tank mines. Clinton insisted on the exemptions at the urging of the Defense Department, which warned that the United States would invite disaster on the Korean Peninsula if it removed the nearly 1 million land mines that seed the border between the two Koreas. |
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