The State Department on Saturday asked humanitarian organizations it funds around the world to stop clearing unexploded mines "effective immediately." Karen Chandler, who runs the department's Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, said in an email to the nonprofits that the action is in keeping with President Trump's decision to suspend and reevaluate foreign aid spending, the New York Times reports. Chandler then thanked the organizations "for the important work you do making communities safe."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the foreign aid freeze is to ensure that US foreign policy focuses only on whatever "makes us stronger or safer or more prosperous." Unexploded munitions are a threat to the lives of Americans, as well, the Times points out; unexploded battlefield munitions killed as many US ground troops in the 1991 Persian Gulf War as enemy fire did. In addition, "clearing land mines from Ukraine's agricultural land is directly linked to global food security and is a prerequisite for Ukraine's recovery," a State Department official said in the most recent report on the effort. The US has sent about $5 billion to more than 125 countries for clearing unexploded munitions since 1993, the report says.
Shari Bryan, the US director of nonprofit Mines Advisory Group, which shared a Nobel Peace Prize for its effort to ban anti-personnel land mines, said Saturday that the organization has always had bipartisan support from the government—including Trump's first administration—"because of its alignment with U.S. national interests." The US director of a British American demining group that works around the world said he doesn't see a conflict between HALO Trust's efforts and the goals stated by Trump and Rubio. "We are of the view that demining advances those core priorities," Chris Whatley said. (More land mines stories.)
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