Somalia RPCV Kenneth Rutherford injured in explosion joins worldwide campaign to ban land mines
Read and comment on this story from the South Bend Tribune on Somalia RPCV Kenneth Rutherford who is a political science professor at Southwest Missouri State University working to ban land mines globally and provide assistance to victims.
His Peace Corps work in refugee camps as a credit loan officer was part of the effort to help Somalians get on with their lives. While driving to a project site, Rutherford's car exploded a land mine. "The next thing I remember seeing was a foot on the floorboard, and I wondered if that foot was mine," he recalled. The blast cost Rutherford both legs, just below the knees. He now wears prosthetic legs.
By the end of 1997, more than 130 countries signed a treaty banning the production, use, stockpiling and transfer of all antipersonnel land mines. The United States, however did not sign, Rutherford says.
According to him, the United States is the only holdout among its 18 NATO allies, except for Turkey, and the only Western Hemisphere country, except for Cuba, that has not signed. Cuba says it will sign when the United States does.
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Working to ban land mines Professor injured in explosion joins worldwide campaign
By MELISSA WEST Tribune Staff Writer
BERRIEN SPRINGS -- Kenneth Rutherford estimates he can hit a golf ball about 225 yards.
Not bad for a guy who lost both legs to a land-mine explosion that changed the direction of his life.
Nine years ago, Rutherford was a Peace Corps volunteer with an MBA working to bring economic stability to Somalia.
Today he is a political science professor at Southwest Missouri State University working to ban land mines globally and provide assistance to victims.
Nine years ago, Rutherford was oblivious to the suffering a small $3 land mine could inflict or the number of victims it claimed each year.
Today, he can rattle off land-mine-related statistics without batting an eye.
During an assembly at Andrews University on Thursday, Rutherford spoke about how more than 26,000 people each year are injured or killed by land mines, how civilians, mostly children, make up more than 90 percent of those victims, and how roughly 100 million land mines still litter the landscape of more than 90 countries.
"A land mine is designed, not to kill somebody, but to maim the body -- to maximize human punishment on the body without killing them," Rutherford explained.
Rutherford's injury occurred in Somalia in 1993 -- the same year the events that inspired the film "Black Hawk Down" took place.
"When peace treaties are signed, wars end and armies go home, civilians come back to farm the fields, go to school and live their daily lives," he said.
His Peace Corps work in refugee camps as a credit loan officer was part of the effort to help Somalians get on with their lives. While driving to a project site, Rutherford's car exploded a land mine.
"The next thing I remember seeing was a foot on the floorboard, and I wondered if that foot was mine," he recalled.
The blast cost Rutherford both legs, just below the knees. He now wears prosthetic legs.
In 1995, he became involved with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a project that he admits appeared far-fetched at the beginning.
"If you're going to pick a weapon to ban in the world and be successful, the last weapon you want to pick is a land mine," he said.
At that time, no country in the world supported a ban on the inexpensive weapon.
Yet, at the end of 1997, more than 130 countries signed a treaty banning the production, use, stockpiling and transfer of all antipersonnel land mines.
The United States, however did not sign, Rutherford says.
According to him, the United States is the only holdout among its 18 NATO allies, except for Turkey, and the only Western Hemisphere country, except for Cuba, that has not signed. Cuba says it will sign when the United States does.
Rutherford says the official reason for U.S. reluctance stems from the U.S. troops stationed in the Korean Peninsula who officials say need land mines in the demilitarized zone. Other arguments cite the lack of participation from major world powers, including Russia and China, as well as countries considered potential enemies, such as Iraq.
Rutherford, however, says a different reason lies at the root of the refusal.
"If we ban land mines for humanitarian reasons, it would open up our whole military arsenal to humanitarian arguments for why we should ban those weapons," he said. "...Now you won't hear that publicly, but on the side, that's what's been told to me."
The United States has said it will stop use of all land mines by 2006, except on the Korean Peninsula, as long as it has alternatives by then.
Despite its stance on the treaty, the United States is the leader in efforts to extend aid to land-mine victims and to de-mine countries, Rutherford said. According to him, the U.S. government has contributed more money to these causes than most of the other countries who signed the treaty put together.
Also, earlier this month the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill to provide assistance to land mine and other warfare victims. The bill next goes to the House of Representatives.
"It is in our nation's interest to have stabilized countries around the world, and land mines cause destabilization," Rutherford said.
In the moments after the explosion that changed his life, Rutherford recalls wanting to live so he could marry his girlfriend, have a family and become a teacher.
Rutherford married his girlfriend and, in 2000, the father of four earned his doctorate from Georgetown University.
This, he says, is "the icing on the cake."
Staff writer Melissa West:
mwest@sbtinfo.com
Read Dr. Rutherford's paper "Collaboration Against Major States: The Role of Mid-Size States and NGOs in Banning Landmines." at:
Dr. Kenneth Rutherford. "Collaboration Against Major States: The Role of Mid-Size States and NGOs in Banning Landmines." Paper prepared for delivery at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, August 30-September 2, 2001.
Paper (requires Acrobat Reader)
Keywords: landmines, antipersonnel landmines, AP mines, Kenneth Rutherford, Political Science, International Relations, United Nations
Abstract:
This paper examines the role small and mid-size states have played in initiating and developing the landmine-ban issue, which eventually changed major state behavior toward landmines. It analyzes how small and mid-size states were able to generate international action toward support of the Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel landmines, which marked the first time a weapon in widespread use has been banned. The paper makes two interrelated arguments. First, small and mid-size states worked among themselves and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which helped the landmine issue gain international legal legitimacy, and intense media and public attention. Second, small and mid-size states changed major power perceptions toward the legality of landmine use by creating an alternative, majority voting based negotiating framework outside the UN based consensus-voting system. In comparison, most disarmament treaties are negotiated within the UN system, at the behest of major powers and exclude small and mid-size states from important roles in the negotiating process. These arguments address the broader question of the small and mid-size state role in initiating and controlling the international arms control agenda by showing the potential conditions of how they can get governments, including major powers, to prohibit weapons that are heavily used and which retain a military
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