U.S. Army plans to deploy remote-controlled
anti-personnel mines in Iraq are being called into question by a New York human rights organizaiton.
Officials said the army would deploy a new mine termed Matrix. They said
this would enable an operator with a laptop computer to detonate the mine
via a radio signal.
The system was designed to detonate a Claymore mine. The Claymore was
said to propel lethal fragments up to 60 meters.
The use of the Matrix has sparked concern by human rights group. The New
York-based Human Rights Watch said the Defense Department has failed to
discuss the potential harm the Matrix could pose to innocent civilians.
The army's plans to deploy 125 Matrix systems in Iraq by the Stryker
Brigade. Officials said the mines would help protect military bases.
Officials said Matrix would mark the precursor of an advanced mine
termed Spider. The Spider would use new munitions rather than Claymore
mines.
HRW said U.S. Army tests indicate that the Claymore mines have a far
larger lethal area than reported. The group said the actual hazard range of
the Claymore could be as much as 300 meters and expressed doubts whether
a soldier could identify his target from such a distance.
"A faraway blip on a laptop screen is hardly a surefire method of
determining if you are about to kill an enemy combatant or an unsuspecting
civilian," said Steve Goose, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Arms
Division.
The Matrix was also said to have been designed with a "battlefield
override" feature that substitutes activation by a victim for detonation by
command. Victim-activated Claymore mines were banned by the 1997 Mine Ban
Treaty, ratified by 152 nations but not the United States.
"The Pentagon needs to give concrete assurances that innocent civilians
can't accidentally detonate these new Matrix mines," Goose said. "Otherwise,
this system would end up functioning like the old-fashioned anti-personnel
mines that more than three-quarters of the world's nations have banned."
