Landmine Survivors Network

Ken Rutherford and Jerry White founded Landmine Survivors Network (LSN) in September 1995, after meeting at the United Nations Review Conference on landmines in Vienna

That conference was the first gathering in fifteen years dedicated to strengthening controls on weapons considered "excessively injurious" and to have "indiscriminate effects." It was in Vienna that White and Rutherford recognized the power of the personal testimonies of mine victims from all walks of life. Those who have experienced firsthand the pain caused by landmines are naturally suited to communicate the terrible toll these weapons exact on human life. Excerpts of White and Rutherford's statements before the 1995 U.N. conference are included below.

Jerry White (Executive Director and Co-Founder)

Jerry White was a 20 year old student in Israel when he stepped on a landmine, causing his right leg to be amputated below the knee. A graduate of Brown University, he spent 10 years as an arms control analyst, tracking the spread of weapons of mass destruction. Mr. White worked at the Brookings Institution prior to becoming Assistant Director of the DC-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control. At the Wisconsin Project, Mr. White was founder and editor of an award winning publication and electronic database that alerts exporters to the risks of selling to buyers that help build nuclear-capable missiles. In 1997, Mr. White became the Executive Director of Landmine Survivors Network. He has testified before Congress and published articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and International Herald Tribune.

Jerry's injury in a minefield in Israel belies the arguments of those who believe the mine problem can be solved by better signs and fences. Mr. White spent five months in a hospital in Tel Aviv, where he underwent five operations and learned to walk with a prosthesis.

"I was only four years old when Syrian soldiers, retreating during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, laid Soviet-supplied mines in the Golan Heights. The soldiers no doubt hoped the mines would maim or kill Israeli troops. Instead, my mine waited silently in the ground for nearly seventeen years until it exploded under my foot and blew off my right leg.

"I was twenty years old. I had taken time from my university studies in the United States to explore the Middle East. I wasn't a soldier. I was armed with only a backpack and an Arabic and Hebrew dictionary. Two friends and I had decided to explore northern Israel on a hiking trip. We were looking for a place to camp and had no idea that we had entered a minefield. There was no fence and no sign to keep us out. The next morning, on a beautiful spring day, I stepped on a mine. I can still remember the deafening blast and the smell of blood, burnt flesh and metal. Only when my friends rolled me over did they see the extent of my wounds. The explosion had ripped off my right foot, shrapnel had lacerated my skin, and my left leg was open and raw--with a bone sticking out of my calf. We screamed for help but it seemed that no one but God could hear. Either I would bleed to death, or my friends would have to carry me out of the minefield. Luckily we made it out without further loss.

"All the talk about fencing and marking minefields is a distraction from the real challenge: to stop the proliferation of landmines. I was injured in a country that takes pride in how well it has fenced and marked its minefields. But even in a small, security-conscious state like Israel, fences break down, signs fade, fall, or are stolen, and mines shift with changes in weather and soil erosion."

Ken Rutherford, Ph.D. (Co-founder)

Ken Rutherford is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Southwest Missouri State University, where he teaches international relations, international organization and American Citizenship and Democracy. On December 16, 1993, while working as a credit union training officer in southwestern Somalia, he lost both his legs when his vehicle ran over a landmine. Since his accident, he has traveled worldwide to speak out in favor of a ban and to raise awareness of the mass suffering caused by these weapons. Dr. Rutherford has testified before congress and published articles on the landmine issue in numerous academic and policy journals, including World Politics, International Journal of World Peace, Journal of International Politics, Nonproliferation Review, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, International Journal of Grey Literature, American Bar Association Update on Law Education, Journal of Transnational Associations and the United Nations Landmines Journal. He also has articles forthcoming in Security Dialogue and the Journal of International Law and Policy. His book, Disarming States: The International Movement to Ban Landmines, is being published by the MIT Press in Harvard University’s BCSIA Studies in International Security. He has worked in Africa for the Peace Corps (Mauritania), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Senegal), and International Rescue Committee (Kenya and Somalia). He received his doctorate in Government from Georgetown University in 2000 and MBA from University of Colorado in 1993. Dr. Rutherford and his wife, Kimberly, have three sons, Hayden, Campbell and Duncan, and one daughter, Lucie.

"In December 1993, I was working as a training officer for the International Rescue Committee in Somalia, where my job was to help Somalis apply for loans so they could rebuild their country. My project was funded by U.S.A.I.D. On December 16, as I was inspecting a program site near the border with Ethiopia, my car hit a landmine. I suddenly became something rare for an American--a landmine victim. It was to change my life forever.

"After the explosion, I first remember seeing a foot lying on the floorboard of the car. I remember thinking: "Is it mine?" It was. It was my right foot. I remember that I kept trying to put it back on, but it kept falling off. Then I looked at my left foot. The top part was ripped off and I could see bones going to my toes, one of which was missing.

"I dragged myself out of the car and called for help on my radio. It seemed like a lifetime before help arrived. While I was waiting, I prayed to God. I was also spitting up blood, so I thought that I might have internal injuries that could be fatal. I asked God that if I lived, I would like to marry Kim, my fiancé of two months, and raise a family. In the evacuation plane from Somalia to Nairobi, a Belgian doctor and an American nurse gave me blood from their bodies to mine.

"I am here today because of the resources I had at my disposal. I had a radio to call for help and airplanes to evacuate me. Most landmine victims are not so lucky. The U.N. estimates that the average lifetime care of a landmine victim costs from $5,000 to $7,000. My medical costs have already exceeded a quarter of a million dollars."

Visit Ken Rutherford's Web site at: http://courses.smsu.edu/krr889f/homepage.htm

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