However, most people would not want to work in a rice field from which only most mines have been removed. Anything less than total clearance is unacceptable. A fair amount of research is going into developing better de-mining technology. Equally, de-miners have neither the time nor the resources to develop the equipment they need. Mr. Clinton should appoint a ''land mine czar'' to coordinate an accelerated de-mining program.
Organization follows naturally from sound leadership and demands a practical, coherent approach.
One of the major organizational priorities should be to foster closer links between researchers and de-miners. The resources available to operational de-mining organizations are pitifully inadequate, yet it is their work that actually achieves the twin objectives of reducing casualties and returning land to use. At the end of World War II, Europe was more heavily mined than the entire world is today. Yet 80 percent of the mines were cleared within two years because there were the financial resources and political will to do it. The International Coalition to Ban Land Mines brought together thousands of individuals and organizations in a common effort to create a future without land mines.