DISARMAMENT: Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Fails

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Aug 14 1996 (IPS) - Negotiations for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) ended in near total failure and endangered the future of the Disarmament Conference.

The 61 Conference member states admitted they could not reach consensus on a draft of the Treaty which has been studiously discussed for more than two years, Wednesday.

However, the United States announced it would propose the same text to the next UN General Assembly on Sept. 17.

State Department representative, Nicholas Burns, said Secretary of State, Warren Christopher – in Geneva this Wednesday – had personally taken the decision to present the Treaty to the UN in the form of a resolution.

This text had been especially edited for the negotiations by the Dutch ambassador, Jaap Ramaker, and was supported by the vast majority of the Conference member nations.

Only India, and to a lesser extent, Iran and Pakistan, were opposed to the draft CTBT, which aimed to commit all nations with nuclear capacity to end underground testing.

It was obvious during the wranglings of recent weeks, that the Treaty would consolidate the hegemony of the five nuclear powers; Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The text excluded India, the second most populated country in the world from the “nuclear club.”

The outcome of the negotiations caused serious damage to the credibility of the Disarmament Conference as a forum for universal consensus, according to diplomatic sources.

The view that failure would threaten the future survival of the Conference had been warned of last week by the director of the US Agency of Disarmament and Arms Control, John Holum, who said the Conference member nations would have to think carefully about the future of the organisation.

“If we are not capable of concluding this Treaty which has universal support (there will be) a coup on the Conference,” he said.

Failure would imply “damage and discredit” for the Disarmament Conference, he added.

Mexican ambassador, Antonio de Icaza, pointed out the dangers for the Conference. “We have already passed through these same situations. There are antecedents,” he said.

The only progress made by the Disarmament Conference since the end of the Cold War in the early nineties has been the drawing up of the Chemical Weapons Convention, proposed by the United States in 1991 after the end of the Gulf War.

The failure of the Conference means the CTBT text could be taken to the US General Assembly by the United States so that a majority of the states cam approve it.

But even though it has been accepted by an overwhelming majority of the countries, as was anticipated, it is still awaiting ratification by 44 nations, including India, Israel and Pakistan.

India has already announced its opposition to this coming into power, and this undoubtedly means Pakistan will follow suit, blocking the Treaty for everyone.