DISARMAMENT: The United States Warns Conference May Fail

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 15 1997 (IPS) - The standstill reached in the Disarmament Conference could push the United States and other countries into reconsidering their participation, warned John Holum, director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Thursday.

“We are under pressure from our Congress to reform and limit expenditures on all international institutions, and that inevitably forces us to examine whether resources are being spent effectively,” said Holum.

The negotiationas in the multilateral disarmament organism showed no progress when it picked up on the public deliberations of its second annual period of sessions Thursday.

The 61 Conference member nations are not aiming at an agreement on the work programme of the organism, despite the fact that in February they decided to negotiate on nuclear disarmament, the prohibition of anti-personnel land mines and the production of fissile material.

The key issue lies in the developing countries’ pretension of making all the conference negotiations hinge on the advances made on nuclear disarmament.

Holum said this condition was out of place, stating the appropriate forum for nuclear disarmament “is in the bilateral negotiations between the United States and Russia.”

“What I am concerned about is the impossibility of negotiating in a global forum on the US and Russia and other nuclear weapons’ states’ disarmament process,” as “that is a formula not only for the immobilisation of the Conference, but also for its ultimate failure.”

Meanwhile, the Japanese and Hungarian delegates, backed by Chile, proposed the Conference create a special committee to deal with the issue of anti-personnel land mines.

The organism will take responsibility for the negotiation of an effective, legally binding international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of these.

The non-aligned countries, who act under the name of the Group of 21 in the Disarmament Conference, will be meeting over the next few days to evaluate the initiative on mines and the other issues in hand, said Colombian ambassador, Gustavo Castro.

The United States stressed it would support simultaneous negotiation on the mine ban in the Geneva Disarmament Conference and in talks underway in Ottawa.

However, Washington insists it will only sign an agreement approved by the Geneva Conference, if it is signed by certain countries whose signature is necessary for the anti-mine agreement to prosper.

The Ottawa Process – due to end next December with the ban on the production, stockpiling, use and transfer of mines – includes intervention from those nations pushing for the eradication of these anti-personnel weapons, responsible for 25,000 deaths and woundings worldwide each year.

Ukraine Vice Foreign Minister Kostantyn Gryschenko, also proposed a ban on the production of fissile materials be supplemented with reductions of the existing stocks.

However, Holum noted the mandate only focussed on the production of fissile material for weapons, adding the reduction may be difficult to achieve in a global treaty due to the variations in fissile material amongst nations.

The United States has already removed some 225 tons of fissile material from that available for weapons, he said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Minister lamented the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty could not go into action as it still lacks the ratification of India, Pakistan and North Korea.