[EXCERPTS] CYPRUS CALLS FOR WORK ON 'CUT-OFF' TREATY AND LAND-MINE BAN IN DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE; MEXICO URGES 'HIGHEST PRIORITY' FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
Conference Hears Message on Occasion of International Women's Day 7 March 1997
Press Release DCF/290
GENEVA, 6 March (UN Information Service) -- A "cut-off" treaty on fissile material production was a logical step following the adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) last year and should be given utmost attention at the Conference on Disarmament, the representative of Cyprus said this morning.
Also this morning the Secretary-General of the Conference, Vladimir Petrovsky, read out a message from representatives of 22 women's organizations gathered for the International Women and Disarmament Seminar being held in Geneva from 5 to 7 March. The Seminar, convened to mark International Women's Day observed on 8 March, urged States that had not already done so to ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, due to enter into force on 29 April. It also called on the United States and the Russian Federation to move on to a third Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START III), and on the Conference to take concrete action on nuclear disarmament. The groups encouraged the Conference to continue efforts to establish an ad hoc committee to negotiate a treaty on the "cut-off" of nuclear-weapon grade fissile material, including an inventory of stockpiles, and to consider enlarging the role of non-governmental organizations in the work of the world's sole multilateral disarmament forum.
Conference President, Pavel Grecu (Romania), and representatives of the Western Group, the Group of 21, the Eastern European Group and China welcomed the statement made on behalf of the non-governmental women's organizations. They also saluted the work of Wolfgang Hoffmann (Germany), who was leaving the Conference to head the Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, whose Preparatory Commission is currently meeting in Geneva.
Mr. Grecu also informed the Conference this morning that consultations aimed at reaching an agreement on a work programme for 1997 were continuing.
Statements
SOTIRIOS ZACKHEOS (Cyprus) said the purpose of his intervention was to express his Government's expectation that the pace of the substantial work of the Conference would be accelerated. A "cut-off" treaty on fissile material production was a logical step following the adoption of the CTBT and should be given utmost attention. Equally important was the negotiation of an agreement banning anti-personnel land-mines.
He called the Chemical Weapons Convention "the first major achievement of the Conference". It was a source of gratification that the Convention would enter into force on 29 April. But for the Convention to be fully effective it should be ratified by all, including the permanent members of the Security Council. Assistance for the destruction of chemical weapon stockpiles should be provided to countries in need. Cyprus also supported the strengthening of the Biological Weapons Convention.
ANTONIO DE ICAZA (Mexico) said his delegation understood that the consensus reached on the agenda for the current year meant that, as long as consultations on the review of the agenda were not concluded, the objectives and priorities of the Final Document of the General Assembly's first special session on Disarmament must continue to guide negotiations at the Conference. Nuclear disarmament measures had the "highest priority", according to the
Final Document. Although it could not be denied that the threat of a nuclear holocaust had diminished, no one could assure for how long, and certainly such a danger would exist as long as nuclear weapons continued to exist.
Continuing, he said international public opinion, civil society and the majority of Member States of the United Nations had undertaken a variety of initiatives aimed at the total elimination of nuclear weapons. In August 1996, for instance, the Canberra Commission had issued a report disputing the military usefulness of nuclear weapons and underlining the risks of maintaining them. In December, high-ranking retired military officers from 17 countries had declared that there was no alternative to the creation of a nuclear-free world.
The negotiation of measures related to nuclear disarmament was not only a high priority, but an obligation, he said. The International Court of Justice had unanimously concluded on 8 July 1996 that "there exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control". Thus, the Conference should constitute immediately an ad hoc committee with a wide mandate that could include the following: the negotiation of a legally-binding multilateral agreement unequivocally binding all States to the complete elimination of nuclear weapons; the identification of measures necessary to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons to be included in a phased programme with agreed time-frames; and the negotiation of a convention on the cessation of the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons purposes.
He agreed with others at the Conference that the time had come to ban all anti-personnel land-mines, but in the proper forum. Mexico was not convinced that the Conference was the appropriate forum to conclude as soon as possible negotiations on an agreement to prohibit the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel land-mines. The Conference must give highest priority to negotiations on nuclear disarmament and not embark on exercises that duplicated efforts successfully undertaken in other forums.
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