CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONCLUDES SECOND PART OF 2000 SESSION

Press Release
DCF/399

CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT CONCLUDES SECOND PART OF 2000 SESSION

President Says Continued Paralysis of Conference Will Erode Confidence in Future of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 6 July (UN Information Service) -- The Conference on Disarmament this morning concluded the second part of its 2000 session with its President warning that the continued paralysis of the forum would erode confidence in the future of disarmament and non-proliferation.

Celso Amorim of Brazil, the incoming President of the Conference, said that despite strenuous efforts to try and bridge the differences that had prevented it from agreeing on a programme of work, it had been unable to embark on any substantive work after 16 weeks. The short number or absence of interventions in the meetings was testimony to the current mood in this forum. Although the Conference had lived through other “crises of identity”, the present one appeared to be more serious.

Ambassador Amorim said two considerations had to be borne in mind in relation to how the current deadlock in the Conference could or should be dealt with. First, it was imperative that the forum build upon recent political steps which were particularly meaningful for the Conference. The important political message from the NPT Review Conference, in which the five nuclear-weapon States had assumed an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, had to be translated into urgent action. These groundbreaking commitments and the spirit of compromise had to be pursued in the Conference. This certainly required concerted high-level attention to the current logjam faced by the Conference, but such attention seemed to be lacking.

The continued paralysis of the Conference could not but cast doubt over the value of progress achieved elsewhere. Ambassador Amorim said if the main multilateral negotiating body remained paralysed, confidence in the future of disarmament and non-proliferation would be eroded.

The second consideration was that the Conference would naturally continue to be influenced by developments in the international strategic scene, but it did not have only a passive role. If the Conference was capable of initiating meaningful work, it would to some degree have a positive influence on policies, decisions and developments outside its framework.

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Ambassador Amorim said he was without any illusion as to the difficulties of reaching compromise solutions when vital security issues were involved. However, it was possible to “organize differences” in a way that did not prevent equally important goals, which were held in common, from being obtained. Although many concerns had been expressed on the paralysis of the Conference, a sense of crisis and therefore of urgency was not clearly perceptible. It was incumbent on the members of the Conference to act, if necessary by raising the level of attention to the situation of the Conference in their own capitals. He concluded by stating that he would spare no effort to promote real and meaningful progress towards that end.

Also this morning, Thomas Markam of South Africa recalled that in March 1999 there had been a media statement on the decision to destroy South Africa's redundant stockpile of small arms. The physical destruction of the South African National Defence Force's stockpile of redundant small arms and spare parts had commenced yesterday. In a continent where recent conflicts had mainly been fought with small arms and light weapons and many of these weapons were acquired from surplus stockpiles elsewhere, the destruction of over a quarter million redundant small arms formed part of the Government's comprehensive strategy to prevent, combat and eradicate the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of small arms. An integral part of the strategy was to destroy such redundant and obsolete weapons rather than selling them as an important preventative measure.

Veronica Chahin of Chile informed the Conference that the National Congress of Chile had finished the preparatory work in order to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This would be done shortly. Chile reaffirmed its support for disarmament and saw the CTBT as an instrument to that end.

The President of the Conference informed the delegations that Francois Rhein, a Counsellor with the delegation of France to the Conference who had served in the body from 1996 to 1999, had passed away. The competence, skill and human qualities of Mr. Rhein had always been appreciated and he conveyed his and the Conference’s deep sympathy and condolences to the family of the deceased.

The third and last part of the 2000 session of the Conference will be held from 7 August to 22 September. The first plenary will take place at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 10 August.

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