Conference on Disarmament Hears from Colombia, Japan and Outgoing President of the Conference

17 February 2005

The Conference on Disarmament today heard statements from Colombia on its anti-personnel mines destruction programme, Japan on the upcoming Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, and the outgoing President of the Conference on the situation in the Conference at the end of his presidency.

Colombia said the Government had recently proceeded to destroy the last 6,784 anti-personnel mines stocked by the military forces. This had completed the elimination of 18,501 mines that had been used for the protection of military bases from terrorist attacks. Now Colombia had 986 mines which would only be used for the instruction and training of deminers.

Japan noted that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference was coming up in a little over two months. The NPT regime had greatly contributed to the international security environment, and it was essential that a robust and reliable NPT regime was maintained. The Conference on Disarmament was not the NPT, but Japan believed that both had to work to achieve the common objective of international security.

Ambassador Chris Sanders of the Netherlands, the outgoing President of the Conference, said that the Conference must face the challenges of today's world and must muster the necessary courage to overcome these challenges in order to start sailing uncharted waters and to take up opportunities. This applied in particular to new issues. The Conference had until now not been affected by UN reform, and it seemed difficult to agree on any reform of this body. The core of the problem of the Conference was political as a small number of Member States were still not in a position to accept balanced compromise solutions on the core issues.

Ambassador Sanders also paid tribute to Ambassador Shaukat Umer of Pakistan who was retiring and leaving Geneva. He said Ambassador Umer had brought to the Conference a unique mixture of outstanding knowledge, indisputable logic and great eloquence. He said even Ambassador Umer's farewell statement last week, which had taken the Conference by surprise, had

been an oratory masterpiece that had provided an insightful diagnosis of the problems facing the Conference. He wished Ambassador Umer and his family much success and happiness.

The next plenary of the Conference will take place at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, 22 February.

Statements

CLEMENCIA FORERO UCROS (Colombia) said she wished to share with the Conference the news that the Government of Colombia had recently proceeded to destroy the last 6,784 anti-personnel mines stocked by the military forces. This completed the elimination of 18,501 mines that had been used for the protection of military bases from terrorist attacks. Now Colombia had 986 mines which would only be used for the instruction and training of deminers.

The decision of the Government of Colombia to renounce these sort of weapons demonstrated its firm commitment to comply with its obligations, although this meant a sacrifice by the armed forces and civil society in the struggle against terrorist groups. This act should produce pressure from the international community to urge the illegal armed groups to react to this unilateral act with similar action in order to free Colombia from this indiscriminate threat.

As a result of the use of mines by the terrorists, Colombia had the fourth largest number of mine victims in the world. Every 12 hours, there was a victim. Some 40 per cent of the victims were civilians, and 50 per cent of those were children. All the civilian victims lived below the poverty line. Other than urging the illegal groups to stop using mines, the international community could also provide Colombia with technical assistance and the ability to care for the victims.

In conclusion, Colombia could not conclude its statement without recognizing the will and intelligence of Chris Sanders in his attempt to move the work of the Conference ahead. Colombia was the co-author of the Five Ambassadors proposal. The Conference had been stalemated for the past eight years. This worried countries like Colombia and others in Latin America where the States were proud to be active militants for disarmament.

YOSHIKI MINE (Japan) said that he would like to thank Chris Sanders for his tireless and innovative efforts since assuming the Presidency of the Conference. He believed that this work would provide a good basis for future deliberations. Japan had been advocating that the term of the presidency of the Conference was too short to ensure that it was effectively managed.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference was coming up in a little over two months. The NPT regime had greatly contributed to the international security environment. The NPT regime had benefited all countries, including non-NPT members. It was essential that a robust and reliable NPT regime was maintained. Recent international situations had not made life any easier for anybody. The Conference on Disarmament was not the NPT, but he believed that both had to work to achieve the common objective of international security.

CHRIS SANDERS (the Netherlands), outgoing President of the Conference, said that he had detected during his consultations a great eagerness among many to get the Conference back to work. Yet he had also found a degree of fear of change, sticking to old formulas, clinging to precedents. He believed that any organization that failed to innovate was in danger. The High-Level Panel report had shown that in fostering global security, innovation was crucial. That innovation should be based on a new comprehensive approach to collective security. He knew that any change or innovation meant risks could be involved.

Ambassador Sanders said that the Conference must face the challenges of today's world and must muster the necessary courage to overcome these challenges in order to start sailing uncharted waters and to take up opportunities. This applied in particular to new issues. The Conference had until now not been affected by UN reform, and it seemed difficult to agree on any reform of this body. The core of the problem of the Conference was political as a small number of Member States were still not in a position to accept balanced compromise solutions on the core issues. He had tried to bring the Conference back to these core issues, and he believed that with a little bit more flexibility, the Conference would get back to work. Effective multilateralism presupposed a genuine attitude to take each other's proposals seriously and it also meant that if one could not accept a certain proposal, one should explain the reasoning behind it and subsequently put forward a credible counter-proposal. One could not simply continue to say no or to make proposals which stood no chance of getting any support.

Ambassador Sanders said that he had felt that as the first President of the year, he had at his disposal a rather unique provision which mandated him to identify special coordinators. There had been widespread support for this, but in the end he had wanted to avoid a confrontational situation which might have made the situation in the Conference worse than it already was. So he had gone back to the basics and had offered his personal assessment of what the Conference might realistically try to do to bridge the existing differences on a programme of work. He had the fullest confidence in his successor, Ambassador Tim Caughley of New Zealand and he hoped that as the incoming President, he would find the decisive elements to get the Conference back to work.

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