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STATEMENT BY THOMAS MARKRAM, DEPUTY
PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE, SOUTH AFRICAN PERMANENT MISSION, GENEVA,
TO THE CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT ON 23 MAY 2002
Mr President,
I would like first to congratulate you on your assumption of the
Presidency. My delegation will of course continue to lend you its
full support and continued cooperation.
Mr President
It is obviously with deep regret that the Conference on Disarmament,
which is defined as "the single multilateral disarmament negotiating
forum of the international community" and which "has the
primary role in substantive negotiations on priority questions of
disarmament", has remained unable to agree on on a Program
of Work. This is despite the fact that there is almost unanimous
support in the CD for some mechanism to deal with the issues we
have been deliberating on the last few years. This is despite the
fact that there is general agreement that nuclear disarmament, the
prevention of an arms race in outer space and banning the production
of fissile material is a concern of the entire international community
and that United Nations General Assembly resolutions call on us
to deal with these issues.
Mr President,
I believe that it is incumbent upon me to make the point to those
delegations who continue to refuse to recognise the legitimate concerns
of other States, while insisting that we should respect and show
understanding for theirs, that continued intransigence is likely
to exacerbate and not improve the situation.
South Africa would urge the delegations involved to again reconsider
their positions, because proposals over the last months and those
presently under discussion reflect a very moderate approach, far
less than our own and the national positions of other delegations
in this room.
Mr President
My prime reason for me asking for the floor today is to introduce
a working paper on the possible scope and requirements of a fissile
material treaty. We have taken the floor on earlier occasions to
elaborate on South Africa’s views on this issue but hope that
by introducing this paper, we can add a little more constructive
focus to an issue that has been long overdue for negotiation in
this body. This would hopefully also complement the noteworthy efforts,
particularly by the Dutch, Japanese and Australian delegations in
Geneva, to sustain and promote interest in negotiating a fissile
material treaty.
The South African working paper attempts to deal with some of the
most vexing issues that negotiations on a fissile material treaty
presents. South Africa has, due to its own unique historical experience
with the destruction of its limited nuclear weapons program and
the completeness investigation undertaken by the International Atomic
Energy Agency, acquired some practical insights that may be of some
benefit to Member States. This is particularly the case regarding
stocks, where we underline the difficulties associated with this
issue and offer, what we consider to be a practical, achievable
and effective manner of dealing with the issue in a manner that
fulfils nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation objectives. I
would like to kindly request that this working paper be circulated
as an official document of the Conference.
Mr President, I thank you.
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