31 August 2006

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) held a general debate on Thursday 31 August. Kazakhstan, Italy and Sweden took the floor.

Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) as a part of Nuclear Disarmament
Italy said an FMCT is a means to stop the nuclear arms race and achieve nuclear disarmament, and introduced a paper explaining how this is so. "Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race and Nuclear Disarmament. Relevance of an FMCT for Cessation of the Nuclear Arms Race, Nuclear Disarmament, Nuclear Non-Proliferation" underlines "the intrinsic pertinence of an FMCT negotiation for item 1 [nuclear disarmament] of our agenda."

Sweden agreed, and said it was not correct to call an FMCT only a non-proliferation measure. Not only would an FMCT end the production of fissile material, said Ambassador Borsiin Bonnier, it would "close the tap of fissile materials for nuclear weapons" and over time remove an element of discrimination between nuclear weapon states and non-nuclear weapon states.

Sweden also said that while an FMCT is not the only important issue in the Conference, it is the key issue if the CD wants to get back to work.

Anniversary of the Closure of a Nuclear Test Site
Kazakhstan reminded the Conference of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, two days after the 15th anniversary of it being closed. The president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, decided to close the test site after being pressured by a "massive anti-nuclear movement" called Nevada-Semipalatinsk. The movement was a bridge between anti-nuclear movements in the US and Kazakhstan working to close both the Semipalatinsk and Nevada (US) test sites.

Unfortunately, the Nevada test site has not been closed, and on 30 August, the United States conducted a sub critical nuclear "experiment" called UNICORN.

Sub critical experiments examine the behavior of plutonium as it is strongly shocked by forces produced by chemical high explosives, in order to gather information to maintain US nuclear weapons. These "experiments" are not covered in the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Kazakhstan explained there are still concerns about the consequences of the 456 nuclear tests conducted at Semipalantinsk, despite all rehabilitation efforts. The major challenge of the government of Kazakhstan is to improve health and the environment.

Sweden said the anniversary of the closing of the nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk was truly worth celebrating, and Ambassador Borsiin Bonnier wished they had more anniversaries like that to celebrate. Kazakhstan noted it gave up its full nuclear weapon cycle capabilities when it became independent and joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state in 1993.

Central Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone

Kazakhstan is now an active participant in ongoing negotiations among regional countries to establish a nuclear weapon free zone in Central Asia. On September 8, the Foreign Ministers of the five Central Asian countries are expected to sign the treaty on the establishment of the zone.

The Plenary meeting was suspended and followed by an informal session where the draft report of the Conference on Disarmament to the General Assembly was presented.

The next formal plenary meeting will be held on Wednesday, 6 September at 10 am.

-Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern 
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom