14 September 2006

The Conference on Disarmament (CD) held its last plenary meeting of 2006 on 12 September. Outgoing president of the Conference, Slovakian Ambassador Anton Pinter, welcomed the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan, Mr. Yohei Kono. The new US Ambassador, Ms. Christine Rocca, and Syria also took the floor.

Report to the General Assembly
The members of the CD did not adopt the report to the General Assembly during this final formal plenary meeting. The meeting went into an informal session and continued discussing the last paragraphs of the report. 

Compliance with the NPT
Mr. Yohei Kono reminded the CD that Japan is the only country which has experienced the enormous destructive power of nuclear weapons, and the people of Japan know what kind of hardship people endure under a nuclear attack. Nuclear weapons must therefore be eliminated through the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the main pillar of the international non-proliferation regime.

Mr. Kono was disappointed that the NPT regime has been seriously shaken by insufficient disarmament efforts by the nuclear weapon states, and by a movement towards forcing opponents into submission through threats aided by nuclear weapons. The deep-rooted disagreement on disarmament from some states using “sovereign equality” as an argument was once an issue in Japan too, and led them into World War II. Mr. Kono recalled when Japan withdrew from the international cooperative system on Pacific naval disarmament, which eventually led to its involvement in World War II and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan therefore urged non-nuclear weapon states to strictly comply with the NPT, and urged the nuclear weapon states to implement their undertakings towards nuclear disarmament.

FMCT
The new US Ambassador, Ms. Christina Rocca, reminded the CD of the strong commitment that United States made to the CD in May when it submitted the draft treaty Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT). She said the CD’s work this year had built a foundation that could help in the future.

Japan also saw constructive significance in the draft treaty. Japan said differences on the current text should be resolved in negotiations. Mr. Kono hoped the CD could avoid backward looking situations through linkages and “clear the way for a future circle of positive growth in which each agenda item is advanced according to its ripeness.”

Israeli use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells
Syria announced that the Chargé d’Affaires of the Syrian Mission had sent a letter to the President of the CD to discuss the cluster bombs and phosphorous shells the Israeli military used in Lebanon. Syria recalled an Israeli newspaper's account of entire towns being covered in cluster bombs, and that the Israeli army had fired about 800 cluster bombs, containing millions of cluster bomblets. Around 500,000 unexploded munitions now littered Lebanon, and would continue to claim lives after the war. Syria said Israel also used phosphorus shells, which are forbidden under international law. A direct hit from a phosphorus shell causes severe burns and a slow and painful death, and international law forbids such unnecessary suffering. Syria proposed these items be considered under agenda item 7, Transparency in Armaments.

- Jennifer Nordstrom, Reaching Critical Will and
Beatrice Fihn, Disarmament Intern

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom