- GENEVA - The United States,
again rowing against most world opinion, on Wednesday rejected as unworkable
a proposed international plan for enforcing a 30-year ban on using germs
in warfare. The move further isolated Washington on the world stage, where
U.S. negotiators are already facing criticism for rejecting initiatives
on climate change and small arms trade.
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- "In our assessment, the draft protocol would put
national security and confidential business information at risk."
Donald Mahley, U.S. representative
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- In a speech to a special drafting committee in Geneva,
Washington,s representative Ambassador Donald Mahley said the United States
could not support the proposal, the result of nearly a decade of international
wrangling.
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- "In our assessment, the draft protocol would put
national security and confidential business information at risk, Mahley
said.
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- The plan, drawn up by Ambassador Tibor Toth of Hungary,
chairman of the Ad Hoc negotiating group, was designed to meet a mandate
from the 143-state 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to produce
a consensus on measures to make the ban enforceable by the end of this
year.
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- Nations have been negotiating for seven years to develop
an accord on how to enforce the treaty, painstakingly working through disagreements
over the 210-page document. The draft is intended to create a way to inspect
sites suspected of developing biological weapons without interfering with
legitimate industries and facilities.
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- Unlike other multilateral arms accords, the biological
weapons ban contains no mechanism to ensure compliance. When the germ warfare
treaty was created during the Cold War, negotiators left out enforcement
details because no one believed germ warfare would be used.
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- A number of countries are believed to have developed,
or to be developing, the capability to have a biological weapons arsenal
and rapid developments in the field of genetics only increase anxiety about
the potential for devastation.
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- NEW RULES FOR VERIFICATION
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- While reaffirming its commitment to combating the spread
of biological weapons, the United States said the measures outlined in
the draft would not achieve their goal. It said it planned to make alternative
proposals, but did not specify when.
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- The draft, which other members of the 54-state Ad Hoc
committee have said at least formed the basis for further negotiation,
would oblige member states to make public sites that could be used for
the development of biological weapons.
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- It also sets out a series of steps for verification,
including spot checks.
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- But the U.S. said the checks would not stop cheating
by states wanting to develop biological weapons and could open the door
to industrial espionage.
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- "The mechanisms envisioned in the protocol would
not achieve their objectives and ... trying to do more would simply raise
the risk to legitimate United States activities, Mahley said.
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- INTERNATIONAL ISOLATION
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- The Bush administration has been criticized domestically
and internationally for similar stands on climate change and small arms
trade. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, has scolded President
Bush as an isolationist who has been "minimizing the United States,
standing in the world.
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- The European Union said earlier this week that while
the Toth text did not meet all its concerns, it believed it would strengthen
the existing treaty against biological weapons.
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- "We regret that the U.S. has decided to reject this
protocol. The concern is that germ weapons talks could just sink into the
doldrums, said one European diplomat.
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- Germ warfare experts also criticized the U.S. move. I
am really disappointed. You really wonder what the United States thinks
it has been doing for the past decade.,
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- " GRAHAM PEARSON
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- Observer at talks "I am really disappointed. You
really wonder what the United States thinks it has been doing for the past
decade, said Prof. Graham Pearson from the department of peace studies
at Britain,s Bradford University, who is observing the talks.
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- "The protocol brought benefits for all. The message
that goes out now is that the world does not care about biological weapons
" the most dangerous kind of all, he said.
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- NATIONAL SECURITY ISSUE
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- U.S. negotiator Mahley said that, among the U.S. concerns,
was that the treaty did not protect commercially sensitive information.
Countries or competitors could raise unfounded concerns about the creation
of biological weapons, which would result in damage to national security
and expense for private companies.
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- "We simply cannot agree to make ourselves and other
countries subject to such risks when we can find no corresponding benefit
in impeding proliferation efforts around the globe.
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- The 143 nations that have ratified the treaty set a November
target to complete the enforcement provisions.
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- The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
report.
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