CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT HEARS STATEMENT FROM COLOMBIA

The Conference on Disarmament this morning heard a general statement from Ambassador Clemencia Forero Ucros of Colombia, in which she reiterated Colombia’s support for Presidential Draft Decision CD/1840, which aims to get the Conference back to substantive work, and highlighted efforts in the fields of combating illicit flows of small arms and light weapons and the use of anti-personnel mines.

Ms. Forero Ucros observed that draft decision CD/1840, which was the result of the efforts undertaken by the Six Presidents of 2007 and 2008, provided continuity to the work of the Conference, as well as an opportunity to make progress in building a consensus which remained difficult, but not impossible, to achieve. On numerous occasions Colombia had displayed its flexibility in supporting different proposals with a view to trying to find a programme of work that would restart this important forum. It was imperative that the Conference on Disarmament go back to its roots, that it exercise its functions as the sole forum for multilateral disarmament negotiations and that it avoid a further deterioration of its credibility.

Turning to another disarmament theme that was of vital importance for Colombia, Ms. Forero Ucros drew attention to the recent holding, from 14 to 18 July 2008, of the Third Biennial Meeting of States in the framework of the United Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, which was attended by representatives of 136 States in New York. The meeting had addressed the issues of cooperation, international assistance and national capacity-building as an independent and cross-cutting theme; an instrument on the marking and tracing of such arms; illegal trafficking; and the management and destruction of stockpiles. After a week of intense debate, a final document was adopted, which reflected the interest of countries in moving forward in the implementation of the Programme of Action and to set up a monitoring mechanism for it. Nationally, Colombia had boldly combated the terrorist acts of illegal armed groups, which acquired vast quantities of weapons on the black market financed by drug money. It was essential that the international community step up its efforts to deal with such non-State actors, whose actions had serious consequences for the civilian population and eroded democratic institutions.

On the issue of anti-personnel mines, Ms. Forero Ucros was proud to announce the launching of a national mine action training programme, which would benefit people in 16 provinces of the country that were affected by those deadly devices. That initiative, launched by the Vice President last week, sought to train people in occupational health; to aid the recovery of the population in situations of emergency or disaster; to provide education to assist victims of anti-personnel mines; to strengthen the social fabric in at-risk areas; and to promote efforts to reduce the risk of anti-personnel mines, among others. The goal was to train 960 officers in the “Community Education Officer” programme. In addition, they aimed to reach out to more than 6,000 persons linked to the productive programmes of the national training service. The graduates would work in the mine-affected regions of Colombia, as well as in the public and the private sector, and in international cooperation efforts. In Colombia there were three victims of anti-personnel mines daily. From 1990 to 14 July 2008, there had been 7,084 victims of anti-personnel mines. Colombia was one of the countries most affected by that scourge because of their use by illegal armed groups on the territory. Colombia would continue to respond to the challenge of implementing the Ottawa Convention.

According to draft decision CD/1840 by the 2008 Presidents of the Conference, the Conference would appoint Chile as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions on nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear war; appoint Japan as Coordinator to preside over negotiations, without any preconditions, on a non-discriminatory and multilateral treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, thus providing all delegations with the opportunity to actively pursue their respective positions and priorities, and to submit proposals on any issue they deem relevant in the course of negotiations; appoint Canada as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions dealing with issues related to prevention of an arms race in outer space; appoint Senegal as Coordinator to preside over substantive discussions dealing with appropriate arrangements to assure non-nuclear weapon States against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons; and would request those Coordinators to present a report to the Conference on the progress of work before the conclusion of the session. The Conference would also decide to request the Coordinators for the agenda items previously appointed by the 2008 Presidents (i.e., new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems for such weapons, radiological weapons; comprehensive programme of disarmament; and transparency in armament) to continue their work during the current session.

Draft Decision CD/1840 builds on an earlier proposal submitted by the 2007 P-6 (CD/2007/L.1), and its related documents CRP.5 and CRP.6, combining those three texts in a single document.


The next plenary meeting of the Conference on Disarmament is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 14 August.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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