UN FIRST COMMITTEE DEBATE CONTINUES *

Views on BG | October 15, 2001, Monday // 00:00

Abstracted from the Associated Press

The United Nations addressed issues on the `stalled` disarmament agenda, small arms trade, anti-personnel mines, as First Committee debate continues.

Petko Draganov (Bulgaria) said that the 11 September attacks on the United States had demonstrated that the menace of terrorism required a vigorous response from the international community, particularly against any possible access terrorists might have to weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism was directed against the very foundations of human civilization and it was up to the whole of humanity to defend its values. Bulgaria was proud to be an active member of the international coalition against terrorism. As a candidate for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union membership, as well as an active Member of the United Nations, his Government had endeavoured to introduce international standard export controls on arms and dual-use goods and technologies. The Government had decreed a list of countries and organizations to which it applied prohibitions or restrictions on the sale and supply of arms and related equipment. The lists effectively implemented the unified European Union list for dual-use goods and technologies, the Wassenaar Arrangement Munitions List. The excessive and destabilizing accumulation and illicit trafficking in small arms, he continued, helped aggravate ethnic and political violence, increased human casualties and suffering, undermined post-conflict rehabilitation and fed terrorism and organized crime. Bulgaria adhered to the efforts of the international community in preventing and combating the illicit trade in those weapons. It was working with a number of partners in that respect, such as the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands and others on a whole range of measures for stockpile management and the destruction of small arms and light weapons. Eliminating the mine threat from Bulgaria had always been a high priority for his country, he said. An important milestone in turning the region into an `anti-personnel mine-free zone` was the agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey on the non-use of those mines, and their removal from or destruction in areas adjacent to the common border. A new step in that direction was the recent decision by the Turkish and Greek Governments to conclude a similar agreement and simultaneously adhere to the Ottawa Convention. By the end of 2000, Bulgaria had demined all its minefields, destroyed its stockpiles of mines and became totally free of anti-personnel mines.

* Title, changed by the Editorial Staff of Breaking News

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