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236 美国否决一项禁止生物武器的提案
US Calls Bio Weapons Proposal 'Flawed'
Lisa Schlein
Geneva
25 Jul 2001 17:28 UTC
The United States has rejected a proposal that is designed to strengthen a treaty that bans biological and 1)toxin weapons. A U.S. 2)representative told 3)delegates at a final negotiating session that the draft agreement is flawed and would not 4)enhance security.
The U.S. chief negotiator on biological weapons, Donald Mahley, told delegates that the proposed change to the Biological Weapons Convention, or BWC, is not strong enough to make sure that countries are not secretly making biological weapons. Therefore, he said, the United States will not enable to support the current text. "The draft protocol will not improve our ability to verify BWC (Biological Weapons Convention) compliance," Mr. Mahley said. "It will not enhance our confidence in 5)compliance and will do little to deter those countries seeking to develop biological weapons. In our 6)assessment, the draft protocol would put national security and confidential business information at risk."
The draft 7)protocol has been under negotiation for nearly seven years. Its goal is to work out a system to verify and monitor compliance with the 1972 biological weapons treaty. It calls for inspection of sites suspected of developing these weapons, without 8)interfering with legitimate biological industries.
But U.S. Ambassador Mahley said the treaty would not protect commercially sensitive information. He said the United States would develop other ideas and different approaches that it believed would 9)result in a stronger, more effective agreement.
The United States is 10)virtually alone in rejecting the proposal. Over the past couple of days, more than 50 countries have urged support for the agreement. Mr. Mahley acknowledged that the U.S. decision is not a popular one. "I do not expect that the other countries involved in this negotiation are going to leap with joy that six and a half years worth of work is not going to come to 11)fruition." Mr. Mahley said.
Graham Pearson is a visiting professor of international security at the University of Bradford in Britain. He said that the United States, in rejecting the proposal, took a position that differed completely from one it has held for more than a decade. He said the proposal strengthens the ability of nations to counter the spread of biological weapons. He said the U.S. decision essentially kills the agreement. "They are sending the message that the international community does not care about biological weapons," Mr. Pearson says. "And, I fear that that would result in somebody using them to cause 12)immense harm. The use of disease as a weapon of war to 13)deliberately attack humans, animals, or plants is absolutely 14)horrendous. It has huge humanitarian consequences. And the United States should realize that it is making a huge mistake. It should reconsider its position."
Negotiators will be spending the next month in 15)finalizing the draft protocol. It is supposed to be reviewed at a conference in November. In light of the U.S. decision, many observers see this as an exercise in futility.
(1) toxin[5tRksIn]n.[生化][生]毒素
(2) representative[reprI5zentEtIv]n.代表adj.典型的, 有代表性的
(3) delegate[5delI^Et]n.代表vt.委派...为代表
(4) enhance[In5hB:ns; (?@) In5hAns]vt.提高, 增强v.提高
(5) compliance[kEm5plaIEns]n.依从, 顺从
(6) assessment[E5sesmEnt]n.估价, 被估定的金额
(7) protocol[5prEJtEkRl; (?@) -kC:l]n.草案, 协议
(8) interfering[9IntE`fIErIN]vbl.妨碍
(9) result in v.导致
(10) virtually[5v:tjJElI]adv.事实上, 实质上
(11) fruition[fru:5IF(E)n]n.享用, 结果实, 成就, 实现
(12) immense[I5mens]adj.极广大的, 无边的
(13) deliberately[dI5lIbErEtlI]adv.故意地
(14) horrendous[hE5rendEs]adj.可怕的
(15) finalize[5faInElaIz]v.把(计划,稿件等)最后定下来, 定案
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