BY NAOMI CRAINE
Washington is far from gaining consensus from the 173 other governments involved in month-long negotiations at the United Nations on extending the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). The Clinton administration is pushing for an indefinite, unconditional extension of the 25-year-old pact, which allows the U.S. government and four other declared nuclear powers - London, Paris, Beijing, and Moscow - to maintain their nuclear arsenals. Other signatories to the agreement are required to renounce all nuclear weapons.

The governments of Indonesia, Nigeria, Venezuela, and several other countries are arguing instead for extending the treaty for a set period of time, probably 25 years, saying that the states with nuclear bombs have not lived up to promises to reduce their arsenals, share peaceful nuclear technology, and give assurances on the use of nuclear weapons. An indefinite extension would "lead to a permanent division of the world into nuclear haves and have-notes," noted Indonesian foreign minister Izhar Ibrahim. His government chairs the Non-Aligned Movement, which has not taken a formal position on the matter.

The treaty should be extended indefinitely because it "creates a more secure world for all its members," declared U.S. vice president Al Gore at the conference. Washington is the only government to have ever actually used nuclear weapons on human beings when it bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, and it has more of them today than when the NPT went into effect in 1970.

In the weeks before the conference, representatives of the Clinton administration traveled the world trying to drum up votes for the indefinite extension. Gore went to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Oman in late March. Pressing for support for Washington's position, he pledged to the Jordanian government support for writing off Amman's debt to the U.S. government.

Gore's visit to Cairo followed attempts by the U.S. secretary of state, secretary of defense, and other officials to pressure the Egyptian government. But Cairo argued in a meeting of the Arab League that the treaty should not be continued indefinitely while the Israeli regime, which has nuclear weapons, refuses to sign the treaty.

One unresolved question is how the vote on extending the treaty will be carried out. Some of the Third World governments are demanding a secret ballot, while Washington and its backers are pushing for an open vote.

South African foreign minister Alfred Nzo spoke on the third day of the conference. His government "in principle supports the view that the NPT should be extended indefinitely," Nzo said. "There is, however, concern that proper checks and balances should be put in place to ensure that the objectives of the treaty are translated into reality," he added.

"Many countries have, with good reason, been critical about the failures and delays" by the nuclear powers in carrying out their promises, Nzo said. "South Africa therefore believes that a mechanism must be found to address these concerns about the implementation of the treaty."

The South African foreign minister emphasized that "further steps should be taken to accelerate the pace of nuclear disarmament" by Washington and Moscow. "The time may also be right for considering whether the arsenals of the other Nuclear Weapon States should not be included in this process." The South African government "also urges greater transparency on the part of the Nuclear Weapons States," Nzo said.

In 1992, as the mass movement to bring down the apartheid regime surged, the National Party government in South Africa acknowledged that it had a nuclear weapons program, dismantled it, and signed the NPT. "Apartheid South Africa-embarked on a nuclear weapons program. Democratic South Africa sees the international and regional security being achieved by complete nuclear disarmament," Nzo concluded.

In preparation for treaty negotiations, the UN Security Council passed a resolution April 11 with the stated purpose of assuring help to non-nuclear-weapon states that sign the NPT if they come under nuclear attack. This pledge consists primarily of urging other governments "to take appropriate measures in response to a request from the victim for technical, medical, scientific or humanitarian assistance."

Officials of the five "nuclear weapon states" also made statements leading up to the conference that they would not use nukes against non-nuclear signers.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher said April 5, "The United States reaffirms that it will not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states parties to the treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons except in the case of an invasion or any other attack on the United States, its territories, its armed forces or other troops, its allies, or on a state toward which it has a security commitment, carried out or sustained by such a non-nuclear weapon state in association or alliance with a nuclear weapon state."

Beijing was the only government of the five to pledge unconditionally that it will not use nukes first.

In other news, the Cuban government signed on to the Tlatelolco Treaty March 25. The 1967 agreement bans nuclear weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean. Cuban foreign minister Roberto Robaina stressed that Washington, the only nuclear power in the Americas, maintains a hostile policy toward Cuba, including illegally occupying a portion of Cuban territory at the Guantánamo naval base. Through this area, Robaina explained, U.S. vessels pass carrying nuclear weapons. This will have to be resolved, he said, as a condition to the island remaining in the treaty.

"We support a complete ban on nuclear arms as the only way to guarantee long-lasting peace and safety to everyone," Robaina said. "Those who are called upon to honor this principle first are the so-called nuclear powers." Cuba is not a signatory to the NPT, but the talks at the United Nations have gotten coverage in the Cuban media. Cuban officials are attending the NPT conference as observers.  
 
 
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