Move against nuclear catastrophe: EAM clueless

The External Affairs Ministry was unaware that a joint statement was being presented to the UN First Committee on the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons use -- as the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in New York had not brought it to the notice of the Ministry, authoritative sources said.

They also said no country had approached or lobbied Sri Lanka to sign the joint statement, which had been endorsed by 155 states — excluding Sri Lanka — and presented

to the First Committee. As it was not a resolution, it was also not listed on the agenda of the First Committee and there had been no indication anywhere that a statement was to be made, the sources added.

On Tuesday, Friday Forum, a civil society group, criticised Sri Lanka’s failure to sign the joint statement, calling it a “glaring lack of principle and consistency”. “In 2013, in the First Committee, a similar statement obtained the signatures of 125 governments,” Friday Forum said in a statement. “Both last year and this year, Sri Lanka refused to sign these statements.” The sources said that there had been no question of Sri Lanka “refusing to sign the statements” but that the information had not been conveyed to Colombo by the mission in New York.

Friday Forum also condemned the failure by the Sri Lankan Government to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). “Opposition to weapons of mass destruction in general, and nuclear weapons in particular, has been a well-known position in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy,” it said. “Previous Governments signed and ratified the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT); the Outer Space Treaty banning the placement of nuclear weapons in outer space, and the Seabed Treaty banning the placement of nuclear weapons on the seabed and ocean floor.”

“The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has been signed, but the present Government is inexplicably holding off on its ratification, which fortunately does not affect the entry into force of the Treaty,” it observed.

The joint statement issued at the UN by the 155 states led by New Zealand warns humankind yet again that, “It is in the interest of the very survival of humanity that nuclear weapons are never used again, under any circumstances. The catastrophic effects of a nuclear weapon detonation, whether by accident, miscalculation or design, cannot be adequately addressed”.