Summit sidestepped nuclear disarmament, says Vatican's U.N. nuncio

Published: 2005-09-26

NEW YORK (CNS) -- The Vatican nuncio at the United Nations criticized world leaders for sidestepping the issues of nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation at their mid-September summit. The final document on U.N. reform measures and efforts to alleviate world poverty was silent regarding disarmament and nonproliferation, said Archbishop Celestino Migliore. "Nuclear armament is simply devastating for peoples and the environment," he said Sept. 23 in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Such weapons also drain economic resources that could be better used for peaceful purposes, he added. "We must insist on complete nuclear disarmament" and a stronger system to verify it, he said. The day before, in a talk at a U.N. conference promoting compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the archbishop, without naming them, criticized governments whose failure to sign the treaty is keeping the ban on nuclear testing from taking effect. So far, 175 countries have signed the treaty and 123 countries have ratified it. But the treaty cannot take effect until it is ratified by all 44 countries that possessed nuclear testing capabilities at the time the meeting that drafted the treaty was held in 1996. The United States is one of 11 such countries yet to take action.

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