Clinton Stresses Urgency Of Chemical Weapons Ban

With help from top Republicans and Democrats from administrations past and present, President Clinton began a public campaign Friday for Senate approval of a global chemical weapons ban treaty.

Speaking at an outdoor White House event that had the flavor of a political rally, Clinton warned that if the Senate fails to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention, the United States will “go from leading the world to joining the company of pariah nations” that the pact seeks to isolate.

Clinton has made it a priority to move a treaty that has been stalled in the Senate since 1993 and faces an April 29 deadline.

To stress the urgency for ratification, Clinton assembled a bipartisan coalition of supporters including Republicans such as retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft and former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas.

Negotiated under former Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush, the treaty bans the use of chemical weapons in combat and prohibits the development, production, purchase or stockpiling of the lethal weapons.

An international monitoring agency would be created with inspectors authorized to check chemical weapons sites and industrial facilities.

The treaty, which has been signed by 161 countries and ratified by 70 so far, will go into effect April 29 with or without the United States. If the Senate does not act on the treaty by then, the United States will not have a role in the monitoring agency.

But critics, led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., contend that the treaty is unenforceable, cannot be verified and won’t stop countries such as Libya and Iraq from producing chemical weapons.

Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would hold hearings on the bill next week.

Through conferences with Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Helms said he had resolved 21 of 30 objections to the treaty. But Friday, Helms said he was anything but ready to approve the pact.

“We will not participate in creating a false sense of security among the American people,” he said.

James Baker said, “The suggestion that George Bush and Ronald Reagan would negotiate a treaty detrimental to this nation’s security is outrageous.”