U.S. Rejects Plan To Enforce Germ Warfare Ban

The U.S. officially rejected a proposed international plan for enforcing a ban on using germs as a weapon of war. In a speech to the 24th special drafting committee in Geneva, Washington`s representative Ambassador Donald Mahley said that ``the draft protocol would put the national security and confidential business information at risk.`` He added that ``even if the draft protocol goes through multiple revisions, in our assessment, we won’t be able to have the results we want.``

The AP pointed out that the U.S. is maintaining a policy that may bring an international isolation on itself through the rejection of a draft protocol to ban the use of germs as a weapon, following the rejection of the ban on the ground torpedo in 1994, the rejection of the Senate`s ratification of a ban on nuclear test in 1999, and the withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol to limit the emission of so-called greenhouse gasses.

Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) agreed in 1972 bans the development, production, and possession of biological weapons such as toxin gas and germ weapons. 143 nations, including South Korea ratified the pact. However, as it was pointed out that the BTWC could not be forcefully enforced, the agreed nations have prepared the draft proposal through 6-year-long negotiations since 1995. The final adoption of the pact will be decided by a vote in the fifth review meeting of the BTWC, which will be held in November.

Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the UN, said on Wednesday at the statement that ``the BTWC is the first pact agreed by the majority in history to ban the whole category of the weapons of mass killing. We hope that the special drafting committee will resolve the differences in the core issue to agree on the draft proposal before the review meeting.``

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