US DEPARTMENT OF STATE DISPATCH
VOLUME 6, NUMBER 36, SEPTEMBER 4, 1995
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS


ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE:
1.  Tribute to U.S. Peace Delegation to Bosnia-Herzegovina--
President Clinton, Secretary Christopher

2.  Health Care Security for Women and Girls: An International Priority-
- First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton

3.  NGO Forum: Advancing the Progress of Women--First Lady Hillary 
Rodham Clinton

4.  Fourth World Conference on Women: U.S. Efforts To Promote Equal 
Rights for Women--Madeleine K. Albright

5.  Recent Developments in U.S.-Russian Cooperation in Nuclear Materials 
Security and Warhead Dismantlement--James E. Goodby



ARTICLE 1:

Tribute to U.S. Peace Delegation to Bosnia-Herzegovina
President Clinton, Secretary Christopher

President Clinton
Statement released by the White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, August 19, 1995.

I am deeply saddened by the deaths today of three dedicated Americans, 
serving the cause of peace, near Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. We have 
confirmed reports that Ambassador Robert Frasure, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, Dr. Joseph J. 
Kruzel, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO 
Affairs, and Air Force Col. Samuel Nelson Drew, a member of the National 
Security Council staff, were killed this morning in a crash of their 
military vehicle on the way to Sarajevo. Two other members of the 
delegation were injured. These men were part of an American team 
searching for an end to the conflict there. That effort will continue.

In addition, one French soldier was killed, and two were injured. The 
three were part of the team escorting the delegation. I also want to 
thank the Government of France and the United Nations Protection Force 
for their extraordinary efforts to care for the casualties.

My heartfelt sympathy is extended to the Frasure, Kruzel, and Drew 
families. In honor of their sacrifice, I have directed that our nation's 
flags be lowered. Their loved ones were engaged in the greatest cause of 
all--the search for peace. As the scripture tells us, "Blessed are the 
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."


Secretary Christopher
Statement released by the Office of the Department Spokesman, 
Washington, DC, August 19, 1995.

I am shocked and saddened by the tragic death of my colleague and 
friend, Ambassador Robert Frasure and two other American officials. As 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs 
and Special Envoy to Bosnia, Bob Frasure's critical role in shaping a 
diplomatic solution to the Balkan conflict was recognized and respected 
by President Clinton, his U.S. Government colleagues, and leaders 
throughout Europe.

I worked closely and met constantly with Bob in responding to this 
delicate and demanding challenge. The peace plan that our delegation was 
pursuing this past week drew heavily on the wisdom and experience of Bob 
Frasure, who helped shape its elements and gave all his energy to 
fulfilling its promise.

I consider Bob Frasure to have been one of the most dedicated and 
courageous public servants with whom I have ever had the privilege of 
working. I benefited personally from his sharp insight and wise counsel 
and grew to admire his judgment and enjoy his sense of humor. My State 
Department colleagues and I will miss him greatly. Our prayers go out to 
his wife Katharina and his daughters Sarah and Virginia.

I am also deeply saddened by the deaths of Dr. Joseph Kruzel, Deputy 
Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Affairs and Col. 
Samuel Nelson Drew of the National Security Council staff. Both were 
superb public servants who made important contributions to this mission 
of peace.

I also want to express my condolences and regret to the Government and 
people of France for the death of one French peacekeeper, and serious 
injuries to two others, in the same accident. France has once again 
earned our gratitude not only for its immediate response to today's 
accident, but for its continuing participation in UNPROFOR and 
humanitarian relief efforts in Bosnia.

As President Clinton has already made clear, the United States' effort 
will continue. We are determined to press forward to find a diplomatic 
solution to this tragic conflict.


Secretary Christopher
Remarks upon the arrival of the remains of Deputy Assistant Secretary of 
State Robert C. Frasure, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph J. 
Kruzel, and Col. Samuel Nelson Drew of the National Security Council 
from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Washington, DC, August 21, 1995.

Members of the Frasure, Kruzel, and Drew families, distinguished guests, 
and friends: It is with great sorrow that we gather today to bring home 
Bob Frasure, Joe Kruzel, and Nelson Drew. These three dedicated 
Americans lived their lives in the service of their country and in the 
pursuit of peace. They gave their lives in a noble effort to save the 
lives of others. We share in the grief of their families and friends, 
just as we shared in their common purpose.

These men remind us that the pursuit of American interests and 
principles in the world is not an abstraction. It cannot be accomplished 
by high technology or whirring computers. It depends upon superb 
individuals like Bob Frasure, Joe Kruzel, and Nelson Drew. Whether it 
was working long hours in Washington or shuttling back and forth from 
one capital to another or entering a zone of high danger, they did what 
had to be done.

I want to say a special word about Bob Frasure, who was an irreplaceable 
colleague and a valued friend. For two decades Bob lived his life in the 
best tradition of the Foreign Service. That time-honored phrase--"the 
best tradition of the Foreign Service"--is rich with content at a moment 
like this. For Bob it meant a life of selfless service to others--from 
South Africa to Ethiopia to Estonia and, finally, to Bosnia. It meant 
accepting without cavil or complaint the most difficult and dangerous 
assignments which come, it seems, to the best people as a paradoxical 
reward for their excellence. Our Foreign Service produces people like 
Bob more often than most Americans would realize.

Bob was a devoted husband and father as he contributed to his important 
foreign policy responsibilities. I pay tribute to him and to our Service 
as he returns home from this tragic mission. My prayers go out to his 
wife Katharina and to his daughters Sarah and Virginia. I benefited from 
every moment I spent with Bob--from his experience, from his judgment, 
and from his sense of humor. In the hours since 4:00 a.m. PDT last 
Saturday morning, my thoughts have been filled with the brilliant and 
colorful epigrams that made Bob's presentations so effective. I vividly 
remember calling on him recently without a moment's warning at a meeting 
of 16 foreign ministers, who very soon were under his brilliant sway.

The peace plan that our delegation was pursuing this last week drew 
heavily on Bob's insight and on his wisdom. He helped shape its 
elements, and he gave all his energies to fulfilling its promise.

The loss of Bob and Joe and Nelson is a terrible blow, but the effort to 
bring peace to Bosnia will continue--and with a renewed sense of 
commitment, we will honor their sacrifice by striving to complete their 
work. One day the shells will stop falling in Bosnia, the minefields 
will be cleared, and the terrible cycle of needless violence and death 
in Bosnia will finally come to an end. When it does, it will be due to 
devoted peacemakers like Bob and Joe and Nelson, and to their colleagues 
who survived, especially Dick Holbrooke and Gen. Wes Clark. It will be 
due to their spirit of service.

A half-century ago, Dean Acheson captured that spirit of service. He 
described the people who serve our country abroad as "giving their whole 
lives to the United States--competent, courageous, devoted." Some, he 
said, were serving in areas of "hot" war where bombs were dropping and 
bullets were flying; others were serving where dangers to health were as 
great as bullets. They knew their duty, and they did it.

That spirit is exemplified by these three Americans. It lives on in the 
Foreign Service and all the branches of our government. We rededicate 
ourselves to it today at this melancholy moment. We pledge ourselves to 
carry on in the footsteps of these three distinguished Americans, 
following their example toward the goal that they did so much to bring 
within our reach. 


Secretary Christopher
Eulogy at the funeral service for Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 
Robert C. Frasure, Ft. Myer, Virginia, August 22, 1995.

We are gathered today to mourn the death of a brave American diplomat 
and a cherished friend. As with all of us here, I share deeply in the 
sorrow of his wife, Katharina, and his daughters Sarah and Virginia. But 
as we mourn, we come together to keep alive that spirit that gave his 
life such meaning.

Bob's family is as remarkable as he was. Katharina is an accomplished 
teacher in the fields of mathematics and science. Sarah and Virginia, by 
all accounts, are not only charming but brilliant, fluent in German and 
French as well as English. There was no American school in Tallinn, 
Estonia, where Bob was Ambassador, and so Katharina simply undertook 
their education at home, teaching all the courses with only a little 
help from a French tutor. When Sarah and Virginia returned to Falls 
Church, they tested at the top of the classes. How many of us could have 
done as Katharina did? Not many.

I want to speak for a few moments about the part of Bob's life I knew 
best: the rich and full life of a public servant who was devoted to the 
service of his country and its ideals. Over the last few days, I have 
marveled at the places Bob served and the challenges he undertook: 
Namibia, Angola, Ethiopia, South Africa, Estonia, and, of course, 
Bosnia. This is not merely a list of exotic place names; it is a measure 
of the respect that successive Secretaries and Presidents have had for 
Bob's judgment, determination, and courage. These were among the most 
difficult and dangerous assignments a diplomat could be given; they 
represented some of the most intractable problems in the world. As I 
said yesterday, the way life works is that the best people, like Bob, 
get the toughest assignments. Maybe it's those experiences that make 
them the best people.

When we are confronted by bloodshed and hatred and war, as Bob was so 
many times, it seems to me that we can respond in one of three ways. 
First, we can choose the easy satisfaction of taking sides and lashing 
out, or, as Bob liked to put it, "taking a bat to a beehive." Second, we 
can choose to walk away and wash our hands. Or third, we can make the 
choice that Bob made every time: to persevere until a solution is found.

Part of Bob's legacy can be seen in the solutions he helped find. There 
was the breakthrough diplomacy that made it possible for 15,000 
Ethiopian Jews to emigrate to Israel. There was the successful end to 
the Ethiopian civil war--something that would not have happened when and 
how it did without Bob's ingenuity and skill. There was the resolution 
of a generation of conflict in Southwestern Africa. There was the 
agreement to withdraw Russian troops from Estonia, one of the great 
achievements of post-Cold War diplomacy. In each case, those involved 
owe Bob a debt of gratitude. When the ugly war in Bosnia finally ends, a 
great many more people will owe Bob that same debt.

When future generations look back on these disparate events, they may 
try to explain them by pointing to great historical forces and trends. 
They will be partly right. But to get the whole truth, they will have to 
tell the story of a remarkable American diplomat who took risks and 
found ways to move forward. Bob was tenacious. Perhaps that can be 
traced back to his youth in West Virginia. As he used to say, "if 
someone told you to go chase a cow, you never quit until you brought the 
cows home."

One of his achievements as Ambassador to Estonia was a new language 
program in a town called Sillamae that helps ethnic Russians to find a 
place in Estonian society. That was just a small innovation--not the 
stuff of headlines or history--yet just the kind of effort that builds 
bridges and lifts lives over the long run. When you strip away the 
abstractions, that is what good diplomacy is all about. It is surely one 
of the things Bob was all about.

Bob was one of the finest officers I ever knew. He had that 
indispensable quality called leadership that enabled him to tell people 
things they didn't want to hear and make them accept it--even like it. 
In more than two decades of service, he touched countless lives at the 
State Department. He managed to inject warmth into everything he did, 
with never a hint of pomposity or self-importance. He had a wonderful 
way of picking people up when things weren't going well. "Come on pal," 
he would say to his colleagues, "we can do this."

With his exceptional talent, Bob could quickly integrate large volumes 
of material and produce a trenchant synthesis. Many in this room will 
not soon forget his efficient and earthy telegrams. He was the master of 
the metaphor. One day, reviewing our options in the Balkans, he said 
that as in river rafting, we need to figure out "which waterfall we are 
going over."

He was a man of great accomplishment but little visible ego. He 
commanded great respect and enormous affection. He had a sort of world-
weary sense of humor and a rare sense of honor. Our memory of Bob will 
inspire us to do better and to strive harder to reach the goals to which 
he dedicated his life. And I promise we will keep at it until we bring 
the cows home. 


President Clinton
Remarks at memorial service for Deputy Assistant Secretary of State 
Robert C. Frasure, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph J. 
Kruzel, and Col. Samuel Nelson Drew of the National Security Council, 
Fort Myer, Virginia, August 23, 1995.

My fellow Americans, distinguished members of the diplomatic corps; most 
importantly, to the family, the friends, the colleagues, the loved ones 
of Robert Frasure, Joseph Kruzel, and Nelson Drew: Today we gather to 
honor three peacemakers who gave their lives seeking for others the 
blessings we Americans hold dear and too often take for granted--the 
opportunity to work and to dream, to raise our children to live and to 
love in a land of peace.

When I named Robert Frasure Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia, a 
key United States representative in seeking solutions to modern 
diplomacy's most difficult challenge--ending the bloodshed and bringing 
peace in the Balkans--he had already made diplomacy the steady 
dedication of a lifetime. He earned, justifiably, a reputation as a man 
for all crises, and many, many people around this world from Ethiopia to 
Estonia have better lives because of his superb work.

Joseph Kruzel put his mind to the test of creating lasting security in a 
world that has known too much war. Besides his outstanding work in 
Bosnia, he led the Pentagon's efforts on critical issues of NATO 
enlargement and the reintegration of Eastern Europe into the West after 
the Cold War. His service to our country spans 28 years--from an Air 
Force officer in Vietnam, to work on SALT I, to being a major force in 
bringing the nations of Europe into the Partnership for Peace. The world 
is a more secure place because of his dedication.

Col. Nelson Drew was a soldier, a scholar, a teacher, and a gentleman. 
He was trained to fight war. But in more than 20 years of service as an 
Air Force officer, he gave his heart and soul to the search for peace. 
He was largely responsible for investing the military and diplomatic 
initiatives of our nation and Bosnia with a coherent design. And he was 
universally respected for his knowledge, his negotiating skills, his 
strategic thinking about the future of NATO and Europe after the Cold 
War. The White House and the nation are better for his service.

Bob, Joe, and Nelson each represented the finest qualities of American 
citizenship. For their service and their sacrifice in the cause of peace 
and freedom, it is my honor on this day to award them each the 
President's Citizen Medal.

Let me say to Katharina Frasure and Sarah and Virginia; to Gail Kruzel 
and John and Sarah; Sandy Drew and Samantha and Philip; and to all your 
other family members here: The American people mourn your loss and share 
your grief. America is profoundly grateful for the work your husbands 
and fathers did to make the world a better place.

I hope you will always remember--along with the personal memories you 
shared with me just a few moments ago--the pride they took in their 
calling and the passion they brought to the search for peace. And I hope 
that always--always--you will be very proud.

They were extraordinary Americans who made reason their weapon, freedom 
their cause, and peace their goal. Bob, Joe, and Nelson were in Bosnia 
because they were moved by the terrible injustice and suffering there. 
And they were there because they believed it could and must be changed. 
The sorrow we feel here reminds us of the suffering Bob, Joe, and Nelson 
sought to ease there.

So as we praise these men--Robert Frasure, Joseph Kruzel, and Nelson 
Drew--quiet American heroes who gave their lives so that others might 
know a future of hope and a land of peace, let us resolve to carry on 
their struggle with the strength, determination, and caring they brought 
to their families, their work, and their very grateful nation.

May God bless their memories and lift up their souls. 

(###)



ARTICLE 2:

Health Care Security for Women and Girls: An International Priority
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks to the World Health Organization Forum on Women and Health 
Security, Beijing, China, September 5, 1995

Dr. Nakajima, Dr. Sadik, Gertude Mongella, delegates to the Fourth UN 
Conference on Women, and guests from all corners of the world: I am 
honored to be here this morning among women and men who are committed to 
improving the health of women and girls everywhere. I commend the World 
Health Organization--WHO--for making women's health a top priority and 
for establishing the Global Commission on Women's Health.

I am proud that in the preparatory meetings for this Fourth World 
Conference on Women, the United States took the lead in highlighting the 
importance of a comprehensive approach to women's health. That approach 
builds on actions taken at previous women's conferences and at the 
recent conferences in Cairo and Copenhagen, whose goals to promote the 
health and well-being of all people were endorsed by 180 nations.

Cairo was particularly significant as governmental and non-governmental 
participants worked together to craft a Program for Action which, among 
other things, calls for universal access to good-quality reproductive 
health care services, including safe, effective, voluntary family 
planning; greater access to education and health care; more 
responsibility on the part of men in sexual and reproductive health and 
childbearing; and reduction of wasteful resource consumption.

Here at this conference, improving girls' and women's health is a 
priority of the draft Platform for Action. It includes such goals as: 

--  Access to universal primary health care for all people--a goal not 
yet achieved in many countries, including my own; 
--  The promotion of breast feeding;
--  The provision of safe drinking water and sanitation; 
--  Research in and attention to women's health issues, including 
environmental hazards, prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually 
transmitted diseases;
--  Encouragement for adolescents to postpone sexual activity and 
childbearing; and 
--  Discouragement of cultural traditions and customs that deny food and 
health care to girls and women.

Goals such as these illustrate a new commitment to the well-being of 
girls and women and a belief in their rights to live up to their own 
God-given potentials.

At long last, people and their governments everywhere are beginning to 
understand that investing in the health of women and girls is as 
important to the prosperity of nations as investing in the development 
of open markets and trade. The health of women and girls cannot be 
divorced from progress on other economic and social issues.

Scientists, doctors, nurses, community leaders, and women themselves are 
working to improve and safeguard the health of women and families all 
over the world. If we join together as a global community, we can lift 
up the health and dignity of all women and their families in the 
remaining years of the 20th century and on into the next millennium.

Yet, for all the promise the future holds, we also know that many 
barriers lay in our way. For too long, women have been denied access to 
health care, education, economic opportunities, legal protection, and 
human rights--all of which are used as building blocks for a healthy and 
productive life.

In too many places today, the health of women and families is 
compromised by inadequate, inaccessible, and unaffordable medical care, 
lack of sanitation, unsafe drinking water, poor nutrition, insufficient 
research and education about women's health issues, and coercive and 
abusive sexual practices.

In too many places, the status of women's health is a picture of human 
suffering and pain. The faces in that picture are of girls and women 
who, but for the grace of God or the accident of birth, could be us or 
one of our sisters, mothers, or daughters.

Today, at least 15% of pregnant women suffer life-threatening 
complications and more than half a million women around the world die in 
childbirth. Most of these deaths could be prevented with basic, primary 
reproductive and emergency obstetric health care. In some places, there 
are 175,000 motherless children for every 1 million families. Many of 
those children don't survive. Of those who do, many are recruited into a 
life of exploitation on the streets of our world's cities, subjected 
daily to abuse, indignity, disease, and the specter of early death.

There must be a renewed commitment to improving maternal health. In 
1987, the WHO launched a Safe Motherhood Initiative to halve maternal 
mortality by the year 2000. To reach that goal, more attention must be 
paid to emergency medical care as well as to primary prenatal care. 
Providing emergency obstetric care is a relatively cheap way of saving 
lives--and along with family planning services, is among the most cost-
effective interventions in even the poorest of countries.

The commitment of the WHO and its Global Commission on Women's Health to 
make childbearing and childbirth a safe and healthy period of every 
woman's life deserves action on the part of every nation represented 
here.

About 100 million women cannot obtain or are not using family planning 
services because they are poor, uneducated, or lack access to care. Of 
these, 20 million women will seek unsafe abortions--some will die; some 
will be disabled for life. A growing number of unwanted pregnancies are 
occurring among young women barely beyond childhood themselves. As we 
know, when children have children, the chance of schooling, jobs, and 
good health is reduced for both parent and child, and our progress as a 
human family takes another step back.

The Cairo document recognizes "the basic right of all couples and 
individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing, and 
timing of their children and to have the information and means to do 
so." Women should have the right to health care that will enable them to 
go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide them with the 
best chance of having a healthy infant. Women and men must also have the 
right to make those most intimate of all decisions free of 
discrimination, coercion, and violence--particularly any coercive 
practices that force women into abortions or sterilizations.

On these issues, the U.S. supports the provisions in the Beijing 
Platform for Action that reaffirm consensus language that was agreed to 
at the Cairo Conference about a year ago. It declared that "in no case 
should abortion be promoted as a method of family planning." The 
Platform asks governments "to strengthen their commitment to women's 
health, to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major 
public health concern, and to reduce the recourse to abortion through 
expanded and improved family planning services."

Violence against women remains a leading cause of death among girls and 
women between the ages of 14 and 44--violence from ethnic and religious 
conflicts, crime in the streets, and brutality in the home. For women 
who survive the violence, what often awaits them is a life of 
unrelenting physical and emotional pain that destroys their capacity for 
mothering, homemaking, or working, and can lead to substance abuse and 
even suicide.

Violence against girls and women goes beyond the beatings, rapes, 
killings, and forced prostitution that arise from poverty, wars, and 
domestic conflicts. Every day, more than 5,000 young girls are forced to 
endure the brutal practice of genital mutilation. The procedure is 
painful and life-threatening. It is degrading, and it is a violation of 
the physical integrity of the woman's body--leaving a lifetime of 
physical and emotional scars.

HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted diseases threaten more and more 
women. Experts predict that by the end of this decade more than half of 
the people in the world with HIV will be women. AIDS, which threatens 
whole families and regions, demands the strongest possible response. 
Governments and the international community must address head-on the 
growing number of women who are being infected.

More than 700,000 women worldwide face breast cancer each year; over 
300,000 die of it. It is the leading cause of death for women in their 
prime in the developed world. In the time I speak to you today, 25 women 
around the world will die of breast cancer. In my own country, it is 
hard to find a family, an office, or a neighborhood that has not been 
touched by this disease. My mother-in-law struggled against breast 
cancer for four years before losing her battle. Tobacco use is the 
number one preventable cause of death. Ninety percent of women who smoke 
began to smoke as adolescents--leading to high rates of heart disease, 
cancer, and chronic lung disease later in life.

As the WHO points out, we also need to recognize and effectively address 
the fact that women are far more likely to be exposed to work-related 
and environmental health hazards. Policies to alleviate and eliminate 
such health hazards associated with work in the home and in the 
workplace demand action.

Research also indicates that certain communicable diseases affect women 
in greater numbers. Tuberculosis, for example, is responsible for the 
deaths of  1 million women each year, and those in their early and 
reproductive years are most vulnerable. When health-care systems around 
the world don't work for women; when our mothers, daughters, sisters, 
friends, and co-workers are denied access to quality care because they 
are poor, do not have health insurance, or simply because they are 
women, it is not just their health that is put at risk--it is the health 
of their families and communities as well.

Like many nations, the United States brings to this conference a serious 
commitment to improving women's health. We bring with us a series of 
initiatives which represent the first steps to carrying out this 
conference's Platform for Action.

-- We are continuing to work for health care reform to ensure that every 
citizen has access to affordable, quality care.

-- We are proposing a comprehensive and coordinated plan to reduce 
smoking by children and adolescents by 50%.

-- We are working to address the many factors that contribute to teenage 
pregnancy--our most serious social problem--by encouraging abstinence 
and personal responsibility on the part of young men and women, 
improving access to health care and family planning services, and 
supporting health education in our schools.

-- We are pursuing a public policy agenda on HIV/AIDS that is specific 
to women, adolescents, and children. We are continuing to fund and 
conduct contraceptive research and development. We are addressing the 
health needs of women through the following initiatives.

--The National Action Plan on Breast Cancer--a public, private 
partnership working with all agencies of government, the media, 
scientific organizations, advocacy groups, and industry to advance 
breast health and eradicate breast cancer as a threat to the lives of 
American women.

--An expansion of the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early 
Detection Program, which will ensure that women who need regular 
screening and detection services have access to them--and that those 
services meet quality standards.

--The inclusion of women in clinical trials for research and testing or 
drugs or other interventions that probe specific differences between men 
and women in patterns of disease and reactions to therapy.

--The special health care needs of older women will be addressed through 
educational campaigns about osteoporosis, cancer, and other diseases.

--The United States is conducting the largest clinical research study 
ever undertaken to examine the major causes of death, disability, and 
frailty in post-menopausal women.

Women's health security must be a priority of all people and governments 
working together. Without good health, a woman's God-given potential can 
never be realized. And without healthy women, the world's potential can 
never be realized.

So let us join together to ensure that every little boy and girl that 
comes into our world is healthy and wanted; that every young woman has 
the education and economic opportunity to live a healthy life; and that 
every woman has access to the health care she needs throughout her life 
to fulfill her potential in her family, her work, and her community. If 
we care about the futures of our daughters, our sons, and the 
generations that will follow them, we can do nothing less.

Thank you for the work you do every day to bring better health to the 
women, children, and families of this world. Thank you for helping 
governments and citizens around the world to understand that we cannot 
talk about equality and social development without also talking about 
health care.  Most of all, thank you for being part of this historic and 
vital discussion, which holds so much promise for our  future.  

(###)



ARTICLE 3:

NGO Forum: Advancing the Progress of Women
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
Remarks to the Non-governmental Organizations Forum on Women, Huairou, 
China,  September 6, 1995

Thank you; thank you so much. I feel so much at home and so much a part 
of this group. I only wish that in addition to the enthusiasm and 
interest amongst all of the NGOs who are gathered here, the weather had 
been more cooperative this morning, and I greatly regret that we were 
forced to move this occasion indoors in order to avoid any of us 
drowning out there. I am very sorry that not everyone who wished to be 
with us this morning was able to get in. I hope all of you will convey 
my personal regrets to anyone who was turned away or disappointed 
because of the size of this auditorium. 

It is a great pleasure for me to be here, and I want to start by 
thanking Supatra and Irene for their leadership in this extraordinary 
and historic enterprise. I also what to thank all of you who are here, 
because I know from looking at the lists of people who have come--of 
knowing personally many of the Americans who have come--that in this 
auditorium and at this forum, there are thousands and thousands of women 
and men who every day work to make lives better in their communities for 
all people. That is the greatest contribution any one of us is able to 
make, and that is why the United States and many other countries so 
strongly support the efforts of NGOs and have worked very hard to ensure 
that NGOs could participate in this forum. 

As many of you know, our government and other governments recognize the 
important role that NGOs play in policy and planning, in development and 
implementation, and in monitoring programs that advance the progress of 
women. I wanted to come here to Huairou to salute you for your 
dedication to a cause greater than all of us. I know that many of you 
went to great efforts to be here. I know many were kept from attending 
this forum. I know that for many of you who did get here, getting here 
was far from easy. Many of you did not even know until the last minute 
that you would be permitted to travel here, and others bore great 
personal expense in order to come. In addition to the weather, which is 
not in anyone's control and is always unpredictable, I know that you 
have had to endure severe frustrations here as you have pursued your 
work--and I also want to say a special word on behalf of women with 
disabilities who have faced particularly challenging [inaudible]. But I 
mostly want to thank you for your perseverance, because you did not give 
up; you did not stay away; you are here, and the fact that you are will 
make a difference in the days and months and years to come; and because 
even though you may not be physically present in Beijing at the 
conference during these 10 days, the wisdom that is accumulated here, 
the experience, the energy, the ideas are on full display. Thanks to 
your resourcefulness, your tenacity, your sense of purpose, and your 
spirit, you are playing an important role in this conference, and you 
will be the key players in determining whether or not this conference 
goes beyond rhetoric and actually does something to improve the lives of 
women and children. 

As I said yesterday, the faces of the women who are here mirror the 
faces of the millions and millions who are not. It is our 
responsibility--those of us who have been able to attend this conference 
and this NGO Forum--to make sure that the voices that go unheard will be 
heard. This conference is about making sure that women--their children, 
their families--have the opportunities for health care and education, 
for jobs and political participation, for lives free of violence, for 
basic legal protections, and yes, for internationally recognized human 
rights no matter where they are or where they live. 

Time and time again, we have seen that it is NGOs who are responsible 
for making progress in any society. Some of us never knew we were NGOs 
20 and 25 and 30 years ago; that was not even a phrase that any of us 
had ever heard. We were people working together on behalf of all of 
those rights which we care about and hold dear. But when one looks at 
the progress that has been made throughout the world, it is clear that 
it is the NGOs who have charted real advances for women and children. It 
is the NGOs who have pressured governments and have led governments down 
the path to economic, social, and political progress, often in the face 
of overwhelming hostility. Again, NGOs have persevered, just as you have 
by coming here and staying here and participating in this forum. What 
will be important as we end the forum and the conference at the end of 
this week is that it will be NGOs who will hold governments to the 
commitments that they make. And it is important that the final Platform 
for Action that is adopted be distilled down into words that every 
woman--no matter where she lives or how much education she has--can 
understand. I think we should want every woman, no matter where she is, 
to believe that there are women all over the world who care about her 
health, who want her children to be educated, who want her to have the 
dignity and respect that she deserves to have. 

When I think of the faces that I have seen in my own country, when I 
think of the women who do not have health care because they cannot 
afford it in the United States of America, when I think particularly of 
a woman I met in New Orleans, Louisiana, who told me that because she 
did not have enough money she was told by physicians--there in our 
country--that they would not do anything about the lump in her breast 
but would merely wait and watch, because if she had insurance she would 
have been sent to a surgeon--I think about the woman I met in a village 
outside Lahore, Pakistan, who had 10 children--five boys and five girls 
and was struggling as hard as she could to make sure her girls were 
educated and wanted help to get that job done. I think of the faces of 
the beautiful women I met at SEWA--the Self-Employed Women's Association 
in India. All of them had walked miles and miles--some of them for 12 
and 15 hours to get to our meeting together. I listened as they stood up 
and told me what it had meant for the first time in their lives--they 
having little money of their own--that they could buy their own 
vegetable carts; they could buy their own thread and materials so that 
they could make income for themselves and their families. 

I think of the women in the village in Bangladesh--a village of 
untouchables. I think of how those women, who were Hindus, invited to 
their village for my visit women from the neighboring village, who were 
Moslems. I think of how those women sat together under a lean-to--Hindus 
and Moslems together in one of the poorest countries of the world--but 
so many of those women telling me what their lives had been changed to 
because they had become borrowers that were now part of the Grameen Bank 
microenterprise effort. I think particularly of the play that their 
children put on for me--a play in which the children acted out the 
refusal by a family to let a girl child go to school and how, finally, 
through efforts undertaken by the mother and the sister, the father 
agreed that the child could go to school. Then further down the road 
from that village, I stood and watched families coming to receive food 
supplements in return for keeping their girl children in school. 

Those are the kinds of women and experiences that happen throughout the 
world--whether one talks about my country or any country. Women are 
looking for the support and encouragement they need to do what they can 
for their own lives and the lives of their children and the lives of 
their families. The only way this conference will make a difference to 
these women is if the results of the conference are taken and distilled 
down into one page perhaps, which states basic principles that you and I 
would perhaps debate and understand but may not be easily communicated. 
If that is done, then  carry that message into every corner of the world 
so there can be sharing of experiences. When I came home from 
Bangladesh, I visited--in Denver, Colorado--a program modeled on the 
Grameen Bank, that is helping American women who are welfare recipients 
get the dignity and the skills they need to take care of themselves and 
their children. 

So despite all of the difficulties and frustrations you have faced in 
coming here and being here, you are here not only on behalf of 
yourselves, but on behalf of millions and millions of women whose lives 
can be changed for the better if you resolve, along with all of us, to 
leave this place and do what you can together to make the changes that 
will give respect and dignity to every woman. 

I know that today at the Women's Conference there is a special 
celebration of girls. The theme is investing in today's girls, 
tomorrow's women, and the future. We know that much of what we do, we 
are doing not for ourselves, but are doing for our daughters, our 
nieces, our granddaughters. We are doing it because we have hope that 
the changes we work for will take root and flower in their lives. When I 
was privileged to be in New Delhi, India, I met a young woman who I 
think spoke for many, many women. Someone asked me yesterday at the 
conference if I had a copy of the poem which this young woman wrote, and 
I said that I did. She asked if I could read it today. I said that I 
would, because this was a poem about breaking the silence--the silence 
that afflicts too many women's lives; the silence that keeps women from 
expressing themselves freely; from being full participants even in the 
lives of their own families. This poem, written by a young woman, I 
think, is particularly appropriate since we are celebrating today the 
future of girls. Let me read it to you.


Too many women in too many countries speak the same language of silence. 
My grandmother was always silent, always agreed. Only her husband had 
the positive right, or so it was said, to speak and to be heard. They 
say it is different now. After all, I am always vocal, and my 
grandmother thinks I talk too much. But sometimes I wonder. When a woman 
gives her love as most do generously, it is accepted. When a woman 
shares her thoughts as some women do graciously, it is allowed. When a 
woman fights for power as all women would like to, quietly or loudly, it 
is questioned. And yet, there must be freedom if we are to speak. And 
yes, there must be power if we are to be heard. And when we have both 
freedom and power, let us not be misunderstood. We seek only to give 
words to those who cannot speak--too many women in too many countries. I 
seek only to forget my grandmother's silence.


That is the kind of feeling that literally millions and millions of 
women feel every day. And much of what we are doing here at this forum 
and at this conference is to give words to break the silence and then to 
act. When I was at Copenhagen for the Summit on Social Development, I 
was pleased to announce that the United States would make an effort to 
enhance educational opportunities for girls so that they could attend 
school in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Today, that effort, funded 
with U.S. dollars, is being organized in countries throughout those 
continents by NGOs. 

There are so many ways we can work together. There are so many things 
that must be done. Let me just end with a postcard that I received from 
a woman who, with many, many others, wrote me her feelings and thoughts 
about this conference. I don't know this woman, but she wrote to tell me 
that she wanted me to carry this card to Beijing. She went on to say, 
"Be assured of many prayers for the success of the conference, to better 
conditions for women and children throughout the world." She put on this 
card a prayer, and the prayer was written in many languages. It is a 
prayer that applies and can be said by many if not all of the world's 
religions.  I want to end with that, because I think that, in many 
respects, what we are attempting to do requires the kind of faith and 
commitment that this prayer represents.

     Oh God, creator of the heavens and the earth, we pray for all who 
gather in Beijing [and I would add Huairou as well]. Bless them; help 
them and us to see one another through eyes enlightened by understanding 
and compassion. Release us from prejudice so we can receive the stories 
of our sisters with respect and attention. Open our ears to the cries of 
a suffering world and the healing melodies of peace. Empower us to be 
instruments in bringing about your justice and equality everywhere.

That is my prayer as well. And with my thanks to all of you, I believe 
we can take the results of this forum and this conference and begin to 
translate them into actions that will count in the lives of girls and 
women who will have never heard of what we have done here--whose lives 
can be changed because of what you have done by coming here. Thank you 
all very much.  

(###)



ARTICLE 4:

Fourth World Conference on Women: U.S. Efforts To Promote Equal Rights 
for Women
Madeleine K. Albright, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United 
Nations
Remarks to the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, 
September 6, 1995

Honored guests, fellow delegates, and observers: I am pleased and proud 
to address this historic conference on behalf of the United States of 
America.

My government congratulates the thousands who have helped to organize 
the conference, to draft the Platform for Action, to inform the world 
about the subjects under discussion here, and to encourage wide 
participation both   by governments and non-governmental organizations--
NGOs.

We have come here from all over the world to carry forward an age-old 
struggle: The pursuit of economic and social progress for all people, 
based on respect for the dignity and value of each. We are here to 
promote and protect human rights and to stress that women's rights are 
neither separable nor different from those of men. We are here to stop 
sexual crimes and other violence against women; to protect refugees, so 
many of whom are women; and to end the despicable notion--in this era of 
conflicts--that rape is just another tactic of war.

We are here to empower women by enlarging their role in making economic 
and political decisions, an idea some find radical, but which my 
government believes is essential to economic and social progress around 
the world; because no country can develop if half its human resources 
are devalued or repressed.

We are here because we want to strengthen families--the heart and soul 
of any society. We believe that girls must be valued to the same degree 
as boys. We believe, with Pope John Paul II, in the "equality of spouses 
with respect to family rights." We think women and men should be able to 
make informed judgments as they plan their families, and we want to see 
forces that weaken families--including pornography, domestic violence, 
and the sexual exploitation of children--condemned and curtailed.

Finally, we have come to this conference to assure for women equal 
access to education and health care, to help women protect against 
infection by HIV, to recognize the special needs and strengths of women 
with disabilities, and to attack the root causes of poverty in which so 
many women, children, and men are entrapped. 

We have come to Beijing to make further progress toward each of these 
goals. But real progress will depend not on what we say here, but on 
what we do after we leave here. The Fourth World Conference for Women is 
not about conversations; it is about commitments.

For decades, my nation has led efforts to promote equal rights for 
women. Women in their varied roles--as mothers, farm laborers, factory 
workers, organizers, and community leaders--helped build America. My 
government is based on principles that recognize the right of every 
person to equal rights and equal opportunity. Our laws forbid 
discrimination on the basis of sex, and we work hard to enforce those 
laws. A rich network of non-governmental organizations has blossomed 
within our borders, reaching out to women and girls from all segments of 
society--educating, counseling, and advocating change.

The United States is a leader, but leaders cannot stand still. Barriers 
to the equal participation of women persist in my country. The Clinton 
Administration is determined to bring those barriers down. Today, in the 
spirit of this conference and in the knowledge that concrete steps to 
advance the status of women are required in every nation, I am pleased 
to announce the new commitments my government will undertake.

First, President Clinton will establish a White House Council on Women 
to plan for the effective implementation within the United States of the 
Platform for Action. That council will build on the commitments made 
today and will work every day with the non-governmental community.

Second, in accordance with recently approved law, the Department of 
Justice will launch a six-year, $1.6-billion initiative to fight 
domestic violence and other crimes against women. Funds will be used for 
specialized police and prosecution units and to train police, 
prosecutors, and judicial personnel.

Third, our Department of Health and Human Services will lead a 
comprehensive assault on threats to the health and security of women--
promoting healthy behavior, increasing awareness about AIDS, 
discouraging the use of cigarettes, and striving to win the battle 
against breast cancer. As Mrs. Clinton made clear yesterday, the United 
States remains firmly committed to the reproductive health rights gains 
made in Cairo.

Fourth, our Department of Labor will conduct a grassroots campaign to 
improve conditions for women in the workplace. The campaign will work 
with employers to develop more equitable pay and promotion policies, and 
to help employees balance the twin responsibilities of family and work.

Fifth, our Department of the Treasury will take new steps to promote 
access to financial credit for women. Outstanding U.S. microenterprise 
lending organizations will   be honored through special Presidential 
awards, and we will improve coordination of federal efforts to encourage 
growth in this field of central importance to the economic empowerment 
of women.

Sixth, the Agency for International Development will continue to lead in 
promoting and recognizing the vital role of women in development. Today, 
we announce important initiatives to increase women's participation in 
political processes and to promote the enforcement of women's legal 
rights.

There is a seventh and final commitment my country is making today. We, 
the people and Government of the United States of America, will continue 
to speak out openly and without hesitation on behalf of the human rights 
of all people.

My country is proud that nearly a half-century ago, Eleanor Roosevelt--a 
former First Lady of the United States--helped draft the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights. We are proud that, yesterday afternoon, in 
this very hall, our current First Lady--Hillary Rodham Clinton--re-
stated with memorable eloquence our national commitment to that 
Declaration.

The Universal Declaration reflects spiritual and moral tenets which are 
central to all cultures, encompassing both the wondrous diversity that 
defines us and the common humanity that binds us. It obliges each 
government to strive in law and practice to protect the rights of those 
under its jurisdiction. Whether a government fulfills that obligation is 
a matter not simply of domestic, but of universal concern. For it is a 
founding principle of the United Nations that no government can hide its 
human rights record from the world.

At the heart of the Universal Declaration is a fundamental distinction 
between coercion and choice. No woman--whether in Birmingham, Bombay, 
Beirut, or Beijing--should be forcibly sterilized or forced to have an 
abortion. No mother should feel compelled to abandon her daughter 
because of a societal preference for males. No woman should be forced to 
undergo genital mutilation, or to become a prostitute, or to enter into 
marriage, or to have sex. No one should be forced to remain silent for 
fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse, or torture. 
All of us should be able to exercise control over the course of our own 
lives and be able to help shape the destiny of our communities and 
countries.

Let us be clear: Freedom to participate in the political process of our 
countries is the inalienable right  of every woman and man. Deny that 
right, and you deny everything. It is unconscionable, therefore, that 
the right to free expression has been called into question right here, 
at a conference conducted under the auspices of the UN, and whose very 
purpose is the free and open discussion of women's rights.

It is a challenge to us all that so many countries in so many parts of 
the world--north, south, west, and east--fall far short of the noble 
objectives outlined in the Platform for Action. Every nation, including 
my own, must do better and do more to make equal rights a fundamental 
principle of law; to enforce those rights and to remove barriers to the 
exercise of those rights.

That is why President Clinton has made favorable action on the 
Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women a top priority. The 
United States should be a party to     that Convention. That is why we 
will continue to seek a dialogue with governments--here and elsewhere--
that deny their citizens the rights enumerated in the Universal 
Declaration.

In preparing for this conference, I came across an old Chinese poem that 
is worth recalling--especially today--as we observe the Day of the Girl-
Child. In the poem, a father says to his daughter:

     We keep a dog to watch the house;
     A pig is useful, too;
     We keep a cat to catch a mouse;
     But what can we do 
     With a girl like you?

Fellow delegates, let us make sure that question never needs to be asked 
again--in China or anywhere else around the world. Let us strive for the 
day when every young girl, in every village and metropolis, can look 
ahead with confidence that their lives will be valued, their 
individuality recognized, their rights protected, and their futures 
determined by their own abilities and character.

Let us reject outright the forces of repression and ignorance that have 
held us back and act with the strength and optimism unity can provide. 
Let us honor the legacy of the heroines--famous and unknown--who 
struggled in years past to build the platform upon which we now stand. 
And let us heed the instruction of our own lives. 

Look around this hall, and you will see women who have reached positions 
of power and authority. Go to Huairou, and you will see an explosion of 
energy and intelligence devoted to every phase of this struggle. Enter 
any community in any country, and you will find women insisting--often 
at great risk--on their right to an equal voice and equal access to the 
levers of power.

This past week, on video at the NGO Forum, Aung San Suu Kyi said that 
"it is time to apply in the arena of the world the wisdom and 
experience" women have gained.

Let us all agree; it is time. It is time to turn bold talk into concrete 
action. It is time to unleash the full capacity for production, 
accomplishment, and the enrichment of life that is inherent in us--the 
women of the world. Thank you very much. 

(###)



ARTICLE 5:

Recent Developments in U.S.-Russian Cooperation in Nuclear Materials 
Security and Warhead Dismantlement
James E. Goodby, Principal Negotiator and Special Representative of the 
President for Nuclear Security and Dismantlement
Address at Conference on the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction 
Program: Donor and Recipient Country Perspectives, Monterey, California, 
August 22, 1995

Tens of thousands of nuclear bombs and warheads remain in the arsenals 
of the nuclear powers. The vast majority of these--some 50,000--are in 
the custody of the United States and Russia. Dismantling the nuclear 
weapons legacy of the Cold War and assuring that weapons and fissile 
materials are protected against theft has become a priority task for 
American and Russian leadership. No one can afford to be complacent 
about the existence of nuclear bombs and the materials which make them. 
Even in small numbers, they could cause catastrophic devastation.

The current international environment is highly unpredictable. Aside 
from the ending of the Cold War and the disorientation associated with 
that, other trends are remaking international relationships. The 
globalization of many issues, especially in the economic field, is 
leading to a borderless world. Tendencies toward integration, however, 
are matched by others promoting fragmentation, as the distinguished 
historian John Lewis Gaddis has pointed out. The utility of the nation-
state as the basic political unit of international life is being called 
into question. Nationalism--even tribalism--is on the rise. Sub-state 
entities--cults, terrorist groups, and criminal organizations--aspire to 
the powers of a state. This is hardly a reassuring environment. But this 
is the context which makes the vision of a post-nuclear world all the 
more compelling.

During the Cold War, a nuclear restraint regime was created through 
formal arms control agreements, tacit and informal understandings, and 
unilateral actions. The arms control agenda focused on limitations and 
reductions in the aircraft, missiles, and submarines used to deliver 
nuclear bombs. This was designed to enhance stability during times of 
crisis and to restrain and reverse the nuclear arms race. It provided a 
solid foundation on which we can now develop a new program to deal with 
the security problems of a greatly changed world. We cannot rest on our 
laurels. We cannot assume that the approach we have taken in the past is 
sufficient to deal with new problems, some of which originate far below 
the level of state-to-state relationships. The existing nuclear arms 
restraint regime is a necessary but incomplete basis for dealing with 
these new problems.

Good results are still emerging from the traditional arms control 
agenda:

-- The implementation of the START I Treaty by the United States and 
Russia is ahead of schedule. Dismantlement of the nuclear delivery 
vehicles required by that treaty is proceeding at a fast clip;

-- The decisions of Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to renounce nuclear 
weapons were wise and far-seeing. These newly independent nations 
recognized that reliance on nuclear weapons would not enhance their 
security. Their decisions contributed immensely to the successful 
completion of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference; and

-- The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a centerpiece of the nuclear 
restraint regime, was extended indefinitely and without conditions early 
in May. This was a major victory for reason and for international 
cooperation.

These are solid achievements that underwrite and, in some ways, extend 
the arms control regime created during the Cold War.

New Problems

Because the nuclear weapons legacy of the Cold War is very largely the 
legacy of U.S.-Soviet competition, Russia and the United States now have 
a special opportunity to lead the world away from nuclear competition. 
And because of the new relationship between Russia and the United 
States, there are possibilities for cooperation between Russia and the 
United States in dealing with critical new problems. These include the 
following.

Dismantling Nuclear Warheads. START II, when fully implemented, will 
leave 3,000-3,500 warheads remaining on deployed strategic missiles and 
bombers in Russia and the United States. This does not mean that the 
other thousands of warheads--probably about 25,000 in the case of 
Russia--have disappeared. Neither the United States nor Russia is 
required to dismantle nuclear warheads under any of the agreements the 
two countries have negotiated. We are required to remove them from 
deployed nuclear delivery systems. But neither START I nor START II 
places any obligations on either country to physically eliminate nuclear 
bombs and warheads. The Russians have indicated they are dismantling 
about 2,000 warheads per year, at a pace comparable to that of the 
United States. But the dismantling in both countries is being carried 
out for economic and security reasons, not because of arms control 
agreements. As START I and START II are fully implemented, more warheads 
will be removed from missiles; the safety and security environment for 
these warheads should be as airtight as it can possibly be. The United 
States and Russia need to work together to assure that this is the case. 
We do not need to wait for further formal arms control reductions to 
take on this task.

Dismantling warheads and bombs is important in order to make possible 
still deeper cuts in strategic nuclear delivery vehicles, to meet the 
requirements of the Non-Proliferation Treaty--which specifically urges 
the elimination of nuclear weapons--to respond to the bipartisan urgings 
of the U.S. Congress that warheads be addressed, and to make acquisition 
of nuclear bombs by unauthorized groups next to impossible.

Security of Fissile Material. The methods used by the Soviet Government 
to protect plutonium and highly enriched uranium--HEU--relied heavily on 
police power. Systems to keep meticulous track of bomb-usable material 
are needed to ensure accountability and provide accurate, up-to-date 
information to the proper authorities. State-of-the-art sensor systems 
can help control the perimeters and the interiors of facilities.

Such fissile material security enhancements are in both Russian and U.S. 
national interests. The concerns that Russia and the United States share 
about nuclear smuggling as an international problem are based on real 
events, not hypothetical worries. In 1992 in Podolsk, Russian 
authorities seized 1.5 kilograms of stolen HEU. In 1994, Russian 
authorities seized 3 kilograms of HEU in St. Petersburg. In the Czech 
Republic in December 1994, the police recovered 2.72 kilograms of 
uranium enriched to 87.7% in uranium 235. In May 1994, six grams of 
plutonium 239--the ingredient of plutonium bombs--were discovered in 
Germany in a police raid conducted for other purposes. In Russia's 
northern fleet, in November 1993, four kilograms of 20% enriched uranium 
were stolen but later recovered. There are other cases, some of which 
appear to have been sting operations, but these events indicate that 
pilfering of fissile materials has occurred despite existing safeguards.

This is the background to keep in mind as we consider the new threats to 
security presented by sub-state entities such as the group in Japan 
which already had a weapon of indiscriminate destruction--chemical 
weapons. A new and menacing dimension to the problem of ensuring safe 
custody of fissile materials now has appeared.

During the May 10, 1995, summit meeting in Moscow these concerns were 
discussed and a decision taken to expand cooperation "to strengthen 
national and international regimes of control, accounting and physical 
protection of nuclear materials, and to prevent illegal traffic in 
nuclear materials." A major element of U.S.-Russian cooperation now 
concerns improvements in nuclear security. The Gore-Chernomyrdin 
Commission has begun to prepare a report for the October meeting between 
President Clinton and President Yeltsin on steps accomplished and added 
steps necessary to assure the security of nuclear materials. The 
intention is to proceed on a practical, "nuts and bolts" basis with 
high-level oversight of developments.

The approach includes "top-down" government-to-government efforts and 
"bottom-up" efforts to work directly through the laboratories and 
institutes in Russia. Laboratories in the United States and Russia that 
were formerly competitors in making nuclear weapons are now cooperating 
in improving the protection, control, and accounting procedures to 
safeguard fissile materials. The United States has allocated $78.5 
million under Nunn-Lugar and additional funding from both the 
Departments of State and Energy to make upgrades at more than a dozen 
facilities in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Ukraine. The Department 
of Energy has requested $70 million to continue and expand on these 
efforts in fiscal year 1996 and expects to seek about $70 million per 
year from Congress in the future for use in improving nuclear security. 
However, it is important to note that this effort has a limited duration 
and is, ultimately, the responsibility of the host governments.

In addition, the United States has been cooperating with Russia in 
building a storage facility for dismantled warheads. This is important 
because this will provide assurance that nuclear warheads are being 
dismantled and being placed in secure, supervised storage so that 
warhead elimination will be irreversible. Cooperation also is underway 
to strengthen the security of nuclear weapons while in transit.

Reductions in Warheads. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the 
United States Government exerted great efforts to negotiate a system for 
international control of atomic energy. This effort involved giants such 
as Dean Acheson, Bernard Baruch, Robert Openheimer, David Lilienthal, 
James Conant, and many others who saw the elimination of nuclear 
weapons--meaning the atomic bomb--as a top priority for the United 
States. They failed to reach agreement, and a nuclear arms race ensued 
which went on for decades and left the legacy we now confront. Probably 
those pioneers of disarmament in the nuclear age would have been at 
least a little surprised to find that as arms control evolved over the 
years, it never did address the dismantling of atomic bombs. The means 
of delivering atomic bombs became the objective of arms control 
negotiations, not the atomic bomb itself.

There were good reasons for this, in terms of verifiability and of 
dealing with the problem of nuclear missiles directed at the United 
States. Now, however, we should undertake an effort to make the process 
of nuclear arms reduction more irreversible. It is the time to expand 
the arms control agenda to encompass warheads themselves.

The May 10, 1995, U.S.-Russian summit meeting addressed this issue 
directly. As a result, the United States and Russia have committed 
themselves, beginning immediately, not to use fissile materials from 
dismantled nuclear weapons and declared excess to national security 
needs to make more nuclear weapons. They have undertaken not to produce 
new fissile materials for use in weapons, and they have agreed not to 
use fissile materials from civilian nuclear power programs for making 
nuclear weapons. Each of these understandings now is in effect as the 
jointly agreed policies of the United States and Russia.1

To strengthen confidence in these commitments, there was agreement at 
the summit on negotiations and joint analyses that should be completed 
as soon as possible to:

-- Exchange stockpile information on both fissile materials and 
warheads;

-- Monitor storage sites to ensure that the dismantling of nuclear bombs 
and warheads is taking place and that it is irreversible;

-- Negotiate further measures--such as spot checks--to build confidence 
in the accuracy of stockpile data;

-- Study and define further measures to confirm that dismantlement is 
occurring. The United States has in mind techniques that could track 
steps in the progress of nuclear warheads toward their ultimate 
disposition in storage facilities. This would enhance confidence that 
nuclear warheads from missiles slated for elimination are moving toward 
elimination; and

-- Conclude an agreement to provide protection for atomic energy 
information relevant to all the above agreements. This is a critical 
first step, authorized by Congress, since each of the above agreements 
would require an exchange of classified or sensitive information.

These understandings, when carried out, will mean that Russia and the 
United States will begin to monitor steps in the process of dismantling 
nuclear bombs and warheads. It is the start of an effort to guarantee 
that excess nuclear warheads will be dismantled and that the process of 
dismantlement will be irreversible. Dismantlement of warheads is not 
required by any formal agreement, but it will proceed at a significant 
rate each year, under conditions that provide confidence to both sides 
that the dismantling is in fact occurring and that it will be 
irreversible. 

------------------

1See "U.S.-Russian Joint Statement on the Transparency and 
Irreversibility of the Process of Reducing Nuclear Weapons," Dispatch 
Vol. 6, No. 20, p. 403. 

(###)

[END OF DISPATCH VOL 6, NO 36]
(###)

To the top of this page