Ww SS Vw ee ee Ee w tv A ge Ait SMEAR lls J | el cp CD > weer Meee ee a. Oe ete A MS Pe ce AF cre Ht World By TOM MORRIS The final agreement reached at the 149- nation Paris meeting on chemical weapons pledged participants not to use them, although there appears to be little if any provision for enforcement. The meeting was organized to seek ways to enforce and extend the 1925 : Geneva protocol banning such wea- pons. The five-day conference, called - by the French gov- ernment, was pre- ceded by the dram- atic shooting down of two Libyan Air Force jets by the ; U.S. Navy in a SHEVARDNADZE bizarre series of events whose details are still unfolding, in which Washington accuses Libya of building a plant with the potential of manufacturing chemical arms. Canadian External Affairs Minister Joe Clark supported both the U.S. interpreta- tion of the shooting incident and its ver- sion of the Libyan plant’s capabilities. Further, Canada has used its new UN Security Council seat to join Washington in opposing a resolution criticizing U.S. military actions off the Libyan coast. The majority of states, including the “Soviet Union, were unconvinced by the US. argument about the Libyan plant, and strongly condemned its military action. Despite the U.S. action, which threa- tened to sidetrack the meeting, the high- light of the Paris conference was the surprise announcement on the first day by Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze that the USSR would not wait for an international treaty, but would begin immediately to destroy its stocks of chem- ical weapons — and would permit for- eign observers to verify the destruction process. This, the Soviet spokesman announced, will begin as soon as the new plant being built for their destruction is complete. Again, unfortunately, the contribution by Canada, whose respresentative took the rostrum the day following Soviet Union’s announcement, was completely inappropriate and disappointing. Rather than seizing the opportunity to press other nations, especially the United States, which possesses huge stockpiles of chemical weapons, to follow the Soviet example and begin their destruction, Clark confined himself to pious general comments about “limiting our capabili- ties” to inflict horrible chemical genocide. Clark rapped for chemical arms stand Even when pressed later by the media on the subject, Clark refused to speak up, saying he regarded as “unhelpful” any Canadian action to urge the U.S. to take actions similar to those of the USSR con- cerning chemical weapons’ stockpiles. His comments drew a sharp response in a letter sent by the Toronto Disarmament Network (TDN) Jan. 10, The letter expressed “surprise and disappointment” in Clark’s statement in Paris, which it called “incredible. “The least we expect from our represen- tative to the Paris conference is a pledge to halt all Canadian production, testing and research into chemical weapons, and a commitment to urge other friends and allies to do the same,” the letter said. “The minister should know that the elimination of the horror of chemical weapons is not going to be an easy thing to do,” the letter continued, “but (Canada) can playa role in building a dialogue if it is willing to adopt a more independent for- eign policy.” The TDN meeting was attended by NDP MP Dan Heap, Toronto city coun- cillor Jack Layton and Toronto school board member John Doherty. The USS. role in the chemical weapons’ race was also the centre of attention for a 25-country coalition of activists which argued that the United States has undercut its credibility in urging other states to refrain from chemical weapons’ manufac- ture by its own stepped-up program. The U.S.-based Foundation on Eco- nomic Trends noted that Washington has boosted its chemical weapons spending seven-fold since 1981, has huge stockpiles of the weapons and is engaged in sophisti- cated binary weapons research and manu- facture. It is precisely against this dangerous trend that Clark should have spoken against at the Paris meeting, say critics, rather than the combination of direct and indirect backing he gave Washington. Last week, in a telegram, Communist Party leader George Hewison slammed Ottawa’s support of the U.S. shooting down of Libyan aircraft, urging a reversal of this position. “As a new member of the UN Security Council,” Hewison wrote, “Canada has a special responsibility to promote peace and understanding in international relations ... and should call for the withdrawal of all foreign military forces from the Mediterranean and the Middle East as a basis for stability and security.” Lake Baikal: symbol of Soviet environment LISTVYANKA, Lake Baikal — Setina valley at the very heart of Asia, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and forests of evergreen, lies a lake whose rugged, prime- val beauty and ice-cold, crystalline waters make it one of our earth’s most extraordi- nary and precious natural treasures. Lake Baikal, which a famous and popu- lar song calls “‘sviachennoe morye” — the “sacred sea” — is a place that has always -€voked powerful and intense emotions. The Inspiration of artists, the fascination of Scientists, Lake Baikal is today also the most piercing battle-cry of Soviet environ- mentalists. Roughly the same size as Lake Erie, but seven times as deep — 1.7 km deep, in fact — Baikal contains a stunning 22 per cent of the world’s entire fresh water supply. It would take all of the rivers on earth put together — the St. Lawrence, Rhine, Volga, Amazon, Mississippi, Congo, every one of them — a whole year to fill Baikal’s basin. The lake is home to 2,637 species of life, 84 per cent of them unique and specific to this area, These include a large population of rare inland, fresh-water seals, which frolic, dive and bask around the shore, as Well as the unique Baikal sponge, plankton, Sturgeon and crab. Together they make up what is perhaps the most intricate, delicate and unusual ecosystem on earth. And that is why, for the past 25 years, Oviet environmentalists, writers, artists and scientists have been sounding the alarm, pointing to the gradual but inexora- ble build-up of settlement and economic activity around the lake. “We began to fight for Lake Baikal back in the 1960s, even though it was — and temains — the cleanest lake in the world,” Says Valentina Galkina, a geo-biologist based at the Limnological Institute in the Village of Listvyanka, on Lake Baikal’s Southwestern shore. “We understand that if We fail now to prevent the lake’s deteriora- tion, we will never be able to restore it, no matter how great the committment. It is just too complex, too fragile.” The threat has come from many direc- tions. A modern pulp mill built at Baikalsk, on the south shore, in the late 1960s, has been the object of furious controversy. Log- ging and industry along many of the 336 rivers and streams that feed Baikal cause much concern, as does herbicide and pesti- cide use on nearby collective farms. Air pollution from large cities within 100 km of the lake, primarily Irkutsk and Ulan Ude, is another problem. Yet another is camping, tree-felling and littering by increasing numbers of tourists attracted, paradoxi- cally, by the wild and untouched beauty of the lake. Nevertheless, fewer than 40,000 people live permanently within a 45-km radius of the lake. After decades of campaigning by virtually the entire intelligentsia of Siberia, and public explosions that saw thousands of people take to the streets of Irkutsk on at least two occasions in 1987, the prospects for preserving Lake Baikal in something like its pristine state actually look good. “We went through some long, hard years,” says Galkina, “when the press never wrote a word about Baikal, except to say that everything’s fine, there’s no danger. But over the past couple of years the press has really brought our cause alive, turned it into a national issue, and brought about real action. Our local and regional party organi- zations have also become activists for sav- ing the lake, and that has also made a big difference.” Late last year, in what may.well become a model for dealing with sensitive environ- mental situations around the country, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the USSR Council of Ministers passed a tough, comprehensive program for preserving and protecting Lake Baikal. The main points: ® The pulp mill at Baikalsk, the largest single menace to the lake, will be closed by 1993 and converted to a non-polluting fur- niture assembly plant; @ A 45-km zone around Lake Baikal is designated a national park and has already been placed under control of a special man- agement board. The whole area may further _ be declared a “‘world heritage zone,”” and UNICEF invited in to supervise it; @ All timber-felling within the zone has been prohibited; ® No new industry may be constructed around the lake. Farms and factories that already exist are to be converted to all- electric power uses, and subject to extraor- dinary environmental standards; ® Logging operations on any river flow- ing into Baikal are banned; ®@ Many industries in Irkutsk and Ulan Ude are to be converted from coal- and oil-burning to natural gas. Environmentalists and others who have struggled long and hard express considera- ble satisfaction with this program. But, notes Galkina, there are problems. “The decisions are good,” she says, “but the implementation period is long. Also, most measures concern the 45-km zone around the lake, whereas we know the prob- lem of pollution is growing and widespread. and Baikal cannot, ultimately, remain immune from these trends. For instance, we have begun to see acid rain and acid snow in Siberia for the first time lately. This is still very rare, but the experience of the western part of the country gives us reason to feel alarm. “Given all the threats and complexities. we are not going to relax, we are not going to become trusting,” she says. At the Regional Executive Committee (Ispolkom) in Irkutsk, the perspective is slightly different. “To some extent, solving Baikal’s problems means transferring them somewhere else,” notes Valery Ignatev, the region’s deputy chairman. “Our country has a severe shortage of pulp and paper, and we are building a new pulp mill at Ust- Ilimsk, on the Angara River, to replace the one that is to be shut down on Lake Baikal. “Of course, we have learned many les- sons. The Baikal plant has 96 per cent effec- tiveness in waste treatment and the new one will work to even more rigorous standards. But we have also learned a lot about the sensitivity of the environment through all of this. We are still searching for the right balance,” he says. In fact, the movement of environmental consciousness which began around the intensely emotional issue of Lake Baikal has been spreading throughout Siberia and the country as a whole. The media these days is energetically identifying and describing out- standing problems in virtually every city and region. Increasingly, the public is find- ing new ways to have its own say and even the last word in many cases: there are grow- ing reports of offending factories being shut down and their managements prosecuted. Meanwhile, on the shores of dazzling Lake Baikal, where a scientist will gladly scoop up a cupful of lake water and drink it down to prove the point — that it is the cleanest water in the world — there is vic- tory, at least for now, and a symbol of hope for the world. Pacific Tribune, January 23, 1989 + 9