DATE=10/13/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CLINTON-TEST BAN (L)
NUMBER=2-254993
BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST
DATELINE=WHITE HOUSE
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

Intro:  President Clinton is vowing to fight on for 
eventual U-S ratification of the Comprehensive Test 
Ban Treaty despite its defeat in the Senate Wednesday 
and he is urging other countries to ratify and support 
its terms. VOA's David Gollust reports from the White 
House.



Text:  The Senate action  was a major political 
setback for the President, who had been the first 
world leader to sign the treaty in 1996. And he was 
clearly angry when he faced reporters after the vote 
to pledge to continue for fight for the treaty, which 
he insisted the United States eventually will ratify.

Mr. Clinton said the United States will stay true to 
its tradition of global leadership against the spread 
of nuclear weapons and made clear it will hold to its 
own moratorium on testing in effect since 1992.

He urged other countries including Russia and China to 
hold to their test moratoriums and for others to 
continue the treaty ratification process. He called 
the Senate vote a detour in the non-proliferation 
process but the United States , as he put it, 
"eventually always returns to the main road."

Mr. Clinton says he regrets that a last minute 
compromise to postpone the vote had fallen through. He 
again criticized the Senate's Republican leadership 
for politicizing and rushing the vote, which he said 
came despite compelling scientific arguments and 
support from key U-S allies:

            ///Clinton actuality///

      It is crazy for America to walk away from 
      Britain, and France, 11 of our NATO allies, the 
      heads of our nuclear labs, the Joint Chiefs of 
      Staff, 32 Nobel laureates, and the whole world 
      who had had been depending on us for all these 
      decades to lead the fight for non-proliferation. 
      Therefore we have to keep this issue alive and 
      continue to argue it in the strongest and most 
      forceful terms.


            ///end act///

Alluding to this week's military coup in Pakistan Mr. 
Clinton said the treaty could help constrain nuclear 
weapons programs in both India and  Pakistan at what 
he described as "a time of tremendous volatility, 
especially on the Indian subcontinent."

Republican opponents in the Senate had opposed the 
treaty as unverifiable and a barrier to assuring the 
safety and reliability of the U-S nuclear arsenal. In 
the final debate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman 
and bitter treaty opponent, Senator Jesse Helms of 
North Carolina, said ratification would have saddled 
Mr. Clinton's successor in the White House with a 
national-security liability:

            ///Helms actuality///

      The next Administration must be left free to 
      establish its nuclear-testing and its own 
      nuclear non-proliferation policies - not have 
      them dictated by the Clinton Administration. 
      Unencumbered by the failed policies of the 
      current outgoing Administration, the next 
      Administration can make sense with the kind of 
      treaty it sends to the Senate.


            ///end act///

But the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations panel 
- Joseph Biden of Delaware - lamented the impending 
defeat of the treaty as a tragedy for American policy 
and leadership:

            ///Biden actuality///

      I must tell you, and I'm not being melodramatic. 
      My heart aches that we're about to vote down 
      this treaty. I truly think, I honestly believe, 
      in the 27 years I've been here that this is the 
      most serious mistake the United States Senate 
      has ever made or is about to make.


            ///end act///

In the final vote, 51 Senate Republicans voted against 
the treaty while all 45 Democrats joined by three 
Republican moderates voted in favor. Ratification 
would have required a two-thirds majority or 67 votes 
and analysts say the treaty stands virtually no chance 
of being revived and ratified until after a new 
Congress is seated after the year-2000 elections. 
(Signed)


NEB/DAG/PT








13-Oct-1999 21:56 PM EDT (14-Oct-1999 0156 UTC)
NNNN

Source: Voice of America
.