Disarmament efforts bring recognition to Sen. Lugar
6/22/2001
NOTE: Photographs are available with this report.
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The senior senator from Indiana was honored for his work to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction at a reception in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill June 20.
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), a United Methodist, was given a copy of the 2000 Book of Resolutions and a plaque by the Board of Church and Society, the denomination's social action and advocacy agency. The plaque cited Lugar's work as "an initiator of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (known as Nunn-Lugar) to assist Russia in dismantlement of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and delivery systems."
In 1991 - the year the Soviet Union broke up - Lugar and the former Sen. Sam Nunn, spearheaded legislation setting up a plan to allow the United States to pay Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to dismantle and destroy their nuclear weapons and some chemical and biological weapons. Nunn, a Democrat from Georgia, is also a United Methodist.
Lugar and others saw the potential for disaster in the instability of governmental and military organizations in the former USSR. That, coupled with the existence of huge stockpiles of nuclear and other weapons, led to the creation of the plan to dismantle the devices. Money also was needed to maintain the systems against accidents and guard against theft, so that also has been a component of the program.
"This is very expensive business, as our nation has found in maintaining and destroying our own stocks of these weapons," Lugar said.
"We have been very lucky to date," he said. "Each year, as I am there, Russians reveal more things that are happening and elements on which they need help."
Lugar said that about 5,500 nuclear warheads have been disposed of, but about 5,000 remain. The cataloguing phase is complete. "We know where they are," he said. "It's just a matter of working through the inventory. Unlike normal weapons, these deteriorate," he said, emphasizing the urgency of his cause.
Although the chemical weapons are not as dramatic as the nuclear weapons, Lugar said, they too are a threat.
"For the chemical weapons, the treaty that we've both ratified now calls for destruction in 10 years of our stocks and theirs," he said. "Theirs turns out to be 40,000 metric tons" of various "very deadly gases."
Lugar recalled a visit last December to a location where 2.5 million weapons are stockpiled under guard. He described them as shells for battlefield use as opposed to intercontinental missiles. Some are quite small and portable "should they get loose," but each is "a very deadly device," he warned. "That's the threat that the world has to face."
"Essentially the Russians understand the dilemma," Lugar said. "They would be the first in harm's way."
Only three of these small devices could destroy all of the lives in a small city in America, without destroying the buildings, he explained, in what he freely confessed was an attempt to "lobby" or persuade people to support additional funding for the program. Not a single pound of the 40,000 metric tons has been destroyed yet, he stressed.
Lugar said some members of the U.S. House of Representatives have been willing to fund the disposal of nuclear devices but are reluctant to appropriate funds to deal with chemical weapons. Other countries, he said, have appropriated money for working on the chemicals, but the effort depends on the United States' contribution.
Some of Lugar's other accomplishments in the field of disarmament are cited in the framed document that makes up the plaque. "In 1994 and 1995, he provided Senate leadership for ratification of the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II)," it says. "In 1997, he served as Senate leader for ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention."
In presenting the plaque, Jim Winkler, top executive of the United Methodist board, mentioned that Lugar is the only Indiana senator to win a fourth term. In the Senate, he served as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and, from 1995 until very recently, the Agriculture Committee. Previously he had been an Eagle Scout, a Rhodes scholar and mayor of Indianapolis. In 1996, he made a bid for the presidency on the motto, "nuclear security and fiscal sanity."
Winkler shared a message from the Rev. Kent Millard, pastor of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. "Sen. Lugar has been a wonderful example of Christian integrity and faithfulness in our congregation," the message said.
Raul Garcia, 11, gave Lugar 15 origami "peace cranes" made by children in the Ninos de la Esperanza (Children of Hope) after-school tutoring program associated with the Mision la Esperanza, an outreach program of the Alexandria District of the United Methodist Church. The children have folded 800 cranes toward a goal of 1,000, the original aim of a Japanese girl who died of leukemia before she was able to complete the task.
The book and plaque given Lugar were gifts from the Board of Church and Society. The reception was co-sponsored by the board and the Washington offices of the Episcopal Church, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Mennonite Central Committee, National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church and Unitarian Universalist Association.
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