Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 95.djvu/1575

 PUBLIC LAW 97-113—DEC. 29, 1981

95 STAT. 1549

(b) It is the sense of the Congress that the President should, acting through the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations and all other appropriate diplomatic agents, seek definite measures to bring to an end actions by any party or government in using, and providing for use, chemical agents or toxin weapons against the peoples of Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan, in violation of the spirit and the provisions of— (1) the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (done at Washington, London, and Moscow on April 10, 1972); 26 UST 583. (2) the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (signed at Geneva on June 17, 1925); and 26 UST 571. (3) customary international law. (c) It is further the sense of Confess that the President should— (1) allocate the highest possible priority to the development of further evidence clarifying the nature and origins of the chemical agents and toxin weapons being used against the peoples of Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan; and (2) vigorously seek a satisfactory explanation from the Government of the Soviet Union regarding the strong circumstantial and presumptive evidence of its role in the use, or provision for use, of such weapons. (d) The Congress reiterates the concern expressed in House Resolution 644 (96th Congress), adopted by the House of Representatives on May 19, 1980, regarding the outbreak of pulmonary anthrax near Sverdlosk on Apr^ 3, 1979, and expresses its disappointment that the Soviet Union has failed adequately to respond to requests for data explaining this incident as provided in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction. (e) It is mrther the sense of Congress that the negotiation of a treaty prohibiting the development, production, and stockpiling of chemical weapons, with reliable verification provisions, should be given a high priority by the United States Government and by all foreign governments. FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS OF THE SOVIET UNION TO THE UNITED NATIONS

SEC. 717. (a) The Congress finds and declares that— (1) the financing of the United Nations is the collective responsibility of all member nations; (2) the International Court of Justice has determined that the expenses of the United Nations incurred in its peacekeeping operations are properly included as a part of the regular expenses of the United Nations; (3) peacekeeping operations are vital to the mission of the United Nations and must be adequately financed if such operations are to continue; and (4) the Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is currently $180,000,000 in arrears on its payments to the United Nations, primarily as a result of its refusal to pay for the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations. (b) It is the sense of the Congress that the President, acting through the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, should undertake a diplomatic initiative to obtain payment

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