World leaders gather to push disarmament

June 8, 1982

Delegates of 157 governments, including some of the world's leading statesmen , gathered here Monday for a special session of the General Assembly to promote disarmament.Meeting in the shadow of war in the South Atlantic and the Mideast, members will try to begin a reversal of what Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar has termed ''the rush to destruction.''The principal focus of the five-week session will be nuclear disarmament, but delegates are also conscious of the threat from conventional weapons, including sophisticated new armaments employed in current conflicts.