| Staying the Course for Nuclear Abolition April 27, 2004 Delegates from all over the world will gather at the United Nations headquarters in New York in late April and May for discussions in advance of negotiations over the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In light of the Bush administration's preference for a militarized, rather than diplomatic, global policy, U.S. involvement in this preparatory conference of the NPT is likely to be regarded by our government as an empty formality, or another international legal agreement worth ignoring. The abolition of nuclear weapons remains perhaps the greatest unresolved challenge for global survival. The Fellowship of Reconciliation, which has long supported the abolition of nuclear weapons, believes that global proliferation and the continued development of newer, more insidious, low yield, "tactical" weapons, makes the nuclear danger greater now than at any time since 1945. The NPT is not new. It was originally negotiated in the late 1960's as an agreement between the nuclear states and nations that do not possess these weapons of mass destruction. Because the treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1970, it is binding on the government of the United States. The treaty went beyond merely regulating nuclear weapons. Article 6 also binds the states possessing nuclear weapons (at the time, China, Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the U.S.) to negotiate a treaty to abolish these weapons altogether. However, this aspect of the NPT has failed, because the U.S. and other nuclear powers have ignored Article 6, aggressively expanded their weapons arsenals, and continued to make the threatened use of nuclear weapons in war a clear and present danger. Exacerbating the threat is the fact that additional nations now possess them, namely Pakistan, India and Israel, with North Korea developing an arsenal. "Strategic arms" negotiations between the United States and the Russian Federation have de-commissioned some of these weapons. But thousands of American and Russian warheads remain on alert status, only minutes away from launch. And some 30,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world to threaten us all. The Fellowship of Reconciliation urges the U.S. government to honor fully the NPT commitment ratified the Senate in 1970. This means ending all research and development to upgrade the U.S. weapons arsenal and develop new weapons, such as the B-61 earth penetrator warhead, designed to destroy hardened underground targets and actively considered for use in Iraq. We also call upon our government to close the research and development laboratories in Los Alamos, Livermore, Sandia, and other locations throughout the country, on the grounds that they are dangerous, wasteful, and insecure. Funding for these laboratories should urgently be diverted to support the clean-up of toxic radioactive pollution in the plutonium production and storage facilities that threaten the health and environmental safety of millions of citizens in the USA. Of particular concern to us is the radioactive desecration of Native American lands through nuclear waste storage. This, too, should end. The United States is the leading nuclear weapons power on earth, and the only nation to have actually used nuclear weapons in war. American resolution to honor the NPT, and the imperative of nuclear disarmament, is crucial to the success of the treaty and to the survival of the human species. It is within the power of the U.S. government to lead the way in these negotiations thereby ending the threat of nuclear holocaust, affirming life over death, and mutual coexistence over mutual annihilation. In our nuclear age, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us, the essential choice for humankind is not violence versus non-violence, but rather non-violence versus non-existence. Contact: Jennifer Hyman, FOR Communications Coordinator (845)358-4601 communications@forusa.org NON-PROLIFERATION EVENTS TO ATTEND: April 30: Town Meeting on "Nuclear Abolition, Proliferation and War: What You Need to Know and What You Can Do.” All Souls Church on 80th and Lexington, New York City Details at http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/action/mayday.html May 1: Mass rally 1 p.m. at Bryant Park, 42nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, and actions nationally to support nuclear disarmament, coinciding with the UN Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York City. http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/action/mayday.html
©2004 Fellowship of Reconciliation |