Laura Lodenius
Peace Union /Committee of 100Peace movement to presidents Clinton
and Yeltsin:
Total elimination of Nuclear weapon
has to be the ultimate goal !
At a Press Conference March 7,
1997 U.S. President Clinton stated, "
...This meeting that we're going
to have in Helsinki, President Yeltsin
and I, it will be very important.
. . It will be a meeting that will be
extremely candid, extremely straight
forward, and I hope it will help to
deal with not only the question
of Russia's relationship to Europe but
also what we can do with the Russians
to continue to reduce the nuclear
threat ..."
The world wants progress toward
nuclear disarmament. This is a historic
opportunity to achieve bold cuts
toward a nuclear weapons-free 21st
century. President Clinton and
President Yeltsin should seize this Summit
opportunity to achieve further
deep reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear
arsenals by negotiating a new
"START III" framework agreement as the next
step toward the elimination of
nuclear weapons.
* Lack of progress in START negotiations
will leave START II, signed 4
years ago by Presidents Bush and
Yelsin, and ratified by the U.S. Senate
last year, unratified by the Russian
Duma.
* Lack of progress will leave
the world stuck with over 20,000 nuclear
weapons, over 95% in the possession
of the United States and Russia.
* Lack of progress will seriously
imperil other arms control efforts. For
example, the U.S. Senate may be
even less likely to ratify the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
without Russian ratification first, and
multilateral arm reductions, including
the Nuclear Weapons Convention,
will be less likely to progress
with such large U.S. and Russian
stockpiles.
Four years ago, Presidents Bush
and Yeltsin signed the Strategic Arsenal
Reduction Treaty (START II) and
last year the U.S. Senate ratified the
treaty that would reduce the number
of deployed U.S. and Russian strategic
nuclear warheads to roughly 3500
each. Unfortunately START II ratification
has stalled in the Russian Duma.
Without bold action from the presidents
to break the START II logjam and
achieve further reductions, the world
will head toward the 21st century
stuck with over 20,000 nuclear warheads
- 95 percent in the possession
of Russia and the United States.
In December of 1996, sixty international
retired Generals and Admirals
called for the elimination of
nuclear weapons. Prominent among them is
U.S. Retired Four-Star General
Lee Butler. The December statement from
retired world military leaders
has stirred the debate about nuclear
weapons elimination, and marked
the culmination of tremendous progress for
nuclear disarmament in 1996, including
milestones such as the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
signing, the World Court Ruling on nuclear
weapons, the Canberra Commission
Report, and the United Nations Resolution
calling for a Nuclear Weapons
Convention abolishing nuclear weapons.
There exists the "potential
political will" in the Clinton and Yeltsin
administrations to achieve a framework
agreement on a START III treaty
mandating deeper cuts in U.S and
Russian arsenals. It would be important
that a START III treaty would
not bee only playing a "numbers game",
debating with the U.S. and Russian
administrations whether strategic
weapons be reduced to 2,500 or
2000 or 1000, but raising the
recommendations of the Canberra
Commission - as echoed by General Butler -
that a START III is the chance
for taking U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons
off alert, for separating warheads
from delivery systems, and for
disarming tactical weapons, too.
Such an agreement would truly open up the
way for p-5 disarmament talks,
and build momentum for a nuclear weapons
convention.
In April, 1997 at the NPT (nuclear
Non-proliferation Treaty) Review
Conference, the United States
and Russia both need to show progress toward
nuclear disarmament, in accordance
with their obligation under Article VI
of the NPT. Without START III
Multi- lateral negotiations to abolish
nuclear weapons will be more difficult.
It is unlikely that China, France,
or the U.K. will enter into multilateral
negotiations to eliminate nuclear
weapons while the United States
and Russia maintain these enormous
arsenals. Even after START II,
Russia and the U.S. will have many more
weapons than any of the other
nuclear weapons states.
Maintaining these enormous arsenals
costs also enormous amounts of money.
The Cost Study Project's "Atomic
Audit" estimates that U.S. taxpayers have
spent at least $4 trillion on
nuclear weapons programs since 1942 (in
adjusted 1995 dollars). Without
Russian ratification and implementation
of START II, the Pentagon estimates
it will spend $5 billion over the next
seven years on the nuclear weapons
that would have been eliminated under
START II.
Without START reductions, theDepartment
of Energy (U.S.) is seeking a new
tritium production source. Tritium,
a radioactive isotope used to boost
the destructive power of nuclear
weapons,will cost taxpayers even more
money to produce, and add to the
radioactive waste legacy of nuclear
weapons production. With further
deep reductions in nuclear arsenals,
tritium production now would not
be necessary. In addition to tritium
production, increased plutonium
pit production will be sought, while
dismantling of nuclear weapons
will be slowed and eventually halted.
Nato Expansion:
Many in the Peace movement fears
that Nato's proposed expansion into
Eastern Europe threatens present
chances of U.S.-Russian co-operation on
further nuclear weapons reductions,
and would remilitarize Europe at a
time when NATO and Europe face
no credible military threat.
The Russian Duma is reluctant
to ratify START II and consider further arms
reductions negotiations in large
part because of security fears relating
to NATO expansion. Duma International
Committee Chairman, Vladimir Lukin
has stated, "Russians are
disappointed with the tendencies emerging in
America, and it would be difficult
to convince the Russian public that the
United States is friendly and
has peaceful intentions towards Russia."
START II (Strategic Arms Reductions
Treaty II), which would limit U.S. and
Russian Strategic arsenals to
3,500 each, requires significant changes to
the Russian nuclear weapons infrastructure.
Russia would have to destroy
many more weapons than the United
States. In order to achieve parity with
the United States, Russia would
then build single warhead missiles.
Further reducing U.S. and Russian
arsenals with a "START III" agreement
could adjust this s.c. "inbalance".
ABOLITION 2000 - A Global Network
to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons
The time
has come to rid the world of the
scourge of nuclear weapons. The Cold War
era is behind us. A new millenium
is near at hand. If not now, then when?
These radioactive devices are
terrifyingly dangerous, politically
destabilising, environmentally
contaminating, economically wasteful and
contrary to international law.
They are weapons of genocide and therefore
can have no place in human civilisation.
Over the past 50 years people
all over the world have joined together to
protest and to organise to ban
the bomb. While some progress has been made
in reducing the arsenals of the
two superpowers, there is a long way to go
on the road to elimination. For
this reason a new network has been brought
into being, whose purpose is to
help coordinate on a global basis efforts
to promote an agreement between
governments by the year 2000 on a
time-bound framework for total
abolition.
ABOLITION 2000 network was formally
established on November 5th, 1995 at
an international meeting in the
Hague. It grew out of a number of
pre-existing groupings and in
a sense supersedes them: The World Court
Project, of which IPB was a co-founder;
The International Coalition for
Nuclear NonProliferation and Disarmament
for which the IPB acted as
coordinating secretariat; The
World Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons;
and The NGO Abolition Caucus,
which met daily during the NPT Extension
Conference in New York, April-May
1995, and which drew up the statement
which constitutes the political
foundation of Abolition 2000.
Peace Union of Finland and Committee
of 100 have signed the Abolition 2000
statement. For more information
contact: International Peace Bureau.
International Peace Bureau
International Peace Bureu, IPB
is the world's oldest and most
comprehensive international peace
network. With 19 internationals and 141
national/local member organisations
(and 120 individuals) in over 40
countries, it brings together
people working for peace in many different
sectors: not only pacifists but
also women's, youth, labour, religious,
political and professional bodies.
IPB was founded in 1892 and won the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for
its efforts in promoting the establishment
of the League of Nations and for
spreading the message of peace to the
general public. Among its many
distinguished leaders over the years was
the Irish Nobel laureate Sean
MacBride. Nowadays its role is that of
supporting peace and disarmament
initiatives taken by the UN, launching
collective projects and informing
and servicing grassroots peace
campaigns.
IPB has had UN Consultative Status
as an NGO since 1977, and has been
active in the Special NGO Committee
for Disarmament since 1972.
Current program areas of the IPB
are nuclear disarmament; conventional and
inhumane weapons; conflicts; and
women and peace.
Peace Union of Finland and Committee
of 100 in Finland are members of the
IPB.
Secretary-General: Colin Archer
(UK), Program Officer: Tracy Moavero (USA)
Contact information:
International Peace Bureau
41, Rue de Zürich, CH-1201
Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: + 41 22 731 6429, Fax: + 41 22 738 9419
E-mail: ipb@gn.apc.org, Web: http://www.itu.ch/ipb
The Finnish Peace Movement
The Finnish peace momevent works
for disarmament, both conventional and nuclear,
for a nuclear and block free Europe
and world.
The Peace Union of Finland and
the Committee of 100 will inform about the
views of the intenational and
the Finnish Peace movenment and about the
NGO actions taking place in Helsinki
during the Summit.
Contact:
press secretary
Malla Kantola
secretary general
tel: +358-(0)9-142915 or +358-(0)9-141336
email: laural@kaapeli.fi or mkantola@kaapeli.fi
Existing nuclear arsenal
Under the ratified Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START I) now being
implemented, nearly 95 percent
of the world's nuclear weapons belong to
the United States or Russia. Even
after START II, which has not been
ratified by Russia or implemented
by either country, the United States and
Russia will have the vast majority
of nuclear weapons with France, China
and the UK each maintaining total
nuclear arsenals of less than 500. START
II limits only "strategic"
(longer range intercontinental) nuclear
weapons, not "tactical"
(shorter range, battlefield) weapons. Almost a
quarter of the world's nuclear
stockpile consists of non-strategic nuclear
weapons. After START II the U.S.
will keep 950 warheads for non-strategic
forces, and Russia may keep as
many as 3,000 non- strategic warheads.
START II limits only deployed
strategic nuclear weapons to approximately
3,500 each for Russia and the
United States. Both the United States and
Russia are planning to maintain
several thousand "reserve" warheads.
"The size and composition
of the total U.S. stockpile has now stabilised,
and it will not decrease below
the current level of nearly 10,000
warheads. If START II is implemented,
the only change will be in the ratio
of deployed warheads to those
in a less-ready status." - "Nuclear
Notebook," Robert S. Norris
and William M. Arkin, in Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists, January-February 1997.
Under START II all land based
missiles will be limited to carrying only
one missile; but Submarine Launched
Ballistic Missiles (SLBM's) will
continue to carry multiple warheads.
The United States and Russia both
plan to put about half of their
future deployable strategic warheads at
sea. (Britain plans to deploy
its entire arsenal on submarines and France
nearly 90 percent of its arsenal.)