Non-Proliferation Treaty

This U.S. Navy handout image shows Baker, the second of the two atomic bomb tests, in which a 63-kiloton warhead was exploded 90 feet under water as part of Operation Crossroads, conducted at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands in July 1946 to measure nuclear weapon effects on warships. [Photo: U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters]

The International Peace Bureau announced today that it will award its annual Sean MacBride Peace Prize for 2014 to the people and government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, RMI, for courageously taking the nine nuclear weapons-possessing countries to the International Court of Justice to enforce compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and international customary law.

The tiny Pacific nation has launched a parallel court case against the USA at the Federal District Court. RMI argues that the nuclear weapons-possessing countries have breached their obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) by continuing to modernize their arsenals and by failing to pursue negotiations in good faith on nuclear disarmament.

The Marshall Islands were used by the USA as testing ground for nearly 70 nuclear tests from 1946 to 1958. These tests gave rise to lasting health and environmental problems for the Marshall Islanders. Their first-hand experience of nuclear devastation and personal suffering gives legitimacy to their action and makes it especially difficult to dismiss.

The Marshall Islands are presently working hard on both court cases, whose final hearings are expected in 2016. Peace and anti-nuclear activists, lawyers, politicians and all people seeking a world without nuclear weapons are called upon to bring their knowledge, energy and political skills to build a powerful constituency to support this court case and related actions to ensure a successful outcome.

It is certainly not the case that the RMI, with its some 53,000 inhabitants, a large proportion of whom are young people, have no need of compensation or assistance. Nowhere are the costs of a militarized Pacific better illustrated than there. The country is burdened with some of the highest cancer rates in the region following the 12 years of US nuclear tests. Yet it is admirable that the Marshall Islanders in fact seek no compensation for themselves, but rather are determined to end the nuclear weapons threat for all humanity.

The world still has some 17,000 nuclear weapons, the majority in the USA and Russia, many of them on high alert. The knowhow to build atomic bombs is spreading, largely due to the continued promotion of nuclear power technology. Presently there are 9 nuclear weapon states, and 28 nuclear alliance states; and on the other hand 115 nuclear weapons-free zone states plus 40 non-nuclear weapons states. Only 37 states (out of 192) are still committed to nuclear weapons, clinging to outdated, questionable and extremely dangerous ‘deterrence’ policies.

IPB has a long history of campaigning for disarmament and for the banning of nuclear weapons (http://www.ipb.org). The organisation was, for instance, actively involved in bringing the nuclear issue before the International Court of Justice in 1996. The International Peace Bureau hopes to help draw attention to the aim of the various court cases on this issue by awarding the Sean MacBride Peace Prize to the people and government of the Marshall Islands. IPB sincerely hopes that the Marshall Islands initiative will be a significant and decisive step in ending the nuclear arms race and in achieving a world without nuclear weapons.

The prize ceremony will take place in Vienna in early December at the time of the international conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, and in the presence of the RMI’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tony de Brum and other dignitaries. Since its inception in 1992, many eminent peace promoters have received the Sean MacBride Prize, although it is not accompanied by any financial remuneration.

by Arul Louis

New York: Reiterating its traditional policy of not using nuclear weapons first and not targeting non-nuclear weapons nations, India has offered to enter into agreements incorporating the two principles while ruling out joining the non-proliferation treaty.

“As a responsible nuclear power India has a policy of credible minimum deterrence based on a No First Use posture and non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states,” Ambassador D.B. Venkatesh Varma said Monday. “We are prepared to convert these into bilateral or multilateral legally binding arrangements.”

Varma, the Indian Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament, was speaking at a meeting of the UN General Assembly Committee on Disarmament and International Peace.

While New Delhi is “unwavering in its commitment to universal, non-discriminatory, verifiable nuclear disarmament”, he said, “there is no question of India joining the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) as a non-nuclear weapon state.” That would require New Delhi unilaterally giving up its nuclear weapons.

On another matter impacting the restriction of nuclear weapons, Varma offered New Delhi’s qualified support to the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) negotiations.

“Without prejudice to the priority we attach to nuclear disarmament, we support the negotiation in the Conference on Disarmament of an FMCT that meets India’s national security interests,” he said.

Such a treaty would stop the making of materials that could be used in nuclear weapons.

Reintroducing a draft resolution on a Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Nuclear Weapons, he criticised countries with nuclear weapons coverage that have repeatedly voted against the proposed measure since it was first introduced in 1982.

Varma expressed “regret that a sizeable minority of member states – some of them nuclear weapon states, some with nuclear weapons stationed on their soil and others with alliance partnerships underwritten by policies of first use of nuclear weapons – have voted against this resolution”.

And, “for reasons that are difficult to understand, some member states which are today in the forefront of efforts to highlight the humanitarian impact of use of nuclear weapons have also voted against this resolution”.

Reflecting the concern of the international community to the dangers from terrorists, Varma said India will be introducing again a draft resolution on “measures to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction”.

Participating in the debate, Pakistan called for the development of an international non-proliferation system “through policies that are equitable, criteria-based and non-discriminatory”.

In what may be seen as an indirect criticism directed at India, Yasar Ammar, a third secretary in Pakistan’s UN mission, said, “There should be no exceptionalism or preferential treatment driven by motivations of power and profit.”

The US has an agreement with India on civilian cooperation in nuclear field and because New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, it required a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an international body that deals with trade in nuclear materials and technology.

Pakistan wants a similar agreement with the US, which has been cool to it because of Islamabad’s record of transferring nuclear technology.

India has the support of the US, Russia, Britain, and France for joining the NSG. Pakistan opposes India’s membership if it is not extended to it also.

(IANS)

MacBride Peace Prize to the people and government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands

India ready for nuclear no-first-use agreements

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