The inspectors and missiles visited the U.S. mission in Geneva
this morning and are on their way to the Russian and French
missions. The missiles asked to be eliminated along with their
compatriots as a step towards nuclear disarmament, the central goal
of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). They also planning
to visit the Israeli mission, to demand that Israel renounce its
nuclear weapons programme and joins the NPT. Treaty members are
currently meeting at the United Nations in Geneva.
"There must be no double standards where nuclear weapons are
concerned, the possessors of nuclear weapons are putting the entire
non-proliferation regime is put at risk," said Tom Clements,
Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner.
The central bargain of the Non Proliferation Treaty obliges the
five nuclear weapon states to disarm their nuclear arsenal, while
non-nuclear weapons states pledge to remain so. The vast majority
of states have kept their word the others have not. It is now time
disarmament began in the US, UK, Russia, China and France in
accordance with their NPT obligations. Israel, India and Pakistan
must reject nuclear weapons and join the NPT as non nuclear weapon
states.
Greenpeace's demands about the double standards of the nuclear
weapon states reflect many of the concerns raised by NPT delegates
in opening speeches yesterday. Many called for the nuclear weapon
states to lead by example, rather than building new nuclear weapons
that could further destablise the NPT. (1)
The United States rejected criticism that it had not met its own
disarmament obligations under the NPT, and instead strongly
criticised Iran for being in non-compliance. It said the treaty was
dangerously out of balance because of the actions of North Korea,
Iraq and Iran, but claimed it had made huge strides itself toward
nuclear disarmament. (2)
Greenpeace also issued a deck of cards to NPT delegates with ID
photos of the eight major nuclear proliferators to provide guidance
on who should be eliminating their nuclear arsenals. Presidents
Bush, Putin, Hu Jintao, Chirac, Musharraf and Prime Ministers
Blair, Vajpayee and Sharon - the leaders of the US, Russia, China,
France, Pakistan, India, UK, India and Israel, are together
responsible for the production and deployment of more than 36,000
nuclear bombs globally. Greenpeace said these states were in
material breach of the NPT and of an International Court of Justice
ruling that the use and threat of use of nuclear weapons were
illegal.
"We are representing people from all over the world who want to
see intensive scrutiny and elimination of not only Iraq and other
so called "rogue states'" suspected arsenals of nuclear weapons,
but the
elimination of all them, no matter who possesses them,"
Greenpeace "inspector" Tom Clements said.
Greenpeace strongly recommends five major proposals to be agreed
at the NPT meeting:
- States should reject the use of military force to resolve
proliferation concerns, and uphold the value of multilateral legal
mechanisms
- States should reject the "first strike" use of nuclear
weapons, and agree legally binding security assurances.
- All nuclear weapon states should commit to the goal of
eliminating their illegal nuclear arsenals and halting the
development of new nuclear weapons or the "refurbishment" of
existing ones.
- States should agree an emergency mechanism to deal more
swiftly and effectively with future crises such as North Korea's
withdrawal from the NPT.
- The promotion of "dual use" nuclear technology, particularly
reprocessing and enrichment technologies, which is permitted under
the NPT, should be stopped and a comprehensive ban on the
production and use of all fissile material agreed.
Notes: (1) We remain concerned at the lack of progress towards achieving the total elimination of nuclear weapons. [Statement by Malaysia to NPT 2003 PrepCom, 28 April, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of nations-116 countries.(2) It called for verifiable and irreversible disarmament from states in non-compliance with the NPT, while claiming that the Moscow Treaty represents significant progress toward nuclear disarmament. The Moscow Treaty removes strategic nuclear warheads from duty but contains no verification provisions.