|
LATIN AMERICA: Nuclear Disarmament Back on
the Agenda
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO (IPS) - Over the last few
days, the Chilean capital has hosted two
very different activities that, however, had
a common objective: promoting global nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament.
The first regional meeting of the
independent International Commission on
Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND)
took place in Santiago May 1-3, with the
support of the Latin American Faculty of
Social Sciences (FLACSO).
The members of the ICNND met with Chilean
President Michelle Bachelet Monday.
The president also met on Apr. 28 with
Spanish activist Rafael de la Rubia,
spokesperson for the World March for Peace
and Nonviolence, which will visit 300 cities
in 90 countries between October 2009 and
January 2010.
De la Rubia told the press in Chile that the
global march will set out on Oct. 2 from
Wellington, New Zealand and will end on Jan.
2, 2010 at the foot of Mount Aconcagua in
Argentina.
A group of activists will make the complete
three-month 160,000-km march, which will
include smaller marches by demonstrators
along the way.
"Marches will be held in every city," de la
Rubia explained. "In one place, it will be
three kilometres, in another, seven or 15.
The rest will be bus, boat or train rides."
Bachelet was the first head of state to
explicitly declare her support for the World
March for Peace and Nonviolence.
The question of nuclear disarmament has
gained a new international prominence in
recent months.
The presidents of the United States and
Russia - which have 95 percent of the
existing 26,000 nuclear warheads – released
a joint statement on Apr. 1 committing
themselves to restart negotiations on a new
treaty that would limit and reduce the
number of U.S. and Russian nuclear warheads.
Presidents Barack Obama and Dimitry Medvedev
announced negotiations "to pursue new and
verifiable reductions in our strategic
offensive arsenals in a step-by-step
process, beginning by replacing the
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new,
legally-binding treaty."
The announcement was widely hailed, by the
European Parliament in particular.
But just a few days later, on Apr. 5, North
Korea, which has acknowledged having a
nuclear development programme, launched what
it described as an experimental
communications satellite into orbit, which
according to the United States and its
allies was a long-range missile capable of
reaching the state of Alaska.
The incident was a reminder of the risk that
the number of nuclear weapon states could
grow, or that nuclear arms fall into the
hands of terrorist groups or a rogue state.
Politicians, experts and activists agree
that the change in administration in the
United States opened up new possibilities
for making effective progress towards
gradual nuclear disarmament.
That is precisely the aim of the World March
for Peace and Nonviolence and the ICNND, a
high-level initiative launched by the
Australian and Japanese governments in
September 2008 to revitalise global
disarmament efforts.
The ICNND is co-chaired by former Australian
foreign minister Gareth Evans and former
Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi.
Australia is a large global supplier of
uranium, and Japan is the only country to
have suffered a nuclear attack (the atomic
bombs dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki in 1945.)
The ICNND commissioners include former
Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo
(1994-2000), former Norwegian prime minister
Gro Harlem Brundtland (1981, 1986-1989 and
1990-1996), former U.S. defence secretary
William Perry and former Chinese United
Nations ambassador Wang Yingfan.
The commission, which plans to publish a
report at the end of the year, decided to
hold its first regional meeting in Latin
America because of the region’s "political
and moral leadership" in the area of nuclear
disarmament, Gareth Evans said in the
Chilean capital.
The world’s first nuclear weapon free zone
was established in Latin America and the
Caribbean in 1967, under the Treaty of
Tlatelolco. All 33 countries in the region
are parties to the Treaty, which was
reaffirmed in 2003. The other nuclear weapon
free zones are Africa, Southeast Asia and
the South Pacific.
Because of its leadership in that area,
Evans urged Latin America to play a more
active role in the debates on the next
Review Conference of the Parties to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear
Weapons (NPT), to be held in May 2010.
The third session of the conference
preparatory committee is taking place May
4-15 in New York.
The NPT recognises only five countries as
nuclear weapon states: China, France,
Russia, the United Kingdom and the United
States – the five countries that had such
technology when the treaty was signed in
1968, which are also the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security
Council.
The aim of the treaty, which has 189
signatories, is to prevent the spread of
nuclear weapons and weapons technology,
promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of
nuclear energy, and further the goal of
achieving nuclear disarmament.
But today, the "nuclear club" also includes
India, Pakistan and Israel, while North
Korea is widely believed to have nuclear
weapons and Iran is suspected of having an
active nuclear weapons programme.
The 2010 NPT review conference should
strengthen several aspects of the treaty,
especially the compliance verification
process, Evans, co-chair of the ICNND, told
IPS.
An appropriate mechanism is required to
bring a country before the U.N. Security
Council and to achieve a swift response, in
case a country is doing something that it
should not be doing, under the treaty, he
said.
He also called for expanding the
institutional capacity of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and providing it
with more resources.
In Evans’ view, nuclear non-proliferation,
disarmament and the expansion of nuclear
energy are issues that need to be tackled
together, because the lines separating them
are blurry.
It is not possible to get very far on
non-proliferation without serious
commitments on disarmament, said Evans, who
stressed the importance of getting the
nuclear states to sign a serious commitment
in 2010.
The ICNND’s short-term agenda – for the next
four years – also includes ratification and
implementation of the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the
completion of negotiations for a draft
fissile material cutoff treaty in Geneva.
It would also be important to resolve the
specific problems of Iran and North Korea,
said Evans.
Although he acknowledged that it is a "very
ambitious four-year agenda," the former
Australian foreign minister said that with
the political momentum generated by the new
U.S. leadership, "I think much more is
possible."
The ICNND hopes that nuclear weapons will
have been reduced to a minimum in the world
by 2025.
Evans, who has visited each of the world’s
nuclear-armed nations, said the strong
support for the commission is "quite
interesting," because there are have been
many previous commissions and many previous
reports.
The co-chair of the ICNND said he believes
that if the commissioners are able to
produce a report that is pragmatic and
realistic, that takes into consideration the
political and security problems of countries
and does not only speak in abstract terms
about grandiose visions, and that has dates,
targets and action plans, the initiative
could be "quite influential."
Because these issues are complex and
difficult, the pressure has to come from
three directions, said Evans: first, from up
above, from the United States and Russia,
because they have 95 percent of all existing
nuclear weapons. Nothing will happen without
leadership, he stressed.
But pressure must also come from peer
groups, from governments, including those of
Latin America, which have an important role
to play, he added. Furthermore, it must come
from below, from civil society and NGOs. All
of these activities send out important
messages, he maintained.
|
