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UNIFIED APPROACH NEEDED
FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT
The
only viable normative approach regarding nuclear weapons is their
total and universal elimination under strict verification. This
cannot be achieved by incremental steps but only by the negotiation
of a Nuclear Weapons Convention as advocated by the UN
Secretary-General, writes
Jayantha Dhanapala, former Ambassador
of Sri Lanka, who presided over the 1995 NPT Review & Extension
Conference.
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IRAN USES
FEAR OF COVERT NUCLEAR SITES TO DETER ATTACK
The
New York Times reported January 5 that Iran had "quietly hidden an
increasingly large part of its atomic complex" in a vast network of
tunnels and bunkers buried in mountainsides.
The story continued a narrative begun
last September, when a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility
near Qom was reported to have been discovered by U.S. and Western
intelligence. The premise of that narrative is that Iran wanted
secret nuclear facilities in order to be able to make a nuclear
weapon without being detected by the international community.
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MORE
FROM SIMPLE ANTI-WAR AGENDA TO EXPANSIVE PEACE INITIATIVES
Of
approximately 170 peace museums that exist around the world, a third
are found in Japan. The Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan
University, located in Kyoto, is the only one in Japan housed in a
higher educational institution. It captures the history of the
country’s aggression as well as its tragic wartime experiences. The
private university in Japan’s ancient capital was once an active
advocate of the country’s belligerent behaviour during World War II.
READ MORE
 Commission Spreads Tainted Joy Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd had reason to
rejoice when they received and launched the report of the
International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and
Disarmament (ICNND), calling for a cut of more than 90 percent in
the world’s nuclear arsenals by 2025.
But the two prime
ministers' joy was adulterated by a barrage of criticism of the
report by civil society organisations from Japan, Australia and
other parts of the world.
READ MORE
 Nuclear
Power ‘Yes’ – Nuclear Proliferation ‘No’
Nuclear power is a dirty
word for those who champion the cause of clean energy. It needs some
guts, therefore, to take up the cudgels on behalf of the atom as an
important source of non-fossil energy. This is precisely what Yukiya
Amano, the veteran Japanese diplomat, did on Dec. 9, seven days
after taking charge of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
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DPRK and U.S. Recommit to 2005 Joint Statement
United States Envoy to North Korea
Stephen Bosworth announced Thursday that his three-day visit to
Pyongyang has produced no commitment from the North Koreans to
return to multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang’s nuclear
weapons programme. However, both sides recommitted to a 2005 joint
statement in which the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK)
committed to dismantle its nuclear programme in exchange for
economic aid and other incentives.
READ MORE
‘Nuclear Energy Is Not a Solution to Climate Change’
As the threat of nuclear weapons looms
large over the very existence of life on earth, Dr Sue Wareham,
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons’ (ICAN) Australian
board member, is calling for a speedy abolition of these weapons and
the rejection of nuclear power as a solution to climate change.
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ARABIC
Inter-religious Forum Calls for Nuclear Abolition
For the global religious community, the
use of nuclear arms is an overwhelmingly important ethical issue for
the human family. Thus, nothing less than the immediate abolition of
such weapons is needed from the highest levels, said speakers at the
Parliament of the World’s Religions currently underway in this
Australian city.
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GERMAN
U.S.-JAPAN ACCORD: Seeking a Nuke Free World
Japan, the only country to
be the target of atom bombs, and the U.S., the only country to drop
them, firmly committed themselves to working towards a nuclear
weapons free world, when President Barack Obama visited Japan during
his first presidential tour of Asia.
READ MORE
On Nuke Disarmament, It's Still "You First"
Is the ongoing controversy over Iran's nuclear
programme helping to advance the United Nations' agenda on nuclear
disarmament? To a number of diplomats and experts who have
participated in past U.N. discussions on the spread of nuclear
weapons, the answer is, yes – although not necessarily for the
expected reasons.
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Toward A
Nuke-Free Germany?
The new
conservative-liberal coalition government wants the United States to
withdraw all nuclear weapons still deployed in Germany despite the
fall of the Berlin Wall, end of the cold war and re-unification
twenty years ago. Confirming the goal, Chancellor Angela Merkel and
designated Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced Oct 25 and
the previous day that they would take up the issue with the U.S.
administration.
READ MORE
Closer To Making Utopia Feasible?
 “What
we see here is tragic, but even more tragic is all that was lost
without a trace,” said Yoriko Kawaguchi as tears welled up in her
eyes. She had just completed a tour of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum.
Kawaguchi is a former foreign minister
of Japan. Together with the erstwhile foreign minister of Australia,
Gareth Evans, she co-chairs the International Commission on Nuclear
Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND).
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GERMAN
Clinton Calls for Strengthened IAEA Powers
 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Wednesday called for strengthening the authority of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect suspected
nuclear-related facilities and ruled out lifting sanctions against
North Korea until it took "verifiable and irreversible" steps toward
denuclearisation. In what was billed as a major policy address,
Clinton also called for Iran to take "prompt action" in implementing
a proposed plan to ship most of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) to
Russia for reprocessing so that it can be used to produce medical
isotopes at a reactor in Tehran.
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ARABIC
Are France, U.S.
Pushing Arabs Into Nuclear Race?
The
oil-rich United Arab Emirates’ decision to build nuclear reactors on
its soil has unleashed a frenetic, politically backed competition
between giant corporations from France, U.S., Japan and South Korea,
to win the $40 billion bid for this project, which may lead to a
nuclear race involving other Gulf Arab states. The UAE president
Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan signed on Oct. 4, a nuclear
strategy and a new law to regulate the production and development of
nuclear energy in the seven-emirate federation that he chairs.
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ARABIC |
GERMAN
Less Than 1000 Nukes By 2025?
Is the
International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and
Disarmament (ICNND) drifting away from the goal of a nuclear weapons
free world? Is a small group of Japanese government officials
colluding with U.S. conservatives to torpedo reduction in American
nuclear weapons? These questions loomed large in run-up to and
during the Commission’s fourth meeting Oct. 18-20 in Hiroshima that
along with Nagasaki suffered the U.S. atomic bomb assaults.
READ MORE
'Let Us Make Nuclear Abolition a Reality'
A world free of nuclear
weapons is no longer a utopia. There is more than one reason to
believe that it is a concrete possibility, says Daisaku Ikeda,
president of the Buddhist association, Soka Gokkai International (SGI).
"In recent years, we have seen important, groundbreaking examples of
humanitarian ideals surmounting military logic and narrowly defined
national interests to bring new disarmament accords into existence,"
says Ikeda explaining the rationale behind his optimism.
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ARABIC |
GERMAN |
SPANISH
Obama Seeks UN Backing for Nuke-Free World
When Barack Obama chaired a summit meeting of
the Security Council Sept. 24 - a historic first for a U.S.
president - his primary motive was to push for his ambitious,
long-term agenda for "a world without nuclear weapons".
A resolution adopted
unanimously by the 15 members of the U.N.'s most powerful political
body expressed grave concern about the threat of nuclear
proliferation and the need for international action to prevent it.
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JAPANESE
WHY SHOULD WE ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Hiromichi Umebayashi, Founder and Special Advisor of Peace Depot,
Inc. Japan writes in this column that in Japan there is a
deep-rooted desire for nuclear abolition that derives from its
first-hand experience of the appalling damage caused by nuclear
weapons. Yet this does not seem to be enough to constitute a
successful argument for "a world free of nuclear weapons". The
effort to bring about a nuclear abolition must be indivisibly and
essentially integrated with the challenge of creating a more
equitable, just, and humane global society.
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ITALIAN
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SPANISH
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JAPANESE
Nuclear Weapons Free
World by 2020?
If
Tadatoshi Akiba, the mayor of Hiroshima, had his way, the special UN
Security Council session to be chaired by U.S. President Barack
Obama on Sep. 24 would decide to achieve a world free of nuclear
weapons by 2020 -- a year that would mark the seventy-fifth
anniversary of the terrible destruction caused by U.S. atom bombs on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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LATIN AMERICA:
'The
More Guns, the More Violence'
Traffic in light weapons and small arms is one
of Latin America's major disarmament concerns, because they fuel
urban violence, especially in countries like Mexico, Guatemala and
Brazil. This was one of the issues on the agenda of the 62nd Annual
Conference for Non-Governmental Organisations associated with the
United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI/NGO), under the
banner "For Peace and Development: Disarm Now!"
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ARABIC | SPANISH
SGI President Issues Five-Point Plan toward
Nuclear Abolition
 Daisaku
Ikeda, president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist
association, issued a proposal Sept. 8 outlining concrete steps
toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. A vocal opponent of these
inhumane weapons for more than 50 years, he stresses that we now
have a unique opportunity to build grassroots solidarity, propel
political processes and break out of the stagnation which has dogged
nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation efforts.
SUMMARY
| FULL
TEXT
UN Conference Mulls Over Nuclear Abolition
 If a
world without nuclear weapons is not to remain distant and just a
dream, the nuclear haves must demonstrate political will, leadership
and flexibility at the landmark Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT)
Review Conference slated for May next year in New York.
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JAPANESE
Stalemate Stalls UN Conference
The UN
Conference on Disarmament (CD) is faced with a deadlock again, only
three months after it ended 12 years of stalemate. The Conference
adopted a consensus document on May 29 that contains a work plan in
run up to the crucial nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review
conference next year. The first signs of a deadlock surfaced when
Australian Ambassador Caroline Millar, chairperson of the conference
convened in Geneva, told delegates August 10 that Pakistan had asked
that morning for the programme of work to be reopened.
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Africa Becomes World's Largest Nuclear Free
Continent
Africa, the world's second-largest
and second most-populous continent after Asia has now become the
world's largest nuclear free zone comprising 53 countries with about
one billion people.
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GERMAN
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PORTUGUESE
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SPANISH |
SWEDISH
EGYPT REJECTS U.S. NUCLEAR UMBRELLA
 A
spectre haunted the U.S.-Egyptian summit -- the spectre of a U.S.
nuclear umbrella for the Middle East. In run-up to President Hosni
Mubarak's first Washington visit in five years, both the Egyptian
leader and his senior aides categorically rejected an undeclared
U.S. offer to guarantee defence of the region against atomic weapons
as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace plan.
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ARABIC
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GERMAN
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SPANISH
U.S. SAYS NO TO NUKES, YES TO CONVENTIONAL ARMS
U.S. President Barack Obama’s pledge to take
concrete steps towards "a world without nuclear weapons" has
garnered overwhelming support from peace activists worldwide.
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ARABIC
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GERMAN
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PORTUGUESE |
SPANISH |
SWEDISH
Obama to Bolster Nuclear Disarmament at UN
When U.S. President Barack Obama presides over
a meeting of world leaders in the Security Council on Sep. 24, he
will provide a high profile political platform for two of the most
sensitive issues at the United Nations: nuclear non- proliferation
and nuclear disarmament.
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ARABIC |
GERMAN
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JAPANESE |
PORTUGUESE |
SPANISH
Hurdles Aplenty Before
INDIA-U.S.
N-Deal Goes Commercial
As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
began talks with Indian officials in New Delhi on Monday to take a
forward a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, signed by the
previous Bush administration, it was apparent that there were many
roadblocks to be cleared before deals worth an estimated 10 billion
dollars are signed.
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JAPANESE
N-Britain Goes Uselessly to Sea
Too early yet to call it a victory for
anti-nuclear lobbyists, but the
British government decision last
week to put off an upgrade of its
Trident nuclear system is at least
denial of immediate victory to
those who want newer nuclear weapons.
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ARABIC
FINE-TUNING THE COLD WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Ambiguity - is it the watchword for all involved in the issue over
whether Iran goes nuclear, especially in light of the ongoing
political uncertainties that engulf the Islamic Republic? In trying
to decipher the Iranian nuclear puzzle it is perhaps worth going
back to the attitude that, during the Cold War, became U.S. doctrine
under Robert McNamara (who died Jul 6).
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JAPANESE
ANTI-NUCLEAR JAPANESE TO LEAD ATOMIC AGENCY
Japan, the sole country that has been suffering, for over half a
century now, the abject consequences of the United States' nuclear
bombs during the II World War, will soon be leading international
efforts towards a world free of nuclear weapons. In fact, subsequent
to a highly disputed selection process, the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appointed on July 3 Yukiya
Amano, the Japanese ambassador and expert on disarmament,
non-proliferation and nuclear energy policy, as its new Director
General.
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NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT MORE URGENT THAN EVER
 One of the most urgent problems
of today's world is the danger of nuclear weapons. of today's world is the danger of nuclear weapons. The unexpected nuclear test by North Korea on May 25 and the test-firing of a series of short-range missiles is the latest, frightening reminder.
Nothing fundamentally new has been achieved in the area of nuclear disarmament in the past decade and a half. Twenty years after the end of the Cold War, the arsenals of the nuclear powers still contain thousands of weapons, and the world is facing the very real possibility of a new arms race,
writes Mikhail Gorbachev.
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ARABIC
FRANCE
Ambiguous on Nuclear Disarmament
As the international war of words over nuclear
programmes heats up, with North Korea threatening to strengthen its
"nuclear deterrence" against the United States, countries such as
France find themselves in a stance that some analysts describe as
ambiguous and hypocritical.
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ARABIC
GERMANY HAS NO
NUCLEAR WEAPONS, JUST SHARES THEM
Most Germans support nuclear abolition, but the
country may still not give up its policy of nuclear sharing. "The
government is divided on the question of nuclear sharing," says Otfried
Nassauer, director of the Berlin Information Centre for
Transatlantic Security (BITS).
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ARABIC |
JAPANESE
Opposition to ‘Nuclearism’ Builds Up in India
As
India follows up on the historic civilian nuclear agreement it
signed last year with the United States by drawing up hard
commercial deals, opposition to ‘nuclearism’ is building up among
activist groups. The ‘India-U.S. Economic Relations: The Next
Decade’ report released this week by the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) says that the nuclear deal marks the beginning of a
new era that will see bilateral trade jump from the present 42
billion dollars annually to 320 billion dollars by 2018.
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JAPANESE
Nuclear Weapons on an Empty Stomach?
The
stories emanating from the hermetically-sealed North Korea are the
stuff of diplomatic legends. Described as one of the world's most
closed societies, North Korea has always remained a political
enigma.
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Deadlock Ends On Way To Nuclear Abolition
A nuclear free world is far from within reach yet. But there is
reason to rejoice: after 12 years of stalemate, the Conference on
Disarmament adopted by consensus May 29 a document that contains a
work plan for 2009 in run up to the crucial nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference next year.
READ MORE
ARAB Queen Against Nuclear FOLLY
"The sheer folly of trying to defend a nation by destroying all life
on the planet must be apparent to anyone capable of rational
thought. Nuclear capability must be reduced to zero, globally,
permanently. There is no other option." This impassioned plea by
Queen Noor of Jordan, who is actively campaigning for the abolition
of nuclear weapons, de-mystifies the realm of pseudo reasoning that
has survived post-Cold War decades. It offers a common sense logic
why weapons that destroy all life must be banned.
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NORTH KOREA TEST A SETBACK TO NUKE-FREE WORLD
When the 2010 review
conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) takes place
next April, there will be nine declared and non-declared nuclear
powers in the world - and probably more waiting in the wings.
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ARABIC
U.S.,
JAPAN URGED TO LEAD CAMPAIGN TO BAN NUCLEAR ARMS
The United States, the only country to launch a military strike with
nuclear weapons, and Japan, the only country to have suffered
nuclear devastation, will have to jointly take the initiative for
the creation of an international convention to ban all nuclear
weapons, says one of the world's longstanding advocates of nuclear
disarmament.
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ARABIC
Groups Seek World Court Opinion on Nukes
A coalition of international non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) is seeking an advisory opinion from the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the second in 13 years - on
the legality and use of nuclear weapons.
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GERMAN
'Civil Society's Role Crucial For
Nuclear Abolition'
The path toward nuclear abolition is a long
and winding one. But what is vital is that we do not give up the
hope that it appears to embody, says SGI office of peace affairs
executive director Hirotsugu Terasaki. The lay Buddhist organisation
SGI (Soka Gakkai International) is engaged in mobilising
"commonsense" perception that nuclear weapons do not provide
security. Its president Daisaku Ikeda has launched 'People's Decade
for Nuclear Abolition'.
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MAYORS LOBBY AGAINST NUKES AT UN
The issue of nuclear disarmament being discussed with new vigour in
the halls of the UN as the third and final preparatory committee
leading up to the 2010 review conference of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) meets over the next two
weeks.Mayors for Peace, an international network of local officials,
held an event May 5 as part of the NPT preparatory sessions to
promote its 2020 Vision Campaign calling for the abolition.
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ARABIC
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GERMAN
DISARMAMENT BACK ON THE AGENDA IN LATIN AMERICA
The Chilean capital hosted two very different
activities early May 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).
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GERMAN
"Springtime of Hope", Says Jayantha Dhanapala
When he addressed a massive gathering in the
Czech capital of Prague last month, U.S. President Barack Obama made
a historic statement pledging that his country will take "concrete
steps towards a world without nuclear weapons."
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ARABIC
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GERMAN
GERMAN PEACE MOVEMENT GATHERS MOMENTUM
It is
indeed an irony of history. The U.S.-led NATOs decision to station
nuclear weapons across Western Europe gave birth and clout to the
German peace movement. Thirty years later, it is back in the news,
this time vigorously campaigning for U.S. President Barack Obamas
proposals.
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JAPANESE
INDIA, CHINA AND NPT
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India has a flourishing nuclear power program and expects to have
20,000 MWe of nuclear capacity on line by 2020.
- China has electricity demand growing at 20 percent per year and a
rapidly-expanding nuclear power program. Nuclear capacity of at
least 40,000 MWe is planned by 2020.
- India is already self-sufficient in reactor design and
construction and China has become so for second-generation units,
but is importing Generation-3 plants.
- India's uranium resources are limited, so it is focusing on
developing the thorium fuel cycle to utilise its extensive reserves
of thorium.
- China's uranium resources are modest and it is starting to rely on
imported uranium.
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THE MOMENTUM BUILDS UP
"We
committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world."
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama
announced on April 1 in London. Though they did not mention any
deadline, the two leaders' joint statement was significant. Not only
because Russia and the United States possess about 95 percent of
nuclear weapons, but also because the Strategic Arms Reduction
Treaty (START) signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan in 1991
is the last of its kind and expires end of this year.
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CONDITIONS TOWARDS ZERO
Japan
has proposed a resolution for the total elimination of nuclear
weapons to the United Nations General Assembly every year for the
past 15 years and has otherwise been engaged in active nuclear
disarmament diplomacy. In a move to take advantage of the growing
momentum toward a nuclear free world, Japan's Foreign Minister
Hirofumi Nakasone has put forward an 11-point initiative for
promoting global nuclear disarmament.
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AT A CROSSROADS
The
third preparatory committee (PrepCom) meeting for the 2010 Review
Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) takes place
at the UN in New York May 4-15 against a background of increasing
calls for progress on nuclear disarmament and measures to strengthen
the Treaty. The NPT was concluded in 1968 and entered into force on
March 5, 1970. It is the founding document of multilateral non
proliferation endeavours.
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LEARNING FROM PREP COM 2008
A
world without nuclear weapons is no longer viewed as a perception
belonging to the realm of dreamers or even madcaps. It is very much
a realistic possibility provided those in possession of nuclear
weapons and fissionable materials soon decide to negotiate a series
of multilateral and unilateral measures.
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WITH BASE CAMPS TO THE MOUNTAIN-TOP
A
world without nuclear weapons is no longer viewed as a perception
belonging to the realm of dreamers or even madcaps. It is very much
a realistic possibility provided those in possession of nuclear
weapons and fissionable materials soon decide to negotiate a series
of multilateral and unilateral measures.
READ MORE
Norway Seeks A New Push
Norway's foreign affairs minister Jonas Gahr Støre has called for
giving new priority to nuclear disarmament that has been assigned to
oblivion since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The collapse of
the Berlin Wall not only brought to an end the division of Berlin
but also paved the way for unification of Germany and the end of the
Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Good governance and
human rights took priority over disarmament because the nuclear
threat was perceived as having disappeared, the minister said in a
brief interview.
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