Open Letter to the
Leaders of
all Non-Nuclear Weapons States
by David Krieger, January 2000
Your Excellencies:
The outcome of the 2000 Non-Proliferation Treaty
Review Conference, which begins April 24, 2000 at the United Nations
in New York, will play a significant role in determining the security
of humanity in the 21st century. Your personal commitment to a
successful outcome of this Review Conference is essential to strengthening
nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament efforts, and thus to
humanity’s future.
The nuclear perils to humanity are not sufficiently
widely recognized nor appreciated. In the words of writer Jonathan
Schell, we have been given "the gift of time," but that
gift is running out. For this reason vision and bold action are
called for.
General George Lee Butler, a former Commander in
Chief of all US strategic nuclear weapons, poses these questions:
"By what authority do succeeding generations of leaders in
the nuclear weapons states usurp the power to dictate the odds
of continued life on our planet? Most urgently, why does such
breathtaking audacity persist at the moment when we should stand
trembling in the face of our folly and united in our commitment
to abolish its most deadly manifestation?"
It is time to heed the warnings of men like General
Butler, who know intimately the risks and consequences of nuclear
war. The time is overdue for a New Agenda on nuclear disarmament.
What is needed is commitment and leadership on behalf of humanity
and all life.
The heart of the Non-Proliferation Treaty agreement
is the link between non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament.
The non-nuclear weapons states agree in the Treaty not to develop
nor acquire nuclear weapons in exchange for the nuclear weapons
states agreeing to negotiate in good faith to achieve nuclear
disarmament. The Treaty has become nearly universal and the non-nuclear
weapons states, with a few notable exceptions, have adhered to
the non-proliferation side of the bargain. The progress on nuclear
disarmament, however, has been almost entirely unsatisfactory,
leading many observers to conclude that the intention of the nuclear
weapons states is to preserve indefinitely a two-tier structure
of nuclear "haves" and "have-nots."
At the 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and
Extension Conference many countries and non-governmental organizations
challenged the nuclear disarmament record of the nuclear weapons
states. They argued that to extend the Treaty indefinitely without
more specific progress from the nuclear weapons states was equivalent
to writing a blank check to states that had failed to keep their
promises for 25 years. These countries and NGOs urged instead
that the extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty be linked to
progress on Article VI promises of good faith efforts to achieve
nuclear disarmament. Pressure from the nuclear weapons states
led to the Treaty being extended indefinitely, but only with agreement
to a set of non-binding Principles and Objectives that was put
forward by the Republic of South Africa.
These Principles and Objectives provided for:
-- completion of a universal and internationally
and effectively verifiable Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by 1996;
-- early conclusion of negotiations for a non-discriminatory
and universally applicable treaty banning production of fissile
materials; and
-- determined pursuit by the nuclear weapons states
of systematic and progressive efforts to reduce nuclear weapons
globally with the ultimate goal of their elimination.
Progress toward these goals has been unimpressive.
A CTBT was adopted in 1996, but has been ratified only by the
UK and France among the nuclear weapons states. The US argues
that the CTBT necessitates its $4.6 billion per year "Stockpile
Stewardship" program, which enables it to design new nuclear
weapons and modify existing nuclear weapons in computer-simulated
virtual reality tests and "sub-critical" nuclear tests.
Despite the existence of this provocative program, ratification
of the CTBT by the US Senate was rejected in October 1999. The
US and Russia continue to conduct "sub-critical" nuclear
weapons tests. Negotiations on a fissile material cut-off treaty
have yet to begin, and the "determined pursuit" promise
has been systematically and progressively ignored by the nuclear
weapons states.
In its 1997 Presidential Decision Directive 60,
the US reaffirmed nuclear weapons as the "cornerstone"
of its security policy and opened the door to the use of nuclear
weapons against a country using chemical or biological weapons.
The US, UK and France have also resisted proposals by other NATO
members for a review of NATO nuclear policy. Under urgent prodding
by Canada and Germany, they did finally agree to a review of nuclear
policy, but this will not be completed until December 2000, after
the 2000 NPT Review Conference.
The US seems intent on moving ahead with a National
Missile Defense plan, even if it means abrogating the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty, which most analysts view as a bedrock treaty for
further nuclear arms reductions. The US is also moving ahead with
space militarization programs. In the US Space Command's "Vision
for 2020" document, the US proclaims its intention of "dominating
the space dimension of military operations to protect US interests
and investment."
Russia has abandoned its policy of No First Use
of nuclear weapons in favor of a policy mirroring that of the
western nuclear weapons states. The START II agreement is stalled
and is still not ratified by the Russian Duma. The date for completion
of START II has, in fact, been set back for five years from the
beginning of 2003 to the end of 2007. Negotiations on START III
are stalled.
China is modernizing its nuclear arsenal. India
and Pakistan, countries that have consistently criticized the
discriminatory nature of the NPT, have both overtly tested nuclear
weapons and joined the nuclear weapons club. Israel, another country
refusing to join the NPT, will not acknowledge that it has developed
nuclear weapons and has imprisoned Mordechai Vanunu for more than
13 years for speaking out on Israel's nuclear arsenal.
In the face of the intransigence of the nuclear
weapons states, the warning bells are sounding louder and louder.
These warnings have been put forward by the Canberra Commission,
the International Court of Justice, retired generals and admirals,
past and present political leaders, the New Agenda Coalition,
the Tokyo Forum, and many other distinguished individuals and
non-governmental organizations working for peace and disarmament.
The future of humanity is being held hostage to
self-serving policies of the nuclear weapons states. This is an
intolerable situation, not only for the myopic vision it represents
and the disrespect for the rest of the world that is implicit
in these policies, but, more important, for the squandering of
the precious opportunity to eliminate the nuclear weapons threat
to our common future.
The more nuclear weapons in the world, the greater
the danger to humanity. At present we lack even an effective accounting
of the numbers and locations of these weapons and the nuclear
materials to construct them. The possibilities of these weapons
or the materials to make them falling into the hands of terrorists,
criminals or potential new nuclear weapons states has increased
since the breakup of the former Soviet Union.
What is to be done? Will the 2000 NPT Review Conference
again be bullied by strong-armed negotiating techniques and false
promises of the nuclear weapons states? Or will the non-nuclear
weapons states, the vast majority of the world's nations, unite
in common purpose to demand that the nuclear weapons states fulfill
their long-standing promises and obligations in Article VI of
the Non-Proliferation Treaty?
Ridding the world of nuclear weapons is the greatest
challenge of our time. We ask you to step forward and meet this
challenge by demanding in a unified voice that the nuclear weapons
states fulfill their obligations under Article VI of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty. As we stand on the threshold of a new century and millennium,
we ask that you call upon the nuclear weapons states to take the
following steps to preserve the Non-Proliferation Treaty and end
the threat that nuclear weapons arsenals pose to all humanity:
- Commence good faith negotiations to achieve
a Nuclear Weapons Convention requiring the phased elimination
of all nuclear weapons, with provisions for effective verification
and enforcement.
- Publicly acknowledge the weaknesses and fallibilities
of deterrence: that deterrence is only a theory and is clearly
ineffective against nations whose leaders may be irrational
or suicidal; nor can deterrence assure against accidents, misperceptions,
miscalculations, or terrorists.
- Publicly acknowledge the illegality of the threat
or use of nuclear weapons under international law as stated
by the International Court of Justice in its 1996 opinion, and
further acknowledge the obligation under international law for
good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.
- Publicly acknowledge the immorality of threatening
to annihilate millions, even hundreds of millions, of people
in the name of national security.
- De-alert all nuclear weapons and de-couple all
nuclear warheads from their delivery vehicles.
- Declare policies of No First Use of nuclear
weapons against other nuclear weapons states and policies of
No Use against non-nuclear weapons states.
- Establish an international accounting system
for all nuclear weapons and weapons-grade nuclear materials.
- Sign and ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty,
cease laboratory and subcritical nuclear tests designed to modernize
and improve nuclear weapons systems, cease construction of Megajoule
in France and the National Ignition Facility in the US and end
research programs that could lead to the development of pure
fusion weapons, and close the remaining nuclear test sites in
Nevada and Novaya Zemlya.
- Re-affirm the commitments to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic
Missile Treaty and cease efforts to violate that Treaty by the
deployment of national or theater missile defenses, and cease
the militarization of space.
- Support existing nuclear weapons free zones,
and establish new ones in the Middle East, Central Europe, North
Asia, Central Asia and South Asia.
- Set forth a plan to complete the transition
under international control and monitoring to zero nuclear weapons
by 2020, with agreed upon levels of nuclear disarmament to be
achieved by the NPT Review Conferences in 2005, 2010 and 2015.
- Begin to reallocate the billions of dollars
currently being spent annually for maintaining nuclear arsenals
($35 billion in the U.S. alone) to improving human health, education
and welfare throughout the world.
- You have a unique historical opportunity to
unite in serving humanity. We urge you to seize the moment.
Sincerely,
David Krieger
President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
cc: Leaders of United States, Russia, United Kingdom,
France, China, India, Pakistan and Israel
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