SUNFLOWER PEACE DAY
by David Krieger, June 2006
June 4th is the anniversary of Sunflower Peace Day. It marks the day in 1996 when the Defense Ministers of Ukraine, Russia and the United States came together at a former missile base in Ukraine to celebrate Ukraine becoming a non-nuclear weapons state. Ukraine had inherited some 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads when the former Soviet Union split apart. Through an agreement with Russia and the US, Ukraine turned over all of these nuclear weapons to Russia for dismantlement, and the last weapons were transferred to Russia on June 1, 1996.
When the Defense Ministers gathered at the Pervomaisk military base, which once housed 80 underground silos for SS-19 missiles aimed at the United States, they held a very unusual ceremony involving the scattering of sunflower seeds and the planting of sunflowers. On this occasion, US Defense Secretary William Perry said, “Sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil will ensure peace for future generations.”
It was a moment of exhilaration, celebrating the complete nuclear disarmament of what was then the world’s third largest nuclear weapons state. Hope was in the air. If Ukraine could make this commitment to zero nuclear weapons and carry it out, why not the other nuclear weapons states? Wouldn’t “sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil” make as much sense for the US and Russia as for Ukraine?
When Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma called upon other nations to follow in Ukraine’s footsteps and “to do everything to wipe nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth as soon as possible.” Although this is excellent advice, it seems to have fallen on deaf ears in the US, Russia and the other nuclear weapons states.
The sunflower is a symbol of hope and life. It is natural, bright and beautiful. It is even nutritious and useful. Sunflowers stand in stark contrast to manmade nuclear-tipped missiles, the most horrendous instruments of mass murder yet devised by man.
On June 4th, Sunflower Peace Day, people everywhere should take stock of the reversal of progress on nuclear disarmament in recent years and recognize the danger this creates for the world. The more nuclear weapons that exist in the world, the more likely it is that they will be used and the more likely that terrorists, who cannot be deterred from using them, will obtain one or more.
On Sunflower Peace Day, make a commitment to increase your efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Here are three things you can do that will make a difference:
- Order packets of sunflower “Seeds of Peace” from the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and send them to elected officials in nuclear weapons states with a personal note calling for nuclear disarmament and the cessation of research and development of dangerous new nuclear weapons.
- Visit the Foundation’s web site and learn more about nuclear dangers and what actions you can take through our Turn the Tide Campaign to change dangerous nuclear policies.
- Share this article with five friends, or with your entire email list. Please use the link at the top of this page to forward the article!
David Krieger is the president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Find out more at the Foundation's website and its blog.
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