Vol. 14 - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Transcription

VITAL SIGNS
1985 Nobel Peace Prize
The Newsletter of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Volume 14, Issue 1
May 2001
IN THIS ISSUE
NMD Increases
Risk of Nuclear War
page 3
Bombs Away
page 4
Dialogue with
Decision-Makers
page 5
Middle Powers Initiative:
MPI Program Update
page 6
IPPNW-Germany
page 7
IPPNW 12-Country
Campaign to Block NMD
page 8
Putting Pressure on
the US to Sign the
Mine Ban Treaty
page 11
Small Progress
on Small Arms
page 12
Medical Student News
page 14
IPPNW Nominates
Foro de Ermua for
Nobel Peace Prize
page 15
And much more . . .
New at www.ippnw.org
!IPPNW Initiative: Rx Abolition
Nuclear Abolition!
1985 Nobel Peace Prize
Founding Co-Presidents
Bernard Lown, MD, USA
Evgueni Chazov, MD, RUSSIA
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Co-Presidents
Mary-Wynne Ashford, MD, PhD, CANADA
Sergei Gratchev, MD, RUSSIA
Abraham Behar, MD, PhD, FRANCE
Regional Vice-Presidents
AFRICA
Robert Mtonga, MD, ZAMBIA
RUSSIA AND THE FORMER
SOVIET UNION
Ljubov Kolesnikova, MD, RUSSIA
EUROPE
Herman Spanjaard, MD,
THE NETHERLANDS
LATIN AMERICA
Antonio Jarquín, MD, NICARAGUA
MIDDLE EAST
Perla Dujovney-Perez, MD, ISRAEL
NORTH AMERICA
Neil Arya, MD, CANADA
Ira Helfand, MD, USA
NORTH ASIA
Masao Tomonaga, MD, JAPAN
SOUTH ASIA
S. S. Shrivastwa, MD, INDIA
SOUTHEAST ASIA PACIFIC
Ian Maddocks, MD, MPH, AUSTRALIA
At-Large Members
Boris Bondarenko, MD, RUSSIA
Monika Brodmann, MD, SWITZERLAND
John Pastore, MD, USA
Carlos Pazos, MD, CUBA
Elisabeth Waterston, MD, UK
Kenjiro Yokoro, MD, JAPAN
Chair
Ian Maddocks, MD, MPH, AUSTRALIA
Treasurer
Herman Spanjaard, MD,
THE NETHERLANDS
Secretary
John Pastore, MD, USA
Medical Student Representatives
Caecilia Buhmann, DENMARK
Ernest Ryan Guevarra, PHILIPPINES
Speaker of the International Council
Robin Stott, MD, UK
Deputy Speaker
Gunnar Westberg, MD, SWEDEN
Chair of the 15th World Congress
Peter Wilk, MD, USA
Executive Director
Michael J. Christ
• The Medical and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons Use,
Production, and Testing
• Depleted Uranium Weapons and Acute Post-War Health Effects:
An IPPNW Assessment
!IPPNW Initiative
Small Arms!
• Facts About Small Arms and Light Weapons
• NGOs Urge Governments to “Cast a Wide Net” in Controlling
Small Arms
• Statement by Cathey Falvo, MD, MPH, at the Small Arms
PrepComm. 18 January, 2001
!Editorials, Press Releases
News!
• Bush Policy Might Bully US Allies. Washington Post, April 2001
• Stop Playing Nuclear Games. Tikkun, May-June 2001
• Bush Policy Might Bully US Allies. Boston Globe, March 2001
• Nuclear Weapons Remain Greatest Threat. Los Angeles Times Syndicated Service, December 2000
• Seize the Moment, Ban the Bomb. Los Angeles Times, November 2000
!IPPNW in the News
News!
• Selling Nuclear Fear. David Beers, AlterNet and Vancouver Sun, March 2001
• Searching for World Peace. Profile of Australian Activist Dr. Sue Wareham, Canberra Times,
December 2000
• A Disarming Doctor. Profile of IPPNW Co-President Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, Heart and Soul,
Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, November 2000
!Books and Reports
Publications!
• Small Arms/Firearms: A Global Health Crisis
• Peaceful Caucasus ---- A Future Without Mines: Report on the Second International Conference on
Landmines in Russia and the Former Soviet Union (English translation available only on website)
• Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor, April 2001
• Medicine and Global Survival, April 2001
• Annual Report 2000
Events
• Aiming For Prevention: International Medical Conference on Small Arms, Gun Violence, and Injury;
Helsinki, Finland, September 2001
• Summit for Survival: IPPNW/PSR World Congress, May 2002
IPPNW Central Office Staff
727 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617-868-5050 Fax: 617-868-2560 E-mail: [email protected] web: www.ippnw.org
Executive Office
Michael Christ, Executive Director
ext. 207, e-mail: [email protected]
Naidene Waller, Executive Assistant
Administration and Finance Department
Doug Kline, Director of Finance & Administration
Mehdi Afkari, Accountant
Communications Department
Lynn Martin, Director of Communications
Liling Tan, Communications Associate
Development Department
Allison Howard, Development Associate
Program Department
John Loretz, Director of Programs
Piji Protopsaltis, Project Coordinator
Brian Rawson, Program Coordinator
IPPNW/PSR UN Office
Merav Datan, Director
IPPNW/PSR UN Office
777 UN Plaza, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel: (646) 865-1883, fax: ( 212) 286-8211
e-mail: [email protected]
Staff of Sister Organization in the Central Office
Middle Powers Initiative
Suzy Pearce, Executive Director
Tel: (617) 492-9189, e-mail: [email protected]
Laura Rótolo, Program Assistant
Tel: (617) 868-5050, ext. 217
e-mail: [email protected]
On the Cover: IPPNW-Canada’s Bombs Away campaign ad. (Design: Darren Carcary, Resolve Design, Inc.,
[email protected]; Photography: Alison Burdett, [email protected]; Model: Emira Mears,
[email protected])
IPPNW Vital Signs
2
Nuclear Abolition
NMD
Increases
the Risk of
Nuclear War
Peter Zheutlin, JD
John O. Pastore, MD
Having promised, during the campaign and
in his inaugural address, to conduct a humble,
not arrogant, foreign policy, George W. Bush
promptly dispatched Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld to Munich earlier this month to tell
America’s European allies (and, not incidentally,
Russia and China) that regardless of their deep
concerns, the US would move swiftly to deploy
a national missile defense system (NMD).
Nations with peaceful intentions, said Rumsfeld,
have nothing to fear from a missile shield.
But, perhaps it’s US intentions that have
everyone else on edge. Indeed, if you read the
glossy 1997 booklet published by the United
States Space Command called “Vision for 2020,”
you might be on edge, too. “Vision for 2020” is
filled with Orwellian jargon such as this little
pearl ---- “the emerging synergy of space superiority with land, sea, and air superiority, will lead
to Full Spectrum Dominance” ---- that leave no
doubt that NMD is part of a larger US plan to
dominate space for military purposes.
Right up front, “Vision for 2020” proclaims:
“US Space Command ---- dominating the space
dimension of military operations to protect US
interests and investment. Integrating Space
Forces into warfighting capabilities across the
full spectrum of conflict.” And USSPACECOM,
as they call themselves, clearly sees NMD as
essential to this warfighting mission.
“Global engagement,” says USSPACECOM
in more military-speak, “is the application of precision force from, to, and through space.
USSPACECOM will have a greatly expanded
role as an active warfighter in the years ahead as
the combatant command responsible for
National Missile Defense (NMD) and space
force application.” (Emphasis added.)
Even though NMD tests thus far have failed
spectacularly, the critical question is not whether
NMD might someday be technically feasible, but
whether deployment of NMD will increase or
decrease the risk of nuclear war.
NMD will increase the risk of nuclear war
for several reasons.
First, NMD increases Russian and Chinese
insecurity. The Russians in particular are not
buying assurances that NMD will remain a
limited system, and USSPACECOM’s “Vision
for 20/20” undercuts assertions that NMD would
be a purely defensive deployment. Russia’s fear is
that NMD could eventually neutralize a sizable
portion of Russia’s nuclear deterrent, making
Russia vulnerable to a US first strike. Under such
circumstances Russia would be loathe to agree to
further reductions in its nuclear arsenal and
would be under enormous pressure, in fact, to do
just the opposite. This, in turn, undercuts another highly desirable goal reportedly under serious consideration by the Bush Administration:
unilateral reductions in the US nuclear arsenal by
thousands of warheads. If NMD sparks a Russian
and/or Chinese nuclear weapons build-up, where
will the domestic political support for US reductions come from? In short, NMD could well be
the first shot fired in a new nuclear arms race.
Second, deployment of NMD threatens to
unravel decades of painstaking efforts to restrain
the nuclear arms race through a web of treaties
at a time when building on that progress is eminently possible.
Third, to the extent there are so-called
“rogue states” developing a ballistic missile capability with the intention of attacking the US
(North Korea and Iran are most often mentioned), NMD is a stimulus to step up and
expand such efforts. In the unique calculus of
nuclear weaponry, where a single warhead can
kill millions and injure millions more, just a little bit of offense trumps defense. Furthermore, a
ballistic missile is just one way to deliver a
nuclear weapon. A suitcase smuggled over the
border is another. NMD or no NMD, people
everywhere will remain profoundly vulnerable as
long as there are nuclear weapons in the world.
Fourth, NMD threatens to consume a
hundred billion dollars, or more, that would be
better spent pursuing political and technical
avenues that could reduce the threat of nuclear
attack, such as full implementation of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and purchase
of Russia’s fissile materials stockpile before it
ends up in other, more dangerous and less
accountable hands.
US allies who have profound and justifiable
concerns about NMD have options open to
them beyond applying diplomatic and political
pressure on the Bush Administration. Canada,
Norway, Australia, Denmark, Greenland, and the
UK, all of which may be asked to provide a base
for NMD-related facilities, could refuse. These
countries, and others, may find themselves under
enormous pressure from the US to participate in
NMD and it will, no doubt, take enormous
political will to resist. But, if the President is
serious about having a humble foreign policy,
he cannot afford to run rough-shod over the
concerns of America’s most important allies, or
dismiss those of its potential adversaries. !
John O. Pastore, MD, serves on IPPNW’s
Board of Directors, and Peter Zheutlin, JD,
is IPPNW’s Associate Program Director.
This piece was published in
the Boston Globe on March 25, 2001.
News Briefs
In January, India successfully test-fired an
updated version of its Agni intermediate-range
ballistic missile, which has a 1,250-mile range. The
test-fire prompted immediate concern from
Pakistan, Japan, and the UK.
In response to the Bush Administration’s
announcement that it would take a hardline
policy with Pyongyang, North Korea threatened
in February to discard a moratorium on longrange missile tests. North Korea had agreed in
September 1999 to suspend missile tests during
negotiations with the US on the country’s missile
program and in exchange the US agreed to ease
sanctions and provide assistance to the country’s
nuclear energy program.
Russia floated plans in February to build its
own ballistic missile system based on using existing theater-range weapons that can destroy ballistic
missiles in their “boost-phase” that differ from US
plans to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in
space. Russia later proposed a system that would
employ short- and medium-range interceptors
fired from mobile launchers in its campaign to
convince European allies to cosider alternatives
to the US proposed anti-missile system that
Washington says could be extended to Europe.
Recently declassified US government documents show that the Kennedy and Johnson
administrations were alarmed by rapid developments in China’s nuclear program in the early
1960s and considered bombing targets, killing
experts, and supplying India with nuclear
weapons. Other options included blockading
China and infiltrating and sabotaging the program; carrying out air attacks on Chinese nuclear
facilities; supporting a Taiwanese invasion of
China; and launching a tactical nuclear attack.
Later reports stated that China’s nuclear capability
would never be great enough to threaten US interests. Other documents also showed that both
administrations considered helping India develop
nuclear weapons capability in order to contain
China. President Johnson eventually opted for
diplomatic means to contain nuclear expansion.
The New Zealand government expressed
strong concern over a nuclear waste shipment traveling from France to Japan. New Zealand and
other Pacific states do not want nuclear shipments
going through the nuclear-free zone of the South
Pacific. Nations that ship nuclear waste claim to
have safeguards in place should an accident occur,
but refuse to accept liability in the event of an accident. The shipment destined for Japan contains
uranium and plutonium mixed oxide fuel (MOX),
which could in theory be converted into nuclear
weapons material.
Ten thousand anti-nuclear protesters in
Germany protested a shipment of radioactive
Nuclear News continues ---- page 4
3
IPPNW Vital Signs
Nuclear Abolition
News Briefs
Bombs Away
continued from page 3
Canada’s Cutting-Edge
Cyber-Campaign
to Stop NMD
Groups throughout the peace movement
have long wrestled with how to involve the
younger generation in our work. IPPNW’s
Canadian affiliate, Physicians for Global Survival
(PGS), has found a way to reach the Nexus generation (18-35 year olds) with its innovative
Bombs Away campaign to stop US deployment
of a National Missile Defense (NMD) system.
With powerfully combined images and
words on billboards and transit ads (see black
and white version on the cover) in two major
cities ---- Vancouver on the west coast and
Toronto in the east ---- PGS is driving people to
its Bombs Away website. The well-designed site
educates visitors about the threat nuclear
weapons pose today. But many of the 300,000
people who have visited www.bombsaway.ca so
far haven’t just read about the issues. More than
2,000 have been motivated to act, sending faxes
to the Canadian government encouraging opposition to the Bush Administration’s dangerous
plan.
The launching of the ads and website in
early February also received extensive coverage
by the media, helping to further spread news of
the cyber-campaign. Journalist David Beers of
the Vancouver Sun has had his articles on the
campaign picked up by other media outlets such
as the US-based news service AlterNet. (Go to
www.alternet.org and select “Selling Nuclear
Fear” to print a copy of this article or use the
Publications Order Form on page 19 to request
that a copy be mailed to you by writing in your
request.)
IPPNW Co-President Dr. Mary-Wynne
Ashford’s determination to find effective ways to
communicate IPPNW’s anti-nuclear message to
young people sparked the campaign. Ideas for
how to reach the 18-35 year-old demographic
were developed by Amanda Gibbs of the
Vancouver-based Institute for Media, Policy and
Civil Society (IMPACS) and PGS and then were
tested by a Toronto-based research firm called DCode. Campaign development was supported by
a generous grant from the Simons Foundation.
The research found that most of those surveyed thought that the nuclear threat was a thing
of the past ---- that it ended when the Cold War
did. When told that there are still more than
30,000 nuclear weapons in the world today ---with more than 5,000 on hair-trigger alert ---- they
were shocked. Many expressed anger that the
leaders of the nuclear weapons states had led
IPPNW Vital Signs
4
PGS Members of Steering Committee for Bombs
Away Campaign (Left to right): PGS Executive
Director Debbie Grisdale with medical students
Paris Ann Gfeller and Jeremy Penner. (Photo:
Lynn Martin-IPPNW)
them to believe that they had eliminated the
threat. When given the facts, these Canadian
youth were motivated to work to rid their
world of nuclear weapons and the immediate,
persistent risk of Armageddon.
Sarah Kelly, a 24-year-old medical student
at the University of British Columbia, understands that the US NMD plan increases the risk
of nuclear war. Serving as spokesperson at the
campaign launch, she said, “If the US goes ahead
on this, China and Russia have said that they will
respond by heightening the arms race. Keep
heightening the arms race, and eventually a
nuclear weapon will be used.”
IMPACS’ Gibbs says that the Nexus generation is “realistic, confident, optimistic, driven to
activism, and incredibly media literate.” The
Bombs Away campaign strategy of using ironic
advertising combined with web-based activism
effectively harnesses the tremendous potential
this group has to help create social change.
IPPNW plans to work with its affiliated organizations in other countries to implement similar
youth outreach campaigns ---- especially in the
US and Russia where public support for nuclear
abolition must be used to stop NMD and a new
nuclear arms race. !
Members of IPPNW’s PR Working Group (left to
right): Lynn Martin, IPPNW; Liling Tan, IPPNW;
Suzanne Hawkes, IMPACS; and Clare
Henderson, MAPW (IPPNW-Australia).
(Photo: Piji Protopsaltis-IPPNW)
waste traveling to the Gorleben storage facility in
Hamburg from the French nuclear reprocessing
plant at La Hague. As many as 15,000 police officers were dispatched at an estimated cost of $50
million. Germany recently lifted a ban on nuclear
waste transports imposed in 1998 on safety
grounds and two transports are expected per year
as part of a deal made with the electricity industry
in 2000 to phase out Germany’s 19 nuclear power
plant reactors by 2025.
A federal court in March granted to the
Natural Resources Defense Council and the
Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs the Motion for
Preliminary Injunction in their legal battle against
the multi-million dollar National Ignition Facility
(NIF) mega-laser for violating the Federal Advisory
Committee Act (FACA). Being built as part of the
Stockpile Stewardship program, NIF is suspected
of being designed to research fusion reactions for
a new generation of nuclear weapons. The two
environmental groups sought to bar the DOE
from using the NIF August 2000 “rebaseline,”
calling it an “illegally-prepared, biased review” to
garner support for its problem-plagued laser
fusion project. The 2 groups hope that Congress
will take a close look at alternatives to the NIF project and reconsider its priority within the overall
Stockpile Stewardship program, believing that
with an objective external review of NIF’s costs,
technical problems, and nuclear proliferation risks,
Congress will cancel the facility.
In November, the Ukrainian Parliament ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Ukraine is one of the remaining 14 states whose
ratification is required for the CTBT’s entry into
force. The following thirteen states are required to
ratify the treaty before it can enter into force:
Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Iran, US,
China, Israel, North Korea (sign and ratify), India
(sign and ratify), and Pakistan (sign and ratify).
On 3 January 2001, Congresswoman Lynn
Woolsey (D-CA) submitted a bill, HR 17, to the
107th US Congress welcoming the IPPNWbacked Model Nuclear Weapons Convention and
calling on the US President to begin multilateral
negotiations leading to the early conclusion of a
nuclear weapons convention. The Bill has already
been co-sponsored by 17 additional members of
Congress. US citizens are encouraged to contact
their Congressional Representative and urge them
to become a co-sponsor of HR 17. The full text of
the resolution can be found at thomas.loc.gov,
key word “nuclear disarmament.” !
More nuclear news is available at
www.wagingpeace.org, a project of the
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Nuclear Abolition
Dialogue with
DecisionMakers
in Poland
Herman Spanjaard, MD
IPPNW Vice-President, Europe
IPPNW’s Polish affiliate (Lekarze Przeciw
Wojnie Nuklearnej) invited an IPPNW delegation to meet decision-makers in March in
Warsaw to discuss nuclear disarmament issues
with particular emphasis on how to achieve a
nuclear weapons-free Europe. The team consisted
of Professor Stefan Leder and Dr. Bogdan
Wassilewski from Poland, Dr. Herman Spanjaard
from the Netherlands, Dr. Arthur Muhl from
Switzerland, Dr. Klaus Renoldner from Austria,
Professor Martin Westerhausen from Germany,
Dr. Zita Makoi from Hungary, and Dr. Liz
Waterston from the United Kingdom. News of
the delegation ran in Poland’s major newspaper
Tribona.
IPPNW-Poland, under the guidance of
Professor Stefan Leder and Dr. Bogdan
Wassilewski, met with Poland’s Foreign Minister,
members of the Foreign Affairs Committee in
the Sejm (the parliament), and the former
Minister of Defense.
Dr. Renoldner raised IPPNW’s concerns
over the deadlock in nuclear weapons negotiations, stressing the need for negotiations leading
to a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) to
ban nuclear weapons. He also urged enactment
of a nuclear weapons-free zone in Europe as a
confidence-building measure. Foreign Minister
Bartoszewsky observed that Poland feels threatened by the possible presence of nuclear
weapons in Kaliningrad, Russia, and said that
there had been a joint inspection by a Polish and
Russian team of experts to two of the five suspected sites. It has been reported that Russia may
have moved nuclear weapons into Kaliningrad in
response to NATO expansion. The former
Warsaw Pact countries of Poland, Hungary, and
the Czech Republic joined NATO in March
1999.
Recent public opinion polls showed 80 percent of the Polish population favored joining
NATO. A much lower percentage favors deploying nuclear weapons in Poland or basing foreign
troops there.
The delegation learned that Poland supports the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
and regrets that the US government has not ratified the treaty. !
(Left to right) John Loretz, Dr. Arthur Muhl, Dr. Abraham Behar, Dr. Hans Levander, Dr. Lars Pohlmeier, Ellen Antal (medical student?), _________, _________, Noel Barengo (medical student?), Dr. David Rush, Dr. Liz Waterston, and Dr.
Monika Brodmann. (Photo: Herman Spanjaard, IPPNW-Netherlands)
Meetings in
Paris & London
(Left to right) Stefan Leder, Bogdan Wassilewski,
Zita Makoi, Arthur Muhl, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Barskewsky, Liz Waterston, Martin Wsterhausen,
and Klaus Renoldner.
(Photo: IPPNW-The Netherlands)
More than a dozen IPPNW delegates led by CoPresident Abraham Behar (top, third from left)
gathered in Paris to discuss French nuclear disarmament policy with the Director of the
Disarmament Department of the Foreign Office.
The session capped two days of Dialogue with
Decision-Makers meetings in London and Paris in
November. !
NMD Featured
on SLMK Website
IPPNW-Sweden (Svenska Läkare mot Kärnvapen ---- SLMK)
has provided a great service to IPPNW’s affiliated organizations around the world by developing a new section on its
website focused on US plans to deploy a National Missile
Defense (NMD).
Written by respected US-based Swedish journalist Claes Andreasson, the website topics cover:
!" What Is the National Missile Defense?
!" Clinton’s Missile Defense System
!" The Threat
!" NMD and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
!" Quotes on NMD
It also has News, Links, Image Gallery, and Sound sections.
Available at www.slmk.org in both English and Swedish, this is a powerful new tool for activists to
use in the fight to stop NMD. SLMK has generously given permission for the text to be used by
others with the request that the source be cited as “Claes Andreasson for Swedish Physicians Against
Nuclear Weapons.” !
5
IPPNW Vital Signs
Nuclear Abolition
Middle
Powers
Initiative
Program Update
Suzanne Pearce
MPI Executive Director
Geiringer Oration
On March 27-28, MPI Chairman Canadian
Senator Douglas Roche spoke in Wellington to a
high-level UN-sponsored Asia-Pacific regional
disarmament conference hosted by New
Zealand. He delivered the Geiringer Oration*
sponsored by IPPNW-New Zealand, in which
he noted “the determination of the Bush
Administration to proceed with NMD, to the
great concern of NATO allies and the outright
opposition of Russia and China . . . .” He recommended that “in this climate, it is important
that the core issue of nuclear disarmament be
the central response to missile defense system
proposals.”
Support for the New Agenda
MPI sees the outcome of the 2000 NPT
Review Conference as a new moment in nuclear
disarmament. Not only did 187 countries pledge
an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the
total elimination of their nuclear arsenals, the
New Agenda (NA) group also emerged there as
the preeminent political force for nuclear disarmament and subsequently crafted their 2000 UN
General Assembly resolution to embody the 13
Practical Steps adopted by the conference.
On November 20, the General Assembly
voted overwhelmingly (154 yes; 8 abstain; 5 no)
to adopt it, with China plus all of NATO supporting it, with the exception of France and Russia.
An important focus for MPI now is to
monitor progress on implementation of the
NPT 13 Practical Steps. MPI began to address
this at a roundtable it organized at the State of
the World Forum on September 7 with representatives from the New Agenda group, the US
government, and the UN. Predictions about fulfillment of the NPT commitments before 2005
were gloomy. On October 17, government and
representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) again explored prospects for wide
support of a new vehicle to implement the 13
steps ---- the NA resolution ---- at a UN forum
arranged and facilitated by MPI.
On April 30, 2001, one year after the 2000
NPT Review, MPI will hold a strategy consultation “Towards NPT 2005: An Action Plan for the
13 Steps” at the UN with representatives of the
New Agenda, other key governments, NGOs,
and the UN, to examine progress, analyze obstacles, and form strategies for moving ahead on the
13 Steps. Discussion will proceed from a paper
commissioned by MPI from Dr. Tariq Rauf of
the Monterey Institute in California, which will
provide background, analysis, and recommended
actions on each of the steps. A report from the
consultation will be widely circulated.
Challenging NATO Nuclear Policy
NATO continues to call nuclear weapons
“essential,” squarely contradicting the NPT
Review pledge to pursue their elimination. In
early October 2000, discussions between an
MPI delegation and Foreign Ministry and
Defense officials in Oslo, Berlin, Rome, Brussels,
and The Hague revealed both lack of awareness
of and inability to grapple with this contradiction. The delegation brought these conclusions
to the October 17 MPI consultation and reported them widely. MPI was grateful for organizing help from the following IPPNW activists:
Kirsten Osen working with MPI Country
Representative Terje Stokstad in Oslo; Xanthe
Hall and Dr. Lars
Pohlmeier in Berlin;
Dr. Henri Firket in
Brussels; and Dr.
Herman Spanjaard
working with MPI
Country Representative Karel Koster in
The Hague.
MPI delegation meeting with members of the German Bundestag (parliament)
(left to right): Dr. Scilla Elworthy, MP Winfried Nachtwei, Senator Douglas
Roche, MP Uta Zapf, and Commander Robert Green. (Photo: MPI)
IPPNW Vital Signs
6
Approach
to Canada
The November
federal election in
Canada put a planned
MPI delegation on
hold. Senator Douglas
Roche has taken steps
to acquaint the new
Foreign Minister John
Manley with MPI’s track record. Senator Roche
also participated in important Canadian NGO
events in the interim and submitted a Motion
on NMD to the Senate in February. The MPI
delegation, including IPPNW Co-President Dr.
Mary-Wynne Ashford, will visit Ottawa on May
8-9, when the conclusions from the 13 Steps
strategy consultation will be reported to the
government of Canada.
Approach to Japan
In November 2000, Senator Roche was represented by Commander of the Royal Navy
(Rt) Robert Green at the Nagasaki Global
Citizens’ Assembly for the Elimination of
Nuclear Weapons, along with other MPI members. Commander Green, accompanied by Alyn
Ware and MPI Country Representative Professor
Hiro Umebayashi, met with senior members of
the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo to report on the
MPI NATO tour and discuss growing contradictions in Japan’s reliance on the US nuclear
umbrella. The delegation also met with several
key legislators in the leading opposition parties
in the Diet (Japan’s Parliament) where
Commander Green briefed them on his book
The Naked Nuclear Emperor: Debunking
N uclear Dete
rrence (the Japanese version was
launched in Nagasaki).
Looking Forward
to the 2002 NPT PrepCom
MPI will continue to support the New
Agenda group and other key governments in
promoting progress on the NPT 13 Steps
through delegations and consultations. A key
question is how best to influence the nuclear
weapon states in the twelve months preceding
the 2002 NPT PrepCom.
Organizing Parliamentarians
From the beginning, MPI has seen parliamentarians as a vital link between civil society
and national leaders. Alyn Ware has now been
commissioned to develop a Parliamentary
Network for Nuclear Disarmament to facilitate
inter-parliamentary communication and cooperation, encourage members to participate in international disarmament fora, and provide updates
on international initiatives. Alyn can be reached
directly at PNND Aotearoa/New Zealand
Office, PO Box 23257, Cable Car Lane,
Wellington, phone (64) 4 499 3443, fax (64) 4
499 5858, and email [email protected] !
* The Geiringer Oration was established in memory of
IPPNW-New Zealand’s Dr. Erich Geiringer, a founder
of the World Court Project and prominent political
activist.
IPPNW is a member of the MPI coalition.
Visit MPI online at www.middlepowers.org
MPI’s Annual Report and the new report by
Dr. Rauf are available upon request.
Affiliate Spotlight
IPPNWGermany
Working Towards a
Culture of Peace
Jens-Peter Steffen, MD
IPPNW-Germany, Berlin
“Why is it,” asks Professor Horst-Eberhard
Richter, co-founder of IPPNW-Germany
(International Ärtze für die Verhütung des
Atomkrieges), “that our society exposes itself
seemingly without any doubts to immense
threats, which are of its own making, instead of
concentrating on resolutely combining its forces
in a cooperative effort to overcome conflicts, for
a mutual and sustainable securing of our vulnerable living conditions and for a creative way of
developing culture? How can we all learn in this
sense a more reasonable and thriving way of
keeping healthy?”
Richter posed this question in December
2000 to 1,000 participants at the IPPNWGermany Congress “Culture of Peace” held in
Berlin. In addition to inspiring IPPNW and
other peace activists, media coverage brought
the conference message to a wider audience.
Professor Richter articulated the message of
IPPNW when he said, “There is no healthy society without peace. There will be no peace, however, without a healthy, socially just, and culturally open society.”
The Terrible Twins:
Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Power
Nuclear weapons development, testing,
storage, and the threat of their use remain a primary concern in Germany. IPPNW-Germany is
part of a national network of more than 40 organizations working against this threat to humanity. While IPPNW-Germany continues to work
for a nuclear weapons-free Baltic Sea, the threat
of US National Missile Defense has become the
main focus for IPPNW-Germany and the network.
At the beginning of this year, IPPNWGermany was prominently cited by the media
when the possibility that German soldiers might
develop cancer because of depleted uranium
(DU)-ammunition used in Kosovo came to light.
IPPNW-Germany was quickly sought by the
media to explain the characteristics and medical
dangers of this ammunition. A political and
public campaign for an international ban on
DU-ammunition led to the collection of 1,300
signatures from medical colleagues and enough
funds to publish two advertisements within three
weeks.
For IPPNW-Germany, the danger of nuclear
energy is a concern of central importance. Not
only do our members
engage in activities
that inform the public about the health
hazards of nuclear
energy production,
they also try to influence politicians.
IPPNW-Germany has
criticized the current
government for reaching a compromise
with the industry on
phasing out nuclear
energy over much too
long a period and for
sticking to outdated
IPPNW-Germany Congress 2000 on the “Oncoming Tasks of the Peace
security standards for Movement” in Berlin, Germany (left to right): Professor Ernst-Otto Czempiel,
this period.
peace researcher; Professor Richard von Weizsäcker, former president of the
German Federal Republic; Professor Horst-Eberhard Richter, IPPNW-Germany
co-founder; and Professor Egon Bahr, former politician and peace researcher.
Other Programs
Each aspect of (Photo: IPPNW-Germany)
the work of IPPNWIn May, IPPNW-Germany will host a
Germany is intended to make a change towards
Congress
on questions of ethics in medicine.
a healthy and peaceful society. Our members are
More than 1,000 participants have enrolled so
also involved in securing better conditions for
far. This level of engagement proves that IPPNWtraumatized refugees in Germany. The organizaGermany addresses issues that matter to our coltion also conducts an annual medical student
leagues and to the public in effective and creative
exchange program that sends students to hospiways. !
tals abroad to participate in social and political
projects as well as obtain medical training.
Dr. Lars Pohlmeier
Physician-Activist Profile:
The Youthful Face of IPPNW-Germany
German non-profit organizations are not
alone in complaining about the absence of
young people in socially responsible work and
electoral politics. But the conclusion that our
youth have become apolitical is misplaced.
The proof is the continuing interest of
young medical students in the activities of
IPPNW-Germany. IPPNW-Germany has gained
gifted and active young colleagues throughout
the years who have organized many projects
around the issues that matter most to them.
One of these is Dr. Lars Pohlmeier who
joined IPPNW-Germany in 1991. From the outset, one of his interests was the international
work of IPPNW, and he has served first as a
student representative to IPPNW’s Board of
Directors, then as IPPNW International
Councillor. Recently, Lars was a member of the
Organizing Committee for the 14th World
Congress in Paris.
Lars combines the study of medicine with
that of journalism and has written about the
complex subjects of nuclear disarmament and
the health hazards of radiation for a popular
audience. For years, he
was part of the team
that produced the
(Photo: IPPNWbiannual student magaGermany)
zine Amatom.
IPPNW-Germany was fortunate to have
Lars work throughout the year 2000 in the
Berlin office as the physician-representative of
the organization. During this time, he helped
develop IPPNW-Germany’s campaigns. With
his help, IPPNW-Germany took up the issue of
the war in Yugoslavia ---- the first time since the
end of World War II that Germany had participated in a military conflict in Europe.
Since January of this year, Lars has been
working in a hospital in Hamburg, and he has
received his MD. Now 31, he and his wife Lena,
whom he met while working in St. Petersburg,
are raising a lovely one-year-old baby girl. What
motivates Lars to be a good doctor and a caring father also drives him to devote so much of
his time and energy to IPPNW: the desire to
make the world a safer and healthier place for
present and future generations. !
7
IPPNW Vital Signs
Feature
IPPNW
Launches
12-Country
Campaign
to Block NMD
John Loretz
Program Director
The road to nuclear abolition has been
long, much too slow, and filled with twists and
turns. When the 187 countries that are party to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) gathered at
the United Nations for their year 2000 review,
they agreed on 13 practical steps that would
move the world further along that road. Signing
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, implementing existing treaties, negotiating a ban on the
production of fissile materials, and reaffirming
the commitments to disarmament made in
Article VI of the NPT were all on the list.
Not surprisingly, ballistic missile defenses
were not. While the National Missile Defense
(NMD) proposals of the Clinton Administration, which have now been taken up far more
aggressively by the Bush Administration, were
not explicitly rejected in the NPT consensus
statement, country after country, including some
key US allies, have warned that deployment of
NMD could lead to the unraveling of decades of
progress toward nuclear disarmament.
The new US administration has offered
contradictory proposals that it claims will reduce
the threat of nuclear attack at the start of the
21st century. The “top to bottom” defense
review ordered by Congress and soon to be
implemented by Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld may result in a recommendation to
reduce the US strategic nuclear arsenal unilaterally from some 7,000 to 2,000 or fewer warheads.
During his campaign, candidate Bush also
pledged to take large numbers of nuclear warheads off hair-trigger alert.
While it has quietly signaled these positive
steps, however, the Bush Administration has
trumpeted its intentions to accelerate the development and deployment of NMD. George W.
Bush made NMD a campaign issue and has
stubbornly supported development of an
expanded missile defense system since assuming
office in January. Secretary of Defense and
ardent NMD proponent Donald Rumsfeld and
Secretary of State Colin Powell have pressed
reluctant US allies in the UK, Denmark,
Australia, and elsewhere to accept NMD, while
expressing indifference to the concerns of Russia,
China, and other countries that see missile
defenses as a threat to their own security.
IPPNW Vital Signs
8
NMD would lull
the American public
even further into a
false sense of security;
would needlessly exacerbate feelings of insecurity among US
allies and potential
adversaries; and would
incite Russia and
China into increasing
their offensive nuclear
capabilities. To the
extent that so-called
“rogue states,” such
as North Korea, Iraq,
and Iran, may be
developing ballistic Graphic from United States Space Command Vision for 2020.
Website www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace
missile capabilities
with the intention of
12-country campaign to oppose missile defenses.
attacking the US ---- a claim that has been made
In coordination with its US affiliate, Physicians
too casually given the flaws and the expense of
for Social Responsibility (PSR), IPPNW will
the system being proposed ---- NMD will only
mobilize physicians and other concerned citiprovoke them to step up and expand efforts to
zens in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France,
overwhelm or circumvent the defenses.
Germany, New Zealand, North and South
Aside from increasing global instability,
Korea, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United
NMD remains technically unfeasible. Two out of
Kingdom.
three tests have failed, and the one labeled a sucSome of these countries are key US allies
cess was based on manipulated data, according
that have expressed doubts about NMD and
to MIT defense expert Ted Postol.
need to be reinforced in their opposition. Three
Rather than freeing the world from the conof them ---- Australia, Denmark, and the UK ---stant threat of a nuclear catastrophe to which
will house some of the NMD infrastructure and
there would be no medical response, deployment
persuading them to withhold permission for the
of NMD, whether it works or not, would ensure
construction of radars and other communicathat the existing nuclear weapon states ---- and
tions systems would place a major stumbling
undoubtedly a number of new ones ---- would
block in front of the Bush Administration.
retain some nuclear weapons and keep them on
North Korea and Russia have special roles
high alert. NMD is not a step on the road to
to play in IPPNW’s campaign. Russian
elimination of nuclear weapons; rather, it perPhysicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
manently institutionalizes the role that weapons
(RPPNW), working closely with PSR, will use its
of mass destruction have played for half a cenaccess to the Russian parliament, the Duma, to
tury in establishing and advertising the possesarrange meetings between IPPNW physicians
sor’s military dominance.
and Russian legislators, with the goal of conAssurances that NMD is a purely defensive
vincing the Russian leadership to hold firm in its
system are belied by statements of the US Space
opposition to NMD. During IPPNW’s 15th
Command, which has claimed for itself “a
World Congress in Washington, DC, next May,
greatly expanded role as an active warfighter in
PSR and RPPNW will schedule meetings
the years ahead as the combatant command
between Duma members and key members of
responsible for National Missile Defense (NMD)
the US Congress to highlight ongoing bilateral
and space force application . . . [S]pace superiopposition to NMD within the governments of
ority is emerging as an essential element of batboth countries.
tlefield success and future warfare.”
A cornerstone of the pro-NMD argument
Finally, NMD threatens to consume hunhas been the allegation that North Korea is
dreds of billions of dollars that would be better
developing nuclear weapons and long-range
spent on urgently needed programs to promote
missiles that could threaten the US by the midglobal health, to confront the growing threat of
dle of this decade. This threat ---- which cannot
AIDS and other infectious disease epidemics, to
be ignored but has been overstated to sell NMD
eradicate poverty, and to stabilize the Earth’s
to the US public ---- would evaporate should
climate and protect the global environment.
North and South Korea successfully reconcile.
IPPNW affiliates in this part of Asia have come
IPPNW’s NMD Campaign
together in recent years to facilitate regional
To convince the US administration to abanpeace building (see Vi
tal Signs 13.1). Sometime
don its NMD proposals, IPPNW has launched a
Feature
The Bush
Administration
and National
Missile
Defense
Medical Student Representative to the Board
Ernest Ryan Guevarra (Philippines) consults with
opinion researcher Angus McAllister at the
IPPNW PR Retreat (Photo: Lynn Martin-IPPNW).
next year, IPPNW will bring together a delegation of Korean, American, and Russian physicians
for a series of consultations in Pyongyang and
Washington, DC. Meetings with government officials, key legislators, leaders of the medical profession, and the media will be scheduled to promote diplomacy and regional reconciliation as
the more effective path toward global nuclear
disarmament.
The NMD campaign is already off to an
energetic start. IPPNW’s Australian affiliate, the
Medical Association for Prevention of War
(MAPW), has called for a public debate on
Australia’s potential involvement in NMD, as
well as on progress towards nuclear disarmament
generally.
“The Government seems hell-bent on supporting a technical system which will ensure continued reliance on nuclear weapons rather than
pursuing the real goal ---- abolition of nuclear
weapons and their means of delivery,” said
MAPW President Dr. Sue Wareham.
Neil Arya, President of Physicians for
Global Survival (IPPNW-Canada), wrote to
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien in
February, shortly before his meeting with the US
President, urging him to state “clearly and
unequivocally that Canada opposes the deployment and development of a national missile
defense system and that true security depends
upon the abolition of nuclear weapons.” (For
more on Canada’s anti-NMD Campaign, see
page 4.) !
Challenges and
Opportunities
for PSR and the Peace
Activist Community
Jaya Tiwari and Martin Butcher
Physicians for Social
Responsibility (PSR)
Within the first 100 days of his presidency,
George W. Bush took several steps to fulfill his
campaign promise to reevaluate and reorient US
national security policy and priorities. On the
positive side, the new administration indicated
that the US would consider unilateral reductions
in the US nuclear arsenal. These plans for
nuclear reductions, however, have been accompanied by intentions to deploy an elaborate
National Missile Defense (NMD) system that
would potentially require the US to withdraw
from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the
cornerstone of the international arms control
and nonproliferation regime.
The Bush NMD Plan
The US is poised to pursue an air-, sea-, and
land-based NMD system that it has said would
protect all 50 states, US friends and allies, and
deployed forces overseas against missile threats
from “rogue states” such as North Korea and
Iraq, as well as from an accidental missile launch
from Russia or China. The fine points of Bush’s
NMD will not be known until after the completion of an ongoing Nuclear Posture Review and
a separate review of US defense priorities being
directed by US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld. Based upon public statements, early
leaks about NMD plans, and references in the
Fiscal Year 2002 budget, however, it is certain
that the administration is committed to moving
ahead with development and deployment of a
“missile shield.”
PSR’s Position
While Physicians for Social Responsibility
(PSR) welcomes steps to reduce the number of
nuclear weapons, the administration’s plans to
deploy a missile defense system are a matter of
grave concern. Deployment of an NMD system
is the wrong prescription for US and global security. NMD does not presently and may never
Demonstrators against missile defense at the PSR
co-sponsored Valentine’s Day action in Washington,
DC, during a conference for military contractors at
the Ronald Reagan Building. (Photo: PSR)
meet several fundamental criteria that would
warrant system development and deployment.
! Threat: The terrorist attack on the USS
Cole illustrated that, contrary to the naïve
arguments of NMD supporters, future
threats to US interests and security will not
be delivered by missiles ---- which are inaccurate and whose origin can easily be determined ---- but by anonymous, inexpensive,
and clandestine means, including small aircraft, shipping containers, speedboats, and
tractor trailers. Moreover, the improvement
in US relations with North Korea following
former Secretary of State Albright’s historic
visit to that country, one of the principal
“rogue states’’ against which a NMD system
would protect, weakens the case for NMD
and strengthens the case for the powerful
role diplomacy plays to promote global
security.
! Technical Feasibility: The technical feasibility and effectiveness of an NMD system
is highly questionable. Two recent tests of
missile interceptors failed and many scientists argue that simple countermeasures,
such as including decoys along with warheads in a missile payload, would render the
system ineffective.
! Cost Effectiveness: The cost of NMD is
not at all commensurate with the relative
risks associated with the threat of a missile
attack. Alternative solutions, including
diplomacy and strengthening of the arms
control and nonproliferation regimes, are
clearly more cost effective.
! Inte
rnational Impact: In light of near
global opposition, the deployment of an
NMD system by the US will likely lead to
renewed nuclear arms races in Russia,
China, India, and Pakistan. Moreover, were
the United States to withdraw from the
ABM treaty to pursue its NMD goals, it
would cause irreversible damage to the existing intricate web of nuclear arms control
and disarmament agreements.
9
IPPNW Vital Signs
Feature
PSR’s NMD Strategy
PSR’s strategy to oppose the US administration’s plans for NMD includes grassroots
action, quality research, public outreach and education, media work, interaction with legislators
and officials, and international efforts:
! Grassroots Action:
PSR encourages its
members and activists to participate in petition drives, protests, and call-ins/write-ins.
PSR has launched a petition campaign
encouraging the public to voice opposition
to NMD. Some 5,000 PSR members and
activists have signed petitions asking the
President to halt NMD research and development. Since last year, PSR has led three
public protests opposing “Star Wars.”
! Research and Analysis: A group of PSR
physicians has just concluded a major scientific study, due to be published at the end
of this year, detailing possible medical consequences of an accidental or intentional
nuclear attack on the US. The findings of
this study suggest that the US population is
likely to suffer greater casualty and devastation with a deployed missile shield than
without.
! Media Work: A number of PSR members
and activists have written letters to editors of
national and local newspapers stating their
opposition to NMD. PSR staff members
conduct meetings with newspaper editorial
boards to encourage national and local
newspapers to write articles on national
missile defense, de-alerting nuclear weapons,
and nuclear abolition. As a result of these
meetings, some 60 editorials, op-eds, and
articles have appeared in newspapers, bringing the public’s attention to these issues.
Some 400 doctors joined PSR’s call to
oppose “Star Wars’’ in a full-page ad published in the N ew York Times.
!
Interaction with Legislators and Officials:
A number of PSR physicians are scheduled
to meet with members of Congress in May
2001 to educate legislators about the medical community’s opposition to NMD.
US Congressman John Tierney addressing demonstrators at the Valentine’s Day action against missile
defense co-sponsored by PSR, Peace Action, and
Greenpeace. (Photo: PSR)
IPPNW Vital Signs
10
International Efforts
Martin Butcher, Director of PSR Security
Programs, met with members of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO)
Parliamentary Assembly (NPA) during their visit
to Washington, DC, in January. The parliamentarians had expressed a desire to be briefed on
nuclear weapons and NMD issues before their
official meetings with US officials. PSR staff has
also been meeting with political and defense
counselors of different embassies in Washington,
DC, to convince NATO countries and other US
allies and friends to not give in to US pressures
to join NMD. !
Landmines News
Washington, DC, May 2002
On March 1, 2001, the international campaign celebrated the two-year anniversary of the
MBT’s Entry-into-Force. However, at the time
of the anniversary, Russia, Burma, Sri Lanka,
and Angola were among those governments
actively laying anti-personnel landmines.
To date, 139 countries have signed the
Mine Ban Treaty (MBT) and 11 have ratified it.
Most recent ratifications include Kenya
(January) and Zambia (February). Still, 54
countries have yet to sign the MBT and 28
have signed but not ratified the treaty.
Nearly 200 campaigners from 90 countries
gathered in Washington, DC, on March 6-10,
2001, to bring attention to the US, one of the
key countries standing outside the treaty. This
was the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines (ICBL)’s first-ever international
meeting in the US. (See accompanying article
on page 11).
Key findings of the Landmine Monitor
Report 2000 include signs of progress: more
than 22 million AP stockpiled mines destroyed
by over 50 nations; fewer mine victims in affected countries such as Afghanistan, BosniaHerzegovina, Cambodia, and Mozambique;
and a total of 168 million square meters of land
demined in 1999 by seven of the largest humanitarian mine clearance programs.
Landmine Action/UK and the German
Initiative to Ban Landmines launched
“Alternative anti-personnel mines ---- The next
generations,” a report that identifies victimactivated weapons, both in existing stockpiles
and in development, which may function as AP
mines or have the same impact on civilians.
(The report is available at www.landmine.de.) !
IPPNW’s next World Congress, the 15th
since it was founded in 1980, will be hosted by
Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in
Washington, DC, from May 1-5, 2002. PSR is
the US affiliate of IPPNW.
At this pivotal time in world history,
IPPNW and PSR believe it is crucial to convey
to Congressional and Administration officials
the global impact of US government decisions.
To change what happens on our fragile planet
and to all who inhabit it, we must fully understand and ultimately change the thinking of
leaders in Washington. The 15th IPPNW Congress is a part of that overall strategy to educate
and influence decision-makers.
For further information, contact Naidene
Waller at IPPNW, [email protected], or Alyson
Michael at PSR, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW,
Suite 1012, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: (202)
667-4260. !
IPPNW Executive Director Michael Christ with
IPPNW Board Chair Dr. Ian Maddocks at the
IPPNW Board of Directors meeting in December
in Boston. (Photo: Lynn Martin-IPPNW)
15th World
Congress
Peace and Health
Putting Pressure on the US
to Sign the Mine Ban Treaty
Piji Protopsaltis
Project Coordinator
On March 6-10 , 2001, more than 400 campaigners, mine survivors, deminers, observers
from non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
and representatives of international organizations
gathered in Washington, DC, to attend a General
Meeting of the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines (ICBL), as well as an array of activities and events arranged by the US Campaign
(USCBL). Participants included 160 members of
the ICBL from 80 countries, 20 NGO observers
from an additional 10 countries, and 250 members of the USCBL from 46 of the 50 US states.
IPPNW representatives Dr. Eddie Mworozi
(Uganda), Roman Dolgov (Russia), and Piji
Protopsaltis (Central Office) were among the
participants. The combined presence of the
ICBL and the USCBL in Washington, DC, led
Washington, DC’s Mayor Anthony Williams to
declare the week “Ban Landmines Week.”
After years of meeting in every corner of the
world, the international campaign decided to
bring the world’s attention to the US by holding
its first-ever international meeting in the nation’s
capital. The US, a special target country for the
ICBL, continues to stand outside the Mine Ban
Treaty (MBT), along with another 53 countries
including Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Israel,
India, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia. Though it continues to be the largest donor government for
mine action ($100 million per year for global
mine clearance efforts), the US has yet to join
the 112 states parties to the comprehensive landmine ban. The Bush Administration has not yet
made any policy statement on the banning of
anti-personnel (AP) mines, though current policy calls for the US to join the MBT in 2006
if alternatives have been found. National and
international activists joined forces and used the
DC meetings as an opportunity to push the
landmine issue onto the new administration’s
agenda.
The General Meeting included discussions
on the progress of the ICBL since the last
General Meeting in Mozambique (May 1999),
as well as on the strategic direction and activities
for the next four years leading to the first Review
Conference of the MBT in 2004. Based on the
input of national campaigns, individual NGOs,
and working groups of the ICBL, a draft 2004
Action Plan was adopted at the closing of the
conference, outlining ways in which the international movement will work over the next four
years to achieve universalization and implementation of the MBT. A separate two-day meeting
of the Landmine Monitor during
which researchers gathered to discuss
and analyze their findings followed
the General Meeting. The Third
Landmine Monitor Annual Report
(2001) will be launched at the Third
Meeting of States Parties to the MBT,
scheduled to be held in Managua,
Nicaragua (September 2001).
Even more exiting, however, was
the long series of activities and awareness-raising events held throughout
the week, parallel to the formal meetings. These included meetings with
300 Congressional representatives;
embassy visits; a press conference next
to a giant pile of 6,000 shoes representing the victims of landmine
injuries and an international demining
demonstration on the Capital lawn; a
reception at the Organization of
American States, featuring speeches by
Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan,
Demonstration urging the US government to sign the Mine
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ban
Treaty. (Photo: www.icbl.org/Kjell Knudsen)
Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA),
and Jody Williams; an amputee
field alternatives to AP mines, and directs the
hockey tournament; film screenings and a
President to create an inter-agency committee on
mine-related play; exhibits in shopping malls
mine victim assistance.
and cafes; a demonstration in Lafayette Park;
petitioning for signatures by national and interUS leadership in the field of demining and
national youth across from the White House
mine victim assistance is not enough if new
lawn; and, finally, an inter-faith prayer service in
mines continue to be placed in the ground. Let
memory of the hundreds of thousands of mine
us hope that the Washington events made a
victims. The events generated widespread media
clear and loud statement to the Bush
coverage, including CNN Morning News, NBC
Administration: public pressure will not rest
Nightly News, National Public Radio, AP and
until the US shows equal leadership in banning
Reuters wire stories, and dozens of local print
the weapon completely. !
stories.
More importantly, the “Ban Landmines
Week’’ events succeeded in bringing the attention of the US administration to the landmine
issue. During that week, US Secretary of State
Colin Powell met with Her Majesty Queen
Noor, USCBL Co-Chair, and landmine survivor
Jerry White and 17-year-old Cambodian landmine survivor Song Kosal to discuss landmines.
Secretary Powell assured the group that landmines would be included in the administration’s
top-to-bottom review of the military. Moreover,
in honor of the March events, Senator Leahy
introduced the Landmine Elimination and
Victim Assistance Act of 2001 on March 8. The
Paul Saoke of IPPNW-Kenya and Mr. Nyamweya,
bill urges the US to join the MBT as soon as
clinical officer with Norwegian People’s Aid, at Yei
County Hospital in Kenya. (Photo: IPPNW-Kenya)
possible, directs the Department of Defense to
11
IPPNW Vital Signs
Peace and Health
Small
Progress on
Small Arms
Brian Rawson
Program Coordinator
Nations assembled at the third and last
preparatory session for the upcoming UN conference on small arms in March failed to reach
consensus on a number of critical measures for
the control of small arms proliferation. In response, non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
are planning a “Global Day of Action’’ in June
and a large presence at the UN conference itself
in July. Then, in September, IPPNW and its
Finnish affiliate, PSR-Finland, will host a major
international medical conference on the public
health consequences of small arms trafficking.
The UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in
Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects,
July 9-20 in New York, is the long-awaited opportunity for governments to address the problem
of small arms proliferation. At three preparatory
sessions, or PrepComs, held over the past 13
months, governments have negotiated the specific political commitments to be agreed to in
July. IPPNW and other NGOs in the
International Action Network on Small Arms
(IANSA) have attended each session urging a
comprehensive and legally binding approach.
Humanitarian Crisis; Complex Solution
The UN, numerous governments, and
NGOs have for several years investigated the role
of small arms and light weapons ---- including
firearms, handguns, assault rifles, mortars, and
other portable arms ---- in facilitating and prolonging a worldwide epidemic of armed violence. Widely available, easy to purchase and
use, and highly lethal, they make armed attacks
more likely, quicker to escalate, more deadly, and
harder to resolve.
The humanitarian dimensions of the crisis
are widespread and enormous. Small arms are
used to kill an estimated 300,000 people in
armed conflict every year. In addition, some
200,000 lives per year are taken in homicides,
suicides, and accidents. Small arms used in conflicts contribute to legions of refugees and internally displaced persons (1 person in 120 worldwide) and to psychological trauma; they disrupt
health and humanitarian services; and they
detract from development and human rights
protection.
In a study released at the March UN
PrepCom entitled “Global Trade in Small
Arms: Public Health Effects and Interventions,”
IPPNW and SAFER-Net ---- a Canadian-based
small arms information network ---- reported
that civilian-type weapons and legal markets
exacerbate the problem of major gun violence
conducted with military weapons obtained
through illicit markets.
Neither governments nor NGOs are considering a total ban on small arms. But NGOs
are urging the UN to require closer monitoring
and control of legal arms holdings because illicit
arms are often smuggled from legal stocks ---military, commercial, or civilian.
Falling Short
The UN Conference will address only military-style small arms instead of dealing with
the complete spectrum. Moreover, it
will produce only
statements of political principles without a timetable for
implementation instead of producing
legally binding measures and a timetable
for implementation.
It will address primarily “downstream”
interventions (for
example, improved
customs detection of
smuggled arms, destruction of surplus
stocks after cessation
of conflict) while
shying away from
PSR-Finland Vice-President and Member of Parliament Dr. Ilkka Taipale speak“upstream” measures
ing to reporters about small arms. (Photo: Brian Rawson-IPPNW)
at the source (for
example, greater transIPPNW Vital Signs
12
The light weight, small size, accessable, and easyto-use weapons have made it possible for children
to be recruited in violence and warfare around the
world. (Photo: Oxfam-UK)
parency and monitoring regarding military and
civilian holdings). Nor will it confront state
responsibilities to impose export criteria or to
establish a code of conduct that would prevent
states from exporting arms to regions of conflict
or human rights abuse.
In response to these perceived shortcomings, IANSA members are working to increase a
public awareness of the humanitarian dimensions of the problem and its solutions leading
up to the July conference. Civil society will
have to create the political will needed to bring
the small arms epidemic under control. !
Running Guns
The Global
Black Market
in Small Arms
Edited by Lora Lumpe
Whether in Africa, Sri
Lanka, Colombia, or the
US, it is not heavy weaponry or hi-tech devices
that kill the most people, but cheap and accessible small arms that have flooded so many
countries in the 1980s and 1990s.
This highly readable book advances understanding of the illegal arms traffic. How is it
conducted? Who are the players? What are the
impacts? And, most importantly, what can be
done to curb the deadly trade? It is a fascinating, highly informative, and policy relevant
investigation into an issue affecting too many
of us, and about which far too little is known.
The book’s author Lora Lumpe is with the
international Peace Research Institute (PRIO) in
Oslo, Norway. To order Running Guns, write
to: Palgrave, c/o Roxanne Hunte, 175 Fifth Ave,
New York, NY 10010, or fax (212) 777-6357. !
Peace and Health
Dear IPPNW. . .
IPPNW and PSR
at the UN
IPPNW and PSR (USA) opened a new
United Nations office in September 2000 to
work on nuclear disarmament and international
security issues, small arms, and environmental
issues including climate change and energy.
During September, October, and November
2000, in cooperation with other NY-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who follow
disarmament, the UN Office monitored the
deliberations of the UN General Assembly
(UNGA) First Committee (Disarmament and
International Security) and sent regular updates
to IPPNW and PSR members. These reports
were the first NGO effort of its kind, closely following and summarizing the First Committee
debate and the voting on resolutions. Several
governmental delegates also relied on these
reports (and a few even admitted that they used
them for their own reports to their governments). All reports and UNGA resolutions are
available at www.reachingcriticalwill.org.
The UN Office will be following the development of a new study on missiles and will provide input wherever possible. We are also participating in an international NGO study group
“Beyond Missile Defense’’ that seeks to explore
and advocate new and scientifically based alternatives to missile proliferation and missile defenses. The UN Office was also part of a small
group of NGOs invited to provide input into a
new study in disarmament education. IPPNW’s
history educating the medical community and
the greater public will be useful for this study,
which is to produce specific recommendations
for furthering disarmament efforts.
Merav Datan, Director of the UN Office,
has been participating in the Security Council
Working Group, a closed group of NGOs who
meet regularly with individual Security Council
ambassadors for informal briefings, primarily on
matters of sanctions and peacekeeping. Members
of IPPNW affiliates who have questions or comments for the Security Council are encouraged
to send these to the UN Office.
The UN Office has been in contact with
the newly formed NY office of the Preparatory
Commission for the Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and is
seeking ways to cooperate to support the CTBT,
with particular attention on the upcoming Entry
Into Force Conference, scheduled for September
2001 in New York.
In the field of small arms, the UN Office
has been an active member of the New York
Action Network on Small Arms and provides a
base for NGO activities during the Preparatory
Committee meetings for the upcoming UN
Conference on illicit traffic in small arms. As an
Today my eight year old son and I learned a
great deal. I wanted to thank you.
My twin children (we have an eight-year-old
daughter also) were assigned an essay to write
over the weekend on a “peace hero.” I found a
great website on all Nobel Peace Prize winners
in recent years. As we read over the list, my son
decided he would write his essay on your organization. I would like to share it with you:
Doctors Who Are Trying to Stop
Nuclear Warfare
(Left to right) IPPNW Regional Medical Student
Representatives Proochista Ariana (North
America-US) and Munanga Mwandila (AfricaZambia). (Photo: Piji Protopsaltis-IPPNW)
office of both IPPNW and PSR, the UN Office
seeks to bring domestic gun violence concerns
to international attention and vice versa and to
raise awareness of the public health aspects of
small arms.
As part of the Student PSR National
Conference, the UN Office organized a special
event for medical students that included a tour
of the UN, a showing of the film “Armed to the
Teeth,” and a panel discussion with UN UnderSecretary-General for Disarmament Affairs
Jayantha Dhanapala, Minister Angelica Arce de
Jeannet of the Mexican Mission to the UN,
Commander Stephen Metruck of the US
Mission to the UN, and Counselor Satish Mehta
of the Indian Mission to the UN. Merav Datan
moderated the panel.
The UN Office has become the contact
point for NGOs who are participating in the
Commission on Sustainable Development and
working on energy issues. These efforts are oriented at preventing the promotion of nuclear
energy as a “solution’’ to climate change given
the unsustainable nature of nuclear energy. Our
work on “safe nuclear disarmament,” which
seeks to address the health and environmental
aspects of nuclear abolition, also continues.
The UN Office has also taken the lead in a
new network on “Human Rights, Justice, and
the Rule of Law’’ which seeks to promote development of and adherence to just treaty law. This
is a network in formation that combines research
and advocacy related to the NPT, the CTBT, the
Mine Ban Treaty, human rights and environmental treaties, and others, for the sake of furthering each of these campaigns while promoting the overall concept of a responsible rule of
law society.
The UN Office has benefited greatly from
the help of interns Pavla Humpolcova and
Mindy Karp, as well as volunteer lawyer Nicole
Deller. !
The International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War are heroes because
first they are helping to stop nuclear war by
spreading authoritative (true) information and
by creating an awareness of the catastrophic
(disaster) consequences of atomic warfare.
This group of doctors from the US and
Soviet Union are spreading true information
about the nuclear blasts and damage the radiation can do to bodies. Also by telling people
there is no cure once the damage is done. We
know that the information is true because they
organized a team that did medical research for
them based on the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, Japan.
This group has helped millions of people
become aware of the horrible consequences
from nuclear weapons and nuclear warfare.
They made the public aware by writing wellresearched books and articles in medical and
popular magazines and newspapers about the
horrible destruction of our health and environment from nuclear bomb making, testing and
use. They also organized many protests to help
governments change laws to prevent the making of nuclear weapons. This group won the
1985 Nobel Peace Prize.
The International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War are peace heroes
because they are trying to stop the making of
nuclear weapons which can destroy our planet.
This has affected me by making me very worried about our lives and the Earth because
nuclear weapons can destroy them both. My
hope for the future is that the laws are changed
to prevent the making of nuclear weapons.
Tonight you have also become my heroes.
Although it saddens me that my son went to
bed “worried about our lives and our environment,” I believe that our children are our future. I know that tonight he also went to bed a
very proud little boy who learned and understood the value of your work. I hope that by educating our very young they will one day enjoy a
world free of nuclear and biological warfare.
A hopeful mom,
Alina C.
13
IPPNW Vital Signs
Medical Students
Medical
Students
Growing Links
Between
IPPNW &
IFMSA
First Meeting of
Regional Student
Representatives
Anna Hellman
IFMSA Liaison Officer for IPPNW
Piji Protopsaltis
Project Coordinator
On March 10-12, 2001, an unprecedented
meeting took place at the Mount Sinai Medical
Center in New York: IPPNW’s regional student
representatives came together for the first time
to discuss the challenges and opportunities faced
by IPPNW’s medical student movement today.
Student regional representatives from around
the globe are responsible for communicating
with students in their regions, coordinating their
activities, and representing them on an international level.
This first meeting of regional reps was
attended by Proochista Ariana (US) representing
North America, Ahmed Geneid (Egypt) representing the Middle East, Munanga Mwandila
(Zambia) representing Africa, Ai Shinzato (Japan)
representing Tomoko Inoue (Japan) for North
Asia, as well as Caecilie Buhmann (Denmark)
and Ernest Guevarra (Philippines) both student
representatives to IPPNW’s Board of Directors,
and Piji Protopsaltis of the Central Office. The
regional reps that could not make it to this meeting included Tom Clemens (Australia) for South
Asia, Elske Hoornenborg (Netherlands) and
Razvan Chereches (Romania) for Europe, and
Karla Strassburger (Mexico) for Latin America.
However, Caecilie and Ernest acted as spokespeople for Europe and South Asia, respectively.
Over the course of three days, the regional
reps had the opportunity to look back and assess
the weaknesses and challenges facing IPPNW’s
student body, but also to look forward and share
their vision of this body’s future. Students tackled a number of critical issues facing their
Regional Student Representatives with SPSR
students in New York. (Photo: IPPNW)
IPPNW Vital Signs
14
IPPNW International Student Representatives
meeting with IPPNW leaders Drs. Victor Sidel and
Herman Spanjaard.
(Photo: Piji Protopsaltis-IPPNW)
regions, ranging from the gap in communication
and cooperation between doctors and students,
the scarcity in funding, the difficulties in maintaining consistent communication, to the lack of
active students and official student structures. At
the same time, the regional reps acknowledged
the unique strengths of the student movement
and the opportunities available to students to
contribute to the IPPNW federation, and to
society as a whole. By the end of the meeting,
the regional reps produced a one-year workplan
outlining the major tasks ahead that include
recruitment, communication, fundraising, training, meetings (including the 2002 World
Congress in Washington, DC), the website, and
the exchange program MedEx. The meeting
helped build a sense of cohesion and teamwork
and gave the regional reps a sense of common
purpose and direction.
The regional reps’ meeting was scheduled to
coincide with the Student Physicians for Social
Responsibility (SPSR) Annual Meeting (March
9-11), held at the same venue, in order to foster
their interaction with US students. Indeed, the
regional reps attended an SPSR conference
session on “The Role of Health Professions
Students and Health Professionals in the
Advance to a Just, Peaceful, and Healthy World,’’
led by Dr. Victor Sidel (former IPPNW CoPresident, US) and Herman Spanjaard (Regional
Vice-President-Europe, The Netherlands) and
also had the opportunity to present their work
to the SPSR students during a dinner-lecture on
the evening of March 10. Finally, on March 11,
the Medical Student Board of Trustees, which
includes Drs. Sidel and Spanjaard, met with the
regional reps to discuss some of the key issues
identified during their meeting and ways in
which the Board can further their work and
their goals. !
More than 600 medical students from
almost 80 countries met in Malta to take part in
the March meeting of the International
Federation of Medical Students’ Associations
(IFMSA). Working committees gathered to discuss issues related to public health, refugees and
peace, reproductive health, medical education,
and professional and research exchange.
IPPNW’s student representative to IPPNW’s
Board of Directors, Caecilie Buhmann, met with
IFMSA students and also gave a presentation on
IPPNW to the Standing Committee on Refugees
and Peace (SCORP).
It was wonderful to see how the national
and local collaboration between IFMSA and
IPPNW is growing. In SCORP, almost all country reports included collaboration with IPPNW.
In Finland, for example, the students are working
together with PSR-Finland in preparations for the
conference on small arms in September 2001. In
Canada, students took an active part in spreading
information about IPPNW’s campaign to stop
National Missile Defense (NMD). (See related
story on page 4.)
The next European IPPNW student meeting will take place in Uppsala, Sweden, on April
19-23, 2001. The overall theme will be peacebuilding in Europe, with special attention given
to nuclear weapons, peace education, human
rights and health, conflict prevention, and social
awareness. More than 50 students from 12 countries, many involved in IFMSA and IPPNW
activities, will take part in the meeting.
IPPNW and IFMSA continue to solidify
their relationship, finding creative ways for
national and local collaboration on the work of
peace-building and war prevention. !
Annual
Report 2000
IPPNW’s Annual
Reportfor the year 2000
is now available in print
and online. To order a
print copy or an IPPNW
bumper sticker (left), please
contact [email protected]. !
IPPNW Responds
Depleted
Uranium
MAPW
Condemns
Bombing
of Iraq
IPPNW Assesses
Health Effects of
DU Weapons
The US-led military coalition that fought
the 1991 Gulf War used about 300 tons of
ammunition containing depleted uranium (DU)
against Iraqi tanks and other armored vehicles.
During the 1999 war in the Balkans, NATO
forces used about 11 tons of DU in missiles that
were fired into the former Yugoslavia. In the
months and years following these conflicts,
concerns about DU as a possible cause of reported increases in leukemia, other cancers, and
reproductive health problems began to surface.
In February, IPPNW released an assessment
of DU weapons that took a cautious scientific
approach to claims about DU health effects, but
that condemned the use of DU as a probable
violation of the Geneva Conventions. IPPNW
challenged the blanket denials of DU health
effects offered by US and NATO officials and
called for comprehensive and independent studies
to resolve the medical uncertainties about DU.
“While peer-reviewed studies of health effects
from natural uranium exposure are weighted
against the probability that DU exposure, in and
of itself, is likely to have caused an increase in
leukemia or other cancers in the relatively short
time since it has been dispersed in the Balkans
environment, the science is controversial and the
possibility cannot be ruled out,” said the group
of physicians who produced the assessment.
The physicians noted that impurities such as
plutonium, actinides, and the highly radioactive
manufactured uranium isotope U-236 had found
their way into the DU munitions used in the
Gulf and the Balkans and that exposure to these
more dangerous substances, along with many
other toxic chemicals released during the conflicts, could pose “serious health threats.”
Studies conducted over several decades that
have discounted acute health effects from uranium ingestion do not account for new experimental data suggesting a role for dust toxicity in
the lung. The aerosol particles generated by DU
weapons are in a very hard “ceramic” state and
are likely to be retained in the lung and regional
lymph nodes for a prolonged period, increasing
the risk of cellular damage from alpha radiation.
“DU weapons indiscriminately contaminate
the places in which they are used, and the contamination persists long after the conclusion of
hostilities,” said the authors of the statement.
The complete IPPNW assessment is published
on IPPNW’s website (www.ippnw.org) and in the
April issue of Medicine & Global Survival. !
From MAPW
Press Release
Ad by IPPNW Germany protesting the use of
DU ammunition.
IPPNW
Nominates
Foro de Ermua
for Nobel Prize
Since 1959, the separatist group ETA
(Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna ---- Basque Fatherland and
Liberty) has waged a campaign of escalating terror
in pursuit of independence in the Basque autonomous regions of northern Spain and southwestern France. Hundreds have been murdered
and thousands more injured as a result of ETA
violence.
In February 1998, a group of 300 community leaders in Bilbao organized a non-violent
resistance to the ETA. Known as Foro de Ermua,
the association supports the promotion of
preservation of human rights, democracy, and
free speech in the Basque country. Members and
supporters of Foro de Ermua have become priority targets for assassination by the ETA.
IPPNW and its affiliates ---- concerned over
death threats to IPPNW members Drs. Aurora
Bilbao Soto and Paco Donnate Oliver and members of Foro de Ermua ---- have been urging swift
action by the European Parliament to address
this situation (see Vi
tal Signs issue 13.2). The
European Parliament in November 2000 issued
a written declaration on terrorism in Spain condemning the criminal attacks committed by the
ETA against individuals and human rights organizations. The declaration has received the support of two-thirds of the European Parliament.
This January, IPPNW nominated the Foro
de Ermua for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for its
courageous work in promoting non-violent conflict
resolution, even at the risk of personal safety. !
IPPNW’s Australian affiliate, the Medical
Association for Prevention of War (MAPW),
strongly condemned the February 16 United
States and British joint bombing of Iraq with this
statement to the press.
“‘These bombings are illegal and highly
destabilizing,’ said MAPW National President
Dr. Susan Wareham. ‘Unfortunately, the bombings continue a long pattern of regular bomb
attacks since December 1998. Many civilians
have been killed or injured in these attacks.’
The bombing was the largest since
Operation Desert Fox in December 1998. The
US and UK justified the attack as ‘self-defense’
claiming that Iraq has been firing shots at
US/UK planes flying in so-called no-fly zones.
There is no formal Security Council resolution authorizing the bombings and therefore
they are in breach of international law.
‘How can we preach to the Iraqi Government about respect for international law while at
the same time the US and UK breach it, with
Australian support?’ asked Dr Wareham.
The bombings have been condemned by
France, China, Russia, Norway, Iran, and Jordan.
MAPW believes that the Australian government should also condemn the bombings and
take an active role within the United Nations to
resolve the current impasse in regard to Iraq.
Specifically, action is needed to ensure that:
! the economic sanctions are lifted;
! weapons inspectors are able to return to
Iraq; and
! the problem of weapons of mass destruction
in the whole Middle East region, including
Israel, is addressed.
‘The US and UK are displaying no concern
for international law or human rights. Civilians
are killed by these bombings. Young children
continue to die each day as a result of the ongoing economic blockade of Iraq,’ said Dr
Wareham. ‘It’s time for a change of policy which
achieves real outcomes in humanitarian and
global security goals.’” !
15
IPPNW Vital Signs
IPPNW
IPPNW
Co-President
Visits Japan
Last October, IPPNW Co-President Dr.
Mary-Wynne Ashford toured several cities in
Japan, meeting with the Physicians’ Forum
Against Nuclear War and for the Elimination of
Nuclear Weapons in Osaka, members of the
Japanese government, the media, and the medical community.
In Okinawa, Dr. Ashford revisited the
horrors of the 1945 invasion as presented in
film and images by the Prefectural Museum.
Doctors in both Osaka and Okinawa spoke of
the need for Japan to acknowledge its history of
atrocities so that it can move forward.
In Tokyo, Dr. Ashford, along with Dr.
Kenjiro Yokoro and members of IPPNW’s
Japanese affiliate, met with Japan’s Deputy
Director General for Arms Control and
Scientific Affairs to discuss hopes that Japan
would join the New Agenda Group.
The doctors met in Tokyo with the
President of Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s leading newspapers and a very strong supporter of
nuclear disarmament. The magazine Itsudemo
Genki (Always in Good Health) ran a feature on
Dr. Ashford and two young medical residents,
Drs. Ohasi and Tanaka, who attended the Tokyo
meeting.
During a visit to Wakayama City, Dr.
Ashford gave a lecture to a large audience of doctors and medical students. She noted that
although medical student response in Japan has
been very positive, there are major obstacles to
activist work, and she urged continuing
exchanges among medical students in Japan,
Europe, and North America. !
Medact’s
50th
Anniversary
New Projects
& Partnerships
at SatelLife
On the organization’s 50th Anniversary,
Medact’s President June Crown urged US
President George W. Bush not to make a $65 billion albatross the hallmark of his presidency.
She called on the new administration, in the
interests of public health,
! not to go ahead with the proposed US
National Missile Defense (NMD) system
which will destabilize global security and may
start a new arms race;
! to put in place instead genuine measures to
curb nuclear proliferation ---- such as ratifying
the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and
! to spend the $65 billion saved from discontinuing NMD on debt relief and aid to poor
countries, and on action to prevent global
warming.
Medact, the UK affiliate of IPPNW, is an
organization of British doctors, nurses, and
other health professionals concerned about
major threats to health such as violent conflict,
poverty, and environmental degradation. !
SatelLife, together with SatelLife HealthnetKenya, has successfully launched the Regional
Information Technology Training Center
(RITTC) in Nairobi and trained more than 100
East African health care workers to use the tools
of electronic information exchange. The project
was funded by a grant from the World Bank’s
InfoDev Initiative.
A new partnership between SatelLife and
the WorldSpace Foundation has led to a successful trial of a digital radio system that enables
the transfer of large volumes of information to
receivers all over Africa and allows downloading,
storage, and retrieval of years worth of critical
information.
SatelLife has also entered into a partnership
with the non-profit organization Volunteers in
Technical Assistance (VITA) and the corporation
WAVIX that will result in a return to the use of
low-earth-orbit satellites in bringing affordable
communications to health professionals in the
most remote areas. New, smaller, cheaper, and
more user-friendly ground-stations are in production and may be deployed within the coming
year. !
Global Health
Curriculum
Now Available
After much labor and many adjustments, the
Medact Global Health Studies Curriculum is
now ready. It consists of 15 units and three
case studies on the health aspects of poverty,
environmental degradation, and conflict
world-wide. It is available now in black only
from the Medact Office, price £20. The final
two-color printed version will be on sale later
in the year.
To order a copy, please contact
[email protected] or call 020-7272-2020.
Gorbachev meeting for Nobel Peace Prize
laureates to discuss Third World debt and the
media’s role in presenting global issues,
November 2000. (Left to right): Dr. Sergei
Kolesnikov, Duma member and former IPPNW
Co-President; Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet
President; and IPPNW Co-Presidents Drs. MaryWynne Ashford and Sergei Gratchev.
IPPNW Vital Signs
16
IPPNW Board members Drs. Liz Waterston and
Monika Brodmann. (Photo: Lynn Martin-IPPNW)
IPPNW-Israel, participants from Arab and Israeli cities, and members of the Arab and Israeli youth movements under the “The Tent of Peace” signifying fraternity, friendship, co-existence, and tolerance.
(Photo: Lacko-Kertesz)
Making A Difference
Sustainer Profile
viction. In addition to
their support for IPPNW,
the pair have devoted time
and money to organizations like Voices in the
Dr. Lawrence Egbert and family.
Wilderness, Veterans for
Peace, and the Women’s International League for Peace and
Freedom. Dr. Egbert has worked for Doctors Without Borders in
Sri Lanka, Lebanon, and Kosovo, and for Physicians for Human
Rights. Last year, he and Ellen were awarded the “Wilton Peace
Prize,” an honor given annually by the Unitarian Universalist
Association to individuals or groups in recognition of their contribution to peace and human progress.
As a member of IPPNW’s Circle of Sustainers, Dr. Egbert contributes through a monthly electronic donation that is easily
processed by credit card or electronic funds transfer. IPPNW is
pleased to provide for Dr. Egbert, and all IPPNW Sustainers,
IPPNW action alerts, special publications, and the IPPNW newsletter Vi
tal Signs. IPPNW Sustainers save time, postage, and paper
while helping to reduce administrative costs. Most importantly, Dr.
Egbert and others help enable IPPNW to concentrate on our
shared concerns: the work of promoting peace through health.
IPPNW is proud to have Dr. Egbert as a member of our Circle
of Sustainers and pleased to recognize physician-activists like him
for their good work, today and everyday.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
$
Like many IPPNW supporters, Lawrence Egbert is a medical doctor. He is an anesthesiologist from Maryland who, with his wife,
Ellen Barfield, is an enthusiastic supporter of peace and social
justice activism.
Dr. Egbert first became affiliated with IPPNW in 1989 because
of his deep concern about the nuclear threat. As he has said, “having nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert is the state of being ready
to kill massive numbers of people for what the nuclear establishment perceives as social good. It’s immoral and nuclear weapons
must be banned.”
In words and deeds, Dr. Egbert applies the definitions of
“peace” and “social justice” as seen in the work done by IPPNW
and its affiliates to that done by the National Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty. As an anesthesiologist, Dr. Egbert was horrified
to learn that the State of Texas was using the very same anesthetic
agents he used to help save lives to execute criminals, just as the
military uses scientific and medical knowledge ---- once sought for
life-saving purposes ---- to develop weapons of mass destruction.
Changes must be made, and Dr. Egbert knows they are best
achieved by channeling outrage into action.
An insurance salesman once recommended to Dr. Egbert, “Why
not invest a good portion of your income today so that you can
do good work in your retirement years?” This got the Egberts thinking, “Why not do good work today?” IPPNW quickly became one
of many worthy organizations that have benefited from this con-
IPPNW Circle of Sustainers
Become a Member of IPPNW’s Circle of Sustainers!
Why Support IPPNW Each Month?
!
You save time, postage, and paper when your gift is
transferred automatically each month.
!
You help allocate more of IPPNW resources towards vital
programs by reducing administrative gift processing costs.
A number of IPPNW supporters have simplified their gift giving
by authorizing their bank or credit card to automatically transfer
their gift each month.
You can make a difference in our success by making a
regular contribution of $10, $15, $25 or more each month. This
monthly commitment ensures that IPPNW’s vital work to eliminate nuclear weapons and prevent war will continue.
You may, of course,increase, decrease, or cancel your giftatany
time.
If you have any questions about monthly giving or would like a
copy of IPPNW’s Annual Report, please contact:
Allison Howard
617-868-5050, ext. 203
E-mail: [email protected]
Yes! You can count on my monthly support to IPPNW.
Here is my pledge of:
# $25
# $20
# $15
# $10
# Other_____________
********************************************************************************
#" Option 1: Bank account:
(I’ve enclosed a check for my first month’s contribution)
I authorize my bank to transfer to IPPNW each month the amount shown
above. I understand that a record of each donation will be included on my
monthly bank statement and will serve as my receipt.
Signature
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Signature
Print name as it appears on card
Mail to:
IPPNW
Development Department
727 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
17
IPPNW Vital Signs
Publications
New
Publications
Nuclear Weapons Convention
Monitor
By IPPNW in Consultation with LCNP
The second issue of
the N uclear Weapons Convention Monitor continues
to follow the debate about
the most effective path to
complete nuclear disarmament under a verifiable
international regime. The
N WC Monitor builds on
the discussion initiated by
the Model NWC, originally
drafted by an international team of lawyers, scientists,
and disarmament specialists and now a UN discussion document. A revised version of the Model
NWC is contained in Security and Survival: The
Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention published
by IPPNW, the International Association of Lawyers
Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA), and the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against
Proliferation (INESAP).
Contributors to this issue, including Jozef
Goldblat, Penelope Simons, Martin Butcher, Hui
Zhang, Kathleen Sullivan, Dan Plesch, Oliver
Meier, and Kevin Martin, address nuclear choices,
national missile defense, law, verification, health,
energy, and environmental considerations. The
N WC Monitor is produced by the UN Office of
IPPNW and PSR (USA). This issue is made possible with the support of SLMK (Svenska Läkare mot
Kärnvapen - IPPNW Sweden). !
War or Health ---International Reader
By IPPNW-Finland
W ar or Health----International Reader,a new book
from IPPNW-Finland due out autumn 2001, will
feature articles on the indirect and long-term
health consequences of war caused by overpopulation, poor public health care, and the collapse of
economic and social structures. Specific issues
addressed will include the problems of rebuilding
the health care system in former Yugoslavia and
the environmental effects of the war on Kosovo
and Serbia. Latest information on work conducted
by forensic medical teams on location in Kosovo
will also be provided. Attention will be given to the
arms race issue, the effects of war preparations on
civilians, and the health effects of nuclear radiation. IPPNW’s work in the areas of nuclear abolition and the World Court Project will also be discussed. Please contact editorial assistant Hanna
Tapanainen at [email protected] for
more information. !.
IPPNW Vital Signs
18
War and
Public Health
Journals
Edited by Barry S.
Levy, MD, and Victor
W. Sidel, MD
Medicine and
Global Survival
W ar and Public Health,
published by Oxford University Press in cooperation with the American
Public Health Association in 1997, was the first
book that comprehensively documented the
impact of war on public health and described what
health professionals can do to minimize the consequences of war and to help prevent war.
The book has now been reissued in a more
affordable paperback edition. Many of the chapters are written by IPPNW leaders throughout the
world, among them Drs. Mary-Wynne Ashford
(Canada), H. Jack Geiger (US), Robert Gould (US),
Ernesto Kahan (Israel), Alan Lockwood (US),
Joanna Santa Barbara (Canada), and Kenjiro
Yokoro (Japan). The foreword is written by former
US President Jimmy Carter. This updated edition
contains a new epilogue covering discussions on
the war in Kosovo, “Africa’s First World War,” and
updates on the conflicts in Sudan and Sierra
Leone.
The effects of war on health, human rights,
and the environment are covered in 26 meticulously researched chapters. The chapters on the
health effects of nuclear, chemical, and biological
weapons discuss public health consequences and
the methods by which public health professionals
can work for the abolition of weapons of mass
destruction. The book deals with both the direct
consequences of the use of conventional weapons
and the role of the international arms trade,
including the diversion of resources that could
otherwise be used for health and human welfare.
Separate chapters cover especially vulnerable populations, including women, children, and refugees.
W ar and Public Health is priced at US$23.50
plus postage and handling. For orders, please
call APHA at (301) 893-1894 or email:
[email protected] !
The April 2001 issue of
Medicine & Global Surviva
l
---- the first as a fully owned
journal of IPPNW ---- leads
off with a feature article by
University of Texas professor
Lloyd J. (Jeff) Dumas on the potential for fatal mistakes when fallible people and error-prone nuclear
weapon systems mix. Japanese scholar Naoki
Kamimura explores the evolution of Japanese civil
society during the 1990s and the ways in which partnerships between NGOs and local governments have
fended off US nuclear domination.
Canadian researchers Wendy Cukier and Antoine
Chapdelaine review the massive damage to health and
society worldwide from the unrestrained proliferation
of military-style light weapons and domestic firearms.
The ICRC’s Robin Coupland offers a theoretical
framework for reducing the impact of armed violence
by prohibiting entire classes of especially lethal weapon
systems. The continuing devastation caused in Russia
and the former Soviet Union by one such weapon ---antipersonnel landmines ---- is documented by Roman
Dolgov (RPPNW).
IPPNW’s assessment of the potential health
effects of depleted uranium weapons is published in
full, along with critical commentaries from Frank von
Hippel, Steve Fetter, and Gunnar Westberg.
For information on how to subscribe to
IPPNW’s journal, contact the Central Office or send
e-mail to [email protected]. M&GS is also available
online at www.ippnw.org/MGS !
Peaceful Caucasus ---- A Future
Without Landmines
Edited by IPPNW
The English version
of the Report on the
Second International Conference on Landmines in
Russia and the Former
Soviet Union (the print
edition), originally published by Russian Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War (RPPNW),
is now available only online
at www.ippnw.org !
Medicine, Conflict,
and Survival
Volume 17, No 1, features a discussion on civilians and war ---- both the
extent of civilian war casualties and indirect effects such
as refugee crises and lack of
basic health care. Also included is a look at the state
of the UN and a report on the leukemia cluster round
the UK’s main nuclear bomb-making facility.
Vol. 17, No 2, due out in May, considers in
depth the health problems of asylum-seekers and
refugees and the aftermath of conflict in Cambodia
and Northern Ireland. Vol. 17, No. 3, due in August,
will examine “non-lethal weapons.”
MCS is available at a generous discount to all
IPPNW members (33%, US$30 or £20 for first year,
and 25% US$33.50 or £22.50 thereafter). Please send
dollar or sterling checks payable to Lionel Penrose
Trust, to Editorial Assistant, MCS, 601 Holloway
Road, London N19 4DJ, phone +44 20 7272 2020;
fax: +44-20-7281 5717; email: [email protected]. !
Help us produce and distribute
A New IPPNW/Independent PBS Documentary
We need your help to reach the public with the truth about nuclear weapons.
You will be recognized in the film’s credit as a sponsor.
The timing couldn’t be better, but we must work quickly. As the
national and international debate on NMD heats up, the voice of
the global movement to ban nuclear weapons must be loudly
heard. We must convince the public and policy-makers that missile defense is as bad an idea now as it was when it was called
Star Wars in the 1980s. Our work is cut out for us because the
well-funded public relations machine of the pro-nuclear forces is
winning the PR battle. A February 2001 Newsweek poll found that
60 percent of the American public polled support building a missile defense system.
IPPNW will use this program to educate and activate the large
segments of the population that don’t know the facts about
nuclear weapons in the world today. Our physician-activists will
communicate the grim realities of nuclear warfare and convince
the public and policy-makers that the world will only be safer
when nuclear weapons are banned. IPPNW’s core medical message
---- that there has never been and will never be a meaningful medical response to a nuclear explosion and that the only cure is
prevention ---- will be the central message of this documentary.
IPPNW’s Swedish affiliate has generously contributed seed funding for this project. Other major sponsors will receive prominent
credit during the beginning and ending of the film and in print
advertising in major magazines. To find out how you can support
this important project, please check the box below and we will
send you sponsorship information. Please help by sponsoring
this important documentary.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -IPPNW Resources
Nuclear Weapons Convention Monitor (April 2000), (April 2001)
$5.00
Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention (1999)
$10.00
Bombing Bombay? Effects of Nuclear Weapons and a Case Study
of a Hypothetical Explosion (1999)
$10.00
Is Everything Secure: Myths and Realities of Nuclear Disarmament (1998)
$10.00
Fast Track to Zero Nuclear Weapons: The Middle Powers Initiative (1999)
$10.00
Crude Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and the Terrorist Threat (1996)
$10.00
Nuclear Wastelands (1995) New Paperback Edition (696 pp)
$35.00
Abolition 2000: Handbook for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (1995)
$10.00
Plutonium: Deadly Gold of the Nuclear Age (1992)
$10.00
Radioactive Heaven and Earth: Effects of Nuclear Weapons Testing (1991)
$10.00
Atom Bomb Injuries (Revised 1995)
$10.00
Drs. Testimonies of Hiroshima (1995)
$10.00
Medicine & Global Survival: Why Mistakes Happen Even When the Stakes Are High:
The Many Dimensions of Human Fallibility (2001)
$10.00
Medicine & Global Survival: Medical First Response to Bioterrorism (2000)
$10.00
Medicine & Global Survival: Safe Nuclear Disarmament (1999)
$10.00
Medicine & Global Survival: Special Report on the South Asian Bomb (1998)
$10.00
Medicine & Global Survival: False Alarm or Public Health
Hazard? Low-Dose External Radiation Exposure (1998)
$10.00
Accidental Nuclear War: A Post-Cold War Assessment (1998)
Reprint from the New England Journal of Medicine
$2.00
Medicine and Nuclear War: From Hiroshima to Mutual
Assured Destruction to Abolition 2000 (1998) — JAMA
$2.00
Primary Care of Landmine Injuries in Africa (2000)
$10.00
Landmines: A Global Health Crisis (1997)
$10.00
New Steps for a Mine-Free Future: Report on 1st International
Landmine Conference in Russia and the CIS (1999)
$5.00
Molly Rush and the Plowshares Eight (1989)
$10.00
The Sredmash Archipelago (2000)
$10.00
Nukes Are Not Forever (1999)
$10.00
The Bombs That Shook Nairobi & Dar (1999)
$10.00
QTY
$
IPPNW has been selected as a subject for a television documentary to be produced by an independent film company and broadcast in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the US and internationally through our affiliate network in 65 countries. The program will air (tentative air date is April 2002) on hundreds of PBS
stations throughout the US with access to 80 million viewers.
Ordering Information
# Please send sponsorship information on
IPPNW’s PBS documentary project.
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Price plus shipping ($4.00 US and Canada and
$10.00 International)
Return this form, plus your check to IPPNW
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and Global Survival, IPPNW’s journal.
# Please send a free IPPNW nuclear abolition
bumper sticker with my publication order.
# Please send article on Bombs Away Campaign.
19
IPPNW Vital Signs
On the calendar
9-20 June 2001
Visit our website at
Global Day of Action. Events to be held by
IANSA members worldwide. Contact: Brian
Rawson at [email protected]
www.ippnw.org
9-10 July 2001
UN Conference on Illicit Traffic in Small Arms
and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects at the
UN in New York. Contact Brian Rawson at
[email protected]
28-30 September 2001
Aiming For Prevention: IPPNW International
Medical Conference on Small Arms, Gun
Violence, and Injury in Helsinki, Finland.
Contact: Brian Rawson at [email protected]
4-12 August 2001
IFMSA General Assembly in Aalborg,
Denmark. Contact: Anna Hellman at
[email protected].
12-14 November 2001
IPPNW Board Meeting at Arlie House.
Contact: Naidene Waller at [email protected]
Celebration of the 21st Anniversary of the
Founding of IPPNW
September 2001
Children’s Summit ---- Children and Armed
Conflict
15-18 November 2001
PSR Board Meeting
Contact: Alyson Michael at [email protected]
6-8 September 2001
IPPNW Latin America Regional Meeting in
Cuba. Contact: Dr. Carlos Pazos at
[email protected]
1-5 May 2002
IPPNW/PSR 15th World Congress.
Contact: Naidene Waller at [email protected]
Third Meeting of State Parties to the Mine Ban
Treaty in Maragua, Nicaragua.
Contact: Liz Bernstein at [email protected]
18 September 2001
United Nations General Assembly opens.
Contact: Merav Datan at [email protected]
Safe Nuclear Disarmament.
Contact: Medact and ORG
Anniversaries
16 July 2001
56th Anniversary of the first nuclear explosion, the
“Trinity” test at Alamogordo, New Mexico
7 August 2001
56th Anniversary of the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
3 December 2001
Fourth Anniversary of the Opening for Signature
of the 1997 Landmines Convention
10 December 2001
Human Rights Day
IPPNW is a non-partisan international federation of physicians’ organizations dedicated to research, education, and advocacy
relevant to the prevention of nuclear war. To this end, IPPNW seeks to prevent all wars, to promote non-violent conflict
resolution, and to reduce the effects of war on health, development, and the environment.
VITAL SIGNS
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
727 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
USA
Vital Signs is published by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
Editorial coordination, layout, and design by Liling Tan, Communications Associate, and Lynn Martin, Communications Director.
Editorial assistance by John Loretz, Program Director.
© IPPNW 2001. Excerpts may be reprinted with proper credit to IPPNW. Please send us copies.
Please direct correspondence to Vital Signs, IPPNW Central Office, 727 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
Tel: 617-868-5050; Fax: 617-868-2560; E-mail: [email protected]; http://www.ippnw.org
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Burlington, MA
Permit No. 145

Vol. 14 - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Transcription

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