[Organize] FW: WILPF Remembers the US Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

[Carol Urner]

David and all on the UFPJ "organize team":

 

Here below is the statement of WILPF on the occasion of Hiroshima Nagasaki
remembrance week, issued from our international office of Geneva.  It speaks
clearly for all of us in WILPF, based on our long standing demands for
nuclear disarmament and the reining in of the war profiteering corporations
like Bechtel, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.  WILPF, of course, exists to
promote universal human rights, to build the institutions of peace and to
put an end to war.  In peace, Carol Urner

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembrance Statement

August 2006

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) remembers the
destruction and devastation caused by the US Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki 61 years ago. WILPF recognizes and shares the work of the
Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) since 1945 to eliminate nuclear weapons
from the planet, and to prevent their ever being used again.

Currently there are still thousands of nuclear weapons in existence, many of
them on hair-trigger alert, putting the entire global population at risk.
The only option is to fully implement the first UN General Assembly
resolution (1946) and totally and universally disarm all nuclear weapons. 

Plans in some nuclear weapon states-including the US, the UK, France and
Russia-to modernize their nuclear weapons arsenals or delivery systems
continue to violate Article VI of the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
wherein "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations
in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear
arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament..." WILPF calls on
these governments to fully implement their treaty commitments and to cease
modernizing their arsenals as a step toward the good faith pursuit of
nuclear disarmament and the ultimate goal of a nuclear weapon free world.

Nuclear sharing under bilateral and plurilateral agreements-including the
NATO nuclear sharing agreement-is a violation of the NPT. We call on all non
nuclear weapon states who currently host nuclear weapons on their soil or
shores to demand the immediate removal of these ecocidal, suicidal,
genocidal weapons from their territories. We also call on all non nuclear
weapon states to take urgent action to prevent the stationing of nuclear
weapons on any foreign soil as called for in "Weapons of Terror" the report
of the independent Commission on Weapons of Mass Destruction (p 95-98).
WILPF supports the work of European Parliament members who are calling for
the removal of nuclear weapons from European non nuclear NATO states.

Japan, the country that survived the only war-time use of nuclear weapons,
continues to sit beneath US nuclear weapons protection. The US nuclear
umbrella over Japan removes the moral authority the Japanese government has
in calling for nuclear abolition. In addition, the current move by
conservative forces in Japan to remove the peace article (Article 9) from
the constitution is a step in the wrong direction. WILPF supports peace and
justice advocates in Japan and around the world who are working to protect
Article 9 in the Japanese constitution and calls on other governments of the
world to use Article 9 as a model for their own national legislation.

WILPF recognizes that certain war profiteers-particularly Bechtel, Lockheed
Martin and Raytheon-all benefit financially from the ongoing development and
maintenance of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. WILPF calls on
these corporations to take responsibility for designing verifiable plans to
eliminate these weapons and their delivery systems.

All states bear a responsibility to disarm their nuclear weapons, whether
they are recognized nuclear weapons states under the NPT or not. WILPF calls
on China, France, the Russian Federation, UK, US, India, Pakistan, and
Israel to verifiably disarm their nuclear weapons arsenals and immediately
commence negotiations on a treaty banning nuclear weapons completely.

 
 
Ms. Susi Snyder
Secretary General
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
1, rue de Varembe
Case Postale 28
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Telephone : +41 22 919 7080
Fax : +41 22 919 7081
email : susi.snyder at wilpf.ch
websites:
http://www.wilpf.ch
http://www.peacewomen.org
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org
 
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