WNII is an electronic information service of INES,
the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility

Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail: < >
INES homepage: http://www.mindspring.com/~us016262/ines.html
INES International Office < >
INES Chair Prof. Armin Tenner < >

NOTE: Due to my attendance of the Hague Peace Conference and the Annual Abolition 2000 Meeting, the next WNII issue might be delayed for 1-2 days.

Tobias Damjanov, WNII Editor

INES Congress 2000

''Challenges for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century''

Stockholm, 14-18 June 2000

http://www.ines2000.org

  for Congress Inquiries, mailto: <>

CONTENTS

• INES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
• MEMBER ORGANISATIONS' AND PROJECT GROUPS' NEWS
• Russia: Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies
• Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 24, May 1999
• NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• NPT PrepCom Meeting, 10-21 May: Tentative Schedule of NGO Events
• From the Abolition 2000 Grassroots News May 1999
• France admits nuclear explosions caused atoll damage in French Polynesia
• News from the Non-Nuclear NATO Network
• BRIEFINGS
• Hague Appeal for Peace civil society conference, 11-15 May 1999
• New sources concerning the Iraq Crisis
• CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
• Abolition 2000 Annual General Meeting (Update)
• 5th International Interdisciplinary Environmental Association (IEA) Conference
• UN General Assembly special session on follow-up to the Population Conference
• International Seminar "Militarism and Gender"
• INES WEB- AND EMAIL SERVICE
• Change of email Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

INES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

Please inform us about changes of your email address or your homepage!

Russia: Centre for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies

In its "START Web Site News" (*) of 1 May 1999, this Russian INES member writes, among other things, the following: "...NATO expansion completely undermines the security system which was created by early 90-s. At first, it breaks the principle of consensus - the decision about NATO enlargement was made in spite of Russia's objections. At second, NATO expansion rejects the principle of transparency - NATO refuses working out an agreement on non-deployment of nuclear weapons at the territories of its new members. And finally - NATO actions in Yugoslavia clearly demonstrate, what the absence of balance of military power may lead to. Thus, unfortunately, the assertion that the basis for regional security system was shifted from military power balance to confidence does not correspond to current realities..."

(NATO Expansion And The Process Of Nuclear Reductions, (in Russian) - the report of experts of our Center, presented at the conference "NATO Movement To The East - Security Problems For Russia And The CIS States," St. Petersburg, April 28-29, 1999). See also: "The War Shoot Down The Belief In Agreements" (by Vladimir Medvedev, Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye NG, N 15, April 23-29, 1999, p. 1,3)

The 1 May issue also informs that a new book entitled "Russian Strategic Missile Systems", - in Russian, (by A.V. Karpenko, A.F. Utkin and A.D. Popov, St. Petersburg, Nevski Bastion - Gangut, 1999, 288 p.) has been recently published. The book summarizes basic data on over 100 Russian systems with ballistic and cruise missiles. Over 700 drawings, photos and pictures of strategic missiles launch.

(*) If you want to be included in the mailing list of "START Web site newsletter,"  mailto:

Corresponding links can be found at the site news page:  http://www.armscontrol.ru/start/

USA: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 24, May 1999

http://www.wagingpeace.org/the_sunflower.html

The latest edition of The Sunflower covers the following:

• NAPF NEWS
• General Butler Receives Peace Award
• NAPF Calls for New Diplomatic Efforts and End to NATO Air Strikes
• KOSOVO
• House Votes to Require Congressional Approval Prior to Sending Ground Troops
• Nobel Peace Prize Winners Offer Peace Plan
• NATO Enlists Russia's Aid in Kosovo Peace Efforts
• PROLIFERATION
• India and Pakistan Conduct New Missile Tests
• Russia and China Warn of New Arms Race
• Barak Sees Nuclear Proliferation as Israel's Greatest Threat
• GAO Charges Nuclear Security Risks Ignored
• NON-PROLIFERATION
• Possible Return of Nuclear Weapons in Belarus Protested
• NATO
• NATO Adopts New Mission to Ensure "Relevance"
• NATO Committed to Review of Nuclear Policy
• World Council of Churches Calls for Dismantling of Nuclear Weapons
• ENERGY AND WASTE
• Judge Kills Ward Valley Nuclear Dump Plan
• Radiation Suit Settlement Approved
• Chernobyl Engineer Downplays Y2K Threat

EVENTS are listed at: http://www.napf.org/events_current.html

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org

For the latest nuclear weapons abolition grassroots news, visit:  http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/

NPT PrepCom Meeting, 10-21 May: Tentative Schedule of NGO Events

• DAILY: 8-9am Abolition 2000 caucus, Church Center for the U.N., 777 U.N. Plaza (7th floor, Presbyterian Conference Room all days except May 13 and 19, when held in 8th floor meeting room)
• DAILY: 9-10am briefing for all NGOs, arranged by NGO Committee on Disarmament (U.N. Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium all days except May 11 and 18, when held in U.N. Conference Room D)
• DAILY: NGOs will have use of a small conference room in the U.N. (Conference Room D) for office use and meeting space throughout the PrepCom.
• MONDAY, MAY 10 - PrepCom begins; agenda-setting discussions expected to be closed to NGO observers all day NGO REGISTRATION will begin at 9:30am in the Visitors Lobby of the U.N.  (General Assembly Building), 1st Avenue and 45th Street
• TUESDAY, MAY 11 - 10am-1pm: PrepCom plenary expected to be open to NGOs, Conf. Room 4, 1-3pm: Briefing on Y2K problem and nuclear energy and weapon systems, Conference Room 4 (STAR Foundation/Abolition 2000) 3-6pm: NGOs deliver oral presentations to PrepCom delegates, Conference Room 4
• WEDNESDAY, MAY 12 - 1:15-2:45pm: Roundtable discussion on Y2K issues, Conference Room D (WILPF - New York Metro) 6-8pm: Presentation: "Nuclear Militarism - Racist, Sexist: A Discussion," Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium (WILPF - U.N.)
• THURSDAY, MAY 20 - 1:15-2:45pm: Panel of Religious leaders, site to be announced 6-8 pm: Panel to launch a new book: "Security and Survival: The Case for a Nuclear Weapons Convention," Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium (IPPNW)
• FRIDAY, MAY 21 - Final day of PrepCom: closing plenary may be open to NGO observers

From the Abolition 2000 Grassroots News May 1999

• The World Council Of Churches (WCC) has called on NATO to seek the "rapid elimination of nuclear weapons." Its appeal to NATO calls for a NATO commitment to the "global elimination of nuclear weapons." The WCC also issued a similar appeal to non-NATO nuclear states.  (WCC news release, April 23, 1999)  For more information mailto:
• Protests in Belarus: the possible return of nuclear weapons in Belarus was protested on April 2nd. About 500 people took part in a March in Minsk to protest the possible re-introduction of nuclear weapons in Belarus. Belarusian and Russian politicians have stated that re-deployment is a potential response to NATO's air strikes on Serbia.  (Belapan News Agency, April 3, 1999)
• Web references:
• NATO and No First Use Information Pack:  http://www.gn.apc.org/abolition2000uk
• "Canada's Policies on Nuclear Weapons," an analysis by Senator Douglas Roche:  http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/nucchallenge/menu-e.htm
• "Nuclear Weapons Inventories of the Seven Declared Nuclear Powers":  available as a pdf-file from Bob Aldridge ( mailto: )
• Excerpts from the British Parliament report "The Future of NATO: The Washington Summit":  http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/references/commons99.pdf
• "Nuclear Nonproliferation: Concerns With DOE's Efforts to Reduce the Risks Posed by Russia's Unemployed Weapons Scientists" (40 pp.):  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/rc99054.pdf(this item apparently removed from server - tm)

France admits nuclear explosions caused atoll damage in French Polynesia

http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/PIReport/text.htm

France has admitted for first time that fractures have been found in the coral cones at the former Moruroa and Fangataufa nuclear test sites in French Polynesia.

Environmental groups and critics of France's nuclear testing program have been making the claim for several years, although the France government has always denied them. Now, however, the new Director of France's Atomic Energy Commission, Ren Pellat, has told a media conference in Tahiti that there definitely are fractures within the atolls.

The Editor of Tahiti-Pacifique magazine , Alex W. du Prel, told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program that Mr. Pellat made the admission after inspecting the sites last week: "There had been a map showing the fractures which was circulating among French union circles, in the early nineties," du Prel said, but it never was confirmed by the French government. Now, he noted, for "the first time they actually admitted there were fractures. "We're talking about the coral part of the atoll," du Prel stressed.

[Source: Radio Australia, May, 4, 1999]

News from the Non-Nuclear NATO Network

http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/index.html

The Non-Nuclear NATO Network (nnnnet) which is sponsored by the US-based "Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development," is producing the electronic newsletter "NATO NUCLEAR FLASH". Its issue 99-23 of 26 April contains the following:

1. Polish Defense Minister Says Rumors of Russian Nuclear Response to Bombing Not to Be Taken Seriously.  http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/news/042599wprost.txt

2. NATO Widens Security 'Map.'  http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/news/042599wp.txt

3. Nato's New Strategic Concept.  For the full document, go to:  http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/1999/p99-065e.htm  Or in text-only format: http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/references/natostratcon99.txt

4. Fact Sheet: NATO's New Strategic Concept. http://www.nato50.gov/text/99042450.htm

5. Fact sheet: NATO on Weapons of Mass Destruction.  http://www.nato50.gov/text/99042409.htm

6. Fact Sheet: NATO on Defense Capabilities Initiative. http://www.nato50.gov/text/99042408.htm

7. Nuclear Launch Codes Left Behind.  http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/news/042499ap.txt

8. NATO Assigns Counterproliferation Tasks to Military Forces.  http://www.nautilus.org/nnnnet/news/042499otfried.txt

BRIEFINGS

Hague Appeal for Peace civil society conference, 11-15 May 1999

http://www.haguepeace.org

http://youth.haguepeace.org

To communicate the activities, news, and proposals coming out of the Hague Appeal for Peace, an email listserv has been created that will broadcast up-to-the-minute updates from the conference.

To subscribe to this listserv, send an email message to  with the message "subscribe hapnews-list" in the body of the email.

The email broadcasts will only last from May 11-15. Those subscribed to the regular "hap99-list" will NOT be automatically subscribed to "hapnews;" you must subscribe yourself separately.

New sources concerning the Iraq Crisis

• The May/June '99 issue of "Foreign Affairs" contains two excellent articles critical of the U.S. sanctions policy. These are:
• Sanctions of Mass Destruction (by John Mueller and Karl Mueller)
• Getting it Backward on Iraq (by F. Gregory Gause III)
• "The Guardian" (April 24, 1999) has published the very interesting article "'Iraq is falling apart. We are ruined'. Allied bombing raids and sanctions aimed at toppling Saddam Hussein are punishing the ordinary people" (by David Sharrock in Baghdad). This article is available from the WNII editor ( )
• The Latest UN Report about the Humanitarian Situation in Iraq:  http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/panelrep.htm
• Office of the Iraq Programme 2-year programme review:  http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/
• Essay on the US foreign policy with regards to Iraq and Kosovo by Dr. Naseer Aruri: http://iraqaction.org/naseer.html
• Out Of The Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein (by Andrew Cockbum and Patrick Cockbum; HarperCollins US$26, 322 pages)   ("Out of the Ashes" can be obtained through FT Book Shop (44-181) 324 5511 or Amazon.com)
• Are Iraqi Sanctions Immoral? (Stephen Zunes, Assistant Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco <>, Foreign Service Journal / February 1999):  http://www.afsa.org/fsj/Feb99/AreiraquiSanctionsInmoral.html
• Middle East Report, the magazine of the Washington-based Middle East Research and Information Project. Section dedicated to Iraq: http://www.merip.org/ircrisis.htm
• The Global Movement to End the War against Iraq (Canada):  http://www.leb.net/globalmewi

CONFERENCES - MEETINGS - SEMINARS

Events listed here are being published only once due to limited space.  Changes, however, will be taken into account (marked with ''UPDATE'')

Abolition 2000 Annual General Meeting (Update)

• Date: 15-17 May 1999
• Venue: The Hague, Netherlands

The agenda for the Abolition 2000 Annual General Meeting will be organized around these goals:

* To know who is participating in the network

* To bring everyone up to the same level of information about Abolition 2000 structure, history, aims and style of operating

* To identify successes and best practices from the previous year

* To identify strategies leading up to 2000 (and beyond?) for the network

* To identify proposals for enhancing the network

* To review the present structure and improve where necessary

For more details, mailto:

5th International Interdisciplinary Environmental Association (IEA) Conference

• Date: 23-26 June 1999
• Venue: Baltimore, Maryland/USA

http://champion.iupui.edu/~mreiter/iea.htm

UN General Assembly special session on follow-up to the Population Conference (ICPD UNGASS)

• Date: 30 June - 2 July 1999
• Venue: New York, USA

http://www.un.org/News/devupdate/latest.htm

International Seminar "Militarism and Gender"

Themes may include:

• Comparative studies of women in conflict situations
• Sexual abuse, prostitution and trafficking in militarised areas during peace-time
• Improving military/civilian interaction: training strategies
• Constructions of military masculinities
• Sexual harassment in the military
• Military families and domestic violence
• Rape as a war crime
• Women as peace-makers: resistance and protest
• Gendered analyses of high- and low-level radiation as forms of violence
• Gendered analyses of security issues and militarised economies

• Date: 25-26 November 1999
• Venue: Leeds (Metropolitan University), UK
• Partially sponsored by: The European Commission DAPHNE Initiative:  Measures for Combating Violence Against Children, Young Persons and Women
• Deadline for submission of abstracts: 1 September 1999

For more details, contact Dr. Catherine Euler, Research Centre on Violence, Abuse and Gender Relations mailto:

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