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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.1/2000 |
Dateline: January 5, 2000 |
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This is a weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail: < >
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office < >
INES Chair Prof. Armin Tenner < >
INES Congress 2000
''Challenges for Science and Engineering in the 21st Century''
Stockholm, 14-18 June 2000
http://www.ines2000.org
INES 2000 Conference Secretariat: mailto:
CONTENTS of WNII No. 1/2000
MEMBER ORGANISATIONS' AND PROJECT GROUPS' NEWS
INES 2000 Conference: Updated web
Stefan Björnson writes:
Friends, The web pages have now been updated according to what is said in the second announcement and the detailed programs that Hartwid put together and sent over a couple of months ago. A full registration form has also been provided (under "Registration" on the contents frame to the left).
Please look through this and let me know at once if you find anything that is incorrect or you think should be improved.
http://www.ines2000.org
USA: Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) of the Commonwealth Institute
PDA publications of particular relevance to European security issues:
Aaron Katz, Director of Communications < >
"The SEU TIMES" No 9 - December 1999
"The SEU TIMES" is the electronic newsletter of the "Socio-Ecological Union", one of the Russian INES member organisations. Its latest issue has the following contents:
Editor: Sviatoslav Zabelin < > Previous issues of "The SEU Times" may be found at "The Online Gadfly": http://www.igc.org/gadfly
World Trade Organization article by Alice Slater (President, GRACE)
"The Big Gun Behind the Global War Machine. Nuclear Weapons and Son of Star Wars" is the title of a paper by Alice Slater, President of the US-based INES member organisation Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE). She presented this article to a panel co-sponsored by Abolition 2000 at the WTO.
If you wish to receive this article, contact Alice Slater at: < >
Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org
Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/
Russia to run nuclear tests at Arctic site in 2000 http://www.nandotimes.com
Moscow (January 1, 2000) - Russia will conduct a series of sub-critical nuclear tests at an Arctic testing range this year to check the safety of its nuclear arsenal, a news report said Saturday.
Russia carries out an average of five sub-critical tests at the Novaya Zemlya archipelago each year, and will continue the practice in 2000, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing the Russian Atomic Energy Ministry.
Such tests are not prohibited by the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty because the amount of radioactive plutonium used is not enough to create a nuclear explosion. But critics warn that carrying out even limited tests could encourage other countries to conduct full-scale nuclear tests.
Weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium are used during the tests, but there is no discharge of nuclear energy.
The southern tip of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago is located above the Arctic Circle, 1,178 miles north of Moscow, between the Barents and Kara Seas.
Nikitin Acquitted
Dec. 29, 1999 - After more than four years of persecution, the St. Petersburg City Court showed judicial independence today and ended the case against environmental whistle blower Aleksandr Nikitin.
The court, presided over by Judge Sergey Golets, acquitted Nikitin of all charges. It is not yet clear whether the prosecution will appeal.
Nikitin was arrested and charged with espionage by the FSB, the unrepentant successor to the infamous Soviet-era KGB for his participation in the Bellona report The Russian Northern Fleet: Sources of Radioactive Contamination. He has maintained throughout the more than four years the investigation lasted that all information he contributed to the report was publicly available. In addition, he and international personalities have maintained that the need for information about the dangerous storage practices of nuclear waste in the Russian navy was paramount for the world community to know and under the Russian Constitution, such information could under no circumstances be classified as secret.
Nikitin became one of the world's most prominent environmental activists, and was honored by a large number of international organisations. Among other honours, in 1996 he received the Goldman Prize for Environmental Heroism, often called the Nobel Prize for the environment.
Nikitin thanks his international supporters, whose indefatigable work on his behalf has kept the spotlight on the case for more than four years.
More and updated info: http://www.bellona.no/
Regards, The Bellona Foundation
"Disarmament Diplomacy" No. 41 out now http://www.acronym.org.uk
DD41 opens with a provocative editorial on 'Sleepwalking towards nuclear war' and provides our annual comprehensive report of the 43rd session of the United Nations First Committee, including the First Committee voting records and the UNGA votes in December, highlighting especially the debates on the ABM resolution, nuclear disarmament, especially the New Agenda Coalition, and the increasingly important debate on small arms.
Among the opinion pieces: George Bunn and John B Rhinelander argue that the Senate rejection does not spell the end for the CTBT and call for a return to the rule of international law in US domestic affairs.
Douglas Scott describes the main points and strategies behind 1999's competing approaches for getting the inspectors back into Iraq, although we went to press before December's cliff hanger debate and vote in the UN Security Council, where the UK-Dutch approach won out over the more conciliatory Russian-French perspective.
Leslie-Anne Levy writes on the BWC, looking at the Clinton Administration approach and role of US industry.
Rebecca Johnson considers some of the major issues that will be before the NPT parties in a short analysis entitled 'Preparing for the 2000 NPT Review Conference'.
As usual, DD41 also provides a comprehensive news review and various documents and key statements on disarmament-related issues from November 1999.
Rebecca Johnson < >
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
Star Wars Revisited: An International Conference on Preventing an Arms Race in Space
For more details, mailto: http://www.globenet.free-online.co.uk
EcoSummit 2000: "Understanding and Solving Environmental Problems in the 21st Century" http://www.elsevier.com:80/homepage/sag/eco99/
This EcoSummit is centered around the following six themes:
For more details, contact the Conference Secretariat at: < >
INES WEB AND E-MAIL SERVICE
All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
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