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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No. 20/2002 |
Dateline: July 24, 2002 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
WNII is archived at: http://inesglobal.org/archive.htm
INES homepages: http://inesglobal.org http://www.inesglobal.com/
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner [Please note that the first "1" in q18 is the number one, while the last "l" is an "L"]
CONTENTS of WNII No. 20/2002
USA: Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER)
Newest postings to the IEER website:
SPECIAL SECTION ON US MISSILE DEFENCE POLICY
ICOC Madrid Conference (Source: BASIC Missile Defense Update 18 July 2002)
In mid-June, delegations from nearly 100 countries met in Madrid to continue negotiations on an International Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (ICOC). BASIC reports on the Madrid Conference and analyzes the status of the ICOC in a BASIC note: http://www.basicint.org/nuk_ICOC.htm
Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/
Opinion poll shows most people want anti-nuclear treaty (Opinion poll commissioned by the LIU Centre, UBC, Vancouver, and released on 16 May 2002) http://www.liucentre.ubc.ca/surveys/media/releases/160502release.pdf
Taken among 6,000 people in 11 countries, including the UK, it updates the previous similar series of surveys in 1997 - 98.
For the question "Do you agree or disagree that all countries should sign a treaty that prohibits all nuclear weapons?", the figures for agreement (of which most agree strongly) are:
Figures in brackets are 1998 results
UK: 84% (87%)
USA: 76% (87%)
Russia: 91% (31%)
France: 90% (No comparable previous poll)
Germany: 93% (87%)
Canada: 91% (93%)
Japan: (97%) (78%)
India: 78% (in 1998, 63% though India should not make nuclear weapons)
2002 WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT NEWS
Science and Sustainability at the WSSD
One of the WSSD events is the Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development which will be held from 26 August – 3 September. The Forum is an umbrella framework for a series of science-related workshops, seminars and colloquia. A complementary event, aimed at giving the broader South African scientific community access to the topic of science and sustainability as well as creating an opportunity to participate in the debate, is being held at the CSIR Conference Centre in Pretoria from 26 – 30 August 2002 and is promoted as the Science at the Summit Conference.
For details of these events, including programme updates and registration, go to: http://www.scienceforum.co.za
World Summit Manual in Arabic
The Heinrich Boell Foundation (Germany), Israel Office, has published a World Summit Manual in Arabic in order to distribute it amongst civil society activists from different Arab countries: http://www.worldsummit2002.org/?regions/arabmiddleeast/arabicmanual.htm
German initiative for freedom of Grigory Pasko
Co-sponsored by the Scientists' Initiative Responsibility for Peace and Sustainability, a German INES member organisation, an initiative "Freedom for Pasko" has been set up. Currently, the grouping is collecting signatures for an Open Letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin with which he will be urged to do his utmost for a cessation of the sentence against Pasko. In December last year, Pasko was sentenced to four years in prison by a military court allegedly for divulging state secrets on the combat-readiness of Russia's Pacific Fleet to Japanese media. But the court found him guilty of illegally attending a secret meeting of Russian Pacific Fleet commanders in 1997 and possessing notes he made at the meeting, where officers discussed the results of naval maneuvers. However, Pasko and his supporters, including the German initiative, maintain the charges are retribution for his reports of alleged environmental abuses by the navy, including dumping radioactive waste into the sea.
On 25 June this year, the Military Chamber of the Supreme Court confirmed the sentence against Pasko. This decision was the most recent reason why the German initiative is now pressing for the freedom of Pasko. Its Open Letter to be delivered in September is referring, among other things, to the fact that, as a member of the European Council and the OSCE, Russia has to guarantee freedom of opinion and freedom of press. This would include freedom of environmental information, the Open Letter concludes.
Contact of the "Freedom for Pasko" initiative: < >
New Chernobyl website
On 25 June, Director General Walter Fust of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Kenzo Oshima, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and United Nations Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl inaugurated the new communications platform on the long term consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe: http://www.chernobyl.info
VERTIC/UNA-UK Guide to Verification for Arms Control and Disarmament
The Verification Research, Training and Information Centre, (VERTIC) in association with the United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UNA-UK), has produced a pamphlet explaining the verification of arms control and disarmament agreements. The pamphlet is designed as an educational tool to explain the linkages between disarmament, arms control and verification.
A pdf version of the pamphlet (1.2mb) is available to download: http://www.vertic.org/veri_pamphlet.pdf
Further information and printed copies can also be obtained from Helen Hughes, Disarmament Program Officer at the United Nations Association, UK: < >
All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
Email addresses of the newly-elected INES Executive Committee
On 27 May 2002, INES Council elected its Executive Committee which is composed as follows:
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