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

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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. 27/1999

• NUCLEAR WEAPONS
• Nuclear weapons ban in Austria
• WHISTLEBLOWERS
• Nikitin charged with treason again
• BRIEFINGS
• International Network on Disarmament and Globalization (NDG) set up
• CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
  • Youth for Habitat International Summer School

• INES WEB- AND EMAIL SERVICE
  No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue.
  NOTE: All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from: <>

INES MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

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

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

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

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

Nuclear weapons ban in Austria

On 1 July, the Austrian Parliament finally passed a constitutional law which prohibits not only the production of nuclear weapons (which is already forbidden by NPT anyway) but also deployment, transporting through the country, testing and using of nuclear weapons.

This is a major breakthrough against NATO's nuclear sharing arrangements.

In any case - even if Austria would become NATO-member - which seems after the Kosovo-war very unlikely in the foreseeable future - Austria would not allow nuclear sharing arrangements or even allow overflights for such arrangements.

Dr. phil. Georg Schoefbaenker < >

WHISTLEBLOWERS

Nikitin charged with treason again

The Russian Security Police (FSB) charged Aleksandr Nikitin with high treason and divulging of state secrets for the eighth successive time in St. Petersburg on 2 July. The new indictment is based upon secret and retroactive normative acts.

This time the federal law is also applied retroactively against Nikitin. The indictment contains references to the 1997-edition of the Law on State Secrets, while the case was launched back in 1995. Nikitin is accused of high treason and divulging state secrets for co-authoring a Bellona report on radiation hazards in the Russian Northern Fleet. The charges against Nikitin are based on chapter 2.3 regarding safety issues of third generation submarine reactors and chapter 8 which describes accidents onboard nuclear-powered submarines.

"The new indictment is a blue-print of the previous one," Aleksandr Nikitin said after having read it today. "It is even worse since before they applied retroactive secret normative acts, now they use retroactive federal law in addition."

The case might come up in court in September-October this year.

------------------------

Russian security on sale

Alone with the indictment, the FSB presented a new evaluation of the damage brought by Aleksandr Nikitin to the security of the Russian Federation. The first evaluation conducted before suggested the damage was around one million U.S. dollars. This time it came down to 20,000 U.S. dollars. Nevertheless, the FSB is still applying against Nikitin the article in the Russian Penalty Code, which assumes "divulging of state secrets with severe consequences" (Sec 2, Art. 283).

More info:  http://www.bellona.no/e/russia/nikitin/     mailto:

BRIEFINGS

International Network on Disarmament and Globalization (NDG) set up

An International Network on Disarmament and Globalization (NDG) was created at a special meeting on May 12th of peace activists, economists, and researchers from ten countries. They identified the need to better investigate how economic globalization and the rise of transnational corporations are affecting efforts to promote peace and international disarmament.

The NDG will address the relationship between militarism and globalization, and will begin by creating an e-mail network and educational resources which will be available on the Internet to build a body of knowledge for peace activists, economists and researchers.

Contact: Steven Staples  mailto: 

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'')

Youth for Habitat International Summer School

http://www.youthforhab.org.tr

• Date: 15-25 September 1999
• Venue: Cesme, Turkey
• Organized by Youth Association for Habitat and Agenda 21 (The Secretariat of Youth for Habitat International Network)
• Main themes are human settlements, human rights, environment and capacity building.
• Objectives:
  • Sharing of experiences
  • Providing of leadership building and transferability of knowledge
  • A better understanding of the cited topics supplemented by the presence of the experts in the relevant fields
  • Enhancement of intercultural learning
  • Dissemination of outcomes of each event as booklets thereby providing access to information for the organisations whom have not attended to the Summer School

For more details,  mailto: 

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