What's New in INES, No. 31/2003

	WHAT'S NEW IN INES?
No.31/2003			Dateline: 2003

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"]

Dear WNII readers, Covering some briefing items from the last months, this WNII issue is the last in the row of the back-up issues re-edited due to a major technical problem (see WNII 26/2003). With the forthcoming WNII eidtion, I shall return to the usual weekly mailing.

Yours, Tobias Damjanov

CONTENTS of WNII No. 31/2003

Briefings:

BRIEFINGS

Jakarte Peace Consensus List

In May this year, shortly after President George Bush declared the war in Iraq over, an open meeting of anti-war movements, coalitions, and organizations was held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The conference was organized at this critical moment to help maintain the momentum of the global anti-war movement that emerged in the run-up to war. After intense debates and discussions, the conference came up with the "Jakarta Peace Consensus" (JPC), a set of core positions on the occupation of Iraq as well as a list of priority campaigns and projects proposed for the global movement. (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Arabic versions of the JPC in PDF format can be downloaded from www.focusweb.org ).

The campaigns and projects include the Occupation Watch Center in Iraq, the International People's Tribunal on Iraq, an international campaign against US bases worldwide, a general assembly of anti-war movements during the coming World Social Forum, and a "World Says 'No' to Bush" campaign in time for the Republican convention. Many of these campaigns have been launched and planning and coordination is underway for others.

Most of the planning and campaign discussions happen on-line in an open list-serve that includes all the participants who were in Jakarta as well as other anti-war activists who have since joined the informal group. Work on the campaigns are undertaken by interested organizations who have since formed smaller open working groups.

We invite you to be part of this continuing virtual conference. The focus of the list is on action and on the campaigns listed above. New proposals are also being discussed. It is a virtual community of activists who are not only committed to oppose war but also to link up with others in that struggle.

If you wish to join, please write an e-mail to: <> with a short introduction of yourself, your organization/coalition (if any), and of your work. Please indicate whether you wish to join the work list, which is reserved only for campaign-related communication, or the information exchange list, which is for sharing articles and forwarded pieces or both.

Focus on the Global South (based in Thailand)

International Human Rights March in Palestine/Israel 2003

An International Human Rights March in Palestine/Israel will start in Tel Aviv on the 20th December 2003- and proceed to Jaffa, Bethlehem, Gaza, Israel cities, Nazareth, The West Bank – to end up in Jerusalem probably on 11th January 2004.

As to the background, the initiators explain: "For a long time now the hopeless situation and the suffering of the people in the Middle East has been a constant concern for people from all over the world. The situation seems to be deadlocked and a viable solution for both peoples seems very far away indeed. A group of concerned women from Norway felt that in this critical situation something different needed to be done."

For all details of this important March, including addresses of supporting national committees, visit: http://www.humanrightsmarch.org

For updates on what's going on in the USA, visit: http://home.covad.net/%7Ekaj206/IHRM/

E-mail contact of the Norwegian Organizing Committee: <>

Publications

"Trust & Verify" No. 109/July-August 2003 Published by the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC)
Contents:

Civil society monitoring: the BW [= biological weapons] case (Jean Pascal Zanders, Director, BioWeapons Prevention Project)
Iraq Survey Group takes up baton in hunt for WMD (Ben Mines)
"Verification Watch":
- IAEA budget increase for verification
- UNGA adopts armed conflict resolution
- Iran: pressed on the protocol
- Whaling Commission: from regulation to conservation
- OAS strengthen CSBMs
- NATO monitoring South Caucasian Rivers
- Diamond certification losing its luster
- SB-18: a step forward for Kyoto compliance
"Science and Technology Scan":
- Shreds of evidence [about scanners and software tools]
- Ballistic verification
- DNA test helps to detect wildlife offences
- Satellite sensors could detect buried objects
"Peace Missions Monitor":
- New monitoring body for Northern Ireland
- Congo Commission on prevention and verification established
- UNIKOM [UN Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission] to close
Book Review: Arms Control: The New Guide to Negotiations and Agreements (2nd edition) [ISBN 0-7619-4016-2]

"Trust & Verify" No. 110/September-October 2003 Published by the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC)
Contents:

Biological weapons: time to lay down the law (Angela Woodward, Legal Researcher, VERTIC)
"Peace Missions Monitor":
- Northern Ireland: monitoring commission members named
- European Union monitors criticise Rwandan elections
- Solomons mission: from pacification to auditing
Monitoring challenges in Africa (Trevor Findlay, Executive Director, and Peter Gudritz, VERTIC)
"Verification Watch":
- UN body favours scrutiny of corporations
- No progress in Iraq WMD hunt
- 3rd CTBT conference changes little
- Cartagena [Protocol on Biosafety] and POPs [= Protocol on Persistent Organic Pollutants] in force
- Kyoto Protocol: CDM [Clean Development Mechanism] methodologies approved
- North Korea and Iran: nuclear concerns rise
"Science and Technology Scan":
- Glowing zebrafish detect CBW …
- … while cats and dogs could warn BW
- Forensics to fight rhino poaching
- Monitoring for accidental nuclear launches

NOTE: New at VERTIC's website
A new datasets section features VERTIC's collection of national implementation legislation for the Biological Weapons Convention and a searchable database logging the UNMOVIC and IAEA weapons inspection in Iraq from November 2002 to March 2003. The Verification Organisations Directory will be online from November 2003. The site also includes a complete list of VERTIC's publications, many of which are accessible online.
http://www.vertic.org

"Disarmament Diplomacy" No. 72, August/September 2003 http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd72/index.htm
Summary of contents:
This edition of Disarmament Diplomacy details the latest developments rocking the global arms control regime: deepening controversy over the decision of the US, UK and others to override a UN weapons inspections process in Iraq; mounting anxiety over Pyongyang's brazen defiance of its international non-proliferation obligations; growing concern over Iran's reluctance to embrace full nuclear transparency; and domestic and international consternation at the willingness of the Bush administration to explore options for new nuclear weapon designs and capabilities.

Peter Batchelor, Project Director of the Small Arms Survey, reports from UN headquarters in New York on the mixed outcome of the First Biennial Meeting of States to consider the implementation of the 2001 Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons
The merits of different initiatives to strengthen international controls on ballistic missiles are considered by W. Pal S. Sidhu, Senior Associate at the International Peace Academy (IPA), and Christophe Carle, Deputy Director of the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)
Mark Smith, University of Southampton, provides a progress report on one of these initiatives, the recently-launched Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) on Ballistic Missile Proliferation
Disarmament analyst Nicola Butler examines the recent decision of the British government to lend its crucial political and practical support to the missile defence system

"Disarmament Diplomacy" No. 73, October/November 2003 http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd73/index.htm
Summary of contents:
The current, profound impasse in multilateral disarmament diplomacy was illustrated again in early September with the unproductive conclusion of another annual session of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva.

Editorial by Sean Howard: Treaties are not enough – a departing editor's reflections
India's Ambassador to the CD, Rakesh Sood, locates the source of the Conference's long crisis "in the absence of adequate political will" to advance the CD's potentially rich agenda.
Acronym Institute Executive Director Rebecca Johnson argues the case for decisive political action to save the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), reporting from Vienna on the latest conference to facilitate entry into force of the treaty
A distressing example of the consequences of bypassing multilateral disarmament efforts - the looting of nuclear materials in the wake of the US-led invasion of Iraq - is the starting point for an article by arms control consultant Andy Oppenheimer on the global 'dirty bomb' threat.
The journal's new News Analysis section features assessments of developments in the ongoing search for banned weapons in Iraq, the inquiry into the apparent suicide of British biological weapons expert Dr. David Kelly, six-party talks on the North Korea nuclear crisis, the collision between Iran and the IAEA, a range of US policy discussions and decisions with regard to weapons of mass destruction (both its own and others') and the opening of a new chapter for states parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)

Iran News

Annaliis Abrego Canty of the Managing the Atom Project (Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Cambridge, MA, USA) wrote on 17 September:

Dear Colleagues,
This summer the Project on Managing the Atom at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, launched a daily service for those interested in ongoing affairs in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since July we have been compiling an informal collection of news stories about Iran and sending them via e-mail to our listserve on a daily basis. We search for news from a variety of online sources, including: Reuters, United Press International, RFE/RL, Daily Times Pakistan, Islamic Republic News Agency, Asia Times, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Daily Telegraph, Washington Times, Tehran Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Pars Times.

It is our goal to provide clippings that are timely, relevant, and of interest; additionally, we try to provide as much information as we can from sources within Iran (which on occasion reflect the environment in which they are written). We also occasionally include longer pieces from think tanks, universities and the like; please feel free to submit your own work or suggestions of material for consideration for distribution.

If you are interested in receiving our Iran News, please respond to the e-mail indicated below and I will be happy to make sure you are on our list:
<>

USA: the world's largest vendor of arms to developing nations (Source: Federation of American Scientists "Secrecy News", Volume 2003, Issue No. 80, September 25, 2003)

The USA remains the world's largest vendor of arms to developing nations, a new report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) confirmed.

The CRS report, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1995-2002," by Richard F. Grimmett, is the latest update of an annual publication that provides an unclassified account of foreign arms sales. The author has privileged access to U.S. Government data that is not otherwise made available to the public.

The CRS report itself is also not being made available to the public, at least not by CRS.

A copy of "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1995-2002," dated September 23, is posted here: http://www.fas.org/man/crs/RL32084.pdf

International Coalition Launches Campaign to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons (Source: Press Conference in Brussels, 13 Oct 03)

>From 10 through 12 October, experts in several disciplines and from eight countries met in Berlaar, Belgium, to discuss the creation of a strategy for an international ban on the use depleted uranium and other radioactive materials in military weapons.

As a result, a number of organisations called for an immediate ban on depleted uranium and the use of other radioactive materials in conventional arms, the cleanup of all contaminated sites, compensation and care for all affected populations, a halt to the production, testing, sale, and export of DU weapons and a decommissioning of all existing stockpiles.

In pursuit of this goal, they have established The International Coalition For a Ban on Depleted Uranium Weapons. The Coalition calls on Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations and other interested parties to join them in this urgent effort. It also calls on governments to demand full disclosure on the amount and the locations of DU contaminated sites, access for the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to conduct an environmental assessment and for an independent investigation into the human health consequences in Iraq.

List of Coalition Partners:
- International Depleted Uranium Study Team
  - Military Toxics Project (USA)
  - No DU Hiroshima Project (Japan)
  - Campaign Against Depleted Uranium (UK)
  - Center for Peace and Justice (USA)
  - Grassroots Action for Peace (USA)
  - For Mother Earth (Belgium)
  - Laka Foundation (Netherlands)
  - AMOK [Anti-Militarist Investigations Collective] (Netherlands)
  - Our Common Future (UK)

For more, contact Davey Garland: <>

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