What's New in INES no. 3/2001

	WHAT'S NEW IN INES?
No.3/2001			Dateline: January 19, 2001

This is the 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

CONTENTS of WNII No. 3/2001

MEMBERSHIP AND PROJECTS' NEWS

"The SEU TIMES" No 6 (15) - August-November 2000

"The SEU TIMES" is the electronic newsletter of the "Socio-Ecological Union", one of the Russian INES member organizations. The latest issue has the following contents:

7th Conference of the International Socio-Ecological Union, Kiev, 21-25 August 2000
- The following were accepted at the conference:
  - "Notice of the Regional Coordination of the SEU"
  - Priorities of the SEU Council's work for 2000-2003.
  - A new Council and Revision Commission were also elected.
  - The following were named as priorities of the SEU Council for 2000-2003:
    - The providing of closer and perpetual cooperation between SEU members (through program and regional coordinators).
    - The search for sources of financial support both for the SEU as a whole and for its member branches.
    - The organization of the informational support of the SEU's and its member's activity.
    - The organization of cooperation between the SEU and other members of public life (the population at large, the authorities, political parties, etc).
    - The organization of all types of support for the activities of SEU members (legal aid, moral support, solidarity, defense).
    - The organization of work of the CCI in the interests of SEU members and the SEU as a whole.
    - The development of the SEU's external and internal politics (strategic planning, the development of program documents to clarify the SEU's position, an analysis of the world situation).
    - The organization of analytical work needed for understanding global and regional processes at work, and in turn, adequate planning of the work of the SEU and its members.
Referendum killed, nuclear waste welcomed. For details, contact Alexey Yablokov, chairman of SEU "Nuclear safety" Programme:
Chaos in Russian genetic engineering activities. For more information: Victoria Kolesnikova, Olga Berlova, Anna Kochineva Iza Kruszewska, ANPED:
Living with the Taiga: Fifth International Conference of the Taiga Rescue Network (TRN) For more information, contact Vladimir Zakharov, SEU Forest Campaign: : Lack of control is what some institutions benefit from
Ecosettlements for the 21st Century: Muravievka, the SEU Park For contacts: Sergey and Elena Smirenski Editor: Sviatoslav Zabelin

Previous issues of "The SEU Times" may be found at "The Online Gadfly": http://www.igc.org/gadfly

Russians in 20 Cities Protest Nuke Waste Import Plan http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2001/2001L-01-16-03.html

Russian INES member organisation Socio-Ecological Union was part of a Russian environmental groups' day of actions against a proposal of the Ministry of Atomic Power (Minatom) import nuclear waste on a commercial basis. Actions took place in 20 cities across western and central Russia, the Ural district and Siberia. The environmentalists are protesting approval given by the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, for a first reading of three laws that would allow Minatom to store and reprocess foreign spent nuclear fuel in Russia. Current Russian law does not permit the import of nuclear waste. The Socio-Ecological Union and EcoDefense! have been working since 1994 to stop the development and spread of nuclear technology, and replace it with renewable sources of energy and efficiency technologies.

Prof. Rotblat on Ballistic Missile Defence in "The Times"

"The Times", January 16, 2001: Letter to the Editor Pretext for missile defence 'absurd'

From Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat, FRS
Sir, You may be right (leading article, January 13) that the US ballistic missile defence (BMD) system will be built, even though it is unlikely ever to be 100 per cent effective. But you are wrong, in my opinion, to imply that BMD would enhance world security. On the contrary, it would endanger world security. The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972 will almost certainly be the victim of the decision to proceed with BMD, and it is important to remind ourselves of the significance of this treaty. At the time the treaty was negotiated, the US Administration was in favour of it while the Soviet Union was strongly opposed to it. At the Pugwash Conferences we managed to convince our Russian colleagues to persuade their Government that ballistic missile defence would be bound to result in an intensification of the nuclear arms race, because any such system could be saturated by the use of a larger number of missiles, and offensive missiles are much cheaper than defensive ones. Three decades later, and this argument is still valid. Although the Cold War is over, the mindset on nuclear issues has survived: We still seem to rely on the nuclear deterrent for world security. But if the US were protected by a BMD system, Russia and China would have lost their deterrents and be compelled to restore the balance by increasing their nuclear arsenals - a new nuclear arms race. Officially, of course, BMD is not intended to defend against Russia or China but against "rogue states" (or "states of concern" in current jargon). But this pretext is absurd. Any nuclear attack with ballistic missiles would be suicidal for those states. If such states, or terrorist groups sponsored by them, wanted to injure the US, this could be achieved by cheaper means and with less risk of reprisal. Anyhow, there is an alternative way to deal with the nuclear threat, whether from rogue states or from overt or covert nuclear states, namely, by the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free world, safeguarded by a robust verification and enforcement regime. The UK (as well as the US) is legally committed to the elimination of nuclear weapons. In pursuance of this policy - and for the sake of world peace - the Government should make an effort to convince the US Administration to abandon the BMD project.
Yours faithfully, JOSEPH ROTBLAT, 8 Asmara Road, NW2 3ST. January 14

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

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

Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/

NEW on the Abolition 2000 Website:

Say NO to Star Wars: http://www.abolition2000.org/action/saynotostarwars.html
Jadugoda Protest: http://www.abolition2000.org/testimony/jadugodaprotest.html
Nagasaki Appeal: change of URL: http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/documents/nagasakiappeal00.html

Update of WILPF's Reaching Critical Will Project http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/

From: Felicity Hill, Director, UN Liaison Office, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)

All documents from the 2000 NPT Review Conference are now available at: http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/NPTDocuments/NPT_docs_index.html
NPT Follow up: WILPF is in the final stages of production of a booklet documenting the 2000 Review Conference and anticipating the 2002 and 2005 meetings.
Conference on Disarmament: WILPF will place all CD speeches and documents on line as it did for the First Committee of the UNGA. WILPF hopes this simple information provision will provide the raw materials many NGOs need to work effectively on the national level, supplementing the analysis of the Acronym Institute. WILPF will send a very short weekly email to indicate the availability of documents. The list will be primarily made up of NGOs in the 66 countries of the CD, and more widely. Please indicate your interest by email to:
Dirty Dozen: The following companies have been chosen as the dirtiest dozen by WILPF and the World Policy Institute: Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, Bechtel, Alliant, TRW, BAE systems, Siemens, IBM, BNFL, General Dynamics, University of California.
Promotion material: WILPF will also soon have 3 postcard and poster designs ready for distribution. One long poster will feature 13 sturdy bright sunflowers rooted in the 13 points of the NPT Action Plan, another features a big retro 50's bus containing diverse happy people with 13 pieces of luggage on top of the bus containing 13 points of the NPT action plan, written on side of bus: Disarmament, Get On the Bus. Yet another is a group of people dragging a bull by the horns into a field of sunflowers, Disarmament, We are Taking the Bull by the Horns, which will feature as many of the public opinion polls that can fit.

Stockpile Stewardship and Nuclear Weapons Development

Two noteworthy resources on the Stockpile Stewardship Program have recently been published:

Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship, ("Physics Today", December 2000), by Raymond Jeanloz, professor of geophysics in the Earth and planetary science and the astronomy departments, and executive director of the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley: http://www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-53/iss-12/p44.html
Nuclear Weapons: Improved Management Needed to Implement Stockpile Stewardship Program Effectively, US General Accounting Office, GAO-01-48, December 14, 2001. This report contains some very useful details on the nuclear weapons design and "refurbishment" processes. This report is available from the "GAO Reports" page of GAO's site (look under "Today's Reports" section, January 4, 2001.): http://www.gao.gov (Source: Coalition to Reduce Nuclear Dangers, email posting of 12 January 2001)

ISODARCO papers on arms control

The International School On Disarmament And Research On Conflicts (ISODARCO) held the Seventh ISODARCO-Beijing Seminar on Arms Control in Xian, PRC, from October 8-12, 2000. The conference brought together nonproliferation experts from China, the United States, Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia to discuss nuclear weapons nonproliferation and disarmament issues. The US-based Nautilus Institute is pleased to provide selected papers from this conference. Papers will be distributed periodically on the following web site: http://www.nautilus.org/nukepolicy/workshops/ISODARCO-00/papers.html Already available are:

Cirincione, Joe (Director, Non-Proliferation Project, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace): The Political and Strategical Imperatives of National Missile Defense: http://www.nautilus.org/nukepolicy/workshops/ISODARCO-00/Cirincione.txt
Gronlund, Lisbeth (Senior Staff Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists, Research Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology): Countermeasures to the Proposed US National Missile Defense System: http://www.nautilus.org/nukepolicy/workshops/ISODARCO-00/Gronlund.txt
Johnson, Rebecca (The Acronym Institute): British Approaches to Nuclear Disarmament and NMD: http://www.nautilus.org/nukepolicy/workshops/ISODARCO-00/johnson.txt
Paldy, David L. (Association of the Bar, City of New York Committee on International Security Affairs): National Missile Defense and United States Domestic Politics: http://www.nautilus.org/nukepolicy/workshops/ISODARCO-00/paldy.txt

Abolition 2000 Grassroots Newsletter January 2001 (Vol. III Number 1)

The latest Grassroots Newsletter of the Abolition 2000 Network has the following contents:

Articles:
- Nuclear Disarmament Days in France For details, contact
- US Plans for New, Warfighting Uses of Nuclear Weapons Revealed. For more information, contact the Western States Legal Foundation via: Andrew Lichterman Jackie Cabasso
- National Missile Defense Protests Continue at Menwith Hill, UK For more, and if you would like to send a message of solidarity, contact the Campaign for Accountability of American Bases in the UK:
Stop Star Wars in its Tracks http://www.space4peace.org http://www.wagingpeace.org/resources/index.html
Gensuikyo (Japan Council against A & H Bombs) Calls for International Ban on Depleted Uranium Gensuikyo:
Greenpeace Action at NATO to Stop Star Wars; For more information, contact Butch Turk, Greenpeace campaigner:
Announcements: International Star Wars Postcard Campaign
Events and Resources

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Report "Scientific Assessment of Climate Change"

Working Group I of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met in Shanghai, China from 17 to 20 January to finalize its contribution to the IPCC's Third Assessment Report. The 1,000-page draft volume entitled "Scientific Assessment of Climate Change" was to be accepted in Shanghai by several hundred expert and government reviewers, who were also approve a brief Summary for Policymakers. The report's Summary for Policymakers will be posted English at: http://www.ipcc.ch

WHISTLEBLOWERS

Nobel winner proposes nuclear rebel Vanunu for peace prize

(from: "Times of London", January 14, 2001) The Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire has called for this year's award to be presented to Mordechai Vanunu, who was jailed for treason and espionage after leaking details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme to The Sunday Times. Maguire has nominated the whistleblower because of the personal sacrifice he made after he decided to alert the world to the Israeli arsenal. The move comes as new efforts are made to win parole for Vanunu, who has been in jail in Israel since 1986. He was lured from London to Rome and kidnapped by a team working for Mossad, the Israeli secret service.

BRIEFINGS

Re: Depleted uranium weapons (II)

Since there are far too many articles and sources to be summarized here, I shall prepare a separate on-topic compilation which will be available upon request within the next week. The contents would cover some of the major articles on this issue plus web references. Tobias Damjanov, Editor

"Disabled People Speak on the New Genetics". DPI Europe's Position Statement on Bioethics and Human Rights http://www.dpieurope.org/

To mark the UN Human Rights Day on 10 December, Disabled People's International (DPI) presents this statement which you can find in English at: http://www.dpieurope.org/htm/bioethics/dpsngfullreport.htm For a list of 10 key demands, visit: http://www.dpieurope.org/htm/bioethics/dpsng10demands.htm Both documents are downloadable as PDF files in the following languages: Spanish: http://freespace.virgin.net/dpi.europe/downloads/bioethics-spanish.pdf
Italian: http://freespace.virgin.net/dpi.europe/downloads/bioethics-italian.pdf
English: http://freespace.virgin.net/dpi.europe/downloads/bioethics-english.pdf

UNIDIR "disarmament forum" four/2000

"Biological Weapons: from the BWC to biotech" is the subject of the latest issue of "disarmament forum" which is published by the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Introduced by a Special Comment by the Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, János Martonyi, the fourth edition of last year carries the following articles:

The Proliferation of Biological Weapons: A Threat Assessment (J.P. Zanders)
The BTWC in Historical Perspective: From Review and Strengthening Processes to an Integrated Treaty Regime (N.A. Sims)
Opportunities for the Fifth Review Conference (G.S. Pearson)
Fighting the Proliferation of Biological Weapons: Beyond the BWC Protocol (M. Moodie)
New Technology and Future Developments in Biological Warfare (M. Wheelis & M. Dando)
Open Forum: Unilateral or negotiated arms control? (J. Goldblat)
Biological Weapons Resource List Articles are published in English: http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR/e-df0-4.htm and French: http://www.unog.ch/UNIDIR/f-df00-4.htm Each article is downloadable as an pdf-file. For a print copy, contact:

INES WEB AND E-MAIL SERVICE

No new or changed addresses.
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