Asia's Bombs: A Wake-up Call to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
by Alice Slater

"Manufacturing weapons of mass destruction is wasteful, self-defeating and dangerous." - President Bill Clinton

"Today the flames of the nuclear fire are all over. I am thankful to God" that we have jumped into these flames." - Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

The US bears direct responsibility for the eruption of a nuclear arms race in Asia. India's nuclear tests (and Pakistan's response) came on the heels of the US' refusal to take meaningful steps towards nuclear disarmament at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee Meeting in Geneva. Before the tests, India pointed to the US's latest sub-critical nuclear detonation at the Nevada Test Site as proof of its long-standing complaint that the proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty contains "loopholes exploited by some countries to continue their testing activity using more sophisticated and advanced techniques."

The US test was one of a series of three separate detonations (with more to come this year) in which plutonium is blown up with chemical explosives 1,000 feet below the Nevada desert. The explosion is too small to cause a chain reaction - hence "sub-critical." The US tests are part of a 13-year, $60 billion "stockpile stewardship" program that will enable US weaponeers to use computer-simulations to design new nuclear bombs.

On the day it began its nuclear tests, the Indian government repeated its call for countries to sign "a truly comprehensive international arrangement which would prohibit underground nuclear testing." India also affirmed its commitment "to a speedy process of nuclear disarmament leading to total and global elimination of nuclear weapons."

The possession of nuclear weapons by any state is an invitation to other states to acquire them. For the safety and security of all the Earth's people, we must end US nuclear weapons research, design and testing programs, and begin immediate negotiations on an international treaty for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The US, Russia, the UK, France and China should use this opportunity to honor their commitments under the Non-Proliferation Treaty - including the binding promise to begin negotiations to abolish their stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

-- Alice Slater is with Global Resource Action Center for the Environment [15 E. 26 St., New York, NY 10010, (212) 726-9161, fax: (212) 726-9160, aslater@igc.apc.org]

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What You Can Do: For more information, contact the War Resisters League [339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012, (212) 228-0450, fax: (212) 228-6193, (800) 975-9688, wrl@igc.apc.org, www.nonviolence.org/wrl].