Abolition 2000-Europe General Assembly
Friday, 2nd May 2008, 3:00-5:00 pm
NGO room, United Nation, Geneva (More)

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During the meeting of the NPT Preparatory Committee (28 April - 9 May 2008 at the UN in Geneva), Abolition 2000 Europe and Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign organise a conference on "The European Union and the Nuclear Weapon Convention".

When: 1:15-2:45pm , Monday, 28 April 2008
Where: NGO room
Contact: Dominique Lalanne, Abolition 2000-Europe; co-sponsored by Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign
e-mail : lalanne@lal.in2p3.fr
Website: www.abolition2000europe.org

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From 25th to 30th August 2008, GAAA (Non-Violent Action for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons) organises a civil disobedience camp at B?chel nuclear weapons base, together with local activists from Initiative Circle against Nuclear Weapons. Following 7 years of public actions, calling on the soldiers in the base to refuse to follow illegal orders, and resist the deployment of nuclear weapons, the action will this year take the form of a civil inspection of the base, where people will enter without permission to disrupt the working of the base.

Website: http://bye-bye-nuclear-bombs.gaaa.org
More info in English: http://bye-bye-nuclear-bombs.gaaa.org/info-en.pdf

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NATO agreements make European countries into logistical hubs for the US military. Through our ports, airports and highways the US war machine is transported to Iraq. And our own military is involved in Afghanistan as well. Iraq was invaded and Iran threatened because they are supposed to have, or to be developing weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile NATO has 350 US nuclear weapons deployed in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK and Turkey. According to international humanitarian law these weapons are as illegal here as elsewhere. (More)

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The Scottish government has set up an expert group to investigate how best to get rid of nuclear weapons, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The group, to be chaired by Bruce Crawford MSP, the minister for parliamentary business, is seen by many as a crucial step towards making Scotland a nuclear-free nation - and could trigger a confrontation with Westminster.

The group - which includes religious leaders, academics, activists, a lawyer and a trade unionist - has been given the task of finding legal, planning, regulatory and diplomatic ways to block the plan to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system on the Clyde.

(From: The Sunday Herald)

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The following speech at the Munich Security Conference by the German minister of Foreign Affairs Steinmeier is a clear appeal to put disarmament again on the NATO agenda and follows his initiative together with the Norwegian minister at the NATO summit in December.
It is a quite positive sign, but it was a lone voice between the wolves. The debate is anyway going on inside NATO and it is up to us to create pressure to support this initiative. Please make sure that in as much parliaments as possible of NATO countries questions get tabled on how your government reacts to this intiative.

http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?menu_2008=&menu_konferenzen=&sprache=en&id=208&

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2nd Preparatory Committee for the 2010
Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation-Treaty (NPT Prep Com) at the United Nations in Geneva

25th April to 4th May 2008

Invitation:

BANg is a European youth network. It was founded after the failure of the NPT Conference in 2005 Youth delegations have been participating in the last three confer-ences in New York 2004 and 2005, as well as in Vienna 2007. Our aim is to raise awareness of the nuclear issue because nukes endanger our future. We want to invite all youth to come to the NPT Prep Com and take part in our study and action trip to Geneva.
Register now online!

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Toward a Nuclear-Free World
By GEORGE P. SHULTZ, WILLIAM J. PERRY, HENRY A.
KISSINGER and SAM NUNN
January 15, 2008

The accelerating spread of nuclear weapons, nuclear know-how and nuclear material has brought us to a nuclear tipping point. We face a very real possibility that the deadliest weapons ever invented could fall into dangerous hands.

The steps we are taking now to address these threats are not adequate to the danger. With nuclear weapons more widely available, deterrence is decreasingly effective and increasingly hazardous.

(From: The Wall Street Journal) (More)

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Brussels - Ypres - Huy, January 10th 2007 - The new Mayor of Zwalm, Member of Parliament and former Secretary of State, Bruno Tuybens (sp.a - Social Dem) became today the 295th Belgian member of the international network of Mayors for Peace. The Mayor of Tubize and Member of the European Parliament Raymond Langendries (cdH - Christian Dem) also became a member and brought membership up to 296 in Belgium.

Today over half of a total of 589 Belgian Mayors demand a worldwide ban of nuclear weapons before 2020. In the northern region of Flanders this is almost 70%. Remarkable is that in the Flemish province of Limburg counts the highest number of members with 75%. This is the province where the US deploys an estimated 20 nuclear bombs on the airforce base of Kleine Brogel and confirms the growing democratic deficit with regard to NATO nuclear policies. (More)

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Dear Minister :

In the coming weeks the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors will likely be asked to consider a new ?India-specific? safeguards agreement that would cover a limited number of additional ?civilian? reactors. Shortly thereafter, the members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will be asked to take a position on the Bush administration?s proposal to exempt India from longstanding NSG guidelines that require full-scope IAEA safeguards as a condition of supply.

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German Foreign Minister Steinmeier and his Norwegian counterpart St?re have called on NATO countries to do more for disarmament. This call comes at a time when important international control regimes such as the CFE Treaty and the Non-Proliferation Treaty are at risk of coming unravelled. The Ministers discussed the proposal Friday (7 December) in Brussels with the other NATO Foreign Ministers. The goal is to identify areas in which NATO can better define its profile on disarmament, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.

(From: Auswaertiges Amt)

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European mayors want withdrawal of US nukes from their territory
and 1,937 Mayors demand global elimination of nuclear weapons by 2020

Brussels, December 6th 2007 - European Mayors on whose territory US nuclear
weapons are deployed demand, in a remarkable common position paper, THE
withdrawAL OF the remaining US nuclear weapons from their municipalites. The
Mayors from Peer (Kleine Brogel - Belgium), Aviano and Ghedi (Italy), Uden
(Volkel - The Netherlands), Incirlik (Turkey), and Buechel (Germany) receive
support for their appeal from the Executive Cities of the Mayors for Peace,
including the Mayors of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Florence, Manchester, and
Hannover.

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During the negotiations for a new federal government the flemish Christian-Democratic party CD&V tried to include the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons in the government agreement. This has been refused by the liberals, although it is unclear if it was by the flemish liberal party VLD (with foreign minister De Gucht) or by the french-speaking liberal party MR (which has a narrow relation with nuclear France).

So even when this gave no result, it is important to see that the change in position by the CD&V was real and not just election talk. It means that CD&V sees the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons as a realistic aim and that important steps are possible in the coming term. CD&V is the most atlantist party in the Belgian political landscape with a lot of connections in the Belgian diplomacy. Both the current NATO-ambassador and the diplomat dealing with non-proliferation and disarmament issues are known as christian democrats, even when the former government was one without christian democrats.

The proposal for the government agreement (based on the earlier parlementary resolutions):
- to propose initiatives in NATO concerning the review of strategic doctrines and the gradual withdrawal of the American tactical nuclear weapons from Europe as fulfillment of Article 6 of the NPT (my unofficial translation).
Dutch original:
- bij de NAVO initiatieven ter sprake te brengen in verband met de herziening van de strategische doctrines en de graduele terugtrekking van de Amerikaanse tactische kernwapens uit Europa met het oog op het realiseren van artikel 6 van het NPT.

Meanwhile the negotiations for a new government have led to a deadlock. It is at the moment unclear how the negotiations will continue and which parties in the end will form the government.

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Alex Salmond has made a major bid to win international backing for his government's campaign to rid Scotland of nuclear weapons, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The First Minister has written to 122 countries highlighting the nation's opposition to the deployment of Trident nuclear warheads on the Clyde, and his determination to try and block the UK government's decision to replace Trident over the next few decades.

Salmond is also asking countries to support a request for Scotland to be given observer status at future meetings of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the world's main barrier to nuclear mayhem.

(from Sunday Herald, 21 October 2007)

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