Posted on 1-5-2003
Greenpeace
Reveals Weapons of Mass Destruction
Auckland/Geneva, 1 May 2003 Greenpeace today launched a unique
web site,
Zoom on Doom, www.greenpeace.org.nz/wmdmap
mapping the location of all
known nuclear weapons facilities and storage sites around the
world.
“Since the US and UK are having such difficulty finding weapons
of mass
destruction in Iraq, we thought we'd lend a hand by providing
this easy
guide to the nuclear weapons we know about, with their coordinates,”
said
Stephanie Mills, Greenpeace International nuclear campaign coordinator.
“All information in the map is drawn from publicly available
sources, but
this site is believed to be unique in providing one global map
with the
exact coordinates of all known nuclear weapons facilities and
storage sites.”
The Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee is
meeting at the
United Nations in Geneva until 9 May. There are currently around
30,000
nuclear bombs globally. Since 1970 when the Treaty was signed,
only 1500
bombs have been eliminated.
This week Greenpeace conducted ‘inspections’ at the US, French,
Russian and
Israeli missions in Geneva. Today the inspectors, together with
‘mock
missiles’ visited the UK and China missions - both official
nuclear weapon
states. They also visited the missions of India, Pakistan and
North Korea,
demanding these countries renounce their nuclear weapons programmes
and
join the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states. “State parties to
the NPT have
the responsibility to respect international law and guarantee
a world free
of nuclear
weapons,” said Ms Mills. “Unfortunately, the NPT's official
nuclear
countries - UK, US, China, France and Russia - have failed to
comply with
the NPT.” “If the nuclear powers are seriously concerned about
the WMDs of
India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, they must lead by example
by
immediately cutting their arsenals and halting plans to build
new nuclear
weapons,” said Ms Mills.
Greenpeace strongly recommends delegates at the NPT meeting
agree five
major proposals:
- States should reject the use of military force to resolve
proliferation
concerns, and uphold the value of multilateral legal mechanisms
- States should reject the ‘first strike’ use of nuclear weapons
- All nuclear weapon states should commit to eliminating their
illegal
nuclear arsenals and halting the development of new nuclear
weapons or the
‘refurbishment’ of existing ones
- States should agree an emergency mechanism to deal more swiftly
and
effectively with future crises such as North Korea's withdrawal
from the NPT
- States should stop the promotion of ‘dual use’ for energy
and weapons.
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