 |
|
|
Press Releases & Updates 2004
20th April 2004
Deadline for Disarmament Campaign Under Way
|
The Trident Ploughshares Deadline for Disarmament campaign gets under way this week with demands to MPs in the UK, and from concerned people in the international community to British embassies abroad, for Britain to comply with its obligations under the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The campaign is timed to coincide with the preliminary NPT meetings to be held in April/May in New York in preparation for next year’s NPT Review Conference. Recent reference to nuclear proliferation has focused on one part of the treaty the aim to prevent new countries taking up the nuclear weapons option, but has almost entirely ignored the other half the obligation of nuclear weapon states to eliminate their arsenals.
The campaign is an opportunity for Trident Ploughshares to underline its commitment to direct disarmament. In the past five years Trident Ploughshares activists have taken direct action against nuclear weapon installations and bases in Britain, leading to 2078 arrests, 478 trials, 2117 days spent in jails (not counting time in police cells), and a total of over £70000 incurred in fines and compensation orders. If the British government does not credibly commit to taking the significant steps towards nuclear disarmament demanded by the NPT, Trident Ploughshares activists will continue their "people’s disarmament."
On Tuesday 13th April a letter demanding that UK government eliminates its nuclear arsenal was handed in to the British Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. Twenty Finnish people took part in the peaceful demonstration outside the embassy. Similar events will take place next week in Gothenburg and Brussels (where the activists will be dressed in bomb costumes), while at local level in the UK people, in Irvine, Stirling, Helensburgh and elsewhere, will hand the demand to their local MPs.
A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: "The British government’s attitude towards its treaty obligations under the NPT is entirely cynical. As the Strategic Defence review states, this country is determined to continue to maintain and actively deploy a genocidal weapon of mass destruction."
Notes: see Deadline for Disarmament for more detail on the Deadline for Disarmament campaign. For more detail on the NPT see www.acronym.org.uk and ccnd.gn.apc.org.
| |
| Search the Website |
|
|
 |
|
Trident Ploughshares,
0845 45 88 366
Email addresses:
Printer friendly version
Home