I.P.O. Information Service

CITIZENS' INITIATIVE AGAINST THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR WAR
Appeal
 

Vienna, 3 May 2002/P/RE/17702c-is
 

    The International Progress Organization has endorsed the following Appeal launched by the Citizens' Initiative against the Threat of Nuclear War:
 

             "With horror we have learned that the United States, according to officially confirmed reports, is working on the development of a new generation of nuclear weapons which, under certain circumstances, might be used for a first strike.  Five so-called "rogue states" - Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, North Korea - are mentioned as possible targets of such attacks - in addition to Russia and China who co-operate with the US in the worldwide coalition against terror.

Since the one-sided renouncement of the ABM treaty on limiting the number of defensive missiles, this is a further step towards a disastrous destabilization of the world. It must be assumed that such announcements will lead to countermeasures in those countries which are mentioned as possible targets of a nuclear attack.

This drastically increases the danger that in a critical international situation misunderstandings or panic reactions might lead to a massive use of nuclear weapons and possibly to a no longer controllable escalation towards a worldwide nuclear war.

We demand that the government of the United States stop the development of these new nuclear weapons immediately and declare that it will, under no circumstances, use nuclear weapons first.

Nuclear weapons must never be used. This is the common vital interest of all inhabitants of our earth."
 

END/Appeal against Nuclear War / 2002-05-03/17702c-is