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
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