Combined Authorship – 17/12/99
Nuclear weapons MUST be taken off hair trigger alert over the Y2K period.
This letter addressed to Igor Sergeyev, Russian Defence Minister, and to Ivan Ivanov, Russian Foreign Minister, with copies to William S. Cohen, U.S. Secretary for defence, and President Clinton, sums up the alarming situation facing the world.
IVAN IVANOV, FOREIGN MINISTER OF RUSSIA, 7-095-244-3276, 7-095-244-2203, cc WILLIAM S. COHEN, UNITED STATES SECRETARY FOR DEFENCE +1-703-695-1149
PRESIDENT CLINTON +1-202-456-2461
Dear Igor Sergeyev and Ivan Ivanov,
We are writing to you as co-organisers of the international campaign to take nuclear weapons off hairtrigger alert before the Dec. 31/Jan 1 Y2K ‘rollover’, and as co-organizers of the large letter, now signed by over 460 organizations, which has been faxed to you many times, asking for nuclear weapons to be taken off hairtrigger alert over the Y2K period.
We read, with considerable alarm, statements by President Yeltsin recently that the US should remember that ‘Russia is a great power that possesses a full nuclear arsenal’, combined with a deployment of ten new Topol-M missiles.
It is especially alarming to read that these new missiles are being put on full alert status, when the world is demanding that nuclear weapons be taken off alert status especially over the Y2K period.
There is, we think, no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the capability of either Russia or the US to wreak irreparable destruction to the life systems of the entire planet.
The use of all or a portion of the 5,600 warheads in land – based ICBM systems in the US and Russia will in all probability mean the complete annihilation of both sides of the exchange and the end of human civilization.
No conceivable political or military purpose would be served by such catastrophic destruction. Neither Russia nor the US is threatened in any fundamental way. However, any nuclear exchange, accidental or otherwise, would bring about the prompt and complete destruction of both parties and the rest of the world.
In addition, the International Court of Justice in 1996 declared that the use or threat of nuclear weapons is contrary to international law. It is arguable that under international law, even the imminent destruction of a nation cannot justify recourse to nuclear weapons.
There is nothing in current US/Russian relations that cannot be solved by a willingness to talk and to make mutual accommodations in good faith.
With the approach of the Y2K rollover, the chances of an accidental nuclear war, due to Y2K related computer problems in command and control systems, are greater than ever.
We note that Russia and the US have established a joint Y2K strategic stability centre, but it is also essential that both sides refrain from provocative statements and actions over this sensitive period.
The strategic stability centre, while absolutely essential, is inadequate by itself to ensure strategic stability. That can only be done by nuclear weapons systems being placed in a status such that immediate launch, or launch on warning, is no longer possible.
This move has been termed “de-alerting” and has been called for now by two resolutions last year in the United Nations General Assembly, two resolutions this year in the UN, by the Australian Senate and by the European Parliament last Nov. 18th.
The safety and stability of the world depends on Russia and the US taking the necessary technical measures to ensure prevention of a nuclear launch. We are well aware that recent moves by NATO and the US, especially with regard to the ABM treaty may be viewed as provocative, but no political goal and no strategic interest is important enough to risk the possibility of ending human civilization and possibly all human life.
We call on you therefore to place your nuclear forces in a de-alerted configuration in which immediate launch or launch on warning is impossible. We ask that you make the year 2000, already designated by the UN as the International Year of the Culture of Peace, the first year of a millennium free from the threat of nuclear destruction.
Yours sincerely,
Yumi Kikuchi, World Atomic safety Holiday International, Gen Morita, Y2K Citizens Network, Kamogawa, Commander Robert Green, RN (retd.), Chair, World Court Project, UK, Colin Archer, International Peace Bureau, Geneva, Eva Quistorp,(former MEP) Women for Peace, Berlin, Germany, Ak Malten, Global Anti-Nuclear Alliance, The Hague, Netherlands. Bill Smirnow, Nuclear-Free New York, World Atomic Safety Holiday, NY., Mary Olson, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Y2K-WASH, USA, Mary Beth Branagan/James Heddle, Y2K WASH, USA, Sally Light, Tri-Valley CARES, Livermore, USA, Alan F. Phillips, MD, Physicians for Global Survival Canada, Vladimir Slivyak, International Nuclear Campaigner, Social-Ecological Union, Moscow, Kate Dewes, Director, Disarmament and Security Centre, Christchurch, NZ., Irene Gale AM, Australian Peace Committee Pauline Mitchell, Campaign for International Cooperation and Development, Melb, Australia, Dennis Doherty, Sydney Anti-Bases Campaign Committee, John Hallam, Nuclear Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
This is being coordinated by John Hallam Friends of the Earth Sydney, 17 Lord street, Newtown, NSW, Australia, Fax(61)(2)9517-3902 ph (61)(2)9517-3903 nonukes@foesyd.org.au http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd http://homepages.tig.com.au/~foesyd/nuclear/bbletter.html
