Volume 7 : Issue 2, June 2009 The Bulletin of the Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament & Peace EDITORIAL Contents EDITORIAL / 1 Smitu Kothari / Obituary Note / Zia Mian / 3 INCE our last issue in March, there is A. OBAMA'S PRAGUE SPEECH AND AFTER / 4 a complete standstill on the "nuclear I. Excerpts from US President Barack Obama's Prague Speech Sdeal" front. The qualifying prefix, on April 5/ 4 "Indo-US", had of course become some- what both redundant and misleading by II. CNDP Press Release on Obama's Call for a "world without then with the 45-member Nuclear nuclear weapons"/ 6 Suppliers Group (NSG) eventually granti- III. Neither Disarmament nor Peace / Economic and Political ng the hard fought for waiver, at the end of Weekly Editorial / 7 a nail-biting tussle, followed by India sign- IV. Response to President Obama's Prague Speech: Bridging the ing the India-specific safeguards (i.e. Vision and the Corridors of Power / Judge C G Weeramantry inspection - of its nuclear reactors volun- V. We Welcome the Initiatives for a Nuclear Weapon-free World tarily designated as "civilian") agreement / Statement by Japan Council against A & H Bombs / 9 with the International Atomic Energy B. TOWARDS NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT/ 13 Agency (IAEA), on February 2 last year. I. Regional and Global Nuclear Disarmament: Going Beyond the And, even more so, as the US appears to NPT / Achin Vanaik / 13 have quite a few laps fallen behind the II. Imagine There's No Bomb / Malcolm Fraser, Gustav Nossal, major competitors France and Russia in Barry Jones, Peter Gration, John Sanderson and Tilman Ruff/23 securing substantive contracts in the com- C. REPORTS FROM NPT PREPCOM MAY 2009 / 25 ing days. The prefix of course remains pro- foundly meaningful in tracing and compre- I. Letter from UN Building, New York / John Hallam / 25 hending the genesis of the "deal" and how II. NPT PrepCom concludes with agenda but no recommendations: the US under Bush eventually pulled it A qualified success / Michael Spies and Ray Acheson / 28 through amidst considerable rough weath- D. NUCLEAR POWER / 29 er. How Pakistan and China were tamed. I. "The Politics of Nuclear Energy and Resistance": National How New Zealand, Ireland, Austria, Convention / Concept Note / 29 Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and II. Nuclear isn't necessary / Arjun Makhijani / 34 Denmark were finally bulldozed. (It is not III. Is Nuclear Power a Viable Solution for our Energy Security? for nothing a spokesperson of the Indian / Ullash Kumar.R.K / 37 Congress Party had publicly suggested that IV. Support International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA): (just dethroned) Bush - a universally hated Time to Ban the Bomb and the Reactor / Alice Slater / 39 figure - be honoured with Bharat Ratna - V. Stories of Grassroots Struggle from Andhra: the highest Indian civilian award, on the Campaign against Uranium Projects in Nalgonda occasion of the last Republic Day.) Be that / Saraswati Kavula / 43 as it may, as we had reported last time, India is yet to "ratify" the agreement with VI. Proposed Nuclear Power Plant at Haripur: the IAEA. The process remained stalled Chronology of Resistance / Santanu Chacraverti / 45 understandably because of the intervening VII. Jadugoda Tribals Live under the Shadow of Nuclear Terror parliamentary election. / Tarun Kanti Bose / 47 2 While talking of parliamentary and thereby the expenditure pat- limitations in terms of his refusal election, the Congress has come tern is overwhelmingly front- to put forward a specific time- back to power, for another five- loaded tending to crowd out all frame and assertion of his faith in year term, at the head of its some- other rational alternatives; it is the dubious "deterrence" doctrine, what retooled coalition, United intrinsically hazardous across the even if only implicitly. Coming Progressive Alliance (UPA), with complete fuel cycle - right from from the mouth the head of the significantly increased numbers, mining to power plant - as it most powerful state on the planet though still quite a distance behind involves production and process- and the only one which had com- the halfway mark on its own. ing of radioactive materials; there mitted horrendous mass murders (Never mind the cacophonous is no safe and dependable method through the actual use of this noises suggesting otherwise.) The for waste disposal let alone dis- unique weapon, the declaration is "deal" hardly ever surfaced as an mantling of the outlived facilities; of historic proportions. It has con- "election issue", rather surprising- it is potentially catastrophic - chill- sequently reenergised the global ly, given all the eyeball grabbing ingly demonstrated by the anti-nuclear movements which had tamashas enacted on the floor of Chernobyl accident on April 26 in any case been gearing up for the the Indian parliament in July last 1986; has a large technological upcoming (Nuclear) Non- year. That would, however, not overlap with the weapons pro- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review stop the ruling party claiming pop- gramme and thereby tends to pro- Conference early next year. (The ular endorsement for the deal and vide a strong political push final round of the meeting of the the further process to follow - i.e. towards that; and further accentu- Preparatory Committee installation of new nuclear power ates a highly centralised "develop- (PrepCom) has just been over.) plants - is likely to be stepped con- ment" pattern which is by its very The key towards the goal of uni- siderably up. The only possible nature deeply destructive of ecolo- versal nuclear disarmament, how- hiccup that is visible at the gy. ever, appears to be a Nuclear moment is paucity of investible Coming back to the election, Weapons (Abolition) Convention. funds given the serious downturn that is now just behind us, it needs The then Indian Prime Minister in global economy. But that may be mentioned here that the Prime Rajiv Gandhi had suggested not be too great a hurdle. Ministerial candidate of the BJP, broadly on that line at a special It is precisely in this context, a the second largest party, had made session of the UN General national convention on "The a bold public declaration as Assembly way back on June 9, Politics of Nuclear Energy and regards his determination to carry 1988. That makes it especially Resistance" is going to held from out further nuclear test explosions, incumbent upon the ruling June 4 -6 in Kanyakumari, the "if required", to promote the Congress Party, swearing by the southernmost tip of India and just weapons programme just on the legacy of the departed leader, to a stone's throw away from eve of the fifth and final round of push that "Peace Plan" with all sin- Koodankulam - site of an upcom- polls. With that in mind, consistent cerity. We have included a number ing nuclear power plant, to deliber- with our firm stand in favour of of thoughtful articles covering all ate its implications on the lives of global, regional and national these including a personal dispatch affected local populace in particu- nuclear disarmament, we welcome from a delegate attending the lar and people and environment in the drubbing that his party has PrepCom. general and chalk out appropriate received. Regardless of whether it At the end, we pay our rich responses. This issue is dedicated has got anything to do with that and sincere tribute to the memory to that event. A number of articles declaration. of Smitu Kothari, a longstanding and reports of grassroots struggles On April 5, the newly elected friend of the CNDP and the Peace has been included here to befit the President of the United States Now, who passed away on the occasion. Here, in this editorial issued an open call for a "world March 23 last. note, we would only recall that without nuclear weapons". We do nuclear power is, as of now, uneco- strongly welcome that even while nomic and highly capital intensive being keenly aware of the serious 3 Smitu Kothari: In memoriam Zia Mian MITU Kothari, one of as part of the Pakistan-India he co-authored for "Out of The South Asia's leading peace Peoples Forum for Peace and Nuclear Shadow": Sand justice scholar-activists Democracy, founded in 1994. "There is a hidden history of passed away on March 23 last. One of his last projects was edit- opposition to the nuclear future Smitu was well known for his ing a volume of essays, "Bridging in South Asia. Far removed from many years of working on behalf Partition," on the history, vision the centres of political authority, of the poor and the dispossessed, and experience of the Pakistan- at the sites where nuclear facilities indigenous peoples, people dis- India peoples peace processes. have been and are being built, be placed by development projects, A central feature of these civil it uranium mines or nuclear human rights, and many other society initiatives was a shared power plants, local communities causes. He was also an important vision that it was necessary to have fought back. Their struggles figure in the Pakistan-India peo- challenge the state (be it India or are often not couched in the lan- ple to people peace process and Pakistan) and its claim to define, guage of big ideas of social the creation of a movement represent and negotiate the change and protest, but in the against nuclear weapons in both national interest. Nowhere was small traditions of livelihoods, countries. this challenge more important community rights, displacement, Over the past three decades, than the question of national the environment, public health, during a contentious period of security and nuclear weapons. the right to information. They India-Pakistan relations in which Smitu was involved with both have marched, fasted, blockaded, both states developed nuclear anti-nuclear movements in India occupied, gone to court, they weapons, diverse civil society ini- and in Pakistan.