28 February 2007

Peace Movement Update

1 March is Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day ('Bikini' Day), which marks the anniversary of the US 'Bravo' nuclear bomb detonation at Bikini Atoll. Below are: details of a Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) Day event in Wellington; information about the overseas online petition 'Peace and justice for Guam' and a reminder of the local petition 'No! to marina in Whangamata / Kao! to marina in Whangamata'; the 2007 NFIP Day statement from Peace Movement Aotearoa; and this year's NFIP Day media release from the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, the secretariat for the NFIP Movement.

This message will be available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/nfip07.htm later today. Links to information about the 'Bravo' detonation are available on the Marshall Islands web page at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/rmi.htm with information about NFIP related topics on the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre site at http://www.pcrc.org.fj and at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/indig.htm

* Thursday, 1 March - Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day, peace vigil with a focus on West Papua 'the forgotten Pacific country', from 5pm to 6pm at the Cenotaph, corner Lambton Quay and Bowen Street, Wellington; contact Peace Movement Aotearoa, tel (04) 382 8129 or email Information about West Papua is available at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/wpapua.htm

* Peace and Justice for Guam - To: Secretary General of the United Nations, President of the United States of America. We, the undersigned, oppose the fact that the people of Guam have not been included in the deliberations of the U.S. government and its elite partners regarding the scheduled transfer of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam as part of a major explosion of the U.S. military personnel population on Guam, now set at 35,000. This buildup will have enormous environmental, social, cultural, long-term economic and political consequences in our community. Currently, a host of issues i.e. radioactive contaminations that cause record-high rates of cancers and dementia-related illness have yet to be addressed by the same military now expanding its presence in Guam. The way in which the current military buildup is happening calls attention to a harmful power imbalance between the U.S. federal government and Guam, which must be addressed." You can add your name to this petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/hasso/petition/html

* No! to marina in Whangamata / Kao! to marina in Whangamata - "We the undersigned support the iwi and hapu that have mana whenua in Whangamata. We strongly oppose the application of the Whangamata Marina Society to build the marina on the sovereign lands of the hapu, and the iwi of that area. We urge all the Maori Members of Parliament to oppose this application, we voted for you as our voices in Parliament, so keep the promises made and apply your influence for Maori." You can add your name to this petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/Whanga3/petition.html

* NFIP Day statement from Peace Movement Aotearoa

28 February 2007

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day, 1 March 2007

This year is the 53rd anniversary of the US 'Bravo' nuclear bomb detonation close to the surface of Bikini Atoll. The explosion gouged out a crater more than 200 feet deep and a mile across, it melted huge quantities of coral, sucked them up and distributed them far and wide across the Pacific.

Powdery particles of radioactive fallout landed on the island of Rongelap (100 miles away) to a depth of one and a half inches in places, and radioactive mist appeared on Utirik (300 miles away). The US navy sent ships to evacuate the people of Rongelap and Utirik three days after the explosion. These people, and others in the Pacific, were used as human guinea pigs in an obscene racist experiment to 'progress' the insane pursuit of nuclear weapons supremacy.

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day is a day to remember that the arrogant colonialist mindset which allowed, indeed encouraged, the horror mentioned above continues today - the Pacific remains neither nuclear free nor independent.

It is a day to think about the many faces of colonisation - physical, cultural, spiritual, economic, nuclear, military - past and present; the issues of independence, self-determination and sovereignty here in Aotearoa New Zealand and the other colonised countries of the Pacific; and the ability of Pacific peoples to stop further nuclearisation, militarisation and economic globalisation of our region.

It is a day to acknowledge and remember those who have suffered and died in the struggle for independence around the Pacific; those who have opposed colonisation in its many forms and paid for their opposition with their health and life; and those who have suffered and died as a result of the nuclear weapons states' use of the Pacific for nuclear experimentation, uranium mining, nuclear weapons testing and nuclear waste dumping.

It is a day to celebrate the strength and endurance of indigenous Pacific peoples who have maintained and taken back control of their lives, languages and lands to ensure the ways of living and being which were handed down from their ancestors are passed on to future generations.

It is the day to pledge your support to continue the struggle for a nuclear free and independent Pacific, as the theme of the 8th Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference said: No te parau tia, no te parau mau, no te tiamaraa, e tu, e tu - For justice, for truth and for independence, wake up, stand up !

* Pacific Concerns Resource Centre Media Release

28 February 2007

March 1st - Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) Day
'Bikini Day'

Eliminate 'Military Might Mindset' to Cultivate Sustainable Peace

Fifty three years since the world's most powerful hydrogen bomb was detonated by the United States on Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands on March 1st 1954, indigenous peoples continue with their struggle to fully realize a peaceful and secure Pacific for the current and future generations.

The 'Bravo' blast on Bikini atoll was a thousand times more powerful than the bomb that flattened Hiroshima in 1945 and was one of 67 nuclear tests that the US military conducted in the Marshall Islands in the period following WW2.

More than fifty years since Bikini, former nuclear test site workers and civilian groups have formed pressure groups to strengthen their struggle for justice and compensation from associated health and environmental impacts as a result of exposure to nuclear radiation during those tests.

These include: Moruroa e tatou, the Nuclear Tests Veterans Association in Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia) where the French government conducted nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996; the Fiji Nuclear test veterans who served in the British nuclear programs on Malden and Christmas Islands between 1957 and 1958; Aboriginal groups in the Maralinga desert and Emu Park; and Associations of Radiation Survivors in Guam and the Marshall Islands.

While the twentieth century has been regarded as the most violent in human history, the new millennium has not brought much hope for peace and security in the Pacific.

On this NFIP-Bikini Day, and in association with the International Conference for the Abolition of Foreign Military bases being held in Ecuador from March 5-9 next week, we call on:

1. The United States government to:
• Divert the billion dollar budget for military and war activities towards peace-building and humanitarian work that focuses on human security rather than military security;
• Close down its military installations in the Northern Pacific including the Ronald Regan Missile testing site on Kwajalein atoll and to adequately compensate the Marshallese people for years of exploitation of their sacred lands and seas;
• Dismantle its weapons stockpile, bombers and military operations on Anderson Airbase on Guam and its military bases on Ka Pae 'Aina (Hawaii);
• Reconsider the planned relocation of 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam and discard plans to conduct the world's so-called 'largest' anti-terrorism exercise in Guam in October this year;
• Begin dialogue with the original owners, the Chamorro people of Guam, by genuinely listening to their concerns, needs and interests, to have the land returned to them for productive civilian use and environmental attraction.
2. The Governments of Australia, New Zealand, United States, U.K., France and others that conduct joint defense exercises with Pacific island militaries:
• Not to restrict military training to combat, equipment /technological skills or intelligence transfer, but more importantly, to ensure that relevant international human rights standards that govern the use of arms by armed forces form the core of the training programs;
• Carefully consider the implications of such trainings where it has the potential to be used to commit acts of treason, terrorism or to suppress civilian populations.
• Ratify the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty and encourage its territories in the Northern Pacific that are current members of the Pacific Island Forum - Marshall Islands, Palau, Federated States of Micronesia - to sign.
It is high time that Pacific Peoples utilize their resources and channel their energy against the infinite injustices and suppressions that exist, both within and externally, in order to realize their vision for a peaceful and secure Pacific for themselves and future generations.

Ends

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