New Zealanders protest against British Weapons of Mass Destruction

Peace Action Wellington condemns last week's decision by British MPs to replace and upgrade the Trident nuclear weapons system. Today around 60 protesters visited the British embassy at the end of an afternoon of embassy-hopping to say NO to Trident and to the continued occupation of Iraq.

The UK currently has 200 nuclear warheads (bombs) in Scotland, at the Faslane and Coulport naval bases. This amounts to a nuclear capacity many times greater than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Under the plan, nuclear weapons will remain in Scotland for at least the next 50 years (the existing Trident submarines would need to be decommissioned in 2024). Four new submarines will be built, becoming operational in 2024. New American missiles will be installed in the 2030s. The British government is vague about the cost, but maintaining Trident currently costs between 1 and 2 billion British pounds a year (about $NZ 2.8 - 5.5 billion). (figures from the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)

In February 2007, tens of thousands of people demonstrated on the streets of London and Glasgow, calling on the government not to replace Trident. Last week's decision sparked decentralised protests around the UK.

Upgrading Trident flouts the Non-Proliferation Treaty (signed by nuclear states in 1968), which prohibits the development of new nuclear weapons and calls for the progressive decommissioning of existing ones. Aside from the fact that nuclear weapons are illegal under international law (ruled by the International Court of Justice 1996), they are immoral, dangerous and socially and environmentally destructive.

This decision represents a missed opportunity to move closer to disarmament, and can only make the world a more dangerous place. Four years on from the invasion of Iraq, no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been found in Iraq but Tony Blair is able to commission more with impunity.

ENDS

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