Hospitals & Asylums
1. Charles J. Hanley of AP at the United Nations on May 28 wrote, The failure of a global nuclear conference leaves it to President Bush and other world leaders to ''think outside the box'' at a September summit and find new ways to stem the spread of nuclear arms, U.N. officials say. AOL reported that to the Internet poll question, “Should the US fulfill its promise to dismantle its nuclear arms?” 40% responded “yes”, 38% “only if other nations do too”, and 22% “No”. Ambassador Jackie Sanders was the U.S. delegate. After a month of sharp debate, with crude comments from the US, the conference ended Friday with no consensus recommendations for strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the pact that has helped keep the lid on doomsday arms since 1970. The failure comes at a time of mounting nuclear tensions around the world. North Korea has pulled out of the treaty and says it is building atom bombs. Iran's nuclear fuel program raises questions about possible weapons plans. Arab states view Israel's nuclear arsenal as increasingly provocative. The conference had futilely debated proposals to address all these issues. Many delegates also were disturbed over Bush administration talk of modernizing the U.S. nuclear force, and sought U.S. reaffirmation of commitments made to disarmament steps at the nonproliferation conferences of 1995 and 2000. As the meeting drew toward a close, however, the U.S.-led Western group of nations blocked any mention of those past commitments in the conference's thin final report. Delegates said they feared that the outcome - the most complete failure at such nonproliferation conferences in 35 years - might undermine faith in the treaty, a cornerstone of global arms control. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed, believing the ''inability to strengthen their collective efforts is bound to weaken the treaty,'' his spokesman said. Annan said world leaders should deal with the issues at a global summit scheduled here for September.
2. Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear agency chief, called the
summit ''a golden opportunity.''
''These are fundamental issues that ought to be addressed at the highest
policy level because they need an unconventional way of thinking, thinking
outside the box,'' he said in an interview from his International Atomic Energy
Agency headquarters in Vienna. One
question needing ''urgent attention'' involves the nuclear fuel cycle, he said.
Iran's uranium-enrichment technology can produce both fuel for peaceful nuclear
energy and material for bombs - and Washington contends weapons are what Tehran
has in mind. ElBaradei has proposed a
five-year moratorium on establishment of any new fuel-cycle facilities
worldwide while plans are developed for better controls, possibly even
international control of nuclear fuel production. It's a politically explosive
matter, however, since it involves commercial and government nuclear programs
of sovereign states.
3. The failed conference was the latest of the twice-a-decade
gatherings of the members of the 188-nation nonproliferation treaty, called to
assess the treaty's workings and find ways to improve them. Under the nuclear
pact, states without atomic arms pledged not to develop them, and five with the
weapons - the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China - undertook to
eventually eliminate their arsenals. The nonweapons states, meanwhile, were
guaranteed access to peaceful nuclear technology. Delegations here had proposed
ideas, for example, for limiting access to dual-use technology with bombmaking
potential, along with proposals to strengthen inspection of nuclear facilities
and to pressure nuclear-armed states to shrink their arsenals more
quickly. On treaty withdrawal, which
North Korea managed without consequence under the nonproliferation pact, some
delegations supported plans to make the process more difficult and
penalty-laden. But the dozens of proposals were stalled for more than two weeks
while delegations squabbled over the agenda. Then, when debate finally started,
it proved impossible to win consensus in committees. Iran objected to any mention of it as a proliferation concern.
Egypt balked at toughening treaty withdrawal, since it wants that option open
as long as ex-enemy Israel has nuclear bombs. And the United States fought
every reference to its 1995 and 2000 commitments. Those commitments included, for example, activating the nuclear
test-ban treaty and negotiating a verifiable treaty to ban production of bomb
materials - both steps the Bush administration opposes, but other weapons
states support.
4.
Eric Talmadge from AP from Islamabad, Pakistan wrote on May 27, A team of
officials from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission arrives at a busy
intersection in the late afternoon sun, climbs onto the "Monument for the
Day of Victory" and starts an inspection.
Saturday is the anniversary of Pakistan's first nuclear test and
everything must be in order. So, taking a rag from the cleaning crew, a senior
official personally buffs the silver atom-and-laurel-branch logo on the
monument, a 30-foot-high replica of Mount Chagai, where the May 28, 1998, test
took place. There is no official
ceremony to mark the anniversary. But Mount Chagai monuments around the country
- erected in most major cities a year after the test - are being spiffed up and
the party of Nawaz Sharif, who was premier at the time of the test, will hold a
commemorative gathering Saturday. The
development of the bomb is generally seen in Pakistan - the only Muslim nation
with an atomic weapon - as a matter of pride and a symbol of success. "It
makes me feel good, feel proud," Mohammed Alam, a gardener, said as he
passed the monument on his bicycle. "No one has the right to criticize
what we do to defend ourselves. Any country should be free to defend
itself."
5.
Pakistan's test - there were actually five in rapid succession - came just
weeks after archrival India, which exploded its first "peaceful
device" in 1974, conducted a series of its own tests. No nation has entered the nuclear club
since. There are indications, however,
that North Korea may now be planning a nuclear test - reports the reclusive
communist nation dismissed Thursday as a U.S. "fabrication." If it
does conduct one, its motivations may be similar to those of Pakistan, experts
say. "The South Asian example is clearly the one that leaps out to us
today as we look back to see what dynamics were at play for those countries
that went ahead and developed nuclear weapons despite international
sanctions," said Sheila Smith, an analyst with the East-West Center, an
education and research center in Honolulu.
6. North Korea has long claimed the presence of
U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula presents a major threat to its security.
This week, the North's official media blamed Washington's "hostile
policies" for leading it to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent. "To
stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response," the
North's official news agency quoted the Cabinet newspaper Minju Joson as
saying. Smith, the analyst, said that, instead of Islamic fervor, the North's
vehement policy of self-reliance is a significant factor in its decision-making.
"Nuclear weapons would be a major asset for a leadership determined to
show that it can withstand any pressures, and prepare for any assaults on this
path of self-determination," she said.
7. Pakistan has been accused of helping lead
others down the nuclear path, or of not doing enough to keep its technology off
the market. Last year, the chief of
Pakistan's nuclear program, A.Q. Khan, confessed to supplying sensitive nuclear
technology to North Korea, as well as to Iran and Libya. Khan, once regarded as
a national hero, is accused of having operated without authorization at the
center of an international black market in nuclear weapons technology. He was pardoned by Pakistan's President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, but now lives under house arrest. This country also offers a
reminder that sanctions are a tricky, and often temporary, punishment. The
United States cut all military and economic aid to Pakistan in 1990 over
concerns it was close to developing, or already had, a nuclear device. The
sanctions were broadened after the 1998 tests and after the overthrow of a
democratically elected government the following year, assistance was limited
largely to anti-drug efforts and refugee aid.
The Sept. 11 attacks in the United States changed all that. With Pakistan now a key ally in the fight
against terrorism, sanctions have been lifted and aid is again flowing. In March, Washington decided to go ahead
with sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan. On Thursday, Christina Rocca,
the U.S. assistant secretary of state for south Asian affairs, signed an
agreement here to provide $147.6 million in aid for health, education and
infrastructure projects.
8. In Moscow on May 27 former President Jimmy Carter called
on Russian leader Vladimir Putin to reaffirm support for an international
nuclear weapons treaty in a letter posted on the Kremlin Web site Friday. All nations, including Russia, should
reaffirm their support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, read the letter
from the Nobel Peace laureate. "Nuclear
powers must acknowledge their own obligation to end nuclear testing, halt the
development of new types of weapons and show the commitment to
disarmament," said the letter. The
text, dated April 26, was posted as a meeting of the 188 member nations of the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty approved a report offering no new action plan
on how to tighten controls on the spread of atomic arms. Russia has observed a moratorium on
full-scale nuclear testing since its last test explosion in October 1990 and
signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 2000, but it has conducted
subcritical test blasts of nuclear weapons, saying they are needed to ensure
the safety of its nuclear arsenal.
9. The HA-5-5 proposal was prepared
pursuant to Rule 24 of the Rules of Procedure to direct the Secretary
General of the Conference to copy and distribute documents to the delegation
for discussion and decision and helped to set the agenda. The document still sets the Agenda for the meeting
in September when Heads of State must contest the delinquency of their
Ambassadors to the Conference. The issues are (1) setting a quota for the US who
has an estimated 10,600 nuclear warheads, to disarm a total of 800 – 1,000
nuclear warheads this 2005 and annually in order to meet the agreed total of
1,700 and 2,200 by 2012 through annual proportional reductions (2) prohibiting
the deployment of nuclear warheads in US military bases abroad this year (3)
convincing North Korea to accede the NPT and be rewarded with a welfare grant
in the billions of dollars when donors are satisfied that nuclear weapons have
been destroyed. Both of these issues
can be universalized for a general (1) proportional reduction in disarmament of
nuclear weapons states to meet 2012 quotas (2) prohibition on the export and
warehousing of nuclear warheads abroad (3) prohibition on the new development
of nuclear weapons.
UN Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Conference HA-5-5