[sacw] South Asians Against Nukes Post (6 Dec.99)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asians Against Nukes Dispatch
6 December 1999
------------------------------------
#1. Abolishing the nuclear menace:
A South Asian & Southeast Asian activists' conference, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
=46ebruary 18-20, 2000.
#2. Nuclear Rookies India, Pakistan Under Y2K Cloud
#3. Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons in the US
#4. Send Copies of the above report to India's militarised science labs
listed here
-----------------------------------
#1.
Abolishing the nuclear menace:
Putting human security first

A South Asian & Southeast Asian activists' conference, Dhaka, Bangladesh,
=46ebruary 18-20, 2000.

Recent developments make it starkly clear that India and Pakistan have
degraded, not improved, their security since they went overtly nuclear in
May 1998. The cataclysmic events leading to a military coup in Pakistan are
inseparable from the bloody conflict in Kargil, itself rooted in tensions
and insecurities, as well as delusions of grandeur and strategic
invincibility, produced by nuclearisation.

India and Pakistan have not only entered into a strategically disastrous
and economically ruinous nuclear arms race, further compromising the
security of their people. They have also set back the global nuclear
disarmament agenda, strengthening the illusory belief among P5 policymakers
that nuclear weapons produce security. The pathological dependence on
nuclear weapons for security is a terrible menace to the world, indeed to
humanity itself.

The development of global nuclear disarmament movement has become a major
imperative. Peace and disarmament activists are now called upon to agitate
and mobilise public opinion, and also to interact and develop campaigning
strategies jointly with activists from other regions, especially in Asia,
as well as use every available forum for advocacy and lobbying in favour of
nuclearisation.

There is a growing interest in nuclear issues among peace and human rights
activists in South and Southeast Asia, and an attempt to launch a campaign
against superpower military bases in the ASEAN region.

At a July 1998 conference on alternative security, organised by 'Focus on
the Global South' in Manila, a proposal was floated for holding a South
Asian-Southeast Asian activists=ED meeting.

Since then the proposal has been discussed at various levels within
different countries and among diverse groups in Asia. It has drawn an
enthusiastic response from activists who plan to hold such a conference in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, in February 2000. The urgency of such an effort is
underlined by the release of an aggressive 'Indian Draft Nuclear Doctrine'
in August 1999, and the hostile responses it has drawn.

The basic objectives of the conference are to:

develop a collective critique of nuclearisation as a desperate,
strategically irrational and immoral search for security through nuclear
weapons and the associated doctrines of deterrence;

analyse the impact of nuclearisation on Indian and Pakistani societies,
economies and politics and on those of the smaller countries of the region
which have become hostage to India-Pakistan rivalry, especially the likely
impact in the form of greater economic hardships, diversion of resources
away from human needs, heightened ethnic and communal tensions, adverse
effects on human rights, women, education, political positions and
practices and growth of militarism, etc;

help disarmament and peace activists develop sharp analytical perspectives
and strategies for the struggle for complete nuclear weapons abolition;

promote active solidarity between peace and disarmament groups and
movements, on the one hand, and groups working on democracy, justice,
gender equality, environmental protection as humane development, on the
other;

develop non-military and non-nuclear concepts and alternative security
paradigms and perspectives for South and Southeast Asia, in conformity with
rational development priorities for these regions;

create a durable Asia Pacific forum for nuclear disarmament activism, which
maintains a continuous presence into the coming decade;

generate educational and cultural resources (e.g. booklets, pamphlets) into
school curricula, visual materials, performing arts and video materials,
etc.) of direct relevance into the struggle for peace and nuclear
disarmament in Asia.

develop strategies with specific plans for advocacy and lobbying for
nuclear restraint and disarmament at the regional, continental and global
level.

The conference will provide an invaluable opportunity to disarmament
activists from South Asia, especially from India and Pakistan, to meet
together in an organised and structured way for the first time after the
=46ebruary1999 Pakistan Peace conference. It will be a unique opportunity fo=
r
Southeast Asian and South Asian activists to interact with one another and
focus their energies and forge common campaigns in the region in mutually
reinforcing ways.

TENTATIVE PROGRAMME

=46ebruary 17: arrivals, informal introductions, etc.
(general schedule)

=46ebruary 18:
Morning Plenary
Nuclear weapons: the reality in South Asia, the threat in Southeast
Asia region
The states' callousness: the peoples' response

Afternoon
Working group I: The current global nuclear impasse/stuck CTBT and START:
Dragging disarmament back into the agenda: the role of the peace movement

Working group II: Nuclear weapons, militarism, human rights and democracy
The comprehensive political and social argument against nuclear weapons

Working group III: Towards nuclear disarmament:
a). Comprehensive approaches, NWC, NPT review, etc.
b). Incremental, Transitional measures: NWFZs, FMCT, Freezes etc.
Evening
Plenary / Panel Discussion summing up: Fighting Nuclearism
=46ebruary 19:

Working Group I: Building global coalitions, creating alternative networks
for 2000. Strategy and action

Working Group II: Generating resources to spread the anti nuclear message.
Strategy and action

Afternoon - Plenary
Working Group I: Specific strategies for public education, local, national
advocacy generation of the pedagogic material.

Working Group II: Strategising in South Asia within the global context:
Ideas, tools and working plans.

Evening
Poster design sessions, music, theatre, plays

=46ebruary 20:
Plenary
Morning I: Towards a South Asian anti nuclear coalition
Morning II: an Asian input into the global disarmament initiative

Afternoon
Demonstrations at Indian and Pakistani High Commissions.
Press conference

Evening
Public meeting
------------------------
#2.
Reuters 06:27 p.m Nov 30, 1999 Eastern
http://infoseek.go.com/Content?arn=3Da3641rittz-19991130&qt=3D%2Bnuclear&sv=
=3DIS&lk=3Dno
frames&col=3DNX&kt=3DA&ak=3Dnews1486

Nuclear Rookies India, Pakistan Under Y2K Cloud
By Narayanan Madhavan

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The clock is ticking but the world's newest nuclear
powers have not yet totally dispelled fears that the Y2K bug may accidentall=
y
set their war machines in motion. Barely a month before the turn of the year=
,
it is still unclear whether old enemies India and Pakistan, which came close=
to
their fourth war this year, have unambiguously eliminated the possibility. T=
he
two South Asian nations have in the past taken limited confidence-building
measures such as installing a telephone hotline between their army headquart=
ers
aimed at preventing accidental wars or triggers. But there is no official
confirmation they have taken extra steps to ensure the Y2K computer bug does
not pose such problems in their nuclear age, which dawned in 1998 after
tit-for-tat underground tests.

-------------------
#3.
Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear Weapons

The Tennesman Special Report on Sickness surrounding America's Nuclear
Weapons Complexes
http://www.tennessean.com/

Sickness surrounds nation's nuclear weapons complexes
A mysterious pattern of illnesses -- from immune systems gone haywire to
brain malfunctions doctors can't explain -- is emerging around this
nation's nuclear weapons plants and research facilities.

The ill live in places unlike others, where poison bomb ingredients
wafted into the air, sank into the soil and leaked in the water for half
a century.

No one has ever taken a comprehensive look at their health -- not the
federal government that owns the sites, the public health agencies
charged with protecting their well-being, nor the politicians who
represent them in the nation's capital.

Scientists have been concerned for decades about radiation from nuclear
production and its link to cancer. But the illnesses emerging now are
something different.

In 1997, The Tennessean found scores of people suffering a pattern of
unexplained illnesses around the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation in East
Tennessee. This year, the newspaper found hundreds of people with
similar illnesses around 10 other nuclear weapons sites nationwide.

"It's like the devil has been let loose in my body," says Freddie
=46ulmer, 41, a former worker at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savan-nah
River nuclear site near Aiken, S.C. Fulmer, declared disabled in 1995,
suffers from a degenerative joint and spine disease, kidney ailments and
a rare disorder that causes his immune system to attack, rather than
protect, his internal organs.

"Every single morning my whole body hurts so badly I can barely get out
of bed to go stand under a hot shower until I can move around using my
cane," Fulmer says. "And then there's the weird stuff, like once I had a
fever for seven months straight. But, like everything else, the doctors
couldn't tell me why or help me."

=46ulmer is not alone.

He is one of 410 people in 11 states interviewed by The Tennessean who
are experiencing a pattern of unexplained immune, respiratory and
neurological problems attacking their bodies and minds.

The newspaper found ill residents and workers in Tennessee, Colorado,
South Carolina, New Mexico, Idaho, New York, California, Ohio, Kentucky,
Texas and Washington state. Activists believe many more people are
suffering from the illnesses at these and other weapons sites across the
nation.

The illnesses, including tremors, memory loss, debilitating fatigue and
an array of breathing, muscular and reproductive problems mirror those
found in Oak Ridge.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's
premier disease tracking agency, is investigating the Oak Ridge
illnesses at the state's request. The CDC began its probe in the
neighborhood closest to the reservation and so far has found severe
respiratory problems in a third of the children there. The probe
continues.

'They want answers'

Top scientists say the newspaper's findings are disturbing.

"Four hundred people is a lot of people," says George W. Lucier,
director of the environmental toxicology program at the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the National
Institutes of Health. "It's not just two or three. It is something
widespread ... At least the wheels should be set in motion in which a
team of physicians can go in and look at things more systematically."

Many of the ill believe their ailments stem from exposure to dangerous
substances that were released into the environment around the nuclear
weapons sites.

They have no evidence. Their belief stems from what they see happening
to themselves and others. Their stories are anecdotal, not scientific.

And that lies at the heart of their struggle.

The government has traditionally required proof of harm before medical
help is offered. So either the ill must prove toxic exposure has hurt
them -- which scientists say they have little chance of doing -- or hope
the nation will take action now on anecdotal evidence and try to help
them.

Leading scientists differ on that issue.

"I empathize with people who are sick. They want answers," says John
Till, president of the scientific research firm Risk Assessment Corp. in
Neeses, S.C., which conducts studies for DOE. "But you still have to go
back and see if any releases could have caused health problems."

Top DOE officials say that is exactly the tack the department has
chosen.

"Where there's a plausible connection we'll follow up on it," says Peter
Brush, an attorney who, as acting assistant secretary for environment,
safety and health, is the department's top health official.

Through ongoing studies "we're looking for some plausible connection
between the work that went on at these sites and health consequences for
workers or neighbors."

But these studies have not asked about these ill people -- instead
they've focused on such things as the levels of poison in ants in Idaho
and turtles in Tennessee.

CDC Deputy Director Dr. Claire Broome, says "establishing an association
between exposures to environmental hazards and chronic diseases is a
complex area of scientific investigation." But it is necessary to
continue attempts "to detect and investigate health problems that may be
associated with hazardous exposures ..."

Other top scientists say it is time to consider helping the sick.

"It's really inappropriate for us to simply use science as an out, and
say `We just don't understand this, we'll come back when we do,' " says
Dr. Bernard D. Goldstein, a member of the National Academy of Sciences'
Institute of Medicine. "We have to at least be responsive to people
now."

Dr. Howard Frumkin, chairman of environmental and occupational health at
Atlanta's Emory University, who has seen some of the ill, agrees:

"The more I hear about communities with self-identified health problems,
the more the anecdotal evidence satisfies me. One could argue it's
neglectful of the government not to look at whether harm has been done
to these people. These aren't abstract health worries."

'A responsibility to care'

Many of the ill are longtime workers at complexes opened during World
War II or the Cold War to produce more than 70,000 nuclear weapons for
the nation's defense.

"We were saving America," says Ray Guyer, 60, who worked at the Rocky
=46lats complex near Denver more than 30 years. Doctors found radioactive
plutonium in a bone spur from his knee, but they can't explain his
dizziness, numbness, rashes or other health problems.

"We were young and believed in what we were doing," he adds, his voice
cracking with emotion. "Now we just need some help."

Political leaders, like scientists, have differing views about what
should be done, or when.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., whose state is home to a major nuclear
weapons site, says:

"These people have either grown up around nuclear reservations or live
around one now. Through no fault of their own .... these facilities were
put in place to win the war. We as a country won the war, and now we
have a responsibility to all the people impacted by that decision to
make sure, if there were any health-related incidents, we have a
responsibility to care for them."

U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the only physician in the U.S. Senate,
says:

"It's important that we find out if there is any common denominator in
the illnesses reported by some area residents. The health complaints
gathered from people living in communities near nuclear plants certainly
raise questions. Before drawing any conclusions, however, we must be
careful to rely on scientific evidence."

Yet, no one knows what can happen to the human body if it is exposed to
low levels of many different toxic agents over time. That, experts say,
is the most likely kind of exposure these people could have.

They live in places contaminated by an array of exotic metals and
chemicals, a spectrum of radioactive substances, and common toxic agents
used in wholly uncommon quantities.

Among these: radioactive elements like plutonium and cesium; chemical
compounds, such as the solvent carbon tetrachloride and cancer-causing
PCBs; toxic metals, such as lead, mercury and arsenic.

Government officials acknowledge the nuclear development sites are
highly contaminated and have launched billion-dollar cleanup plans. But,
they say, the contamination rarely reached workers or residents in
amounts high enough to harm them.
------------
[Send Copies of the above report from the US to scientists and workers at
the following network of India's militarised science labs many of which may
be engaging in helping develop and deploy the 'Om' made Nuclear Bomb]

The Department of Defence Research and Development network of laboratories
in India

1. AERIAL DELIVERY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (AIRDEL)
Station Road, Post Box No.51, Agra Cantt. 28,.1 001

2. VEHICLE RESEARCH &DEVELOPMENT ESTABLISHMENT (VAHANVIKAS)
Ahmednagar 414 001

3. DEFENCE AGRICULTURAL. RESEARCH LABORATORY
Almora 263 601

4. COMBAT VEHICLES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (VEHICLEDEV)
Avadi, Madras 600 054

5. PROOF AND EXPERIMENTAL ESTT. (PROOF)
PO Chandipore, Balasore 756 025

6. AERONAUTICAL DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (LABAIR)
Suranjan Dass Road, Jiwan Bima Nagar PO, Bangalore 560 075

7. GAS TURBINE RESEARCH ESTT. (TURBINE)
Suranjan Das Road, CV Raman Nagar PO, Bangalore 560 093

8. ELECTRONICS &RADAR DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (DEVELECTRONICS)
DRDO Complex, Byrasandra Village, Jivan Bima Nagar, Bangalore 560 075

9. DEFENCE BIO-ENGINEERING AND ELECTRO-MEDICAL LABORATORY (DEBEL)
High Grounds, Bangalore 560 001

10. CENTRE FOR AERONAUTICAL SYSTEM STUDIES AND ANALYSIS (CASSA)
Suranjan Das Road, Jivan Bima Nagar, Bangalore 560 075

11. MICROWAVE TUBE R &D CENTRE (MTRDC)
Ministry of Defence, BEL Complex, PO Jalahaiii, Bangalore 560 013

12. CENTRE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
LRDE Campus, Jivan Bima Nagar, Bangalore 560 075

13. NAVAL CHEMICAL &METALLURICAL LABORATORY (NAVYLAB)
Naval Dockyard, Bombay 400 023

14. DEFENCE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT UNIT (DEFUNIT)
S-212, Commissariat Road, Hastings, Calcutta 700 022

15. TERMINAL BALLISTICS RESEARCH LABORATORY (BALLISTICS)
Sector 30, Cliandigarh

16. NAVAL PHYSICAL &OCEANOGRAPHIC LABORATORY (INPHYLAB)
Naval Base, Cochin 682 004

17. DEFENCE SCIENCE CENTRE (DEFSCCENT)
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054

18. SOLIDSTATE PHYSICS LABORATORY (SOLIDSTATE)
Lucknow Road, Delhi 110 007

19. INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND ALLIED SCIENCE (DEFSCIENCE)
Lucknow Road, Delhi 110 007 NMAS

20. DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF PHYSIOLOGY AND ALLIED SCIENCES
(DEFSCIENCE/DIPAS)
Delhi Cantt. I 10 010

21. INSTITUTE OF SYSTEMS STUDIES &ANALYSIS
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054

22. DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF FIRE RESEARCH (FIRERESCH)
Probyn Road, Delhi 110 007

23. DEFENCE SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTATIONS CENTRE (DESIDOC)
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054

24. DEFENCE TERRAIN RESEARCH LABORATORY (DEFSCIENCE/DTRL)
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054

25. SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS GROUP (DEFSCIENCE/SAG)
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054

26. DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH (DEF SCIENCE/DIPR)
West Block No. 8, Wing No. 1, R.K. Puram, New Delhi 110 066

27. INSTRUMENTS RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTABLISHMENT (IRDE)
Rajpur Road, Dehradun 248 008

28. DEFENCE ELECTRONICS APPLICATION LAB (RAKESHELECTRONIK)
Rajpur Road, Dehradun 248 008

29. DEFENCE RESEARCH &DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (DEFRES)
Tansen Road, Gwalior 474 002

30. DEFENCE RESEARCH &DEVELOPMENT LAB (MISLAB)
Kanchanbagh PO, Hyderabad 500 258

31. DEFENCE METALLURGICAL RESEARCH LAB (DEFMETLAB)
Kanchanbagh PO DMRL, Hyderabad 500 258

32. DEFENCE ELECTRONICS RESEARCH LAB (DEFELECTRONICS)
Chandrayanguntta Lines, Hyderabad 500 005

33. DEFENCE LABORABTORY (DEFLAB)
Ramada Palace, Jodhpur 342 001

34. DEFENCE MATERIALS AND STORES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTT. (LABDEV)
DMSRDE Post Office, G.T. Road, Kanpur 208 013

35. DEFENCE INSTITUTE OF WORK STUDY (WORKSTUDY)
Landour Cantt., Mussoorie 240 179

36. DEFENCE FOOD RESEARCH LAB (RAKSHAKHADYA)
Jyotinagar, Mysore 570 011

37. ARMAMENT RESEARCH &DEVELOPMENT ESTABLISHMENT (AYODH &ARMAMENTS)
Armament Post Pashan, Pune 411 021

38. EXPLOSIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY (MEXDEV PASHAN)
Pashan Pune 411 021

39. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ESTT. {ENGRS} (ENGIVIKAS)
Pioneer Lines, Dighi, Pune 411 021

40. INSTITUTE OF ARMAMENT TECHNOLOGY (ARMINST {E})
Simhagad Road, Girinagar, Pune 411 025

41. DEFENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY (TEZLAB)
Post Bag No. 2, Tezpur, Assam 784 001

42. NAVAL SCIENCE &TECHNOLOGICAL LABORATORY (ENESTIEL)
Vigyan Nagar, Visakhapatnam 530 006

43. SNOW AVALANCHE STUDY ESTT (MANALIEX CHANGE)
C/o 56 APO

44. FIELD RESEARCH LABORATORY
C/o 56 APO

45. RANGE CENTRE &INTERIM TEST RANGE
Balasore

46. ADVANCE SYSTEMS INTEGRATION EVALUATION ORGANISATION (ASIEO)
Bangalore

47. DRDO COMPUTER CENTRE
Metcalfe House, Delhi 110 054