[sacw] SAAN Post (31 May 00)

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asians Against Nukes - Post
31 May 2000

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#1. New Nuclear Safety Regulations in India
#2. Cloth Banner Campaign for the 6th August
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#1.

May 31 ,2000

Dear
You may be interested in seeing the following
news item ,in case you missed it. The BARC at Trombay is the
major weapons-related work center of the Indian nuclear
establishment. Till now the safety oversight of " all nuclear
installations " was the responsibility of the Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board (AERB). Now ,this has been changed. It may be noted
that all spent-fuel reprocessing plants , the entire Health Physics
monitoring & control ,all radioactive waste processing & management
facilities, the development & testing of the submarine reactor ,
tritium & beryllium production units ,the uranium enrichment plant
etc. are part of the BARC facilities, and their safety regulation
and enforcement is now left to BARC Management itself .

With Regards---GOPALAKRISHNAN/ Ex-Chairman/AERB
**********************************************************************
ASSOCIATED PRESS NEWS ITEM
##############################

INDIAN ATOMIC ENERGY REGULATORY BOARD (AERB) WILL NO LONGER OVERSEE
& REGULATE THE SAFETY OF FACILITIES UNDER THE BHABHA ATOMIC
RESEARCH CENTER
*********************************************************************

BARC will no longer be monitored by the Atomic Energy
Regulatory Board (AERB) ,according to an Order dated April 25 ,2000
by Dr. R. Chidambaram , Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy
Commission. This is published today in a news report , quoting a
story originating from Ms. Ramola Badam of Associated Press(AP). The
Order further states " The regulatory and safety functions at BARC
and its facilities hitherto exercised by the AERB will henceforth
be exercised through an Internal Safety Committee structure to be
constituted by the Director of BARC for the purpose." The Order
states that it was issued " with the approval of the competent
authority". Since it is signed by Dr. Chidambaram ,the only competent
authority above him in such matters is the Prime Minister ,and
the newspaper surmises that the Order was issued with the approval
of the PM.
The current Chairman of the
AERB, Prof. Sukhatme , when contacted , is reported to have said that
he cannot answer weapons-related questions. He said when the AERB
was formed " there was a fuzzy line about what we could and could
not oversee." He said he was " in agreement with the new Order
,since the fuzziness is removed and clarity has been established" !
**********************************************************************
______

#2.

[ The below message from Foqia (a Peace activist from Pakistan) explains
the Peace Banner campaign; Recently such banners for peace and in
opposition to Nuclear bombs were made and put up in Pakistan to mark the
2nd anniversary of the Pakistani Nuclear tests (may 98).

Cloth Banner Campaign for the 6th August

Dear All,

This is a follow up msg. I'm sending this msg to friends in Pakistan and
India (and to overseas Indo-Pak friends). Clothe banner campaign was a huge
success despite the fact that we started it on the 11th May and collected
signatures till 28th May. Diversity of messages, colours and languages made
it into such an interesting cloth banner spread over more than 100 meters.

Thanks to friends in Karachi (Piler), Lahore (Shirkat Gah, Labour Party,
Amnesty International), Peshawar (Sungi), Quetta (Naela Qadri) and all
others Islamabad based NGOs and students at the Khuldunia High School,
Quaid-iAzam University and the Hamdard University. Messages from Quetta were
particularly touching with young school children printing their hands and
painting wonderful things on the clothe. Needless to say, Dr. Nayyar's and
Shandana's contributions made a crucial difference.

I have received some banners after the 28th May. It gives a sense that we
should continue this campaign. I would suggest the following:

1) we should keep on getting signatures in Pakistan. Pakistan NGO Federation
can play a crucial role in this regard. If we are able to get signatures
from various rural and urban communities with which most NGOs work, it would
be a massive contribution to the campaign.

2) various peace groups in India should initiate this campaign over there.
I'll explain the details for our Indian friends.

a) divide the white clothe into one meter @ one meter square pieces.

b) write one liner main msg for peace (bread not bombs etc.) with a bold
marker in the middle.

c) ask people to write their messages for peace (or against nuclear
weapons), names, signatures and date around the main message.

d) if possible please use bold pens of various colours (some of the pieces
of clothe were signed by ballpoint pen and they were not readable) and the
messages should be spread out on the piece of clothe.

e) by 1st august, those pieces of cloth should be stitched together and
after
every three-four pieces, extra clothe should be added to create space for a
bamboo stick,

f) once all the clothe pieces are stitched together, then insert 7 feet long
(half inch diameter) bamboo sticks just before the demonstration. These
sticks will hold the banner.

3) overseas friends can mail the banners to groups in India and Pakistan.
If that's not feasible then they can send email messages and we can paste
email print
outs on our banners.

What Do We Do With These Banners?
I would suggest we should use them as a vote of no confidence against
nuclear weapons by the subcontinent's silent majority. We should organise a
huge press publicity campaign to spread the msg of these banners across to
the decision-makers and war mongers in India and Pakistan. Right now i can
think of 2 options:

1) Peace groups in India and Pakistan can march to Wagha border and
demonstrate these hundreds of meter long banner with signatures for peace on
the both side of the border,

2) If that's not a feasible option and people want to consider a more local
way to display these signatures, then we can go and symbolically wrap the
important government building in each city with these long banners. For
example, if we get enough signatures in Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta
and Peshawar to make a banner in each city, the we can walk to the
President's House in Islamabad and the governor houses in the respective
provinces to mark the day. Indian groups can do the same in their cities.

Please pass on this message to all the people on your mailing lists.

=46oqia

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#3.

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