wfn.org | WCC to Meet with Non-Nuclear NATO States Regarding Disarmament

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

World Council of Churches 7 Press Release
Contact: Juan Michel, Media relations officer
Office: +41 22 791 6153 - Mobile: +41 79 507 6363
jcm@wcc-coe.org 7 www.wcc-coe.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 29/03/2004 - pr-04-03

WCC to encourage non-nuclear NATO states to play more pro-active role on 
nuclear disarmament, remove nuclear weapons from their territories

A World Council of Churches (WCC) delegation will meet ministers and 
official government representatives of three non-nuclear NATO states this 
week. The purpose of the meetings is to ask these states to take a more 
pro-active role within the organization to fulfill nuclear disarmament 
obligations undertaken in the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty (NPT).

The WCC delegation is visiting Budapest, Oslo and the Hague during their 
week-long trip (see programme below). It will encourage the Hungarian, 
Norwegian and Dutch governments to take specific actions to bring NATO's 
security doctrine and policies into conformity with the NPT's obligations. 
The delegation will also meet NATO officials in Brussels at the end of the 
trip.

"This is the time for NATO leadership to take demonstrable and measurable 
steps to advance nuclear disarmament," said Peter Weiderud, director of the 
WCC Commission of Churches in International Affairs (CCIA). "If they fail 
to act the NPT will be increasingly jeopardized," he added.

The WCC delegation will encourage the three states to make a particular 
effort to have the assertion that nuclear weapons are "essential to 
preserve peace" eliminated from NATO security doctrine. It will also urge 
them to affirm the goal of the elimination of nuclear weapons as essential 
to the security of NATO states and the entire world.

Among concrete and immediate measures to diminish the role of nuclear 
weapons in security policies, the alliance will be asked by the WCC 
delegation to remove all nuclear weapons from the territories of its 
non-nuclear states, and to return them to their owner states.

The three states will also be urged to further encourage nuclear weapon 
state members of the alliance to reduce the alert status of strategic 
nuclear weapons, to formally reject launch-on-warning procedures, to halt 
all research into the development of new nuclear weapons, and to give 
national pledges of no-first-use.

The concern about nuclear weapons - which has been on the WCC agenda since 
its foundational assembly in 1948 - was the subject of a statement issued 
by its executive committee meeting in February 2004. The committee 
reiterated its grave and ongoing concern that certain policies and 
practices of nuclear weapon states undermine international progress toward 
nuclear disarmament.

The statement also called on "churches in the context of the Decade to 
Overcome Violence to renew their witness for peace and disarmament through 
education, public awareness building and advocacy to overcome the 
continuing threat of nuclear weapons."

The WCC delegation will be joined by local church leaders in each capital. 
It is composed of:

- HE Archbishop Dr Nifon of Targoviste, member of the WCC executive and 
central committees
and of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs 
(WCC/CCIA) (Romania)
- Rev. Dr Ineke Bakker, general secretary, Council of Churches of the 
Netherlands
(Netherlands)
- Mr Ernie Regehr, CCIA/WCC commissioner , director of Project Ploughshares 
(Canada)
- Mr Peter Weiderud, CCIA/WCC director (Sweden)

Among the meetings scheduled are the following:

Budapest, 29 March

- Mr Ferenc Juhasz, minister of Defence, and Mr Imre Ivancsik, state
secretary
- Mr Gabor Brsdi, deputy secretary responsible for NATO nuclear policy 
development

Hungarian delegates
- Rev. Dr Bishop Gusztav Bvlcskei (Reformed)
- Rev. Bishop Imre Szebik (Lutheran)
- Rev. Zoltan Tarr, WCC central committee member

Oslo, March 30

- Mr Kim Traavik, vice minister/state secretary MFA

Norwegian delegates
- Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary, Church of Norway Council on 
Ecumenical and
International Relations
- Rev. Xrnulf Steen, general secretary, Christian Council of Norway
- Rev. Dr Trond Bakkevig, WCC central committee member

The Hague, March 31

- Mr Maurits Jochems, director, Security Policy Department, Ministery of 
Foreign Affairs

Brussels, April 1

- Mr John Colton, NATO assistant secretary general for Defence Policy

To join the WCC delegation:
- Rev. Ruediger Noll, director, Church and Society Commission of the 
Conference of European
Churches (CEC)

Media contacts

Delegation: Mr Peter Weiderud +4176 431 4800
Geneva: Ms Salpy Eskidjian +4122 791 6314
Budapest: Rev. Aron Csoma / Rev. Bertalan Tamas +36 6 30 638 6647
Oslo: Rev. Ornulf Steen +47 22 932 797
Brussels: Rev. Ruediger Noll + 32 2 230 1732

More information on WCC and nuclear weapons is available at:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/nuclear.html

WCC 2004 executive committee statement on the NPT at:
http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/who/2004exco-statement2.html

For more information contact:
Media Relations Office: tel: (+41 22) 791 64 21 / 61 53
e-mail:media@wcc-coe.org - http://www.wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 342, in more 
than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian 
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works 
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly, 
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally 
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by 
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.