wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: African nuclear treaty is a step toward a safer world, with church support

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World Council of Churches - Feature

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For immediate release - 09/09/2009 14:19:19

AFRICAN NUCLEAR TREATY IS A STEP TOWARD A SAFER WORLD, WITH CHURCH SUPPORT

>By Jonathan Frerichs (*)

With recent action by Africa a majority of the world's countries have now  banned nuclear weapons from their national territory for the first time.  The change happened when an all-Africa treaty entered into force in July.  International civil society organizations including the World Council of  Churches (WCC) played a catalytic role ( http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/n ews-management/eng/a/article/1722/will-the-world-be-safer-f.html ).

Taking a shared approach to a safer world, Africa became a nuclear-weapon-f ree zone when Burundi recently became the 28th state to ratify the Treaty  of Pelindaba ( http://cns.miis.edu/treaty_pelindaba/index.htm ). A WCC  delegation visited the central African country in March 2009 to encourage  the step. The addition of 54 countries in Africa means that 116 nations  are now within treaty zones banning nuclear weapons.

The WCC Central Committee salutes Africa's new nuclear-free status in a  September 2009 statement ( http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/ central-committee/geneva-2009/reports-and-documents/report-on-public-issues /statement-on-a-nuclear-free-world.html )and invites further church  support for such actions. The committee also urges Russia and the United  States "to join China, Britain and France in ratifying the treaty  protocols that give Africa added protection" from nuclear attacks.

Burundi's role in this transnational success story is instructive. In  regions where governments avoid nuclear weapons, states large and small  can share responsibility for security. Where national nuclear arsenals  exist, however, in regions like Northeast Asia and the Middle East,  collective security is not an option.

What is more, Burundi and other states like Malawi, Mozambique and  Ethiopia which have ratified the treaty recently acted at a time when  major powers are still struggling to break out of a decade of deadlock in  disarmament and non-proliferation, notwithstanding positive signs in  recent months.

"We in Africa know the value of disarmament," Burundi's First Vice-Presiden t Yves Sahinguvu told WCC delegates in March. Although Burundi is not  directly threatened by nuclear weapons, it is engaged in a long recovery  process after decades of armed conflict.

"You are the church and you have come here to speak of peace," President  of the National Assembly Pie Ntavyohanyuma told the WCC. "We thank you all  the more because churches here have done a lot for peace," he added,  acknowledging the work of Burundian Anglican Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi,  a member of the three-person delegation. Churches provide "ethical  reference points" for positive change, he said.

"Countries like Burundi are making Africa more secure by putting this  treaty into effect, and churches support the treaty because it helps to  build peace," Archbishop Ntahoturi said of his government's action.

Top Burundi officials said the Pelindaba Treaty would help Africa with  security and governance. President of the Senate, Dr Gervais Rufyikiri, a  scientist who has researched radioactive pollution in agriculture, said  Burundi would benefit from better international controls on nuclear  materials used in medicine, agriculture and energy production.

Solutions need to work across national borders

With foreign companies and governments increasingly looking to Africa for  its uranium, another key issue for Africa is stewardship of resources. A  WCC delegation visited uranium-rich Namibia late last year to urge  ratification of the Pelindaba Treaty there as well.

"We want this God-given resource to be used only for peaceful purposes,"  Namibian Prime Minister ( http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/ eng/a/article/1722/african-leader-links-uran.html )Nahas Angula told the  WCC during a follow-up meeting in April. "That is our dream, our wish and  our hope". Africa's new treaty, the most advanced of all the regional  treaties banning nuclear weapons, is a tool for realizing such hopes.

Developed after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of apartheid, the  Treaty of Pelindaba is an example of the collective capacity to work  toward a world without nuclear weapons.

First, Pelindaba is the place where the white-minority government of South  Africa developed the only nuclear arsenal in the southern hemisphere,  which the new black-majority government then abandoned.

Second, many states in Africa bear the scars of Cold War conflicts fueled  by foreign rivalries and fought with imported weapons. The treaty now in  force bans the import, development, deployment, testing and use, anywhere  on the continent, of the most destructive weapons in existence.

Like managing climate change, effective control over nuclear weapons  requires solutions that work across national borders. "In threatening life  on our planet, [climate change and nuclear weapons] pose a unique  challenge to people of faith," says a 2008 report on WCC work in this  field. Meeting each of those threats will require a more human-centered  understanding of international security."

The church initiative for the Pelindaba Treaty stems from a 2006 WCC  Assembly ( http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/assembly/porto-a legre-2006/1-statements-documents-adopted/international-affairs/report-from -the-public-issues-committee/nuclear-arms.html )recommendation to support  Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones. WCC member churches have been united in their  opposition to nuclear arms for more than 60 years.

The Geneva-based WCC cooperates with international disarmament organization s there and abroad including, in this case, the Africa Peace Forum, the  Institute for Strategic Studies in South Africa and the Parliamentary  Network for Nuclear Disarmament.

"Other regions have done the same thing as Africa. We look forward to the  day when Europe, Asia and North America are freed from nuclear weapons  too," Archbishop Ntahoturi said.

Africa is now linked with other nuclear-weapon-free zones ( http://www.nti. org/h_learnmore/nwfztutorial/index.html )in Latin America, the South  Pacific, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, and with the nuclear-weapon-free  state of Mongolia. The first zone was established in Latin America in the  1960s in response to the Cuban missile crisis.

Today's zones cover the southern hemisphere and adjacent areas up to the  southern border of the United States, the southern shores of the Mediterran ean, the six countries located between Russia and China, and along China's  southeastern border. Treaties also protect Antarctica, the entire seabed  and outer space from the placement of nuclear weapons.

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(*) Jonathan Frerichs, WCC programme executive for nuclear disarmament and  the Middle East, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in  America.

Full text of the "Statement of hope in a year of opportunity: seeking a  nuclear weapon free world":
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7161

>Churches engaged for nuclear arms control:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3255

WCC Assembly minute on the elimination of nuclear arms:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=1956

>International Ecumenical Peace Convocation:
>http://overcomingviolence.org/iepc

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect WCC policy.  This material may be reprinted freely, providing credit is given to the  author.

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363  media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness  and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of  churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant,  Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million  Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman  Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from  the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.