wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Hiroshima - banning nuclear weapons still a need

["WCC Media" <Media@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 04/08/2005

WCC MESSAGE ON 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIROSHIMA, NAGASAKI BOMBINGS

"The unfinished business of banning nuclear weapons has been derailed and
urgently needs to be put back on track" is the central point of a message
sent 4 August by the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the
Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) acting director Clement John to
WCC member churches and the national council of churches in Japan.

Sixty years after the first atomic bombings in 1945, "nine states - not
one - now possess nuclear arms," while "proven remedies against the use of
nuclear weapons are being eroded," the message warns. At a major review
conference of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty in May 2005, "the WCC saw
cracks widen in each of the treaty's three pillars - in disarmament,
non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear technology," it reports.

The message recalls that shortly after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the WCC had
declared that "although law may require the sanction of force, the
overwhelming force of modern warfare threatens the basis for law itself".

Endorsing the view of Hiroshima's mayor today that "the indispensable key
to preventing nuclear proliferation is an international community
co-operating and monitoring the situation together," "on anniversaries and
every day, the imperative of Hiroshima and Nagasaki allows for no
alternative," the WCC message concludes.

> The full text of the message appears below:

The World Council of Churches and its member churches remember in thought
and prayer all who perished and all who have suffered the consequences of
the first atomic bombs or subsequent tests.

While most anniversaries lose importance over time, the anniversary of the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki only becomes more important with
every passing year. The reason is that the unfinished business of banning
nuclear weapons has been derailed and urgently needs to be put back on
track.

The bombings in 1945 were judged at the time as the ultimate indictment of
the abuse of force. Yet 60 years later weapons a thousand times more
fearsome are still with us and now nine states-not one-possess nuclear
arms. Also today, proven remedies against the use of nuclear weapons are
being eroded. Arms control treaties remain stillborn or are in neglect.
The leadership required to sponsor and enforce them is absent.

On anniversaries, history is the best teacher. The World Council of
Churches has listened closely to nuclear history and shared its lessons
with governments around the world.

In 1955, the WCC called for the complete elimination and prohibition of
nuclear weapons verified by effective inspections. In 1965, the WCC
applauded the partial Test Ban Treaty, but urged that it be extended and
that money spent on nuclear weapons be used to assist developing countries. In 1975, the WCC warned that deploying tactical nuclear weapons had
lowered the nuclear threshold, noted that important states had not yet
signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and affirmed the treaty
demilitarizing space. In 1985, the WCC called governments - especially
those with a unilateralist record - to make good-faith use of United
Nations disarmament mechanisms, including the UN Conference on Disarmament. In 1995, the WCC urged adoption of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty.

Today, critical progress in each of these areas is still pending and
dangerously overdue. Despite nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea, other
eminently feasible measures are languishing as well-including a treaty to
control the nuclear fuel cycle, a protocol to stiffen the inspection
powers of the International Atomic Energy Authority, plans to pull back
nuclear weapons to 'home' territory, and pledges never to use nuclear
weapons first starting with the five permanent members of the UN Security
Council.

The WCC policy is that all states together bear responsibility for the
success of nuclear arms control. Governments that have said the world is
more secure without nuclear weapons must bridge the gap between intransigent nuclear weapons states that have pledged to disarm on the one hand, and
those reconsidering the option to seek nuclear weapons on the other.

Instead, at a month-long review conference of the all-important NPT this
May, the WCC saw cracks widen in each of the treaty's three pillars - in
disarmament, non-proliferation and peaceful uses of nuclear technology.
Many eyes turned from these signs of disrepair in the international
community to the world's leading nations, the original nuclear powers.

Shortly after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the World Council of Churches
declared that although law may require the sanction of force, the
overwhelming force of modern warfare threatens the basis for law itself.
Last month Hiroshima's Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba wrote the US President about
the essential alternative to using force: "The indispensable key to
preventing nuclear proliferation is an international community co-operating and monitoring the situation together, not one forcibly governed by the
rule of might".

Mayors, parliamentarians and peace groups in more than 100 countries - and
WCC member churches in Japan and around the world-are committed to
refocusing world leaders on achieving a nuclear weapons-free world.

On anniversaries and every day, the imperative of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
allows for no alternative.

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org
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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, 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.