An Open Letter from CND Cymru to Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Let’s join moves towards hope and nuclear free world
CND Cymru is delighted with President Obama’s pledge to ‘set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons’ and to that end, says that the USA ‘will stop the development of new nuclear weapons’(1). In view of the welcome you have given to his break with the past, we hope and suggest that Britain could contribute to this aim and support Obama and the US electorate by announcing that the British Government will also stop the development of new nuclear weapons by not replacing Trident.
Obama and the 70 million US citizens who elected him are not alone. You must be aware of just how many people over the past 60 years have worked to ban nuclear weapons and who understand the urgent need to protect humanity and the planet from the threat of the ultimate catastrophe of a nuclear war.
In addition, last week saw four prominent military members of the House of Lords pointing out the irrelevance of nuclear weapons (2) . And on 29th January we heard former NATO Commander Jack Sheehan suggesting that Britain could lead the world in doing away with nuclear weapons (3) .
This week Judge Christopher Weeramantry, former vice president of the International Court of Justice backed attempts by the Scottish Government to remove nuclear weapons from Scottish soil, calling such weapons ‘cruel, criminal and barbaric’. He has said that nations such as Britain call themselves ‘civilised’ yet they are prepared to trample on international law and ignore human rights and cause damage to the entire global environment (4) .
Gordon, you have told us that the decision to replace the Trident system is not yet firmly agreed. Trident does not need to be replaced; it seems widely acknowledged that many of the old ways of the past are now getting us into unforeseen trouble, and nuclear weapons are another ‘old way’ that needs to be stopped before further damage is done.
We understand that the British Government is launching a discussion paper entitled ‘Lifting the Nuclear Shadow: Creating the Conditions for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons’. Let this be the beginning of the end of British nuclear weapons.
You can do it too!
Please let us know what steps you are taking towards realising a nuclear-weapons free Britain.
Jill Gough
National Secretary
On behalf of CND Cymru
ENDS
1.
A section of Obama’s Agenda which refers to nuclear weapons:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/foreign_policy/
Move toward a Nuclear Free World: Obama and Biden will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons, and pursue it. Obama and Biden will always maintain a strong deterrent as long as nuclear weapons exist. But they will take several steps down the long road toward eliminating nuclear weapons. They will stop the development of new nuclear weapons; work with Russia to take U.S. and Russian ballistic missiles off hair trigger alert; seek dramatic reductions in U.S. and Russian stockpiles of nuclear weapons and material; and set a goal to expand the U.S.-Russian ban on intermediate-range missiles so that the agreement is global.
2. Article at http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/09/opinion/edschmidt.php
In a letter to the Times on 16th January Field Marshal Lord Bramall, General Lord Ramsbotham and General Sir Hugh Beach say that British nuclear weapons are completely useless as a deterrent against the threats that Britain is likely to face. They add that the system is not independent, doesn’t give the country political clout and spending on nuclear weapons is diverting funds from conventional military forces. They conclude that “our independent deterrent” has become virtually irrelevant.
3. A former NATO commander has suggested that Britain is close to giving up its nuclear weapons. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/news/worldtonight/
Speaking on Radio 4 on 29th January General Jack Sheehan said:
“I think the UK is very close to saying we’re the first permanent member of the Security Council to do away with nuclear weapons. I think it is entirely possible that the British government, for a lot of good reasons, could do it and it would lead the world. All of a sudden you call into question why the French have such a system. It creates an impetus for the US and Russia to move away from this position they’re currently in, to start a dialogue to build on”.
4. Judge Christopher Weeramantry at Trident conference in Scotland: http://www.robedwards.com/2009/02/trident-condemned-as-barbaric-and-illegal-by-leading-judge.html
“When Genghis Khan was engaged on his blood-drenched career of world conquest, he is said to have proclaimed a policy that any cities which defied him would be razed to the ground with not a hut standing and not a whimper of life remaining. Not even a dog or mouse would survive; leave alone the humans who would be exterminated.
“The powerful nations, even in the early 20th century liked to describe themselves in international documents as ‘civilised nations’. Yet the successors of these nations are prepared, even in the 21st century, to manufacture, stockpile and undertake research on weapons which can in fact outdo such primitive brutality.
“Indeed they claim the right to use a weapon that can exterminate all life in the target city down to the last microbe. Its use would automatically pollute the environment, not only of the victim state, but of all surrounding neutral states and cause damage that lasts for over twenty thousand years
