No! No! Campaign!! No to Missile Testing No! No! To F 16s, F 18s
(Please Circulate Widely) Opportunity: On 18th April 2005 at a meeting with media editors in Delhi, General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, announces that Pakistan will not test missiles or purchase F 16s from the U.S. if India also agrees to do the same. The Programme: A Joint Campaign will be launched from 11th May 2005 to 30th May 2005 involving the peoples of India and Pakistan. This Campaign is called the "No! No! Campaign". Peoples of India and Pakistan will participate in a mass signature campaign across both countries (and in the rest of the world wherever Indians and Pakistanis live), to say No to missile testing and No to the proposed purchase of F 16s and F 18s. The Petition: No! No! Campaign!! No to Missile Testing No! No! To F 16s, F 18s We the Peoples of India and Pakistan urge both our governments to immediately stop all missile testing and also to stop negotiations with the U.S. for the purchase of F 16s and F 18s. We the Peoples of India and Pakistan also urge that our Governments should relocate all the funds saved (by stopping missile testing and purchases of fighter planes) for the education and health care of the people of our two countries. These transfers of funds from otherwise wasteful military expenditure to meeting the basic development needs of the peoples of India and Pakistan should be announced publicly and immediately by both the governments. S.No. Name Address (with country) Signature Modus Operandi: Student groups, mass movements, voluntary organisations, educational institutions, trade unions, citizens groups, corporate executives, concerned citizens and others are involved in the Campaign to reach out to people to get their endorsements of the Petition, thereby enlist their involvement in favour of peace and development. Leaflets: Leaflets will be distributed during the mass contact programme to inform people about war costs and peace dividends. A draft of the leaflet would be circulated by 3th May 2005. All the Collaborating organisations of an area could publish the leaflets in their names while also listing other Collaborating Organisations of other regions and cities to show the sub-continental dimensions of the Campaign. Media Campaigns: Newspapers in both the countries will be enlisted to publish the Campaign Petition along with the information leaflet on the war costs and peace dividends so that readers anywhere could join the Campaign and get endorsements from people around them. They could then mail these endorsements to the Facilitating Organisations in both countries for further processing and final submission to the Heads of the two countries. It is requested that all the signed Petitions should be sent to the Facilitating Organisations in the respective countries latest by 15th June 2005 so that they could be ready for submission by 20th – 25th June 2005 as planned. This could take the campaign beyond the ambit of organisations and organised groups that are generally involved in such initiatives and provide an opportunity to members of the general public to not only register their endorsements in favour of peace but to also enable them to be part of the organizing efforts. Hopefully, this may gain many more new enthusiasts and activists for the peace movements. Online Endorsements: Online endorsements could be registered at "Petitions Online.com" by visiting the following link:(Link will be provide by 9th May 2005). Website: All information and progress of the Campaign will be available at the following website: www.nonocampaign.net All participating organisations will be able to post their area reports on the website for instant communication to all. The website will also have a section for posting interesting and unique experiences during the Campaign. The Website is expected to become operational by 7th May 2005. Campaign Period: The Campaign would commence on 11 May 2005 (to coincide with the day when India exploded its nuclear bomb at Pokhran) and end on 30th May 2005 (the day Pakistan last exploded a nuclear bomb at Chagai). Campaign Launch: The Campaign would be launched simultaneously in different villages, towns and cities of India, Pakistan and other countries of the world on 11th May 2005 by organising press conferences or by issuing press releases at all the places where the Campaign is being undertaken to generate maximum publicity for the Campaign. (Draft Press Release will be circulated by 4nd May 2005). Wherever possible, some functions/programmes could also be organised to launch the Campaign. These functions would give an opportunity to talk about the dangerous consequences of the nuclearisation of India and Pakistan and also to inform people about the adverse affects of militarisation on development allocations and programmes etc. Submission: All the signatures collected during the Campaign in India and Pakistan could be submitted to the Prime Minister of India and the President of Pakistan respectively, preferably between 20th and 25th of June 2005. Expatriates in other countries could register their endorsement online or mail/email their petitions to the Facilitating Organisations of both the countries for submission along with their Petitions. Joint Delegations are being planned so that some Pakistanis could be part of the Indian delegation that meets the Prime Minister of India and vice versa for the meeting with the President of Pakistan. Copies of the Petition will also be submitted to the leaders of the opposition and leaders of political parties in both the countries. Temptation: As the campaign is being suggested during the dates when India and Pakistan went openly nuclear, one is tempted to include some clause on denuclearisation and maybe also demilitarization and the reduction of arms race. However, if these valid but general demands are also included in the Petitions, then there is a very real danger that the Campaign may fail to achieve any specific and concrete results. The objective is to pin both the governments to some very specific commitments. Stopping of missile tests and scrapping of the proposals to buy F 16s and F 18s are as specific as one could get; and are already half conceded by General Musharraf (though with a caveat). The Campaign should endeavour to secure the remaining half and focus on making both the governments commit to the acceptance of these two specific demands. If these two specific demands could be secured, then the process of denuclearisation and denuclearisation would be set in motion and could be made irreversible. Expectations: Even if these three specific demands cannot be secured immediately, the Campaign would bring the issue of militarism versus development to the fore in the public domain and this could eventually influence the policies and attitudes of both the governments. Secondly, it will provide the opportunity and space to the peoples of India and Pakistan to collaborate for a common cause, thereby promoting the cause of creating lasting friendship between the two countries. Hence any opportunity that could facilitate collaborations between the peoples of India and Pakistan should be seized even if it does not lead to any immediate gains. Finally, this Campaign may expand the peace constituency in both the countries by enlisting many groups and individuals who are generally not much concerned about or at least not involved in peace initiatives. Suggestions: Critical comments and suggestions on this proposal and especially regarding the content and wording of the Petition are requested. We will need to finalise the strategy and the Petition latest by 1st of May 2005 if it is decided to undertake the Campaign and launch it from 11th May 2005 as is being proposed. (A number of suggestions were received when this proposal was first circulated via e-mail on 22nd April 2005. Some of the suggestions have been incorporated in the text of the Petition and the body of the proposal. The third and final version will be circulated on 1st of May 2005. All are requested to send any suggestions before this date). Collaborating Organisations: All organisations and institutions that agree to join the Campaign and undertake to organise programs for taking endorsements from people would be the Collaborating Organisations. Ownership of the Campaign: The Campaign will not be in the name of any specific organisation or individuals but will have a collective ownership vested in all the Collaborating Organisations. As stated earlier, all press communications and information leaflets would be issued in the names of the local Collaborating Organisations. Collaborating Organisations for other regions and cities would be listed subsequently to show the sub-continental dimensions of the Campaign. It is suggested that all listing should be alphabetical and in the following order: Sub-continental networks, national networks, national level organisations, state networks, state level organisations and so on. Listing of Collaborating Organisations from other countries could be given at the end. The listing of all Collaborating Organisations on the Campaign website will follow the order proposed above. Enrolment Request: All organisations willing to organise the Campaign in their areas of operation are requested to send their names and to specify their organisational nature (whether they are sub-continental networks, national networks, national organisations, state networks, state organisations and so on), by 2nd May 2005 so that the final Campaign Appeal to be mass circulated is issued in their names. Of course, organisations can continue to endorse the Campaign and become Collaborating Organisations by organising programmes and signature campaigns in their areas even till 30th May 2005, the last day of the Campaign. But in such cases of delayed acceptance, it may not be possible to include their names in the Campaign material and Press communications to be finalised by 5th May 2005. Coordination Committee: For operational convenience, a six member Coordination Committee will be constituted having 3 members from India and 3 members from Pakistan. This Committee would decide about all the suggestions received, finalise the content and wording of the Petition and provide overall coordination for the Campaign. Facilitating Organisations: There will be a need to have two organisations- one in India and one in Pakistan- that would undertake to receive/collect all the Petitions from different parts of their respective countries and compile them for submission to the heads of the two countries. Facilitating Organisation for India: COVA, 20-4-10, Charminar, Hyderabad-India. 500002 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph:+91-40-24572984, Fax: +91- 40- 24574527, Mob: 98491 78111, Facilitating Organisation for Pakistan: Pakistan Peace Coalition C/o SDPI, No.3 UN Boulevard, Islamabad, Pakistan. Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph:+92-51-2278134 Please Email your consent to enlist as a Collaborating Organisation to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness. Ralph Waldo Emerson ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SAVAD RAHMAN subeditor,MADHYAMAM daily, pooppalam, perinthalmanna,kerala, india cell:(91)-9846085873
