John Hallam Friends of the Earth Sydney, 17 Lord Street, Newtown, NSW, Australia, 2042 Fax (61)(2)9517-3902 ph (61)(2)9517-3903 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http:www.sydney.foe.org.au http://sydney.foe.org.au/nuclear/index.html Dear Everybody, On 30/31 of this month, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell will visit Canberra. They will be discussing Missile Defence/Star wars with foreign minister Downer and defence minister Reith. Downer claimed at a recent meeting of his advisory body, the NCPD, that there is 'no community concern' over missile defence/star wars. WE NEED TO SHOW HIM THAT HE IS ABSOLUTELY WRONG ABOUT THIS! PLEASE, write to Downer and Reith, expressing your concern over missile defence/Star Wars. Tell Downer and Reith that: --Star wars may lead to another global nuclear arms race. This is a risk that we must not subject the world to. --The government should be urging the US administration to fulfill its campaign promises of deep cuts to nuclear warhead numbers and to take strategic nuclear weapons off 'Launch on Warning' status. --The government must make it clear to the Bush administration that the joint facilities are not available for any purpose that contravenes the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the CTBT, or the NPT. A letter from Australian environment and peace groups and a few parliamentarians is enclosed below - you may want to use it to make up your own letter. Feel free to borrow from it and to rewrite it in your own words. If you are writing as an individual, its best to sent it handwritten (but legible please!) If doing it as an organisation, do it on letterhead. Do please pass this email on to anyone you think might possibly make good use of it. You can either fax the numbers on the head of this letter, or else send your letter C/O Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, 2600. Happy writing and faxing! FOREIGN MINISTER ALEXANDER DOWNER 6273-4112 08-8370-8166 THE HON. PETER REITH, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE, 6273-4118, 03-5979-3034 CC PRIME MINISTER JOHN HOWARD, 02-6273-4100, 9251-5454 THE HON. KIM BEAZLEY 6277-8495, 08-9592-1361 LAURIE BRERETON 6277-8502, 9349-8089 RE: US/AUSTRALIAN MINISTERIALS JULY 31 2001 Dear Alexander Downer and Peter Reith, The undersigned groups are writing to you with respect to the forthcoming US/Australian ministerial meetings which we understand are sceduled on 30 July in Canberra. We applaud the concern you have expressed to the US government over the CTBT. It is vital that Australia continue to press the US to ratify the CTBT. We are deeply concerned that the Australian government may either at these meetings or during the meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister John Howard, move Australia toward deeper cooperation with the US on the controversial, and in our view unwise and destabilizing, missile defence program. We note that the right-wing US Heritage Foundation has already suggested Australian involvement in missile defence, and our concerns on that matter have already been conveyed in writing to Mr. Howard. We would remind you of the letter from 610 organizations and parliamentarians worldwide (including 19 Australian parliamentarians), which shows clearly that opposition to missile defence is widespread throughout the NGO community and the wider public realm. We would also remind you that the Australian Senate has twice, on June 29 2000 and on March 1 2001, passed resolutions asking that Australia not support missile defence in any way. We believe these resolutions reflect the view of the broader Australian community with respect to missile defence-related issues. The opposition emerging in europe to missile defence, in which major acts of civil disobedience take place at missile defence-related installations, show that these expressions of worldwide and national opposition to missile defence cannot be ignored or set aside. The government has argued that missile defence is innocuous and that 'it is missiles that hurt people'. This completely misses the point, which is that the deployment of missile defence, particularly if that involves a unilateral setting aside of the ABM treaty, will re-ignite the global nuclear arms race and set back efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons by decades. The re-commencement of a global nuclear arms race is simply too dangerous to be allowed to happen. Reductions in nuclear warhead numbers and reductions in alert status, flagged by the Bush administration, are on the other hand welcome and are essential steps toward the total and unequivocal elimination of nuclear weapons. However, the deployment of missile defence may well make those vital steps impossible, and is inconsistent with genuine moves toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. We strongly urge that, when you meet with the US government at the end of July and when Prime Minister Howard meets with George Bush on September 10th, the Australian government make it clear to President Bush and his administration: i)That we strongly support their suggested deep cuts to nuclear weapons numbers, and the lowering of alert status of ICBMs. ii)That Australia will in no way support the missile defence program which undercuts the above goals. iii)That the joint facilities are not available for any purpose that is not within the current ABM treaty, the NPT, and the CTBT. Yours Sincerely, John Hallam, Friends of the Earth Australia, Dave Sweeney, Australian Conservation Foundation, Dr S Wareham, President, Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia) (MAPWA) Canberra, ACT, Irene Gale AM, Australian Peace Committee SA, Babs Fuller-Quinn, Australian Peace Committee (APC) Sydney, Doreen Borrows, Australian Peace Committee(APC) Central Coast, Frank Costanzo, Australian Peace Committee (APC) Townsville, Dennis Doherty, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign (AABC), Angela Drury, Joan Carey, People for Nuclear Disarmament(PND) NSW, Jo Vallentine, People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) W.A., Pauline Mitchell, Campaign for International Cooperation and Disarmament (CICD) Melbourne, Kirsten Blair and Mark Wakeham,Environment Centre of the Northern Territory (ECNT) Darwin, NT, Dr Helen Caldicott, (founding president Physicians for Social Responsibility - Nobel Peace Prize 1985) Lee Rhiannon MLC, Greens, NSW., Anthony Albanese MHR, ALP Federal Member for Grayndler, NSW, Jann Mc Farlane MHR, ALP Federal Member for Stirling, W.A., Tanya Plibersek MHR, ALP Federal Member for Sydney, NSW., Senator Vicki Bourne, Australian Democrats Senator for NSW, Senator Bob Brown, Greens Senator for Tasmania, -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:AA: Rumsfeld/Powell visit - Tell Downer, Reith, 'NO Star Wars'
FoE Sydney - Nuclear Campaign Thu, 19 Jul 2001 00:36:23 -0700
