WASHINGTON
- April 14 - Physicians for Social
Responsibility welcomes the news that the Russian State Duma has
voted for ratification of the START II nuclear arms reduction treaty.
The START II treaty would reduce the strategic arsenals of the U.S.
and Russia to 3,000-3,500 warheads, a long overdue step which sets
the stage for real deep cuts in nuclear forces to begin. Global
security requires much deeper cuts in nuclear arsenals, and the
de-alerting all missiles that currently threaten the world with
nuclear disaster.
"These cuts help reduce the lethal legacy of the Cold War,
although much remains to done," said Anne Gallivan, PSR's Associate
Director of Security Programs. "Both the U.S. and Russia retain
enough nuclear weapons to destroy each other several times over."
START II has taken seven years to ratify, and all further
negotiations for deeper nuclear weapons cuts have been held up by
this lack of progress. While the Duma has now ratified START II, it
will not yet enter into force. The U.S. Senate must still approve
the 1997 protocols extending deadlines for START II implementation
and clarifying the ABM Treaty. Meanwhile, Republicans on Capitol
Hill remain deeply hostile to arms control. Further, the Duma has
made implementation of START II conditional on maintenance of the ABM
Treaty, which is threatened by U.S. plans to deploy a National
Missile Defense system. Other conditions of ratification insist on
strict US observance of START II, and the non-deployment by NATO of
nuclear weapons in new member states (Hungary, Poland, the Czech
Republic).
The implementation of START II, and negotiations for START III and
beyond, will require vigilant pressure from citizens and citizens
groups, including PSR. To this end, PSR is cooperating with
colleagues in the International Physicians for the Prevention of
Nuclear War (IPPNW) to work for deep cuts. In May, PSR will host
Russian colleagues for the next round of Dialogue with
Decision-Makers, a forum which has given PSR and IPPNW
representatives the opportunity to press the case for the reduction
and elimination of nuclear forces with all nuclear weapon states
governments.
PSR is disappointed in the current administration's lack of
progress on arms control, noting that it is the first in 30 years to
fail to conclude a new nuclear arms control agreement with Russia.
PSR supports swift agreement of a START III Treaty, at the lowest
possible level of nuclear warheads, and urges Congress to support the
President in pushing for this important treaty.
"All the nuclear weapon states promised in the 1968 nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty to abolish nuclear weapons," said Robert K.
Musil Ph.D., Executive Director of PSR. "Thirty years is time enough
for them to make good on that legal obligation. START II must be
implemented without delay and without condition, as a step towards
the final abolition of all nuclear weapons."
INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
###
