Letter from Adam Colclough on behalf
of West Midlands Campaign for Nuclear Disarmanent
I request that the following letter be considered
as evidence submitted to the Global Security: Non-Proliferation
inquiry being undertaken by the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which
has been in force since 1970, has proved itself to be an effective
tool for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, however, the
P5, including the UK have failed to honour their commitment under
Article 6 of the treaty to disarm and have instead modernised
their nuclear arsenals; in the case of the UK this has most recently
involved the planned replacement of Trident.
Unless the members of the P5 honour their
commitments in this area there is a real risk the treaty will
collapse with disastrous consequences for world peace.
It is, therefore, a matter of urgency that the
UK takes the lead in encouraging its fellow members of the P5 to
disarm by scrapping the replacement of Trident and diverting the
monies involved to peaceful purposes at home and abroad.
In addition the UK government should refuse
to grant permission to the United States for the use of the bases
at Fylingdales and Menwith Hill as part of its missile defence
system, a project which threatens to reignite the arms race and
speak out against the plans by the US to base missile interceptors
in Poland.
The recent conflict between Russia and Georgia
has made the advent of a new Cold War into a realistic and unsettling
possibility; at such a time honouring the commitments made under
the NPT is more important than ever.
2 September 2008
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