Wand: U.s. Must Support Total Nuke Test Ban

WAND: U.S. Must Support Total Nuke Test Ban

No matter how many cuts are negotiated in the world's nuclear arsenals, the arms race will continue as long as new nuclear weapons can be tested. This is an especially crucial fact ríght now because a United Nations Test Ban Amendment Conference will take place in January 1991. There is overwhelming wold support - 112 nations, including the Soviet Union - for amending the 1963 partial ban on nuclear weapons testing to make it a complete or "comprehensive" test ban. Yet the U.S. government is actively lobbying other nations to oppose such an amendment. The U.S. wants to be able to continue its underground testing of new nuclear weapons, no matter how willing the other nuclear nations are to end all testing.

This U.S. stance is in direct violation of two U.S. treaties which, according to the Constitution, are the law of the land. In the 1963 Limited Test Ban Treaty, the U.S. agreed that both superpowers "were determined to continue negotiations to achieve the discontinuance of all test explosions of nuclear weapons for all time."

In the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. agreed as one of the nuclear "haves" to negotiate nuclear disarmament in exchange for the nuclear "have nots" promising not to acquire nuclear weapons. With the U.S.S.R. and so many other nations willing to stop all nuclear testing, and with satisfactory verification no longer an issue, the U.S. no longer has any excuse for this violation of its treaties.

Come to the Sunday, July 8, WAND meeting to see a videotape of the international protest against the U.S. government's determination to continue testing. Four WAND members who were part of the nonviolent resistance - over 1100 arrests - at the Nevada Test Site in April, will describe their experiences and show their videotape "The Nevada Nuclear Weapons Test Site: American Peace Test Action, Spring 1990." The meeting begins at 7:30 pm, at St. Aidan's Northside Church, 1679 Broadway (across from the Baits Drive entrance to North Campus). Call 761-1718 for more information.

Washtenaw County WAND (Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament), P.O. Box 1815, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1815, 761-1718.