米国が7月14日深夜行ったミサイル防衛構想の迎撃実験に対し、グリーンピースの活動家15人と2名のジャーナリストが、標的となるミサイルが発射されたバンデンバーグ空軍基地で抗議を行い、逮捕された。この件で17名は、6年の懲役を科せられる可能性がある。市民による平和的な抗議活動が止められるべきではなく、スターウォーズ計画こそが止められるべきなのである。
ブッシュ大統領の就任以来の核問題をとりまく発言や行動には、目に余るものがある。
各国政府の懸念のなか7月に断行したスターウォーズ計画の迎撃実験、核実験全面禁止条約の批准に対する後ろ向きな態度。広島や長崎の被曝者や原爆の恐ろしさを知っている日本の人々は、核のない未来を求めている。同時に世界の多くの人々も望んでいるのが時代の趨勢でもある。にもかかわらず、米国という国際的に影響力をもつ大国が、その時代の趨勢と逆方向に向かって走り始めている。ブッシュ政権が声高に主張するミサイル防衛構想は、新たな核軍拡競争の始まりであり、広島・長崎の惨禍と犠牲を無視するものであり、世界の平和と安全を脅かすものである。
被爆国である日本は、ブッシュ政権に対し核軍縮を求める明確な態度を示し、核の脅威を国際社会へ訴えていく必要がある。
グリーンピースは、世界各国の米国大使館に対して、以下のメッセージを伝える。
ミサイル防衛構想計画と実行の中止
ミサイル防衛構想の危険性を表明する自由と個人の権利の保証
以下米国大使へのお手紙
To: US ambassador
Your Excellency
We write to you to express our strong protest, on the occasion of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, at the US Government’s Star Wars (National Missile Defense) programme, which threatens to ignite a new nuclear arms race.
Greenpeace is opposed to the Star Wars programme because it constitutes a threat to worldwide disarmament and peace. States party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, (NPT), which includes the United States, agreed in Article VI to pursue negotiations in good faith towards ending the nuclear arms race and to agree a treaty on complete disarmament.
This is an ongoing obligation that was reconfirmed at the 2000 NPT Review Conference which extended the NPT indefinitely and at the same time described Article VI as an unequivocal undertaking by the nuclear-weapons States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament. The issue of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) and the proposed National Missile Defense program are directly linked to the disarmament obligations under the NPT.
Greenpeace believes that plans to abrogate or amend the ABM Treaty may lead to a breach of the obligation in Article VI of the NPT Treaty and the unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of nuclear arsenals. Greenpeace believes that it is essential that the United States demonstrates leadership with regard to the crucial treaties and regimes that strengthen our global non-proliferation system and ensures that no steps are taken which undermines the goal of the total elimination of nuclear arsenals.
In addition, we wish to raise our concern about the 15 GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS AND TWO INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS, who were arrested on July 14 while peacefully protesting a missile test of the Star Wars system at Vandenberg Airforce Base in California. They have been charged with serious felonies which carry penalties up of up to six years in jail. They spent up to 9 days in jail before being released, and are now prevented from traveling outside California until the trial takes place.
Greenpeace believes that the prosecution of charges – which are so disproportionate to the peaceful protest against a system which has attracted worldwide criticism because of the concern that it will start a new nuclear arms race – is politically motivated with the aim of suppressing dissent and preventing future protest. As such, the charges constitute a breach of human rights.
Consequently, we ask the US government to:
1. Cease its plans to develop a Missile Defense program and amend or abrogate the ABM Treaty
2. Drop the disproportionate charges against the Greenpeace activists
3. Accept the proposal that France and Germany have put on the table regarding making the current voluntary Missile Technology Control Regime a universal and legally binding regime;
4. Commit to ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and undertake nuclear disarmament steps such as permanent and legally binding reductions in the US nuclear arsenal to ensure that implementation of the US’ obligations under the NPT is progressed with urgency.
Yours sincerely
Sanae Shida
Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan
