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Salient. Victoria University Students' Newspaper. Volume 39, Number 25. October 4, 1976

Time for a South Pacific

page 4

Time for a South Pacific

There is a positive alternative to the 'safeguarding' of our security by nuclear warships. In this article Cinwar Publicity Officer Don Clarke outlines how we can better protect ourselves by working for a Nuclear Free Zone in the South Pacific.

Nuclear Free Conference.

In April of last year, in Suva, Fiji, 93 delegates representing 20 Pacific peoples gathered for a conference for a Nuclear Free Pacific.

The main work of the conference was to launch a campaign for the establishment of a nuclear free zone in the central and South Pacific. This proposal has since been overwhelmingly endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly, derided by our National Government, actively supported by people throughout the pacific region, and declared unworkable by the Soviet Union.

Area to be covered by the Zone

The actual area which it is proposed such a zone would cover embraces more than one-eighth of the world's surface. It would be bounded by four other zones subject to some form of nuclear arms limitation.

  • To the east would lie the Latin American nuclear weapon free zone established by the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1967. This Treaty is not yet fully operative, but the USA, Britain, France and China have promised to respect the zones ban on nuclear weaponry. Only the Soviet Union among the nuclear powers has refused to sign despite an appeal to do so by the UN General Assembly.
  • To the south lies Antarctica, which has been a nuclear free zone since the Antarctica Treaty was signed in 1959. This Treaty bans all measures of a military nature, all nuclear explosions, and the dumping of radioactive waste in Antarctica. The U.S. is currently attmpting to weaken this treaty by having the ban on radioactive waste dumping removed, but in general, the Antarctica Treaty has been respected because there is little military reason for violating it.
  • To the west lies the proposed Indian Ocean zone of peace originally suggested by Sri Lanka in 1971 and subsequently endorsed by the UN General Assembly.
  • To the northwest lies the Asean nations - Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines who have been proposing the establishment of a "zone of peace, freedom and neutrality."

The Question Mark - Micronesia

The northern boundary raises the difficult question of "U.S." Micronesia. As the U.S. has retreated from the Asian Mainland, it has consolidated its military presence in Micronesia.

Therefore, it will be extremely reluctant to in any way demilitarise this area which it has come to regard as essential to U.S. Security. But from the point of view of peace in the Pacific, and from the point of view of the decolonisation of Pacific peoples, Micronesia is one of the areas most desparately in need of demilitarisation. This seems to demand that Micronesia be included in proposals for a zone right from the start.

However, it is also debated that only those Micronesia islands without military bases be included, and that a timetable be established for the gradual inclusion of other islands.

Whatever decision is made regarding Micronesia will have an important influence on the control possible over American nuclear buildup in the Pacific. It is argued that to leave Micronesia out of initial zone proposals would be misrepresented by the US as recognition that it has special rights there.

So, the proposed zone would include all of the South Pacific forum and territories, and to the north, the equator would also help to form something of a natural boundary as it corresponds to an atmospheric buffer reducing radioactive fallout flow between the hemispheres.

Nuclear History of the Pacific

What then has been the historical background which has led to such an area being proposed as a Nuclear Free Zone?

The Pacific, has served as the "free worlds" most important nuclear testing ground. The U.S.A., after using crude atom bombs over Japan, perfected nuclear and thermonuclear weapons on the atolls of Micronesia without regard for the safety of the Pacific people. They then went on to develop techniques for using high altitude explosions to black out radio and radar at Johnston Atoll, causing artificial auroras in 1962 which even brightened

Proposed Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone