Dear ICAN supporters

Welcome to your monthly e-bulletin from ICAN Australia, updating you on the progress we're making in our world-wide campaign to abolish nuclear weapons, and how you can help.

This month: ICAN's Australian chair, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, has been invited to be on the official Australian delegation to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee - a major UN meeting on nuclear non-proliferation (details below).

ICAN act: things to do today

ICAN GIVE!

Make a donation to ICAN Australia and it will be doubled! 
For a limited time, every dollar you donate to ICAN Australia will be matched, thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Poola Foundation. Please consider making a donation today to help us meet this challenge so we can continue to campaign on this vital issue. Thanks to the many supporters who have already donated!
Donate at www.icanw.org/donate.

Book now for Perth's ICAN fund-raiser Friday, 8 May

Support ICAN by attending the WA Premiere of SOLDIERS FOR PEACE, a star-studded Australian documentary, with prizes including Best Feature Film and Best Documentary Feature Film at the Monaco International Film Festival. An inspiring journey across 5 continents and 14 countries, it shows the extraordinary peace efforts of ordinary individuals across the globe.

Bring your friends to The Astor Cinema, 659 Beaufort St, Mt Lawley. Friday 8 May, 7.30pm. Wine and nibbles from 6.45pm. Tickets $20/$15: buy now through www.moshtix.com.au

ICAN news

NPT meeting underway

The Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee (NPT PrepCom) meeting has just commenced in New York City. This important UN meeting is in preparation for the Review Conference for the Non Proliferation Treaty in 2010. ICAN's Australian chair, Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, has been invited to be on the official Australian delegation to the NPT PrepCom as a non-government organisation representative, with Sydney peace and nuclear disarmament activist John Hallam.

ICAN Committee members Dimity Hawkins and Dr Ruth Mitchell are also in New York to report back on the two-week PrepCom and to network and strategize with international groups working for nuclear abolition.

Australia's first speech this year emphasizes disarmament, which is encouraging. Read the statement at www.reachingcriticalwill. org/legal/npt/prepcom09/statements/4May_Australia.pdf 

ICAN and Sokka Gakkai International released a joint media statement 'nuclear weapons are not child's play'. This coincides with the national Japanese holiday Children's Day, issuing a powerful reminder of the need for adults to work for a nuclear free world. www.icanw.org/news

You can read ICAN's NPT updates at http://icanw.blogspot.com/ 

For a detailed daily analysis of the meetings see News in Review at www.reachingcriticalwill.org

ICAN addresses Parliament's nuclear inquiry
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff was invited to join a round-table presentation to the Parliamentary Committee inquiry into Australia's nuclear treaties. Parliamentarians from the governing ALP, the Coalition and the Greens, recognising the expertise of ICAN and its partner organisations, asked detailed questions of Tilman and other witnesses. 78 written submissions, with a wealth of information and views, are available for reading online including ICAN's. The transcript of oral hearings will also be posted at: www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jsct/nuclearnon_ proliferation/subs.htm

Welcome to new ICAN partners
ICAN welcomes act for peace (formerly Christian World Service), the aid arm of the National Council of Churches as a new partner. 

ICAN in the news 

Bill Williams imagines abolition
ICAN Board Member Bill Williams' feature, published in Online Opinion last week suggesting that nuclear abolition is becoming increasingly possible, was recommended in Wednesday's Age 'Web of Opinion' editor's pick. Read 'A nuclear weapons free world is now possible' at www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8839 and join the debate online.  
 

Nukes news

Nuclear headlines this month

Good and bad nuclear weapons: Defence White Paper

Australia's Defence White Paper was released on 2 May. ICAN's 2008 submission to the White Paper Community Consultation focused on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons, and to dissociate our defence from the US nuclear umbrella. While stating that "Australia will continue to lead and participate in efforts to promote disarmament and counter-proliferation", the 138-page White Paper disappointingly devotes only one paragraph each to disarmament, and the need to support nuclear non-proliferation. The paper promulgates the myth that US nuclear weapons help protect Australians from Pakistan's nuclear weapons, and those which Iran, Islamists, or other non-state actors may obtain.

Interestingly, the proposed expansion of nuclear power is seen as a possible cause of weapons proliferation.
Read the reports: www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/
MAPW's critique of the process: www.mapw.org.au

Prominent Australians call for nuclear abolition
Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Chair of ICAN Australia, is one of six distinguished Australians calling for abolition of nuclear weapons through a Nuclear Weapons Convention, in an article published in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

Included in the diverse group of political, health and retired military leaders were former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser, General Peter Gration, and Professor Gus Nossal. Following similar groupings in the USA, Italy and elsewhere, the initiative sparked media discussion. www.theage.com.au/opinion/imagine-theres-no-bomb-20090407-9zj0.html (the article, with a great Spooner illustration) and www.smh.com.au/national/fraser-backs-rudd-on-nuclear-weapons-20090407-9zlc.html

Prominent Polish former leaders call for disarmament

The Canberra Times has published a piece written by two former Polish presidents and a prime minister, echoing calls for disarmament. Read The Unthinkable Becomes Thinkable: Towards Elimination of Nuclear Weapons at www.msz.gov.pl/

Japan calls for steps to disarmament

Speaking of the increasing momentum towards nuclear abolition, Japan's Foreign Minister Nakasone set out 11 Benchmarks for Global Nuclear Disarmament in an 27 April speech. Japan plans to propose these benchmarks at the 2010 NPT Review Conference.

The Foreign Minister also took a swipe at Steven Spielberg's movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for trivialising a nuclear bomb blast.
www.theage.com.au/environment/indy-cops-blast-for-trivialisingnuclear-bomb-20090428-alz9.html

US officials concerned about security of Pakistan nuclear weapons
The New York Times quotes senior US officials saying that as the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda spreads in Pakistan, they are increasingly concerned about new vulnerabilities for Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, including the potential for militants to snatch a weapon in transport or to insert sympathizers into technical facilities.
www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/world/asia/04nuke.html?ref=asia  

UK admits to radioactive leaks at submarine base

Britain's main nuclear submarine base at Faslane, near Glasgow, had repeated safety failings, including leaks or radioactive cooling into the Firth of Clyde, according to a report released under Freedom of Information. www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/27/nuclear-waste-scotland

Nuclear test victims call France to account, in Tahiti court

On Monday 27 April, eight Polynesian victims of French nuclear testing launched a case against France in a Tahiti court. Of the eight plaintiffs, former workers from the Moruroa nuclear test site, three are still alive and suffering from cancers of the blood; the widows will represent five who have already died, most from leukaemia. Follow this story on Radio Australia www.radioaustralianews.net.au  or see www.converge.org.nz/pma/ntest.htm for details from workers' organisation Moruroa e Tatou.

WE CAN!

ICAN Australian Bulletin comes to you from the ICAN Australia team sent each month:

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
G03 60 Leicester Street, Carlton, Victoria, Australia 3053
Phone: + 61 3 9347 4795
Fax: + 61 3 9347 4995 Email: info@icanw.org

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Feedback or contributions to info@icanw.org