Prague, February 22, 2007
The conference took place in the city library, in an atmosphere of great interest and with the attendance of the young and not so young, as well as the international press.
Speakers were:
Giorgio Schultze, President of the Humanist Regional and expert in renewable energy
Reiner Braun, President of IALANA (association of lawyers against the nuclear)
Jan Keller, university professor and sociologic
Erazim Kohak, university professor
Jan Tamas, spokesperson of Ne zakladnam campaign
Greetings from Dr. Boris Koval of the Russian Academy of Science and, nuclear physics scientist, Prof. Angelo Baracca were read.
The speeches focused on the international situation of nuclear weapons and on present policies tending towards new rearmament. The US Star shield project certainly creates new international tensions and rational reasons for its realization cannot be found. We must be more careful, Reiner stated, to not begin militarizing and nuclearizing space. On one hand, there is a vast weaponry expenditure, funds which could be earmarked for social issues, on the other, the great risk of a nuclear explosion, by accident or choice. There is no other solution than a global, nuclear disarmament, carrying out what is already settled in the NPT agreements.
The position of the Czech Republic regarding the installation of a radar system, inside the US Star shield project, was also discussed. It is a choice which should at least be validated by the population through a referendum and an objective, and not manipulated, information campaign. Installing a new radar system in the Czech Republic makes it the first target in an eventual conflict. Finally, a unified European position on such an important issue, regarding the future of humanity, is necessary. In Europe, today, the Star shield project is not talked about, it is hidden from the European people, but in the immediate future it will be an important theme of discussion and non violent protest..
Schultze, Reiner, Keller and Tamas presented the declaration “Europe for Peace”, the starting point of a great European information campaign regarding nuclear disarmament.
A Europe for peace
A Europe free from nuclear weapons
All over the world scientists and artists, military and pacifists, women and men, young and old say: war is a disaster!
Europe represents for many an aspiration, an economic model, a cultural reference, the very idea of well-being and social security. The European Union is growing and new countries are always asking to be part of it.
Europe wants to “promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples”, but this desire clashes with a reality that has changed rapidly in recent years: international terrorism, the war in Iraq, the use of violence for resolving international, regional and local conflicts, the strategy of preventive warfare and above all a new mad race for nuclear arms.
The statements by the United States and France on the possibility of first using the atomic bomb against terrorism, the statements by Japan on the possibility of entering the atomic world for defensive purposes, the intention of Iran and North Korea to continue in their nuclear program, they leave everyone dismayed.
Europe, abdicating its role as a world economic and cultural power, fragmented in its national governments and subordinated to the military political strategy of the United States, accepts the installation of new bases, favoring the aggravation of international tensions.
Peoples across Europe, on the other hand, are asking: let’s give peace a chance!
Europe must not support any policy that drags the planet towards catastrophe: here the lives of millions of people are at stake, the very future of humanity is at stake. Nuclear weapons must be dismantled today before they are used; later it would be too late. Let the politicians rise to the occasion or step aside!
Europe has the historic opportunity to be a positive and driving model for all those countries that are on the way to regional integration in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Europe has the opportunity to initiate an international policy of relaxation and peace, which can open up new horizons and new paths that human beings need to travel. Europe has the opportunity to lead an epochal change as the vanguard of the Universal Human Nation.
We ask that Europe choose a policy of peace, decisive and non-violent. We ask as urgent and indispensable measures:
a Europe free from nuclear weapons: to demand from the United States the withdrawal of all nuclear devices present in the US-NATO bases for their dismantling, and the elimination of the nuclear arsenals of France and Great Britain, as the first steps to start the UN-supervised global nuclear disarmament program.
declare nuclear weapons illegal under the 1996 International Tribunal ruling.
the cancellation of any agreement for the installation or expansion of military bases of foreign powers on the territory.
the withdrawal of the troops of European countries from the occupied territories.
the search for diplomatic mediation and dialogue for the resolution of conflicts.
In the streets of the big cities and their suburbs, in the small urban and rural centers of Europe, something new is being born: a sweet but powerful symphony, which like a hurricane overwhelms every injustice, every abuse, every violence. Nobody will be able to silence her, because it is the deepest hope of the human being.
Friends from all over Europe, let us build a Europe of peace with the strength of non-violence!
Prague, February 22, 2007