PRESS RELEASE

PRESS CONFERENCE HELD TO MARK START OF
DUTCH NUCLEAR CAMPAIGN

Former Dutch Ambassador and
Director Dan Plesch of BASIC Express Their Disquiet at Continued Nuclear Arms Race

On Tuesday 2 December the Working Group Eurobomb held a press conference to mark the start of a six-month campaign leading up to the Dutch general elections on 6 may 1998. The aim is to persuade Dutch public opinion and the political parties that the continued nuclear arms race is a matter of grave concern and that a full-scale public debate on this issue is required urgently.

The press conference was timed to take place on the eve of a series of decisions to be taken by the Dutch government on nuclear weapons policy:

• On 9 December Holland will vote against the Malaysian resolution at the UN;
• On 9-11 December the Dutch defence and foreign affairs budgets will be debated in Parliament; although Holland still has responsibility for a NATO nuclear mission (F-16 bombers at Volkel air base, where about 20 nuclear bombs are stored) no steps are being announced to get rid of it, despite Dutch commitments to the NPT;
• Dutch political parties will shortly be discussing their draft political programmes for the national election in may 1998. There is hardly any mention of nuclear weapons in them;
• Holland is participating in a series of NATO meetings in Brussels which will confirm present NATO nuclear policy, including first use of nuclear weapons.

The following reports were also presented at the press conference:

• A compilation of excerpts from the written reports of parliamentary debates, statements and letters by the Dutch government and political parties on nuclear issues (Dutch language)
• A translation of the PENN Research note 97.3 describing how NPT treaty obligations have been evaded by a questionable interpretation of the treaty (English and Dutch language)
• A short analysis of Dutch voting on the Malaysian resolution L.37 in the First Committee at the UN (Dutch language);
• A report of the seminar on nuclear weapons in Europe organised in Amsterdam in June 1997 by the Working Group Eurobomb; it includes speeches by admiral Eberle (ret Royal Navy), Uta Zapf (German SPD member of parliament) and SA ambassador to Holland Niehaus (English language);
• BASIC paper nr. 20 suggesting a new strategic Concept for NATO (English language).

Dan Plesch illustrated his warnings about the dangers of present policy with the nuclear alarm which took place at the beginning of 1995, when Russian strategic forces were minutes away from launch because a Norwegian weather rocket launch was interpreted as a possible attack on Russia. This showed the need for urgent solutions, such as an agreement to separate the warheads from the launcher systems. There is an impression amongst the general public, he continued, which assumes that the abolition of nuclear weapons has the highest priority for governments, NATO and UN. This is an incorrect assumption, "How can NATO nuclear doctrine be explained to countries which have met their NPT obligations and abolished their nuclear weapons, such as the former nuclear weapons state South Africa?"

Former Dutch ambassador Korthals Altes stated that "...the silence on nuclear weapons policy in fact means that the modernisation of nuclear weapons, despite all the well-formulated declarations, is quietly continuing." He asked himself: "Do we really want to enter the new millennium with nuclear weapons?" He suggested that "when the Strategic Concept is discussed in NATO and if we are truly allies, then we could surely argue for a pause and say that we want to think a little bit more about this, because it is a problem which concerns us all."

Korthals Altes also pointed at the 1996 Canberra Commission report and the declaration of the Generals arguing for serious steps towards nuclear disarmament as supporting his position.

For more information, please contact: 

Karel Koster
Working Group Eurobomb
(member of the PENN network)
p/a Obrechtstraat 43
3572 EC Utrecht
Netherlands

Tel: +31 30 2714376 / +31 30 2722594
Fax: +31 30 2714759

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