Letter of Protest against subcritical nuclear test by the UK issued

February 24, 2006 [To UK / 2 in total]

The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
Prime Minister
The United Kingdom

Letter of Protest

The United Kingdom, in conjunction with the US, conducted a subcritical nuclear test at the American underground test site in Nevada on February 23.

With the international community gravely concerned about nuclear proliferation, the UK purports to be leading the effort to find a peaceful resolution to the problem of Iran’s nuclear program, yet you conduct a subcritical nuclear test, a clear indication that you are developing new nuclear weapons. Such behavior is intolerable. You have brought the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the international agreement regarding nuclear weapons, to the brink of collapse, and, we fear, are provoking a new round of proliferation.

Mayors for Peace is now conducting an Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons that has been endorsed by the US Conference of Mayors, the US National Conference of Black Mayors, the European Parliament, the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, and many other organizations around the world. The vast majority of people and nations on this planet desire the total abolition of nuclear weapons, yet you utterly discount them and conduct a subcritical nuclear test. We are outraged by your trampling on the hopes and desires of the A-bomb survivors and countless millions around the world seeking liberation from nuclear weapons, and, on behalf of the 1,285 cities in 115 countries and territories that are members of the Mayors for Peace, we vehemently protest.

While demanding that non-nuclear-weapon states abandon their nuclear programs, nuclear-weapon states have failed to fulfill the promise of “an unequivocal undertaking to accomplish the total elimination of [their] nuclear arsenals” made at the NPT Review Conference in 2000. This double standard is provoking nuclear proliferation. The prevention of proliferation will require, above all, cooperation and monitoring by the international community. Thus, we urge you halt all nuclear testing, including subcritical testing, and take the lead in a convincing effort to build a genuinely peaceful 21st century free from nuclear weapons.

February 24, 2006

The Conference of Mayors for Peace

Tadatoshi Akiba   President   Mayor of Hiroshima  
Iccho Itoh   Vice President   Mayor of Nagasaki  
Herbert Schmalstieg   Vice President   Mayor of Hannover  
Catherine Margate   Vice President   Mayor of Malakoff  
Mohammed Afzal Khan   Vice President   Mayor of Manchester  
Jaime R. Fresnedi   Vice President   Mayor of Muntinlupa  
Eugeny P. Ishuchenko   Vice President   Mayor of Volgograd  
Donald L. Plusquellic   Vice President   Mayor of Akron  
Garry Moore   Vice President   Mayor of Christchurch  
Leonardo Domenici   Vice President   Mayor of Florence  
Patrik Vankrunkelsven   Vice President   Mayor of Laakdal