Letter of Request to Pakistan’s Atomic Bomb Development issued

His Excellency General Pervez Musharraf
President
Islamic Republic of Pakistan
His Excellency Mr. Kamran Niaz
Ambassador
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Japan

Letter of Request

We have heard disturbing reports that Pakistan has built a nuclear fuel reprocessing facility and is developing a plutonium bomb.

Mayors for Peace, which now has 1608 member cities including Rawalpindi and Lahore, is conducting an Emergency Campaign to Ban Nuclear Weapons, also known as the 2020 Vision Campaign. As a part of this campaign, we are pressing all nations, especially nuclear-armed states, to live up to the advisory opinion issued 11 years ago by the International Court of Justice. The court found unanimously that all nations are legally obligated to take part in good-faith negotiations toward and to finally achieve total nuclear disarmament. This aspect of our campaign is called the Good Faith Challenge, and we hereby challenge your good faith in this regard.

If it is true that you are engaged in full-scale development of a plutonium bomb, your actions run counter to the findings of the ICJ, and you are clearly acting in bad faith with respect to disarmament negotiations. Such actions will increase tensions between Pakistan and India and create a situation that could very well lead to the complete collapse of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation regime (NPT). Furthermore, you are trampling on the most cherished hopes of our hibakusha for a world of peace free from nuclear weapons. Thus, if the reports are true, your actions are reprehensible and cannot be tolerated.

When our President, Mayor Akiba of Hiroshima, visited Pakistan in 2003, he met with Foreign Minister Kasuri, who told him, “Pakistan cannot eliminate nuclear weapons alone, but we do support the idea of all nations doing so.” The international community stands in desperate need of a Pakistan willing to step forward and lead a strong initiative toward the abolition of nuclear weapons. Speaking on behalf of the 1608 member cities of Mayors for Peace, we urge you to listen conscientiously to the voices of the overwhelming majority of people and nations the world over who wish to be liberated from the horror of nuclear weapons. Please immediately begin working in good faith to eliminate these unnecessary, expensive and obscenely dangerous threats to human survival.

May 11, 2007

The Conference of Mayors for Peace