Reports 1995-1998 Edited by Dwain C. Epps

Appeal to the Government of India

Letter to H.E. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, 13 May 1998.

The news of the underground nuclear tests conducted by your Government near the Pakistani border has been received with dismay and condemnation. For the World Council of Churches, it was a cause of profound concern and sadness.

The positions taken over the past fifty years by the World Council of Churches calling for the total abolition of atomic, hydrogen and nuclear weapons has often been informed especially by the reasoned arguments of Indians as well as other specialists. Following their guidance, the churches joined in this Council have repeatedly condemned the intransigent attitude of the super powers with regard to research, development, testing and deployment of nuclear weapons.

By providing some of the most revered architects and memorable leaders of the non-aligned movement, India offered enlightened leadership on these same issues to world public opinion. This stance more than any of its other remarkable achievements, brought India honour, moral authority and diplomatic stature in the world of nations.

It was the advice of your scholars, international affairs specialists, and even your military leaders which the peoples followed when they finally stood up and declared that reliance on nuclear weapons as a deterrent is the ultimate human folly.

Now, with this act, planned and conducted even as the Preparatory Committee for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty met here in Geneva, India has tarnished its image as a wise and considered voice of reason in international affairs. It has turned a deaf ear to its own best counsel, relying on weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction to show its power, rather than on the sophisticated art of statecraft to manifest its wisdom. In so doing, it has dealt what appears to be a calculated blow to the political stability and fragile basis of security in Asia.

The WCC has understood and respected the principled stand taken by India with respect to international treaties on nuclear weapons. Indeed, we echoed it in a way at the opening of the meeting of the NPT Preparatory Committee, when we called yet again upon all participant states to take significant steps without further delay to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Hoping that the nuclear weapons states would join in a consensus to this end, but fearing that they would again fail to do so, we urged the non-nuclear powers not to wait, but to move ahead if necessary without them to prepare an appropriate binding international treaty instrument.

No political act of a state is irreversible. This is evident by the fact that states who not too long ago demonstrated their nuclear potential through testing, have now declared a moratorium. For the sake of India and its people, and in the interest of peace in Asia and the world, we urge you without delay to declare such a moratorium and your Government’s intention to adhere strictly to a policy of no-first-use. It is not too late to give evidence to the world that India has not forgotten or denied its venerable national heritage. That same path of reason and active non-violence can lead India to reclaim the respected place on the world stage it ceded with these ill-considered and unwarranted tests.

Respectfully yours,

Konrad Raiser

General Secretary

Appeal to the Government of Pakistan

Letter to H.E. Prime Minister Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, 29 May 1998.

The World Council of Churches is profoundly dismayed by the decision of the government of Pakistan to proceed with nuclear tests in Chagai despite the insistent appeals by the international community to exercise restraint. This action has grave and unpredictable implications for the people of the sub-continent, the wider Asian region and the world as a whole. The escalation of the rivalry between Pakistan and India to nuclear competition can only further exacerbate the existing tensions which have given rise already to three major wars in the last fifty years. The path of nuclear confrontation provides no security for the people of Pakistan, but rather places them and all their neighbours in grave danger.

A fortnight ago, the World Council of Churches wrote to H.E. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister of India, expressing its concern and dismay at the underground nuclear tests carried out by the government of India at Pokharan.

The World Council of Churches has taken a principled position against the production, development and deployment of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. At the recently concluded NPT Preparatory Committee in Geneva, the Council called on the participant states to take immediate steps for a comprehensive ban on all nuclear weapons.

These developments have revived the much condemned Cold War “balance of nuclear terror” precisely at a moment when the world appeared to be moving closer to an agreement on nuclear non-proliferation and a total ban on nuclear testing. They augur ill especially for the peoples of Pakistan and India. The heavy costs of a nuclear arms race and the sanctions likely to be imposed by the international community will further add to the poverty which has left the majority devoid of the basic necessities of life in terms of nutrition, health care, education and housing.

It is not too late to reverse course. Other states who not long ago felt compelled to demonstrate their nuclear potential through testing have now declared a moratorium. We urge you, in the interest of your people and for the sake of peace and security in the region, to follow this lead without delay, and to declare your Government’s commitment to join the nuclear non-proliferation and test ban regimes. We sincerely hope that you will take seriously India’s offer to negotiate a no-first-use agreement.

Respectfully,

Konrad Raiser

General Secretary

United nations relations

Ecumenical Policy