$1M a minute for weapons

Press, 9 March 1984, Page 4

$1M a minute for weapons

More than SIM a minute is spent on arms throughout the world, said the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for disarmament affairs, Mr Jan Martenson, in Christchurch last evening. Mr Martenson is visiting New Zealand cities as the senior United Nations official responsible for disarmament matters. He is speaking on the work the United Nations has been doing to promote disarmament throughout the world.

The campaign was launched in 1982 to inform and educate world public opinion about the objectives of the United Nations in the field of disarmament and about the danger of the arms race and particularly nuclear war.

Mr Martenson said that it was hard to understand the expenditure of so much

money on arms when people were starving. He said that 40,000 children throughout the world were sick and dying while so much money was being spent on arms. The world did not realise the consequences of a nuclear war, he said. He outlined three main points: • Atmospheric disturbances would be so great in the northern hemisphere that sunlight would be blocked out and the ensuing Arctic climate would kill may animals and people.

• Radiation would spread around the world. • The ozone layer would be destroyed and people would be exposed to ultraviolet light. Mr Martenson was Chef de Cabinet of the King of Sweden from 1975 to 1979 and in the United Nations was the Assistant SecretaryGeneral, centre for disarmament, department of political and Security Council affairs from September, 1979, to December, 1982. He was appointed to his present post in January last year.