C.N.D. rejects draft treaty

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 8

C.N.D. rejects draft treaty

PA Auckland Peace groups have rejected the draft South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty as “weak and ineffectual.” The treaty, to be considered by South Pacific Forum members next month, proposes to ban all signatory countries from acquiring, testing, or stationing nuclear weapons in their territories. A separate protocol would prevent the dumping of nuclear waste in the South Pacific. Two other protocols ask nations outside the Pacific which administer territories in the area, such as France, the United States and Britain, to sign the treaty, observe its provisions and not use nuclear weapons against countries in the region. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament called the treaty a “token,” saying it would not keep nuclear weapons out of the Pacific. “It is not going to be a meaningful control measure when nuclear weapons can still call at Pacific ports,” said a C.N.D. spokeswoman, Mrs Maire Leadbeater. Instead, an alternative treaty had been drafted by Wellington peace groups