World Physicians Issue Appeal To Obama, Medvedev To Abolish Nuclear Weapons

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23rd March 2009, 09:30am - Views: 880





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International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons

(ICAN)

?


PO Box 1379, Carlton, Victoria, 3053, Australia

Tel: + 61 (0) 3 9347 4795

Fax: + 61 (0) 3 9347 4995


info@icanw.org



WORLD PHYSICIANS ISSUE APPEAL TO OBAMA, MEDVEDEV

TO ABOLISH NUCLEAR WEAPONS


Monday, 23 March 2009: On the eve of Prime Minister Rudd’s meeting with US

President Barack Obama, more than 300 of the world’s top physicians have called on

the US President and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to “end the nuclear weapons

era once and for all.”


Prominent Australians to sign the letter include four Australians of the Year, Professors

Fiona Stanley, Sir Gustav Nossal, Nobel laureate Peter Doherty and Ian Frazer.   The

letter is signed by senior faculty and deans of medical schools, heads of medical

associations, health ministers, medical journal editors, and Nobel laureates from 38

countries.  It will be delivered to Presidents Obama and Medvedev today by International

Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and its US and Russian affiliates,

Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Russian Physicians for the Prevention of

Nuclear War.


Professor Fiona Stanley said, “The potential disastrous effects of nuclear weaponry not

only on this generation but on the health of generations to come, demands that we have

a complete ban.”  


Sir Gustav Nossal also commented saying, “The major nuclear powers, USA, Russia,

UK, and France, must give the lead for nuclear non-proliferation to be credible. There

has never been a better time for large reductions in weapons stockpiles”.


Dr. Ira Helfand, a US physician who was a principal organizer of the campaign, said that

the 25,000 nuclear weapons in the world’s arsenals are “the most urgent and immediate

threat to the health and survival of humankind. And, unlike the other major health threats

of our time—climate change, poverty, AIDS and other epidemic diseases—this one can

be eradicated with nothing more than a firm decision to do so.”



Noting that a world without nuclear weapons is now championed by experts and

diplomats across the political spectrum, the physicians called on the US and Russian

presidents to lead the world by starting negotiations on a worldwide agreement “that will

abolish all nuclear weapons.” 


Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, Chair of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear

Weapons said, “Prime Minister Rudd has an important opportunity to encourage and

support President Obama who has placed nuclear abolition as a central priority of his

foreign policy. 

Mr. Rudd has consistently argued that Australia wants to be a more

active and multilaterally engaged middle power.” 



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Presidents Obama and Medvedev will meet for the first time in London on April 1, on the

eve of the G-20 summit. Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation measures, including

proposals for substantial reductions in US and Russian nuclear arsenals, are expected

to be high on their agenda.


In making the letter public today, IPPNW urged the leaders to put recent strains in US-

Russian relations aside and to make the most of “what may be the best and last

opportunity we have to rid the world of the only weapons capable of destroying all

humanity.”


“A thousand years from now,” the signatories to the letter tell Presidents Obama and

Medvedev, “no one will remember most of what you will do over the next few years; but

no one will ever forget the leaders who abolished the threat of nuclear war.”


“Prime Minister Rudd’s meeting with the US President tomorrow could be of crucial

importance in relation to nuclear weapons abolition.  Mr. Rudd should fulfill the Labor

Party’s election promise and support and advocate early negotiations for a nuclear

weapons convention as outlined in the Labor Party’s national policy,” Associate

Professor Ruff concluded.


To access the text of the letter and a complete list of signatories contact Teri Calder

below or they are available at www.ippnw.org from noon, Monday 23 March 2009.


Media contacts: 

Teri Calder, ICAN Media Officer: +61 (0)425 230 679  / teri@icanw.org 

Associate Professor Tilman Ruff, ICAN Chair: +61 (0)438 099 231







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