COMMUNIQUE
Saintes, 20th of March 2008
France has been part of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty since 1992. Article VI of this treaty commits it to engaging in and pursuing with the other nuclear states, who are signatory to the NPT, genuine negotiations with a view to eliminating their nuclear arsenals.
Not content with never having attempted to respect this commitment, France is once again shamelessly preparing to ridicule it. Two events are planned for the end of this week : in Cherbourg harbour, the launching by President Sarkozy of a fourth new generation nuclear missile launcher submarine, named the “Terrible” after its older generation predecessor ; in the Landes, a new test of the M51 missile destined to renew the four submarines’ armament.
After demanding and obtaining from the UN Security Council a new set of sanctions against Iran, based on the assumption (well founded or not, that is open to discussion) that this country wishes one day to acquire the same arms thanks to the uranium enrichment installations it possesses, France does not hesitate to defy the international community by modernizing the arsenal it is supposed to be obliged to eliminate.
It is no less paradoxical that France should choose to do so when Prime Minister Gordon Brown, head of government of the other nuclear EU state, is declaring that Great Britain is ready to implement article VI of the NPT.
The 3rd international rally for nuclear, biological and chemical disarmament (3rd RID -NBC), which takes place in Saintes from the 9th to the 11th May 2008 will examine these French paradoxes and provocations.
The launching of the “Terrible” and the test of the M51, if they take place, will be charges to be brought in the case that deserves to be brought against France for non respect of article VI of the NPT and against its president Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy, suspected of high treason, because article V sub-section II of the French Constitution requires the president of the Republic to be the “guarantor of its treaties”.
ACDN