[asia-apec 314] Abolition 2000 & Indigenous Recognition

[freezone at hookele.com]

                                                P A C I F I C -  I M P A C T

Dear Sisters, Brothers and Collegues,
(FREE CIRCULATION)

You are invited into a discussion during the Abolition 2000 Conference in
Tahiti January 20 - 28, 1997 (see press release below for discription).
You will receive notice of reports only which will be uploaded to a web
site you may access at your convenience (I will post the URL within a
couple days).  There will be a discussion group on-line and we will be
facilitating your e-mail to and from the conference as requested.

Beyond the agenda of Abolition 2000 is the question on the imparative need
for Decolonization in the Pacific.  These debates and discussions will be
deep and we need our Indigenous global caucus to assist us.  There has been
a question of relevancy raised by some of the european and USA members of
the Abolition 2000 which has been disturbing to us as Indigneous Peoples in
preparation for this conference.  Your thoughts, ideas and opinions will be
utilized and appreciated especially by our Te Ao Maohi brothers and sisters
whose lives are now at extreme and high risk.

If you do not want to receive our reports please send a quick note
immediately so that we can adjust the lists.  Thank you.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HIGHLIGHTED request for solidarity from Indigenous Tahitian Youth for a
Global Peace Vigil January 27th - 1 year commemoration of the ending of
French Nuclear testing and in support of the total abolishment of nuclear
weapons.

ABOLITION 2000 MOVEMENT TO MEET IN TAHITI IN JANUARY 97 -
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR THE ABOLITION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
CALLED FOR.
>From January 20-28, 1997, Abolition 2000, an international network
of over 680 citizen groups on six continents, will meet in the
French- occupied islands of Tahiti and Moorea to assess the
current state of the nuclear world and craft strategies for the
abolition of nuclear weapons. Over 100 people from all over the
world are expected to attend.

The meeting will take place as  a landmark study on the health
effects of French nuclear testing in the area , which ended last
year, is in preparation. The results of the study will be released
later in 1997 and a briefing about the study will be presented at
a concluding press conference on January 27th, exactly one year
after the last French nuclear test. Hiti Tau, a regional NGO
affiliated with the Pacific Island Association of NGOs (PIANGO),
and the Pacific Program of the American Friends Service Committee
(based in Hawaii), will host the meeting.

This meeting place presents the network with unique possibilities
as a way to continue the momentum generated by the international
attention focussed on French nuclear testing activities over the
last year. The study on the long term health effects of the French
testing program has been conducted by the indigenous Maohi people
of the five island groups of French-occupied Polynesia, with the
help and financial assistance of the World Council of Churches,
and several European support organizations.

Meanwhile, the South Pacific Forum, the regional intergovernmental
group, is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency
in a study that will make use of the French data (gathered over
the course of the entire testing program) for the first time. Last
year, the member countries of the SPF kicked France out of the
Forum for resuming its nuclear testing program. This year, as a
provision for allowing France back into the Forum, they required
France to release its scientific data.The results of this study
will also be available later in the year.

To coincide with the meeting there will be a day of
internationally coordinated actions on JANUARY 27, 1997 to oppose
the resumption of nuclear testing by the United States and to call
for the abolition of nuclear weapons.  The U.S. has announced
plans to conduct "subcritical" underground nuclear tests at the
Nevada Test Site as part of a larger program to maintain and
expand its nuclear weapons capabilities under the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). January 27 marks the 46th anniversary of
the first U.S. nuclear test in Nevada, and the 1st anniversary of
the last French nuclear test in the Pacific.  Indigenous youth of
French Polynesia (Tahiti) have called for a worldwide vigil on
January 27 to support the movement to abolish all nuclear weapons.


In the U.S., January 27 has been designated as a national call-in
day to President Clinton.  In Tahiti, the Abolition 2000 Global
Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons will be concluding its
international meeting.  NGOs everywhere are being  encouraged to:
1) call on their national leaders to oppose the U.S. subcritical
tests, take nuclear forces off alert, and support negotiations on
a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons;
2) send messages of solidarity to those gathered in Tahiti; and
3) hold vigils in their own communities to support and publicize
these objectives.

Having brought about an end to the French nuclear testing
programme and having campaigned to achieve a Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty the Abolition 2000 Global Network intends to finish the
job by working to tackle the health and environmental effects of
testing and to ensure that nuclear weapons are abolished for all
time.

Press Coordinator - Kekula P. Bray-Crawford: Tel 001 808 5733122
e-mail: kekula at aloha.net

Conference Coordinator - Kilali Alailima: Tel 011 808 9881124 e-mail:
kilali at igc.apc.org


ENDS.