NUCLEAR TEST-BAN DELEGATES LOCKED INTO UNITED NATIONS :

Greenpeace demands: Stay at work until the CTBT is agreed.

GENEVA, August 6th, 1996:

On the 51st anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima about 100 Greenpeace protestors today sealed the exits of the United Nations headquarters in Geneva in protest at the delays in talks to achieve a ban on nuclear testing.

Stressing the urgency of concluding the nuclear test-ban treaty, Greenpeace began the protest after diplomats arrived to discuss the ban and said it would not let them leave until they had reached agreement on a treaty prohibiting all nuclear tests. Final agreement is being blocked at present largely by China and India who have thus far refused to support the draft treaty presented by the Chairm an at the end of June.

The Greenpeace activists, from a half-dozen countries, have chained themselves in a human barricade across the gates of the 'Palais de Nations' in Geneva, where the negotiations of the Comprehensiv e Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) are being held.

"Fifty-one years is too long to wait for an end to nuclear testing. Now is literally the last chance to finally achieve this ban and make it international law. It must not be allowed to slip by," sa id Michael Kuehn of Greenpeace.

Despite 32 months of negotiations, final agreement on a CTBT has proved elusive. According to Greenpeace, political issues not fundamental to the effectiveness of a nuclear test-ban -- related to the treaty's verification and entry-into-force in particular -- have been the main barrier to finally concluding the talks. Greenpeace believes that delegates should adopt the text of a CTBT propo sed by the Chairman at the end of June.

"There is no point in jeopardising the end to nuclear testing in a futile effort to try and change a word here and there in the Chairman's draft", said Kuehn. "The draft treaty does the job - it woul d ban all nuclear test explosions anywhere, for all time. It's the first of a number of steps which must lead to the total elimination of nuclear weapons".

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

- Jon WALTER / Luisa COLASIMONE, Press Office, Greenpeace Communications phone: 00-3120-523 6222

- Michael KUEHN, phone: 00-49-172-3818140(German)

- Clement TOLUSSO, phone: +41 792 134 106 (French, Swiss)

- Simon CARROLL, phone:. +41 77 68 33 74 (English)