"TEST-BAN SIGNING: IT SHOULD BE THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS TREATY:", Greenpeace says.

The organisation celebrates the end of 25 years campaigning against nuclear testing.

NEW YORK, September 24th 1996:

The signing of the treaty banning all nuclear tests (CTBT) was hailed today by Greenpeace as opening up the way to a world free of the threat of nuclear weapons. Greenpeace however stressed that the achievement of a nuclear free future hinged on the willingness of the nuclear weapons states (Russia, China, United Kingdom, United States, France) to now make systematic efforts to reduce and eliminate their stocks of nuclear weapons.

"This is an important day for nuclear disarmament and for Greenpeace " said Bruce Hall, Greenpeace US Disarmament Campaigner. " We are here today to celebrate an end to nuclear testing forever. It is 25 years since Greenpeace was founded in Vancouver by a group of people who wanted to halt the planned US nuclear tests on Amchitka Island (1). But our efforts are not at an end. We will be working hard in the future to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons."

Greenpeace considers that the overwhelming public opposition to nuclear testing and the almost universal support for the treaty in the United Nations means that, even before the treaty officially enters into force, it will prevent any resumption of testing. However, the organisation is calling on the nuclear weapons states to guarantee that the end to testing is irrevocable. These countries should rapidly ratify the treaty and demonstrate in this way their good faith to the commitments they have made to pursue nuclear disarmament.

"The best way to ensure that the few countries critical of the CTBT, especially India, see the benefits of joining the near consensus in favour of the treaty, is for the nuclear weapons states to lead by example", said Tom Clements, Greenpeace International Nuclear Campaigner. "That means affirming that they have finished testing, and implementing further measures to get rid of the nuclear weapons they have accumulated over the last fifty years".

(1) In 1971 the US announced plans for a nuclear test at Amichtka, near the tip of the Aleutian Island in the North Pacific. Greenpeace chartered the Phyllis Cormack to take their protest directly to the test site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Bruce Hall, Greenpeace US, phone.+1 202 319 25 14

Tom Clements, Greenpeace US, phone.+1 202 319 25 06

Footage available on satellite: Debora Rephan, GP US Press Desk, phone. +1 202 462 177