Brosnan, Activists Call to End Nuke Arms

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-Cc:      The Greenbase (Green2:Green2:Gnl:Main)
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                   GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE
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ACTOR PIERCE BROSNAN, RENOWNED ACTIVISTS AND MEMBERS OF
CONGRESS CALL ON WORLD LEADERS TO END NUCLEAR ARMS RACE
 
Group protests Jacques Chirac's State Visit to Washington
 
WASHINGTON, January 31, 1996 (GP) -- Hollywood and politics
joined forces for the environment today when the new
"Goldeneye" star Pierce Brosnan, members of Congress, noted
activists and Greenpeace publicly pushed for an end to the
nuclear arms race, and to protest French President Jacques
Chirac's State visit to Washington this week. 
 
At a Capitol Hill reception, the group unveiled a joint letter
to Presidents Clinton and Chirac calling on the world leaders
to state publicly that they will not develop any new nuclear
weapons, and to close the Nevada and South Pacific test sites. 
They also called on members of Congress to boycott Jacques
Chirac's address to a Joint Meeting of Congress scheduled for
Thursday. At least 60 members have already said they will
boycott the session.
 
"We have the power to destroy life on earth but no one has the
right," Brosnan told reporters. "Therefore, these instruments
of mass destruction must be destroyed."  Brosnan was joined at
the Capitol Hill reception by Representative Ed Markey (D-MA),
American Samoa Delegate Eni Faleomavaega, activist Daniel
Ellsberg, actress Keely Shay Smith, Greenpeace Executive
Director Barbara Dudley, and others.
 
France's sixth nuclear test Saturday occurred just days after
the start of international talks in Geneva to end nuclear
weapons tests.  Last May, Presidents Clinton and Chirac
promised the 120 signatory nations of the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty a truly Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in
1996.  However, France immediately began testing, and the
U.S.--after pushing for a 'zero yield' CTBT--announced it
would conduct a series of tests on nuclear weapons starting
this year in Nevada.
 
"On Saturday, France detonated its sixth nuclear bomb, much
more powerful than the bomb that levelled Hiroshima.  On
Monday, French President Jacques Chirac announced France had
finished testing and was now committed to disarmament," said
Dudley. "It's time for Clinton and Chirac to display some
leadership instead of hypocrisy and call for an end to nuclear
weapons and the nuclear age now!"
 
Additional signatories to the joint Clinton-Chirac letter
include: Ex-CIA Director William Colby; musician Michael Stipe
(REM); actors Johnny Depp and Ed Begley, Jr.; Metropolitan
Opera singer Brenda Boozer; writer and NYU professor Meir
Ribalow, and model Christie Brinkley.
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Contact: Deborah Rephan, 202-319-2492, Tim Andrews, cellphone
on-site, 202-714-7663
 
 

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