Moscow:GP Presents Chocolate Bomb to Chinese Amb.

[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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GREENPEACE PRESENTED A CHOCOLATE BOMB TO THE CHINESE
AMBASSADOR
 
MOSCOW, 20 FEBRUARY 1996-Greenpeace presented a chocolate
cake, decorated with a drawing of a nuclear bomb, to the
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China.   While
presenting the cake Greenpeace urged that this bomb should
replace nuclear bombs still being tested at the Chinese test
site Lop Nur.
 
Simultaneously, in front of the entrance of the embassy a
three meter high ice sculpture of nuclear bomb  with a dragon
around it was erected.
 
Greenpeace activities were as a result of the Chinese
governments insistence that they will undertake more nuclear
tests.   Despite requests, the Chinese officials in Moscow
have refused to confirm nor deny the dates and number of
nuclear tests that China intends to undertake.
 
Today China is the only Nuclear Weapon State (NWS) which has
not stopped its nuclear testing programme.  "We call for China
to stop tests of nuclear weapons and to join without
reservation a truly Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty"- Greenpeace

Russia's Eduard
Gismatullin said-"Also call upon all NWS to sign the CTBT this
summer and finally end the era of nuclear explosions".
 
Information for editors:
 
In May 1995 at the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty conference
China and other NWS declared the need for nuclear disarmament. 
However, three days after the conference closed, China
conducted a nuclear test, ignoring that the cessation of
testing is the first step towards a nuclear free world.  The
USA, UK and France have all called for a zero-yield treaty
banning all nuclear tests.
 
China has undertaken 43 tests, creating the 4th largest
nuclear arsenal in the World.   Since 1964 China has conducted
a tests on average each 284 days.  In 1995 they undertook 2
tests - 15 May and 17 August.  Before the signing of the CTBT
China proposed that it would undertake 4 to 6 more tests.
 
The Lop Nur test site is approximately 265 kilometers South-
East of Urumqi in the Xinjian region. China has never allowed
independent research to investigate the effects of nuclear
testing on the environment and human health.
 
According to the International Physicians for the Preventing
of Nuclear War, as a result of the 22 atmospheric tests 48
kilogrammes of plutonium-239 were released into the
environment, as well as about 2 million curies of Cesium-137
and 1.3 million curies  of Strontium-90.
 
For more information call at:
251 9073, Ivan Blokov, Eduard Gismatullin, Oganes Targulian --
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