FEATURES Nuclear-Free Zones — the way local governments are moving By EMILY DeNITTO When Hoboken, New Jersey, declared itself a nuclear free zone last month, it became the 62nd community in the U.S. to state officially that it wants nothing to do with the nuclear arms race. Concerned people in over 100 other cities and counties across the country are working for town meetings, city council resolutions or some form of legislative action that wili declare their areas nuclear-free. Countless_ high schools and colleges, churches, union halls and apartment buildings have also made the pronouncement. For some communities, NFZ resolutions have meant posting signs at the city limits declaring the town off-limits to nuclear weapons, as in Leverett, Massachusetts; Garret Park, Maryland; and St.. Helena, California. Other areas, like Provincetown, Massachusetts, have refused to participate in the nationwide “‘civil-defence” network. In an article in U.S. News and World Report, Albert Donnay, executive director of Nuclear Free America (NFA), was quoted as saying, “There is no defence against nuclear weapons. It’s a mistake to plan as if there were a defence.” The NFA is a clear- inghouse and resource centre for nuclear free zones. Binding resolutions “have beeen the trend,” according to Max Obuszewski, assistant director of NFA. “We’ve been ~ emphasizing more concerete steps,” he explained. In many cases this has meant laws restricting local governments from doing business with companies involved in the nuclear arms industry. There are 17 binding NFZ campaigns that will come up for. public vote in November. Am6ng' thé cities involved is Santa Monica, Californa, where Rand, a nuclear weapons corporation, and Lear- Seigler, a company that builds nuclear cruise missiles, operate. Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, will also vote on an NFZ resolution. If it passes, several nuclear weapons manufac- turers and university personnel will lose some business. The recent publication ofa list containing almost 5,000 names of exiled Chileans proh- ibited from returning to their homeland shows the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet is fearful for the future of his shaky regime. Opposition to the ruling military junta, whose rule has been rocked by a national strike during the past week, has grown and the government’s list of 4,492 names is an attempt to intimidate the growing number of Chilean exiles who are returning to their homeland. The list spells danger for several Chileans who have already returned. Detention, deportation and murder could befall anyone whose name appears on the prohi- bited list. That’s the word from spokesmen of Van- couver’s community of political refugees and exiles of Chile, some of whose members names appear on the list. It was first pub- lished in the official government newspaper, Diario Oficial, and reprinted in the nght- wing daily, El Murcurio, on Sept. 11. The list was circulated to all international airlines serving Chile, including CP Air, advising that the junta could not be held responsible for the fate of Chileans whose names appeared on the list. Publication of the list of banned persons — six of whom reside in the Lower Mainland — followed by slightly more than one year a list of 1,160 names of those permitted to return to Chile. Chilean conimunity spokesmen call tha The list of towns not interested in being “protected” by the U.S. arsenal or being on the Soviet Union’s target list in the event of a nuclear war is also growing. Officials in Stetson, Maine, sent a letter to Reagan ask- ing that Stephan, Stetson’s sister city in the USSR, be taken off the Pentagon’s target list. They also wrote to the Soviet leadership asking that Stetson not be on its list of targets. NFZ campaigners see their work as going “a step beyond the nuclear weapons freeze,” said Obuszewski. “NFZ campaigns are at work at a local level, building a foun- dation and organizing people where things can really happen.” The concept of NFZs goes back to the late 1950s, when countries adopted interna- tional treaties prohibiting nuclear weapons in specific areas. Examples of these treaties are the 1959 U.S.-Soviet Antarctic Treaty and the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the Reagan adminsitration’s Star Wars pro- gram would violate. The international peace movement has created hundreds of nuclear-free zones , throughout Western Europe, with all of Wales covered by a nuclear-free law. Seven Pacific nations recently declared themselves nuclear-free, including Japan, Palau and the Fiji Islands. In New Zealand, where 91 communities encompassing 64 per cent of the population have enacted NFZ laws, the newly installed Labor cabinet enacted in July a policy prohibiting nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships from docking there. International treaties now under consid- eration include a Nordic NFZ, Balkan NEFZ, Mideast NFZ, African NFZ, and Southeast Asian NFZ. As the UN General Assembly pro- claimed on June 30, 1978, “the process of establishing such zones in different parts of the world should be encouraged, with the ultimate objective of achieving a world entirely free of nuclear weapons.” Emily DeNitto is a staff writer for the Daily World in New York. list a “fraud,” since many of the names were of those “disappeared” during the bloody coup which overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende Sept. 11, 1983, as well as the names of child- ren. They say the list resulted from condi- tions placed on the junta by the International Monetary Fund, whose corporate backers were feeling the world outrage for their deal- ings with the brutal regime, whose faltering economy desperately needs IMF loans. The recent “prohibited” list represents not only a departure from the junta’s short- lived attempts to brighten its tarnished image, but also spells danger for exiles who returned unaware that they are now banned. A case in point is the fate of Lean- dro Arratia, a member of Chile’s Young Communist League who was murdered shortly after this recent return. Chilean exiles and refugees want better support from world agencies, such as the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. The commission, which oversaw the flight of Chileans, now numbering more than one million, from their homeland fol- lowing the overthrow of the Popular Unity government, will pay the expenses of those who wish to return to Chile. The catch is that applicants must sign a letter of voluntary repatriation, absolving the commission of all responsibilty for the fate of the returning exiles. That’s simply not good enough, say Chi- lean community spokesmen who want the commission to oversee the safety of retur- 10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, NOVEMBER 7, 1984 COPE aldermen with nuclear weapons free zone sign in Van- couver: the city’s action being repeated all over the world. zones in US.” since Feb. 81 [ Hawai County, Hi Chilean exiles press UN over ‘banned’ lis nees and who are asking supporters to write several levels of government, and the com- mission, ensuring Chileans have a safe return. They are asking friends and supporters to phone the Chilean consulate-general in North Vancouver, asking for an explana- tion for the banning of thousands of Chi- leans from returning. Demonstrators banged pots, just as their counterparts were doing at that mo Chile, outside Chilean consulate-general in North Vancouver Oct. 30. pu i Letters can also be sent to the UN andt UN High Commission on Refugees urgi greater protection for returned exiles, an¢ the UN special committee on human rigt in Chile. “4 And the Chilean community friends to write letters to their M Prime Minister Brian Mulroney to put p sure on the Chilean junta.