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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.48/2001 |
Dateline: December 10, 2001 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
WNII is archived at: http://inesglobal.org/archive.htm
INES homepages: http://inesglobal.org http://www.inesglobal.com/
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner [Please note that the first "1" in q18 is the number one, while the last "l" is an "L"]
CONTENTS of WNII No. 48/2001
MEMBERSHIP AND PROJECTS' NEWS
"INES Newsletter" No. 35 out now
The "INES Newsletter" No. 35/November 2001 is being introduced as follows: The world fell under the sentence of terrorism. The recent terrorist acts have killed innocent people and left the living in a state of distress and confusion. We need a reflection on peace and war, on law and social order. We need new thinking and new action, knowing that everything will be more difficult than before. The present Newsletter contains views from inside and outside of INES, showing positions from different parts of the world. The beginning of a discussion.
Here is the contents overview:
The "INES Newsletter" is edited by Armin Tenner: < > [Please note that the first "1" in q18 is the number one, while the last "l" is a "L"]
A pure ASCII version is available for distribution by e-mail. Ask the "INES Newsletter" editor to put you on his distribution list.
The "INES Newsletter" is also available at: http://inesglobal.org/news35.htm
Previous issues are archived at: http://inesglobal.org/ines2.htm
New Zealand: Engineers for Social Responsibility (ESR) Newsletter November 2001 (Vol. 17/No. 5) http://www.esr.org.nz
The latest ESR Newsletter carries the following main articles:
Newsletter Editor: Neil Mander < >
USA: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), The Sunflower, No. 55, December 2001
Back issues: http://www.wagingpeace.org/sf/backissues.html Events are listed at: http://www.wagingpeace.org/calendar/events_current.html
The December issue of The Sunflower covers the following:
To read "The Sunflower", please send an email to Carah Lynn Ong, Director of Research and Publications: <> or goto: http://www.wagingpeace.org/sf/index.html (The newsletter is also now available in pdf format online)
2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development: possible change of conference dates
Currently, the Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly is finalizing a decision that would change the dates for the World Summit on Sustainable Development. If approved as drafted, the new dates for the WSSD would be 26 August to 4 September 2002.
For further information as it becomes available, visit: http://www.iisd.ca/wssd/portal.html or: http://www.johannesburgsummit.org/
2nd Meeting of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy
The Second Meeting of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy (GFSE-2), which addressed the topic of Energy Technologies: Cooperation for Rural Development, was held from 28-30 November 2001 at the Headquarters of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Eighty-five participants attended, representing government agencies, United Nations bodies, business and industry, non-governmental organizations and academia.
Participants at GFSE-2 convened in plenary sessions to hear presentations and engage in discussions on: stocktaking of the international energy discourse; facilitating the transfer of energy technologies suitable for rural development; case studies on successful modalities for transfer of energy technologies; and enabling policy environments and creating conditions for private sector involvement in the transfer of energy technologies for rural needs. Participants also met in two parallel regional breakout sessions on rural electrification and clean fuels for rural needs in Africa and in Asia and Latin America. In the final Plenary session, which included a panel discussion, participants considered desired outcomes of and proposals for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg in September 2002, as well as the way forward for the GFSE.
The "Earth Negotiations Bulletin" (Volume 67, Number 01, 6 December 2001) has published a comprehensive summary report of this conference, including the chapter "A Brief History of Energy For Sustainable Development and the GFSE". This report is available from the WNII Editor as an rtf-formatted email attachment. Alternately, a conference coverage is available at: http://www.iisd.ca/linkages/sd/gfse2/
The third meeting of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy will be held in Graz, Austria, from 27-29 November 2002. The meeting will focus on public-private partnerships for rural development.
For more information contact: Irene Freudenschuss-Reichl, UNIDO: < >
Agreements of the UN Talks on Afghanistan in Germany
The Berlin Information Centre on Transatlantic Security (BITS) has made available the Agreement on Provisional Arrangements in Afghanistan Pending the Re-establishment of Permanent Government Institutions, agreed upon at Koenigswinter, Germany, on 5 December (BITS' News-Press-Report 2001.49, 7 December 2001).
Anyone interested in an in-depth look into these agreements can get them from the WNII Editor as an rtf-formatted email attachment.
See also: The Shape of Post-Taliban Afghanistan: The Bonn Agreement of December 6, 2001 (Weekly Defense Monitor published by the Center for Defense Information, December 7, 2001, Volume 5, Issue #40): http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/afghan-transition.cfm
Biological Weapons Convention: Review Conference blocked by US (Sources: Reuters/dpa/AP/VERTIC, 7 Dec 01)
US insistence rogue states flouting a ban on weapons of germ warfare should be condemned outright created deadlock on the final day of a three-week Review Conference for the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention in Geneva. The United States named six countries which it said either had germ weapons programs or were interested in developing them. All deny the allegations and insist that a proposed U.S. resolution to the conference names no names.. The United States, however, has described compliance as a "make-or-break" issue at the conference.
The 30-year-old treaty outlaws the production and stockpiling of biological weapons whose use was already banned by a 1925 Geneva Convention. Review conferences of the 1972 convention are held every five years but new urgency was injected into the Geneva meeting by the anthrax attacks in the United States which showed the threat of biological weapons could be more than a theoretical. While past conferences have stressed solely the need to comply with the ban, the United States wants an explicit reference to its allegations that some members flout the rules.
The list presented by the US includes Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, as well as Sudan and Syria, which are not members of the convention. There was no reference to Israel, let alone the US itself which runs a Biological Defense Research Program. For years, critics say that this program is not simply related to the defence against biological weapons but would also contain work for biological warfare.
Unlike other international arms accords, the ban on biological weapons contains no mechanism for verification. In July this year however, the United States had already rejected ahead of the conference a draft protocol proposed by a so-called Ad Hoc negotiating committee that would have instituted a system of spot checks. Washington said it would have exposed its industrial and military facilities to spying without giving any guarantees that it could catch cheats. Now the US proposed to end the mandate of the Ad Hoc committee, although reportedly 75 per cent of the Protocol was already agreed upon by the delegates from 144 countries present at Geneva.
Apparently, European Union representatives were not only surprised because the US position was not agreed with US allies. They got really angry: "They [the US that is; th.ed.] have fired a missile at the conference. We are deeply disappointed," one senior European diplomat said. "It is a direct provocation to everybody. Their position is completely unacceptable," another senior diplomat from a European state said. In a statement, the European Union said it remained fully committed to "multilateral" arms negotiations, adding that the 1994 mandate remained "completely valid."
"The US was willing to let this conference fail," said Dr Oliver Meier, Senior Arms Control and Disarmament Researcher at the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Centre (VERTIC). "This outcome leaves us all worse off. While US citizens are dying from biological weapons, even the most modest proposals to strengthen the bioweapons ban were not acceptable to Washington."
In a bid to save face, the Review Conference opted formally to suspend work for a year and meet again from 11-22 November 2002.
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
World Climate and Energy Event
The objectives are to analyze current developments in climate and energy research, demonstrate latest technology and discuss appropriate measures for implementation.
For more details, visit: http://www.rio02.de/
ISODARCO 2002 Summer Course "Cyberwar, Netwar and the Revolution in Military Affairs - Real Threats and Virtual Myths"
For more details, visit: http://www.roma2.infn.it/isodarco/trento02.html
No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue. All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
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