Pacific anti nuke campaigners call for continued vigilance

Transcript

Campaigners for a nuclear free Pacific say they still need to be vigilant because the region is becoming increasingly militarised.

They say the visit by a United States military vessel to New Zealand in November means their 40-year fight is not yet over.

Dominic Godfrey has the story.

The US Vice-President Joe Biden during his trip to New Zealand last week confirmed a US naval ship will visit for the New Zealand navy's 75th anniversary in November.

JOE BIDEN:  "We are a Pacific power, we have always been a Pacific power... we are going nowhere. We mean what we say when we say we are rebalancing to the Pacific. This is where the action is going to be, the energy and dynamism of this region is absolutely undeniable."

It will be the first visit by an American military vessel since New Zealand's nuclear free legislation came into effect in 1987.  New Zealand has said it will not be asking the US to confirm or deny whether the ship is carrying nuclear weapons.  A ni-Vanuatu academic at Victoria University in Wellington, Pala Molisa, says if the visit goes unopposed, it would be a fundamental undermining of the region's peaceful stance.

PALA MOLISA:  "The deeper and more profound ethos behind the nuclear-free movement was the fight against militarisation, the militarisation of culture. You can't have a liberal democracy if militarism takes over your culture."

However, a former Marshall Islands foreign minister and current roving climate change ambassador says the increased military presence is muscle flexing as a counterbalance to a perceived challenge from China.  Tony deBrum referenced comments from the US Secretary of State.

TONY DEBRUM:  "I believe that John Kerry's remarks about being serious about disarmament should be taken seriously and that the United States is ready to switch its agenda of disarmament until such a time as the world is rid of these weapons."

He says the Marshalls have ground-zero experience that continues to haunt them.  Vanessa Griffen of Fiji was one of the region's early anti-nuclear activists.  Dr Griffen says the Pacific island region has suffered longer than any other part of the world from the impacts of nuclear weapon development.

VANESSA GRIFFIN:  "Many Pacific women would come at the time from the 70's to the 80's and on, and saying, women are having miscarriages, women are having jellyfish babies and so on so, all of this was very real to us."

New Zealand's anti-nuclear legislation in 1987 was in part prompted by the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty, ratified in Rarotonga in 1985.  That treaty was led by Pacific island countries such as Fiji and Vanuatu.  Dr Griffen says the 16 member states of the Pacific Islands Forum should remain united in their opposition to nuclear weapons.

VANESSA GRIFFEN:  "We should not stand back in our usual way of feeling very small voices internationally and, on this issue, I think this is not one we have to be bashful and backward on. We have been so central to the ongoing development of nuclear weapons."

Pala Molisa agrees, saying the successful opposition to nuclear proliferation in the Pacific was only possible because people and governments across the region were united on the issue.