Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD)
and Physicians for Social Responsibility - USA
(PSR) - the Indian and US affiliates,
respectively, of International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) - have grave
concerns about the negotiated accord between US
President George W. Bush and Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, which, in return for
India’s agreement to put its civilian reactors
under international inspections, effectively
removes the ban on the sale of fuel and civilian
nuclear technology to India enacted by the US
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978 and erodes
the bulwark against the further spread of nuclear
weapons established in the 1968 Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Under
the agreement, India will retain its nuclear arms
program and keep a third of its reactors under
military control without international
inspection, including two so-called fast-breeder
reactors that could produce fuel for weapons. The
accord would also allow India to build future
breeder reactors and keep them outside
international inspections.

Whereas the use, testing, production,
transportation and stockpiling of nuclear weapons
constitute a grave danger to human life and
health;

Whereas the proliferation of nuclear weapons is a
grave danger to global security;

Whereas our groups support the prevention of
nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear
weapons;

Whereas the “Section 123” agreement between the
United States and India would further erode the
imperfect but prevailing international legal
standards for peaceful cooperation and control
and security of nuclear materials and nuclear
technology;

Whereas the US-Indian Nuclear Agreement would
weaken the global norm against nuclear weapons
proliferation. The unique exception for India, as
is provided under the deal, would further
aggravate the discriminatory nature of the
nuclear non-proliferation regime and prevent
progress toward fulfillment of US obligations to
negotiate in
good faith toward nuclear disarmament contained
in Article VI of the NPT. By further undermining
the currently unstable non-proliferation order,
this Agreement would encourage additional states
to acquire nuclear weapons and gravely damage the
prospects of global nuclear disarmament. It would
also further worsen the ongoing nuclear arms race
in South Asia by significantly increasing India’s
capabilities for fissile material production;

Whereas the radically boosted nuclear power
program in India, following as a consequence from
this Agreement, would throttle investments for
developing environmentally benign renewable
sources of energy including wind, solar, and
others, having grave impacts on the prospects of
long-term energy security. As bodies of
professional doctors working for peace and
disarmament we feel it is our duty to warn about
the use of nuclear energy for power generation.

This is neither safe nor economical and is
fraught with enormous dangers to the health of
people. These dangers were once again made clear
several weeks ago when damage from an earthquake
forced the closing of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa
Nuclear Power Station in Japan. Furthermore, a
study published in July in the European Journal
of Cancer Care (2007, 16, 355-363), concluded
that there is up to 24% rise in leukemia in
children around nuclear facilities in Canada,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Spain, and
the US.

Therefore, Indian Doctors for Peace and
Development (IDPD), Physicians for Social
Responsibility - USA (PSR), and the entire IPPNW
federation of national medical associations
committed to the abolition of nuclear weapons:

1) Call upon the Parliament of India and the
United States Congress to reject this agreement
as dangerous to international peace and security;

2) Call upon the members of the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) to reject this agreement as
contrary to their objectives; and

3) Call upon the United Nations Security
Council to undertake to support NSG guidelines
and the improvement of international legal rules
for the prevention of nuclear proliferation and
the promotion of nuclear disarmament.

August 17, 2007,

Gunnar Westberg, Co-President, IPPNW

Ime John, Co-President, IPPNW

Catherine Thomasson, President, PSR

L. S. Chawla, President, IDPD