New Delhi
9 January 2008
In a letter sent to more than four dozen governments on January 7,
more than 120 individuals and nongovernmental organisations from 23 countries have
asked the members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the Board of Governors of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to actively oppose any arrangement that
would give India "special" safeguards exemptions or give India access to advanced
nuclear technology relating to plutonium reprocessing, uranium enrichment and heavy
water production. They have also demanded that India be asked to stop production of
fissile material and to make a commitment to permanently end nuclear testing.
The appeal comes between meetings of the officials from the Department of Atomic
Energy and the IAEA Secretariat on an India-specific safeguards agreement, including an
assurance of a strategic fuel reserve. The two delegations met in Vienna last week. They
are expected to meet again later this month.
The letter -- an initiative of the Washington-based Arms Control Association and the
Tokyo-based Citizens' Nuclear Information Centre -- asks the 45-member NSG, if it
agrees to supply fuel to India, to ensure that it is done "in a manner that is
commensurate with ordinary reactor operating requirements".
The letter asks governments to insist that India conclude "a meaningful" Additional
Protocol safeguards regime before the NSG takes a decision on exempting India from its
rules.
"If the NSG members agree by consensus to exempt India from the full-scope
safeguards standard, they should in the very least clarify that all nuclear trade by NSG
member states shall immediately cease if India resumes nuclear testing for any
reason," reads the letter.
It says that governments "should under no circumstances endorse an NSG rule that
would allow the transfer of [sensitive plutonium reprocessing, uranium enrichment, or
heavy water production] technology to India."
The letter goes on to demand that before India is granted a waiver from the NSG's full-
scope safeguards standard, it should join the other original nuclear weapon states by
"declaring it has stopped fissile material production for weapons purposes" and, like the
177 other states that have signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), "make a
legally-binding commitment to permanently end nuclear testing".
The letter has been endorsed by four Indians and nine Indian NGOs, including Ms Medha
Patkar of the National Alliance of People's Movements (India). The four individuals are:
Mr Praful Bidwai; Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi;
Mr MV Ramana of Bangalore, a senior fellow of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in
Environment and Development; and Prof Achin Vanaik of Delhi University.
The signatories to the letter also include Mr Jayantha Dhanapala of Sri Lanka, a former
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, and Prof Noam
Chomsky of the United States, an Emeritus professor of linguistics and philosophy at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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