arctic annie wants to revitalize the aging pacifist movement when i'm working at the peace foundation in my role is to use outreach coordinator. and i basically i mean he see to the pacific a festival. and basing all these amazing people from twenty seven different countries in the pacific and i felt for the first time in my life that new zealand was not remote and that we were big compared to. some of the things out of the pacific garden country. i was pushed up on the higher the peace activist mother she's been around during peace activist lost some my blood and i feel a responsibility to continue that when. i have this funny memory of mum buying me a greenpeace stick and that you put on your window and it was of the rainbow warrior and the fit that terrorism kids are now in. on

a part that was on a peaceful mission and really sort of shocked my idea of living in a safe country i think it's the younger generation now teaching the next generation a legacy of hump really that i think that we have given young people. because it's twenty is since we actually passed the rule and we want a young people to know about the war because any was only four when that law was passed. and the old kinds of the effects of chasing this work is not. enough and that is. what. i have a feeling this is the. thing it's the thing not money and the swiss people in the family think they knew that the it's all right this. just into the story is both people about money and peacemakers a new zealand in the week that they've done gives me heart and i think that order of same. ordinary citizens can make

a difference and i feel that i can try. to prevent the young people from feeling a sense of powerlessness the pacifists remind them of the long crusade that made their country nuclear free and either confirm or deny you can feel the pride in me that we had governments and politicians prepared to go on those boats to go out there and actually protest i mean it was something we did as ordinary citizens working with governments you've got a partnership model there that is unusual i think right around the world. notice it took another twelve years to get along a government that actually ran on a clear ticket and won. and then it was consolidated by the stupidity of the french in thinking that they would somehow stop this problem by bombing the remember warrior and what it did instead was it absolutely cemented it hope you know you just think it's important to remember that the british and

australia on aboriginal aimed for that came from near actually came over to new zealand not just from what was happening by the french entirely. the british preceded the french in the pacific beginning in one thousand fifty two they tested their way into the very restricted nuclear u.s.s.r. . with the assistance of the australian and new zealand military here you see them to study. the results demonstrated the presence of elevated chromosomal disturbances of new zealand fictions in the fifty years ago. so they're basically saying they have suffered any damage and we spoke recently as a national conference here on disarmament when the daughter of one of the trends spoke out her father was too old to speak and she talked about growing up with that fear of having a child born deformed even uneasy and because of the effects of radiation from her

father being exposed to nuclear tests in the pacific. and i'm lucky. i have three move children. and i don't live with you think the rest. i was so it was normal until i got disco and sit on the mitt and go around so i would appear. and most of the kids would say i'm up as a take for news and then i'll say i am i'm i'm trying to stop nuclear. because that's how i understood. crane as an external command her now working at the disarmament security center. back in the one nine hundred seventy s. when i was in and she submarine helicopters i was required to train my

air crew in using this new to drop the bomb which we were given. if we ever had to release it. try to helicopter we could not escape for it doesn't it and so it was a suicide mission i asked a few questions i was reassured that we probably would never really have to use it . it shocked me but i was ambitious no one else was complaining and we were told that this is the only way that britain could keep independence. i realize that. only later many years later of. this was completely true. as a new convert against nuclear weapons i was looked upon with great school by the. peace movement in britain i tried to explain that i was not a psychopath my friends we are psychopaths and we are professional military men.

who thought free deeply about what we did but i did agree with them the nuclear weapon aspect was an aberration. and playing thank god. he had a conscience to do something about these and i can't imagine a guy around its merits. i just can't imagine and i see him so now so passionate about what he does that it's just said nother alb well it is the ultimate cautionary tale but one of a says nothing like that. the always tend to overdo it because you really understand you know which of what is being proposed the pentagon. will say oh don't worry we have everyone well trained we have plenty of safety systems there can not be a accidental start of

a nope there war but no fear weapons are built to be used the risk is that they're all that something might be going off by mistake specially with thousands of nuclear weapons on head trigger alert in the us and in russia if the united states has dropped i think it's eleven atomic bombs accidentally. we dropped four off of spain we have dropped one note their weapon in a marsh here in the united states now still there are a number of the nuclear nucular weapons are such a huge issue with such high risks associated with them that there's a natural tendency to play both sides. the way they say they're coming back but at the same time they maintain extremely high numbers of weapons. in the given the number of near misses we are lucky to still be here the activists are convinced

that an accident is pending ok and that the only valid security system is the total abolition of nuclear weapons and ninety six when we began the swell project. there was this dream if you see i could clean it we've been selling go in everywhere else in the world by going to the world course we could get the conscience of the ordinary citizen around the world saying these are against the moral conscience of people it's an illegal to use nuclear weapon tomorrow and the dream was that it would be easy to get it through the u.n. and into the world court and that eventually these weapons would be declared illegal as we had done in our own country and thank goodness that we were dreamers and i'm realistic. that that we were both stood by the sense of how this could happen but the real sources are international treaties customary international law and the general principles of law recognized by the legal systems of the world.

that quite categorical on the batting of nuclear weapons and the legality of nuclear weapons the fact that nuclear weapons cannot be used by way of a strike threat you know to mislead. i threat only use of force by means of nuclear weapons and that he's going to lead to article two paragraph four of the united nations charter and article fifty one is unlawful. nucular deter and says we have nuclear weapons but our goal is not to use them if. your goal is to have them at our disposal. this means that we are not in the realm of the real we are in the realm of the virtual need don't know what you're going to use it is contrary to international law or even to have in one's acidulous this

rippon because the purpose of the weapon is to use it either as a threat or as an actual weapon the nuclear powers or alliances like nato still rely on nuclear deterrence which is threat and so the fight continues i was on a panel with a senior advisor to the british government about nuclear policy and he's pro nuclear. and we were debating about. the world court opinion and whether nuclear deterrence was legal and he was extremely cynical he said that . it was a mistake to go into the court but governments would ignore it and that's true they have an answer and the other thing he relied on all the time was he said and of course we never actually will have to use them and this to me is the heart of the problem for the people who brought you to terrorists is that if they try tremolo or

use names terms doesn't work we're meant we would argue that terence does mean use upset is a use of a nuclear weapon to actually threaten to use them and that's when you're into the work or the first time you for to get that threet you know and this isn't it it was the south pacific noise and the activists that i get to have threesome clued in their original question is if you have a degree threats then the. nuclear states could valued well we're only relying terence which is threat and so we're not going to use them so where to from here in the. winter from here is it going to go back to the court personnel speech and. at the time the judges agreed unanimously on the requirement for total nuclear disarmament the activists are fighting ted that opinion on and. this is. what i understand that the law is and others wanting to do is to use the unanimous

part of the opinion and i wanted to say to new zone how can we make that stronger how can we you know what are they doing that state practice that is still illegal. is that your understanding of it is i mean that they're looking for some new lever to put more pressure on the equip states to comply and design completely not just to reduce. yes on nuclear weapons in fact it's reverse since the world court decision the americans particularly have come out and said that. they see new roles for nuclear weapons and so we're back to almost like a sort of cold war situation again but with the war on terror instead and so it's going to be far more difficult to get governments to put their heads over the parapet of the nonproliferation treaty does provide a framework for ending the threat of destruction species for the greater work and

the signing sign or states they agree to take a good faith effort to eliminate nuclear weapons none of them lived up to that and now of course we focus on regulations by others those who like policemen on the word scene i'm talking of the nuclear powers they are violating this very little which they want other countries to observe now you know what if a policeman violates the law he cannot expect the rest of the village to complain but the law of the only system that would work would be one that is perceived to be nondiscriminatory and fair and equally applying to all countries one approach that is followed these days is you know dividing the worry between friends court and court good countries and court and court bad or roll countries or even to do with that approach doesn't work it doesn't take too much to remember that in the one nine hundred eighty s.

daboll sand in iraq was a friend of the west. he's pretty good on intelligence agencies knew the invasion of iraq would spur nuclear proliferation and terror. for good reasons these are the only means of deterrence to the other side. and nobody's going to turn to the united states where the us spends about as much as the rest of the world. are spending so the only reason to turning a. nuclear weapons and turn. the activists are understandably anxious as a result of the nuclear posture review in this classified u.s. military document the security guarantees that protected countries without nuclear weapons against a nuclear offensive are cancelled a strategy of action is being adopted in addition to deterrence so the arsenals must be upgraded to make them easier to use france and britain have responded with

surprising enthusiasm to this nuclear renaissance that the united kingdom is going to pretend that it needs nuclear weapons for its survival or its security it was attacking the united kingdom some have got the very strange idea that because there's terrorists in the world we need to have nuclear weapons can be used nuclear weapons against terrorists but it would that not be rather like shooting musk eaters with camels i think the british would make a much bigger splash in the history of the world if the decider that they let the program expire we're still fighting the public war between britain and france because when i finally corner. any senior british military man these days and ask him why do you need nuclear weapons they say every time it's nothing to do with security it's nothing to do

with the russians it's to do with the french we cannot allow france to be the only european nuclear power. and there is this fear that britain will become like president if they're going to be free they will be. of no consequence in the world . even though i do this work i constantly get overwhelmed i mean that discussion that we were having talking about the reality of next year we pinson three it's sometimes i just want to i just i've had enough. and lose heart but at the same time i think. something has to be down and if i am going to persist that i can do something i what. i mean now current generation they go out the middle woods and doing. that now and i don't know maybe you guys amongst the young people i speak to

a movie night go out there in person. and maybe also for different names also interesting that it was some new engine if you can sign it and i got a shambles i think that belonging amateurs as much comes from that live sort of projects go on and people solidarity images from it which i don't think exists so much among young people not a lot it just as. before the invasion of iraq there were millions of people protesting and still you know there's a million people around and i'm interested when i watch or so i mean it's not necessarily it's you've got to convince the public statements or the pope said suddenly we're going to be side you know we're going to be here and we're going to be very extreme try to trace and i think they mobilize action that would have to would be huge massive yeah like no one's going anyway because it's kind of the feeling is still they have a kind of pace. to go there. and i was so it's like

a lot of young people that aspect might be interested in some of these issues but not complacent and overwhelmed by all of us here what the made them and what do don't listen to the words the peace movement can say to humanity you know if you keep spending a trillion dollars a year on weapons of venture you're going to blow everybody up you know people are dying from these weapons but until we actually see it people don't don't wake up to it. in two thousand and six canadian activists trying to drum up public interest in nuclear disarmament worldwide military expenditures had risen to more than one trillion dollars this was a traumatic event for those who took to the streets during the cold war. the nuclear early ninety's was probably the most. the largest and most effective nonviolent peace movement in history and successful a man of the united states was moving towards sharp increase in

offensive nuclear capacities and it the government was forced to back down and fact of the reagan administration was forced to adopt the rhetoric of the peace movement in order to continue with their programs that's where star wars comes from and we're not planning to attack anyone or just planning to eliminate nuclear weapons if you measured the peace movement by the number of people who march in one thousand nine hundred two there were one million marched in central park in new york at the height of the cold war. last year there were forty thousand who marched at the review conference of the nonproliferation treaty well the big difference in numbers true is the peace movement lost its organization totally significantly but the lesson there is very clear a mass on violent political movement can change rooms. and the

importance of nuclear proliferation is very much one thousand are even aware of or concerned with if one is surprised to discover a fifteen year old concerned by the outcome of the nonproliferation treaty is name is rafael even though. i'd just like to say that you and your speech is now serving part of my school. and i like to play. right through it once i actually found out how bad it was on three different people who really made it clear to me speakers. and the search which. i watched its national were very much to say to have a speaker all the way from new york. she is an activist disarmament educator producer your advisor on the list just keeps going there's going to warm welcome for kathleen. ok the effectiveness of

a social movement is sometimes very surprising and hard to track but it also depends on the creativity of the of the social movements themselves in the activist involved with ideas and images and stories and that's why we sailed boats in the nuclear test songs they've kind of surmised that all the weapons used in the second world war are equivalent to three megatons that includes the two nuclear weapons used on hiroshima and nagasaki all the bombs in the bullets. that represents all of the firepower of the second world war ok so now i'm going to give you another sound and this second sound is the equivalent firepower of the world's nuclear arsenal today but it's.

the only way forward that would make sense and would stop this madness rush for seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons is for those countries that have nuclear weapons to find a way to give them up and to rely for security non-nuclear means. when i say

a mad rush over the past couple of weeks five or six countries have indicated that they might be interested in the about it being a capability to enrich uranium australia canada ukraine kazakhstan south africa. these country sets said why should they be left behind canada is interested in the small level of richmond very far away from a nuclear weapon capability but the technology for enrichment nonetheless is the same we sometimes refer to it as a latent proliferation you put in place all the technologies to make nuclear weapons but you stop at a much lower level. orders to use part in all this we were third or good at our dedication to peacekeeping as a percentage of gross domestic product is now dropped down to late we used to be

leading the world in the battle against nuclear proliferation and we were little leading countries in the world in the battle against the weaponization of space canada has very little space in which to. make progress because. it's a member of nature and nature is a neutral lots just like mafia that have signed on to us clearly canadian for bullshit because policy military policy has been changed dramatically and we canadians are big trouble in terms of birth historical commitment to peace and disarmament. every. thing is in place to proceed with disarmament when one hundred eighty eight countries committed to disarm they sent the shining message that goodwill could prevail but so far the governments choose to spend billions perfecting this terminal threat rather than fighting poverty or global warming. will future generations heirs to the thousands of bombs be as lucky as their

parents will be live without seeing a nuclear explosion either by accident or by design maybe maybe not. but until the treaties and international law are on may the bond be with. one.

moscow says there is no alternative to the u. and on what is for peace plan in syria with both sides to blame for the violence as russia proposes an international conference to result for conflict. demonstrators breaking the law now face higher fines and russia as analysts claim the protest movement support numbers are dwindling also. i never expected that my reports from the story would be regarded by some as a threat to national security r t's eastern europe correspondent investigates why is stoney blacklisted him along with russian t.v. channels and even the country's foreign minister. maria sharapova wins the french open capturing a career in the grand slam. thank

you for joining r t with me karen tara it is seven o'clock here in moscow well moscow says it will not let the u.n. security council sanctions military action in syria foreign minister sergei lavrov has said external players are provoking the syrian opposition to continue fighting despite kofi annan peace plan with the country now on the brink of a full scale civil war. peter oliver has the details russia wants to see a peaceful solution chivas through negotiations to the situation in syria. russia wouldn't accept any measures through the united nations that could lead or be interpreted to allow any kind of outside military in.