This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more info. --------------411058C03626 GRANMA INTERNATIONAL 1997. ELECTRONIC EDITION. Havana, Cuba ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Avoidable consequences BY MARELYS VALENCIA ALMEIDA (Granma International staff writer) THE effects of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still being felt. The damage of that criminal action was not confined to the being felt. The damage of that criminal action was not confined to the [Image] massacre of 63,000 people on the first day of the disaster, because the fatalities have continued; 52 years later, a total of approximately 200,000 have died as a result of being exposed to radiation. Even though nuclear weapons have produced the most horrific crime of the present century, the issue is still high on the agenda of problems to be tackled in the next millennium, given that steps taken to date in favor of disarmament cannot be considered very encouraging. The arms race took off with those two explosions, as the possession of armaments, principally nuclear ones, was seen as a strategic necessity for attaining military and political domination of the world, and for some nations as an element of defense. During the cold war period, missile and nuclear warhead production was, in part, justified among the most powerful countries of the time (i.e., the United States and the Soviet Union), as a way of maintaining the balance between them. However, with the collapse of the socialist bloc and the recent acceptance of Russia into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), many people are asking what is the sense in having U.S. strategic weapons trained on some 2500 targets in former Soviet territory. It's true that the actions and joint treaties to scale down the arms race constitute an advance in that context. Nevertheless, economic motives would appear to make the total elimination of nuclear weapons impossible. A further problem has also arisen, which is where to put all that dismantled equipment, which, as it rusts, will create another source of danger. For the moment, arms control treaties permit possession of up to 2000 nuclear warheads. A new source of potential danger is now spreading: the unfettered production of plutonium in industrial processing plants. Due to that material's high fission qualities, unpredictable quantities can be obtained from just a few kilograms. The ease of obtaining plutonium, a substance used in the manufacture of atomic weapons, is a cause for concern in the world, given its potential for illicit marketing. Nuclear testing increased along with the arms race. Between 1945 and 1993, around 2020 tests were carried out. The approximate toll of such experiments on human health by the year 2000 is 430,000 deaths from cancer. Even so, the debate on nuclear test bans dates back to the 1950s and the Comprehensive Treaty on these tests remains bogged down. Testing by computer, for example, doesn't affect the environment, although it is also an example of continued interest in the arms race. The victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki do not appear to carry enough weight to substitute humanitarian interests for those commercial ones that exist behind the arms industry. Shawgi Tell Graduate School of Education University at Buffalo [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------411058C03626--