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[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 123 (Thursday, September 13, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1509-E1511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

     COMMENDING PRESIDENT NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV AND THE REPUBLIC OF 
      KAZAKHSTAN FOR LEADING THE WAY ON GLOBAL NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. ENI F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 13, 2012

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to enter into the 
Congressional Record my recent speech before the international 
conference From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear-Weapons-Free World held 
in Astana, Kazakhstan on August 29, 2012.
  For historical purposes, I am also including a parliamentary appeal 
for nuclear abolition as well as a news article dated August 30, 2012 
announcing Kazakhstan's launch of the ATOM project to support the 
global movement against nuclear tests.
  The ATOM project, an acronym for ``Abolish Testing. Our Mission'' is 
an international petition campaign designed to unify public opinion 
against nuclear weapons testing. The ATOM project is the initiative of 
the Nazarbayev Center, and I encourage any person who opposes nuclear 
weapons to sign this online petition to the governments of the world 
calling for the permanent step to stop nuclear testing. Interested 
persons may sign the petition at www.TheATOMProject.org.

     Statement of the Honorable Eni F. H. Faleomavaega Before the 
 International Conference From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear-Weapons-
        Free World held in Astana, Kazakhstan on August 29, 2012

       Distinguished Guests:
       On December 2, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly 
     unanimously adopted resolution 64/35 which declares August 29 
     the International Day against Nuclear Tests in recognition of 
     President Nursultan Nazarbayev's historic decision in 1991 on 
     August 29 to close down the world's second largest nuclear 
     test site and dismantle the world's fourth largest nuclear 
     arsenal at Semipalatinsk.
       The resolution--which was initiated by Kazakhstan and 
     sponsored and cosponsored by many other governments--calls 
     for increasing awareness and education ``about the effects of 
     nuclear weapon test explosions or any other nuclear 
     explosions and the need for their cessation as one of the 
     means of achieving the goal of a nuclear-weapon-free world.''
       In 2011, we commemorated the 20th anniversary of President 
     Nazarbayev's courageous act and, on March 7, 2012, the people 
     of the Republic of the Marshall Islands through their 
     Nitijela at its 33rd Constitutional Regular Session passed a 
     resolution calling for President Nazarbayev to be awarded the 
     Nobel Peace Prize in tribute to victims and survivors of Cold 
     War nuclear testing.
       The President of the Marshall Islands, the Honorable 
     Christopher J. Loeak, noted that the Committee has only 
     recognized those who have inspected nuclear test sites or 
     talked about the need to cooperate. At no time has the 
     Committee bestowed the award for the actual abolishment of 
     nuclear weaponry. So I join with the people and parliament of 
     the Marshall Islands, and urge you to do the same, in calling 
     upon the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to honor President 
     Nazarbayev for promoting peace by changing the course of 
     world history for the better.
       Unlike any other government, the Republic of the Marshall 
     Islands shares the same history and experience as Kazakhstan, 
     having also been used as a nuclear testing ground during the 
     Cold War. From 1946-1958, the United States began testing 
     nuclear weapons in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and, 
     during that period, the United States conducted 67 nuclear 
     tests with an equivalent yield of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs.
       On March 1, 1951, the United States detonated a 15 megaton 
     hydrogen bomb code-named BRAVO in the Marshall Islands. The 
     bomb was equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs and was 
     acknowledged as the greatest nuclear explosion ever 
     detonated. The BRAVO test evaporated six islands and created 
     a mushroom cloud of 25 miles in diameter.
       On August 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted its first 
     nuclear explosion code-named 'First Lightening' at the 
     Semipalatinsk Test Site in eastern Kazakhstan. From 1949-
     1989, the Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests in 
     Semipalatinsk and the cumulative power of those explosions is 
     estimated to be equal to the power of 2,500 Hiroshima-sized 
     bombs.
       As a result of Soviet nuclear testings more than 1.5 
     million Kazakhs were exposed to nuclear radiation. As a 
     result of U.S. testings, the people of the Marshall Islands 
     were also exposed to the horrific effects of radiation 
     poisoning. Neither the Soviet Union nor the U.S. have 
     fulfilled their obligation in cleaning up the mess they left 
     behind as a result of their Cold War arms race. Instead, they 
     turn a blind eye to the human suffering that carries forward 
     today.
       This is why I will continue to speak out and praise 
     President Nazarbayev for his choice to renounce nuclear 
     weaponry. My position regarding this matter is no different 
     than the position the United States took during a joint 
     meeting between President Obama and President Nazarbayev on 
     April 11, 2010 when President Obama stated that ``the US. 
     appreciates the leadership of President Nazarbayev and the 
     contribution of Kazakhstan to nuclear disarmament and 
     nonproliferation.''
       While I applaud President Obama for stating on April 6, 
     2010 that ``the United States will not conduct nuclear 
     testing and will seek ratification of the Comprehensive Test 
     Ban Treaty (CTBT)'' which bans all nuclear explosions in all 
     environments, I believe, as the theme of this conference 
     suggests, it is time to move from a nuclear test ban to a 
     nuclear-weapons free world.
       After all, the CTBT, like the Nuclear Non Proliferation 
     Treaty (NPT), is based on a flawed and outdated premise. The 
     NPT asserts that only five nations--the nuclear weapons 
     states--namely, the United States, Russia, the United 
     Kingdom, France, and China (which also happen to be the five 
     permanent members of the United Nations Security Council)--
     will pursue nuclear disarmament and share their technology 
     for peaceful purposes if non-nuclear states agree never to 
     acquire nuclear weapons. The NPT also states that only the 
     United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, China, and France 
     are permitted to own nuclear weapons because only they 
     possessed nuclear weapons at the time the treaty was open for 
     signature in 1968.
       The world has changed since 1968. No longer can non-nuclear 
     states support the outdated premise of the NPT and none of us 
     should settle for what the CTBT offers, particularly since 
     the signatories of the NPT are among the worst violators of 
     the nuclear code.
       From 1949-1990, Russia conducted over 700 nuclear tests. In 
     roughly the same time period, the U.S. conducted over 1000 
     nuclear tests. Since 1964, China has conducted more than 43 
     nuclear tests. Between 1960 and 1991, France conducted more 
     than 200 nuclear tests and, in 1996, despite being a 
     signatory of the NPT, France broke a world moratorium 
     conducting 6 more tests at Moruroa Atoll in the South Pacific 
     while the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) silently consented.
       It is time for all of us to say enough is enough. It is 
     time for the world to follow Kazakhstan's lead and begin the 
     process of dismantling. If Kazakhstan can dismantle a nuclear 
     arsenal which was larger than the combined nuclear arsenals 
     of Great Britain, France and China combined, then certainly 
     the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and 
     China can also do what is right.

[[Page E1510]]

       Some twenty years ago, President Nazarbayev emerged to 
     champion the cause of a nuclear weapons free world, and no 
     other leader before or since has done what he has done to 
     advance the rights of the human person by promoting nuclear 
     disarmament among possessor states and preventing 
     proliferation to new states.
       As President Loeak stated, ``Had Kazakhstan retained the 
     nuclear arsenal it inherited after achieving independence and 
     following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, 
     Kazakhstan could have altered the fragile peace brought about 
     by the Cold War. But knowing the price Kazakhs and 
     Marshallese paid to preserve international peace, President 
     Nazarbayev chose to renounce and disarm.''
       For this, the man deserves to be commended again and again. 
     I commend President Nazarbayev for his initiative to move the 
     world from a nuclear test ban to a nuclear-weapons free 
     world, and for and on behalf of the people of Kazakhstan--and 
     the Republic of the Marshall Islands--and all others now and 
     yet to come--it is my sincere hope that we will hold together 
     and stand firm in our support of this great cause.
                                  ____

Parliamentary Appeal for Nuclear Abolition: From a Nuclear Test Ban to 
 a Nuclear Weapons Free World Adopted in Astana, Kazakhstan 29 August 
                                  2012

       Parliamentarians, mayors, disarmament experts, and civil 
     society representatives meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan at the 
     international conference ``From a Nuclear Test Ban to a 
     Nuclear Weapons Free World'' held on the International Day 
     Against Nuclear Tests 29 August 2012, make the following 
     appeal to parliaments and governments around the world:
       Legislators and governments have a responsibility to 
     protect the security of citizens living within their 
     jurisdictions and to protect their respective localities and 
     the global commons for future generations.
       The catastrophic humanitarian and environmental 
     consequences from the nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk, 
     Kazakhstan--and from other nuclear test sites around the 
     world--demonstrate that the effects of any use of nuclear 
     weapons are uncontrollable in time and space.
       The possession of nuclear weapons generates a threat of 
     their proliferation and use that pose risks to current and 
     future generations that are unacceptable, unnecessary, 
     unsustainable and contrary to basic ethical considerations 
     and international humanitarian law.
       The approximately $100 billion spent annually on nuclear 
     weapons by a few States consumes intellectual, scientific and 
     financial resources desperately required to meet the 
     environmental, social and human security needs of the 21st 
     Century.
       Some nations, like Kazakhstan, have decided to unilaterally 
     abandon the possession of nuclear weapons and achieved 
     greater security and prosperity as a result. Many nations, 
     including all those in the Southern Hemisphere and a number 
     in the Northern Hemisphere such as in Central Asia, have 
     enhanced their security through establishing regional 
     nuclear-weapon-free zones.
       The United Nations General Assembly and the States Parties 
     to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty have called on States 
     to establish the framework for a nuclear-weapons free world 
     through negotiations on a nuclear weapons convention or 
     package of agreements.
       United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has circulated 
     a Five-Point Plan for Nuclear Disarmament which includes a 
     Model Nuclear Weapons Convention as a guide to such 
     negotiations. The UNSG's plan has been supported by unanimous 
     resolution of the Inter-Parliamentary Union representing over 
     150 parliaments and by various resolutions in national 
     parliaments.
       We commend President Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Republic 
     of Kazakhstan for leadership in the global nuclear 
     disarmament process including the closure of the 
     Semipalatinsk nuclear test site on 29 August 1991, and the 
     decision to voluntarily renounce the fourth largest nuclear 
     arsenal in the world.
       We also commend Kazakhstan for initiating the UN 
     International Day Against Nuclear Tests, which was 
     established by unanimous resolution of the United Nations 
     General Assembly, with the aim to contribute to the goals of 
     nuclear disarmament, nonproliferation, a worldwide ban on 
     nuclear tests, and a world free from nuclear weapons.
       We welcome moves by the Nuclear Weapon States to complete 
     the ratification process for the protocols to nuclear weapon-
     free zone treaties, as steps to significantly strengthen the 
     architecture of regional and international security.
       We welcome in particular the negotiations between the 
     Central Asian States on one side, and China, France, Russia, 
     the United Kingdom, and the United States on the other side, 
     on the protocols to the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free 
     Zone, and call for its early completion.
       We support the new initiative of President Nazarbayev of 
     the Republic of Kazakhstan for the adoption, within the UN of 
     a Universal Declaration on the achievement of a nuclear-
     weapon-free world, as another important step towards the 
     adoption of a nuclear weapons convention.
       We are strengthened in our resolve to advance nuclear 
     disarmament measures, by having visited the former 
     Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, where Soviet nuclear weapons 
     were tested for more than forty years. 468 surface and 
     underground nuclear tests were conducted from 1949 to 1989. 
     One 50 megaton test alone was several thousand times more 
     powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 
     The tests have caused immeasurable medical and economic 
     related suffering and death to millions of people.
       Further progress needs to be made with concrete actions to 
     achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, according to a 
     multilateral, transparent, irreversible and verifiable 
     schedule.
       Therefore, we call on parliaments and governments to:
       (a) maintain existing moratoria against nuclear tests, and 
     fully support the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 
     including full ratification and entry-into-force, financing 
     and support for the international monitoring network;
       (b) halt any further production of nuclear weapons;
       (c) operationalize the reduction of the role of nuclear 
     weapons in their security doctrines;
       (d) establish prohibitions against nuclear weapons through 
     action in their own legislatures;
       (e) establish guidelines that prohibit investment of public 
     funds in enterprises engaged directly in manufacturing 
     nuclear weapons or their delivery systems;
       (f) establish additional regional nuclear weapon free 
     zones, as appropriate, especially in the Middle East, North 
     East Asia and the Arctic;
       (g) commence preparatory work to build the framework for a 
     nuclear weapons free world including through negotiations on 
     a nuclear weapons convention or package of agreements.
       We all stand united in our common determination to build 
     nuclear-weapons-free world.
       We pledge to act on and share this Appeal with legislative 
     forums, decision makers and society.
       Adopted in Astana on 29 August 2012.
                                  ____

                 [From the Astana Times, Aug. 30, 2012]

  Kazakhstan Launches ATOM Project To Support Global Movement Against 
                             Nuclear Tests

              (By Galia Nurzhanova and George D. Gleboff)

       Astana.--President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced the 
     launch of The ATOM Project in connection with the UN 
     International Day against Nuclear Tests at a major 
     international conference in Astana on August 29, 2012.
       The conference, ``From a Nuclear Test Ban to a Nuclear-
     Weapons-Free World'', brought together hundreds of government 
     and parliament leaders, former heads of state, nuclear 
     disarmament experts, leaders of international organizations 
     and anti-nuclear activists from more than 70 nations.
       Under the project, any person who opposes nuclear weapons 
     can sign an online petition to the governments of the world 
     calling for the permanent stop to nuclear testing and to 
     achieve the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test 
     Ban Treaty.
       The ATOM Project--based at www.TheATOMProject.org--is an 
     international petition campaign designed to unify global 
     public opinion against nuclear weapons testing. The ATOM 
     Project went live in late August with international 
     television and social media campaigns.
       The project is an initiative of the Nazarbayev Center, 
     whose mandate, in part, is to continue and broaden 
     Kazakhstan's legacy of fighting for a world free of nuclear 
     weapons and weapons testing, to promote nuclear 
     responsibility, nuclear disarmament and nuclear 
     nonproliferation according to the vision of the Kazakhstan 
     President.
       The ATOM Project, whose name is an acronym for ``Abolish 
     Testing. Our Mission'', will tell the tragic and hopeful 
     stories of survivors of nuclear testing from the region of 
     Semey, Kazakhstan, the site of more than 450 Soviet-era 
     nuclear tests. The survivors and their children and 
     grandchildren continue to suffer from illness, disease and 
     severe deformities caused by exposure to nuclear radiation 
     during and after the testing, which took place 100 miles 
     outside of the city, then called Semipalatinsk.
       ``We have an opportunity to once more remind the world 
     about tragic consequences of the nuclear testing, and push 
     the global community towards more decisive actions to achieve 
     final and definitive ban of such testing. In this regard, 
     Kazakhstan launches today the International campaign, The 
     ATOM Project,'' President Nazarbayev said in his speech.
       ``Under the project, any human being on Earth, who stands 
     against nuclear weapons, can sign an online petition urging 
     governments of the world to abandon nuclear tests forever and 
     ensure early entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear 
     Ban Treaty. I urge the participants of the conference and all 
     the people of the goodwill to support the ATOM Project and to 
     make the creation of the non-nuclear world our main goal,'' 
     the President added.
       Speaking at the conference, German Foreign Minister Guido 
     Westerwelle thanked President Nazarbayev for launching the 
     Project and firmly supported it.
       Karipbek Kuyukov, the famous second-generation survivor of 
     the nuclear tests who was born armless and went on to become 
     a famous artist inspiring many with his life example, became 
     an honorary ambassador of

[[Page E1511]]

     the project. He gave an emotional speech at the conference 
     which he concluded by saying: ``Let us not repeat the 
     mistakes of the past! I call on all the people to help stop 
     the nuclear weapons testing around the world! Nuclear test 
     sites must be closed! Let our sky be clean and our children 
     be healthy! I do not have arms to hug all of you and to 
     express my gratitude for participation in this conference, 
     but I have a heart and it belongs to you! Let your families 
     live in peace and serenity!''
       According to its organizers, the ATOM Project seeks to 
     affect real and lasting change by engaging millions of global 
     citizens to stop nuclear weapons testing by joining together 
     to show the world's leaders that its citizens deserve and 
     demand a world safe from additional nuclear weapons testing.
       Meanwhile, participants at the conference included 
     politicians and experts from both nuclear weapon states and 
     non-nuclear weapon states: Valentina Matviyenko, President of 
     the Federation Council of the Russian Federation; Miroslav 
     Jenca, Special Representative of the UN Secretary General who 
     read a message from the UN Secretary General; Eni F.H. 
     Faleomavaega, U.S. Congressman (D-American Samoa); Douglas 
     Roche, the founder of the Middle Powers Initiative and the 
     founding chairman of the Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-
     Proliferation and Disarmament; Gareth Evans, Co-chair of the 
     International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation & 
     Disarmament and former Australian Foreign Minister. 
     Parliamentary leaders in attendance included speakers, 
     chairmen of committees and legislators from the parliaments 
     of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Iraq, 
     Israel, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, the United 
     Kingdom, and dozens of others, as well as members from the 
     European Parliament.
       The conference objective was to create an additional 
     momentum for the global nuclear disarmament movement, and to 
     mark the United Nations International Day against Nuclear 
     Tests on August 29 which aims to raise public awareness on 
     the effects of global nuclear weapons tests and highlight the 
     importance of banning such tests as a step towards achieving 
     a safer world.
       The timeline of implementing the anti-nuclear initiatives 
     pursued by Kazakhstan indicates that the country is steadily 
     moving in the direction of disarmament, non-proliferation and 
     nuclear-weapons-free-world.
       On August 29, 1991, President Nazarbayev of the then Kazakh 
     Soviet Socialist Republic, defying the pressure from the 
     Soviet authorities, shut down the Semipalatinsk nuclear test 
     site in eastern Kazakhstan. In the early 1990s, Kazakhstan 
     voluntarily renounced nuclear weapons, the world's fourth 
     largest nuclear arsenal, inherited from the former Soviet 
     Union, and by 1995 fully rid itself of the nuclear weapons.
       In 2000, the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site was completely 
     closed and its infrastructure dismantled, and in 2006 a 
     nuclear weapons free zone in Central Asia was established 
     under the Treaty of Semipalatinsk.
       In 2009, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to 
     designate August 29 the International Day against Nuclear 
     Tests.
       In addition to the fact that anti-nuclear initiatives 
     pursued by Kazakhstan have become important prerequisites for 
     political and economic development for the country, they have 
     created a favorable environment for the continuous 
     improvement of its status in the international arena.
       Kazakhstan has remained a steadfast activist in the area of 
     nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation given the legacy of 
     nuclear weapons testing and the effect those tests had on the 
     more than 1.5 million people in eastern Kazakhstan.
       The ATOM Project is seen as a logical next step in the 
     country's efforts to achieve the goal of building a nuclear 
     weapons free world.

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