No More Hiroshimas Anywhere, Ever

"NO MORE HIROSHIMAS". The slogan raised by anti-nuclear activists, most strongly in Japan, has since May 1998, found echo in South Asia, thousands of miles distant from the place where the incongruously named Fat Boy and Thin Man, created atomic hell on August 6 and August 9 1945. There were anti-nuclear sentiments earlier too, but the nuclear tests at Pokhran and Chaghi brought the danger chillingly close to home.

The capacity of India and Pakistan to wreak similar havoc, most likely on each other, was celebrated by the jingoistic governments and their supporters in both countries when they emerged from the nuclear closet. There was dancing in the streets and sweetmeats were distributed. Noses were thumbed at the other party and dares and challenges thrown out in the style of wrestlers in the ring.

But not everyone was celebrating. There was deep mourning and fear in both countries, by those who understood the significance of what this step meant. Far from being 'mutually assured deterrence', in the case of India and Pakistan, MAD stands for 'mutually assured destruction'. The tension between the two neighbours has never been as severe as it became post-nuclear tests, except in times of declared war. In these troubled times, the voices of those calling for peace become even more significant, as they persist in their stand despite being pilloried as traitors, enemy spies, anti-nationals, even anti-religion. The bombs are referred to as the Hindu and the Islamic bomb respectively by those who refuse to realise that weapons have no religion.

Strengthening the voices of peace activists in Pakistan, is a recently

formed group in Lahore. Calling itself the Lahore Peace Forum

Email Address - lahore.peace@usa.net,

it comprises activists who have been involved in raising awareness on this

issue since May 1998, and who have been advocating peace between India and Pakistan for long before that. Many are members of groups affiliated with the Joint Action Committee, an umbrella group of some 30 non-government organisations in and around Lahore.

Two years ago, JAC was recognised for its anti-nuclear stand and awareness raising effort with the UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Peace Prize, along with an Indian peace worker. Although the group has maintained its stand, its agenda includes a wide range of issues, from governance to religious tolerance and

womens rights. "We felt it was necessary for a group to be developed in

Lahore that would focus on the peace and anti-nuclear issue alone," explains Farooq Tariq, General Secretary of the left-wing, trade-union oriented Labour Party of Pakistan, and de facto convenor of the informally organised LPF.

There are already such groups in Islamabad and Karachi, the Citizens Peace Committee (CPC) and Action Committee Against Arms Race (ACAAR), which similarly comprise activists and members of other rights organisations and focus on peace. Anti-nuclear sentiments are also strong in Balochistan province, where there is anger at being 'used as guinea pigs', as Sardar Ataullah Mengal of the Balochistan National Party (BNP) put it in his public protest after Pakistan's nuclear tests at Chaghi. The BNP also protested against the tests being conducted without asking the permission or even informing the Balochistan

government about them. The public protest organised by the party in

Quetta last year on the anniversary of Pakistan's tests, drew some 5000

people. The event was ignored by the media, except for two features

later in a national weekly.

All these groups are affiliated with the Pakistan Peace Coalition, an umbrella organisation at the national level, the committee of which includes representatives from various organisations and cities.

An idea that has taken off this year is the 'Cloth Banner Campaign', initiated by Wajahat Malik, a young poet and activist in Islamabad, for this year's nuclear tests anniversary. Picked up by groups all over the country and also in India, the campaign consists simply of using ordinary white cloth, divided into one meter square pieces. A slogan for peace in bold letters in the middle is surrounded by messages for peace or against nuclear weapons, written and signed by members of the public. The cloth pieces are stitched together and used in various ways, for example, to create banners -- some pieces stitched together with extra cloth added to create space for bamboo sticks can be used in demonstrations.

Overseas friends are being asked to mail the banners to groups in India and Pakistan, or send email messages of support, printouts of which can be pasted on the banners. Peace activists hope to use these banners "as a vote of no confidence against nuclear weapons by the subcontinent's silent majority".

The highlight of CPC's May 28 protest demonstration this year on the second anniversary of the Chhagai tests was in fact the large banner, sewn from a 70 yard-length banner supported by some 17 bamboo poles. The cloth pieces, containing on average about 25 signatures, had come from Karachi, Quetta, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Activists face a threatening atmosphere, created by religious right-wing forces and police. Every year as the government glorifies the nuclear tests and the right wing forces make aggressive noises against those opposing this glorification, the peace demonstrators prepare to be attacked as they come out in public.Yet passers-by and on-lookers are, if not openly supportive, at least not hostile. Some hesitantly join in or watch, others drive by flashing victory signs, and yet others take away pamphlets to read or distribute further.

As August 6 approaches, the peace groups are once again gearing up all over the country to register their protest at the nuclearisation of South Asia and to press for de- nuclearisation.

The Lahore Peace Forum, in collaboration with Joint Action Committee has planned a seminar titled simply 'No More Hiroshimas' to commemorate this

August 6. Cloth

banners with signatures calling for peace will be draped around the Lahore Press Club, venue of the seminar, and a youth theatre group will present a play, 'Ananas aur Atom Bomb', by the late Khwaja Ahmed Abbas of Bombay. The seminar venue will have an exhibition of photographs on the holocaust of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, sent by peace groups in Japan...Although the group is secular in outlook, it has decided to also disseminate information on why nuclear weapons are un-Islamic and contrary to the spirit of Jehad (holy war), as a means of strengthening their arguments.

There will be similar seminars and protest meetings in all the major cities of the country, as well as in India.