(April 23, 1993) The following is a statement by the Green Party of the Ukraine. It is not our policy to publish political party-statements. On the other hand: it is not our policy to be too dogmatic, so exceptions can and will be made.
(390.3807) WISE Amsterdam - The Green Party of Ukraine is now the only Ukrainian political party having the program dedicated to the sustainable development conditions creation. At the same time, contrary to the bulk of parties, it devotes to consistent counter-nuclear positions. The party is against the nuclear weaponry storage in Ukraine based not only on traditional Greens' humanitarian and counter-military reasons. More important consideration is that nuclear weapons possessions is inconsistent with a society transition to the sustainable development path. "Sustainable development" is understood by the Ukrainian Greens to be a balanced approach for a society needs ensuring alongside with the environment protection, based on the following fundamental principle: "Only environmentally safe can be economically sound".
Taking the final decision on the nuclear weapons' fate, Ukrai-ne does not simply solve a military-political issues range, but forms some society model, determine the pattern of society development for decades ahead. Nuclear weapons possession will not only define a foreign policy and a defense doctrine, but will also define the very economy structure of the Ukraine, its military-industrial complex gravity, as well as investment policy. Existing economy system developed for decades in the conditions of two social systems severe political and economic rivalry, arms race, it was based on extensive economy practice and maintained itself by natural resources extinction. It was the industry militarization degree, as one of the most impor-tant factors, that caused extremely high technogeneous burden on the environment.
The first-priority government expenses were the ones that secured due development level of "symbiotic" industries: nuclear weaponry and nuclear power.
Provided that, Ukraine will secure its nuclear weapons, it would secure also the economy system disproportion's, the ones developed due to the permanent increase of the nuclear weapons' complex maintenance needs. It would be also necessary to create the control and command infra-structures, the ones that were maintained by internal labor and responsibilities division in the former USSR. The power supply strategy will be solved inevitably in favour of nuclear power. And the very problem of nuclear waste will be enough to make impossible the balance of society needs and environment protection interests.
Investments, recourses, power, intellectual and scientific-technology potential will be aimed not on the balancing of the environmental-society interrelations, but on the strengthening of a self-sufficient military-industrial complex. The conver-sion will not gain the score, where it could become an effective tool of scientific-technology and investment re-channeling. Military-political consideration will take over the environmental-economical ones. Let us add to that, as an axiom, the inevitable foreign relations complications and the formation of unfavorable to Ukraine finance-economical regime.
The most general conclusions follows from the above: The effectiveness of government and public organizations efforts, foreign and domestic investors' efforts aimed on the stabilization of the economy and on the environment technoge-neous load reduction depends directly on the nuclear weapons fate. The nuclear weapons problem is interconnected with the sustainable development so directly, as the environment state is connected with the governing economic concepts in a society.
Such an approach is completely valid in the case of other countries, the ones, that have inherited nuclear weapons from the former USSR, the ones with post-totalitarian transformati-on economics (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus).
Source and Contact: Greens' Party of Ukraine