Is Waiouru a nuclear target?

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 11, 16 August 1983, Page 10

Is Waiouru a nuclear target?

A recent video by Dr Helen Caldicott, a paediatrician, entitled "Nuclear Madness" has motivated concerned citizens to circulate a petition to the Ohakune Borough Council for a nuclear weapons free zone. The video exposed the following alarming facts about the international arms race. 1. The Americans now have enough nuclear weapons to kill every Russian 40 times over, and the Russians have enough to kill every American 20 times. This amounts to 50,000 nuclear explosions or 3 tons of T.N.T. for every man woman and child on this planet. President Reagan is now committed to building another 17,000 nuclear weapons in the next 10 years. Ninety per ceni of the worlds' population is neither American nor Russian. 2. A single nuclear explosion on Wellington would kill everyone within a radius Of 12 miles, blind observers up to 40 miles away, and create a crater }A mile wide and 800 ft deep. 3. It is probably betteuto die in the initial blast of a nuclear explosion than lie helpless in agony for up to 36 hours while the body fluids slowly seep away because the intense heat has stripped the body of its skin cover. 4. All cities (250 of them) in America with a population of over 50,000 people are targeted as are oil refineries and heavy industries. Even with two bombs per target this expends only 1/10 of the total Russian arsenal. 5. Once the Americans deploy the new Pershing II cruise missiles in Germany and Britain the flight time of 6 minutes will give the Russians no time to verify warnings. They will adopt an "attack on warning" policy. This means that the next false alarm could be responsible for starting a nuclear holocaust. 6. The NORAD early warning system in America has given false alarms 152 times in the last 18 months. The only reason no retaliation attack was launched was that the expected flight time of 30 minutes gave time for verification. 7. Because of the New Zealand committment to ANZUS, the siting of radar stations on Mt St John and the Black Birch installation, New Zealand is a nuclear target. The possibility that

Waiouru, New Zealand's largest military base only 17 miles from Ohakune, has been targeted cannot be entirely ruled out. 8. There are 50 million people currently involved in the peace movement in Russia. 9. People downwind of a nuclear blast will take up to 3 weeks to die of radioactive poisoning, during which time internal bleeding, ruptured organs and vomiting will occur, hair will fall out, and agonizing death will result.

10. You and your children will not escape these horrors. The petition currently circulating is a symbolic protest in the light of these facts for a return of welfare, dignity and peace for all people. There are no capitalist babies or communist babies. A baby is a baby is a baby. The video is being shown on Tuesdj^fc 16th at 7.30pm at Ww Raetihi Presbyterian Hall. Waimarino Peace Group see advert. on page 17