RESOLUTION - R3

TITLE: Depleted Uranium and Depleted Uranium Weapons

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Peace and Justice Working Group, World Affairs committee

CONFERENCE ACTION:Carried

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:  information material for Pastoral Charges and postage

SOURCE OF FUNDS:

STAFF  IMPLICATIONS: support for education, letter-writing to government, preparation and postage

VOLUNTEER IMPLICATIONS:research, congregational letter-writing

MOTION BY June Malabar/Muriel Anderson that this 77th annual meeting of the Toronto Conference of The United Church of Canada urge the government of Canada to:

•renounce the use of depleted uranium weapons by all Canadian forces at all times;
•begin work immediately on an Anti-Depleted Uranium Weapons Treaty to be circulated for signing by all countries in a similar process to that used for the Anti-Personnel Land Mines Treaty;
•urge other nations with a stockpile of depleted uranium to contain and safeguard the stockpile with a view to immobilizing it instead of seeking other uses for it;
•conduct and/or assist research on the long term effects of uranium contamination of people and the environment; and
•recognize that depleted uranium is just one of the problems created by the nuclear cycle by which Canada is a contributor through uranium commerce.


RATIONALE AND FAITH BASE

Matthew 26:52
Jesus said: “For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

The words of Jesus are very prophetic of the way in which the products of the nuclear cycle from uranium mining, nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons and nuclear waste are affecting both the war-makers and innocent civilians. The latest concern is about a legacy of the Cold War, a by-product of the extensive build-up of nuclear weapons leaving large quantities of waste depleted uranium.

Instead of following the precautionary principle of not using substances the safety of which is in doubt, the militaries of several countries, most notably the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Forces, have added depleted uranium to their armaments. The result has been the illness and deaths of soldiers and civilians indiscriminately. This is also linked to the degradation of the environments.

Are we not called as Jeremiah was to speak the words of God and deliver a dire warning to avert disaster?

“And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.” Jeremiah 2:7