gime. They ought also to reply to the questions of the Hungarian peace activists about a peace-movement strategy extending to both military blocs. Does not the name of Dialogue itself imply such an aspiration and hope?
Joint declaration of independent peace activists of Czechoslovakia and the GDR The third convention of the movement for European Nuclear Disarmament (END), which took place in Perugia, Italy, last July, showed that an increasing number of activists in the Western peace movement were aware of the importance of solidarity with peace groups in the East.
The statement below indicates that peace activists in the East are also concerned about making the links with the Western European movement. In particular it demonstrates the progress that has been made in making contacts between activists within Eastern Europe and in their concern to unite their efforts in order to fight the militaristic policy of their respective governments. No doubt this document will be seen as having an important bearing on the preparations for the meeting organ. ised by the Coordination for East-West Dialogue which is to be held on
February 8 to 11 in West Berlin.
New Soviet weapons were installed in our two countries one year ago. According to the official explanation this measure had been taken in order to balance the nuclear armament of the two superpowers and thereby consolidate peace.
In reality, the achievement of peace is more threatened than ever, and the arms race is continuing apace. This accusation is addressed to all those countries that are preparing themselves for a new world war, threatening their neighbours and calling up their citizens for military service without giving them any opportunity to participate in decisions that after all directly involve their own vital interests.
At the moment two new countries, that is ours, have become bases for launching missiles, a situation which considerably increases the risk of a nuclear reply to meet them.
That is why we reiterate our protest against the increased deployment of missile bases in our country. In so doing we demonstrate our solidarity with the peace movement in the West, which, on its side, is rising up against militarism and nuclear rearmament.
In our view the first decisive step is to ban all nuclear weapons in Europe from the Ural mountains to the Atlantic. With the independent peace movements in Hungary, the USSR and Poland, we share the conviction that the nuclear arms race is not actually the cause of the current international crisis. It is more the product of a policy based on force, or to put it another way, on practices that involve the dominance of certain vested interests.
Those who think in terms of blocs' and 'enemies" prevent any kind of dialogue from opening up. Those who tolerate social inequality and in fact encourage it are responsible for poverty and famine. Those who deny human beings their dignity as individuals, who refuse to recognise freedom of opinion can only deal with national and international problems by using violence.
But peace is indissolubly linked to respecting and applying all human rights without exception. We want to live in an open society that respects people for what they are. The road to this does not pass through the army barracks or through pollution of the atmosphere or go past the missile silos.
Czechs and Slovaks, as well as Germans in West Germany have signed this statement in order to demonstrate the permanence of their alliance and cooperation. This solidarity cannot be threatened by the harbouring of historical grudges, nor by any secret police. What unites us in the first place is the following idea: 'Peace in Europe and world nuclear disarmament' '. We call on other independent peace movements to support our statement.
Signed (from the German Democratic Republic);
Baerbel Bohley, Antje Boettger, Martin Boettger, Werner Fischer, Elisabeth Gibbes, Katja Havemann, Irena Kukotz, Traudel Kulikowsky, Gisela Metz, Stefan Pickhardt, Ulrike Poppe, Jutta Seidel, Anne Quasdorf.
Signed (from Czechoslovakia);
Petr Cibulka, Jiri Dienstbier, Karel Freund, Vaclav Havel, Eva Kanturkova, Jan Kozlik, Ladislav Lis, Vaclav Maly, Anna Marvanova, Jarolsav Meznik, Radim Palous, Jan Ruml, Jaroslav Sabata, Anna Sabatova, Petruska Sustrova, Petr Uhl.
Berlin, Prague, November 22, 1984 25
SRI LANKA.