950804

Japan puts pressure

on China, France

to halt tests

TOKYO: Japan stepped up diplomatic pressure on France and China to halt nuclear tests by pushing through on Friday a parliamentary resolution specifically naming the two countries.

China's underground test last May and France's plans to resume them in the Southern Pacific next month threatened both the global environment and treaties designed to curtail nuclear weapons, the resolution said.

It was passed unanimously by the 511-member lower House, the more powerful of Japan's two parliamentary chambers, and was expected to be approved by the 252-member Upper House later in the day. It was the first time an anti-nuclear resolution in parliament named specific countries.

The fact that France has decided to resume nuclear testing, following China's underground nuclear tests, is an act that destroys the global environment...and threatens the existence of humanity, regardless of the reasons given and whatever conditions are placed on carrying it out," it said.

The resolution was adopted just two days before bthe 50th anniversary of the dropping first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the closing days of World War Two. It killed 140,000 residents on impact.

The United States dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 on impact.

"This House opposes nuclear testing by any country in view of the fact that ours is the only nation to experience an atomic bombing, with the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki," the resolution said.

Prime Minister Tommiichi Murayama was expected to renew the calls on France and China when he addresses and anniversary memorial event in Hiroshima on Sunday.

The parliamentary resolution also said nuclear tests by the two countries undermine two international treaties, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), renewed last May, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), to be adopted next year.

In June, when French President Facques Chirac announced plans to resume testing at the Mururoa Atoll, Japan said his decision betrayed the trust of non-nuclear countries which agreed to extend the NPT on condition that the nuclear powers adopt the CTBT.

Soon after China detonated a warhead at its underground testing site in the western deserts in May, Japan cut its grant-in-aid to Beijing in protest. It was the first time Tokyo had used a reduction of its huge official development aid to make a political gesture against nuclear weapons.

But the Murayama government was careful not to escalate its protests against France and China.

"We will tenaciously urge China and France to give up their tests, through bilateral channels and in international forums," Foreign Minister Yohei Kono told cabinet members.

But we will act separately from boycotts and various citizens' anti-nuclear movements."

Last month Finance Minister Masayoshi Takemura suggested a boycott of French products during an election campaign, but later said his remarks should not be taken to represent government policy.

Also in July, a big Japanese discount store, Bic Camera, announced it had stopped buying French products and put up notices urging customers not to buy French goods.-Reuter