(TibetanReview.net, Mar30’22) – The Dalai Lama has joined 15 other Nobel Peace Prize winners since 1910 in an open letter on Mar 26, calling for an immediate end to the armed invasion of Ukraine and an explicit vow from both Russia and NATO forces that nuclear weapons of any kind will not be used as part of this conflict or any other.
Concern over the possible use of nuclear weapons has been heightened throughout the conflict after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb 27 ordered his military to put its nuclear forces on “special alert”.
There has also been growing worry that Putin could resort to the use of so-called “tactical” nukes, lower-yield weapons that some have tried to justify as less dangerous or destructive than their larger counterparts. Such arguments.
“We reject war and nuclear weapons,” the letter declared. “We call on all our fellow citizens of the world to join us in protecting our planet, home for all of us, from those who threaten to destroy it.”
“The invasion of Ukraine has created a humanitarian disaster for its people,” the letter continued. “The entire world is facing the greatest threat in history: a large-scale nuclear war, capable of destroying our civilization and causing vast ecological damage across the Earth.”
The open letter calls for an immediate ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Ukraine.
The letter concludes, “It is either the end of nuclear weapons, or the end of us.”
The letter is backed by the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), which won the Nobel in 1985, and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which was awarded the prize for similar advocacy in 2017.
The other individual backers were Juan Manuel Santos (2016), Kailash Satyarthi (2014), Leymah Gbowee (2011), Tawakkul Karman (2011), Muhammad Yunus (2006), David Trimble (1998), Jody Williams (1997), Jose Ramos-Horta (1996), Óscar Arias Sánchez (1987), and Lech Walesa (1983).
And the other organizational backers were Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs (1995), American Friends Service Committee (1947), and International Peace Bureau (1910).