IPPNW-Students India

Final Statement of the Seminar on War, Violence and Health

February 29th, 2004, New Delhi

Health and security are basic human rights. Ensuring that these rights are guaranteed for all people should be the goal of national and international security policies. War and armed violence do serious harm to public health and true security, since they cause death and injury, devastate families and communities, and squander vast amounts of money and natural resources that could otherwise have been used for human welfare. India currently spends 37% of its budget on arms while spending only 3% on health and education; Pakistan spends 40% and 4% respectively.

The acquisition of nuclear weapons by India and Pakistan, rather than adding to the security of their people has, instead, undermined security by making each population the target of the other's nuclear forces. The danger of these weapons being transferred to other States or even falling into the hands of terrorists is grave, as the recent episode involving Dr. A. Q. Khan has shown.

Any future-armed conflict between India and Pakistan could escalate into a nuclear war, whether by deliberate intent, accident, or miscalculation, immediately killing millions and injuring millions more not only in those two countries but throughout the region. The Kargil conflict occurred only after the 1998 nuclear tests, and since declaring themselves nuclear weapon states India and Pakistan have threatened each other with the use of nuclear weapons 13 times. War is therefore an obsolete means to resolve conflict because the destructive power of modern weapons renders them useless as tools for achieving security.

There can be no medical response to the devastation of nuclear war. Physicians and other health workers would be among the millions of immediate casualties. Hospitals, clinics, and other health care facilities would be destroyed along with the rest of the infrastructure required for a response to a disaster on this unthinkable scale.

The preparations for nuclear war, including the testing, development, and production of nuclear weapons and delivery systems and the military and civilian infrastructures required for command and control will demand an estimated expenditure of 40-50,000 crores of rupees (10-12.5 Billion US$) that will have to be diverted from the health, education, and development needs of the Indian and Pakistani people. In other words, nuclear weapons require the sacrifice of true security in pursuit of the illusion of security.

Nuclear war between India and Pakistan would be not only mutual suicide but also the unprovoked mass murder of people in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries who would be exposed either to the blast and burn effects of the explosions themselves or to radioactive fallout which, in addition to causing long term cancers and other illnesses, would leave large tracts of land uninhabitable for many years.

The use of small arms, whether in communal riots, caste-related violence, ethnic strife, or ordinary crime also threatens health seriously.

Therefore, the participants of the Seminar on War, Violence and Health recommend the following:

Only peaceful and harmonious relationships in society both within countries and between countries can lead to improvements in the health and security of people. Resolving conflicts through negotiation, diplomacy, and non-violent means must replace resorts to arms. In this context, we support the recent initiatives taken by the governments of India and Pakistan to reopen dialogue in an effort to improve relations and to resolve persistent conflicts.

Nuclear war must be prevented. As physicians, medical students, and other health professionals who understand that we are powerless to respond to a nuclear war, we have a responsibility to ensure that it never happens. Only the elimination of nuclear weapons can prevent nuclear war.

The other nuclear weapon states particularly the United States and Russia, who possess by far the largest arsenals have the same responsibility to eliminate their nuclear weapons, as do India and Pakistan. We do not single out any one State in our condemnation of nuclear weapons, but demand that they be abolished globally on a set timetable, with total nuclear disarmament to be achieved no later than 2020.

Until that goal is reached, India and Pakistan must take every possible step to ensure that their nuclear weapons are never used. These steps include keeping nuclear weapons off alert; keeping warheads disassembled from delivery systems; conducting no further tests of nuclear weapons; agreeing to a no-first-use of nuclear weapons policy and to a no war pact; and refraining at all times from the language of nuclear threat, either explicit or implicit. India and Pakistan should redefine health, education, and other basic human needs as national security priorities and should fund them accordingly, diverting funds from military spending, if necessary, in order to do so. In India, IDPD demands a national health policy that would provide clean drinking water, sanitation, and universal access to proper and scientific health care facilities, conditions that presently do not exist for the vast majority of the population.

Finally, we support increased numbers of people-to-people exchange programmes among the South Asian countries in general and between India and Pakistan in particular, in order to help dispel myths and to develop friendlier relations with each other.