As chair of the Lewes CND group I was interested to receive a copy of the letter below today asking Barack Obama to call an international ceasefire for a week to celebrate his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now wouldn't that be something if it actually happened, though I'm not holding my breath. After all it it were possible to stop warfare for a week people might start wondering if there couldn't be a - much - longer ceasefire.

On our car we have a sticker which says WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER. It is surely about time that politicians started to understand that in the end we will have to talk to our so-called enemies, so why not start with 'jaw-jaw' instead of 'war-war'?

INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE CALLS FOR GLOBAL CEASEFIRE DURING NOBEL WEEK IN DECEMBER

OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA

Nov. 15, 2009, Washington DC

Dear Mr President :

We have two requests to make of you. In just a few weeks you will travel to Oslo to receive the world’s most distinguished award, the Nobel Peace Prize. In order to underline the solemn nature of this award and the responsibilities it implies, we call on you to declare the week devoted to the award ceremonies (Dec. 4 -11) a period of global cease-fire, initiated by the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It would be an historic step, as was the ‘Christmas Truce’ in the First World War.

Your election as President of the USA and your many eloquent speeches, have given rise to extraordinary expectations. Among the most important is the commitment you have expressed to achieving a world without nuclear weapons. We therefore call on you to take bold steps now to open negotiations on their complete elimination. We already have the road maps, including the Model Nuclear Weapons Convention; it is a matter of political will, and leadership. We are looking to you, the Nobel peace laureate 2009, to take those steps. With the Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty coming up in May next year, this is the ideal moment at which to make such an announcement. We are sure that it would receive a positive response among other nuclear states. And it would generate tremendous support among the peoples of the world, who continue to live under the nuclear sword of Damocles, 20 years on from the end of the Cold War.

This letter is endorsed by the participants at the annual conference of the International Peace Bureau (Nobel Peace Prize 1910), under the title Rolling Back Militarism: a Task for the Global Movement. The event was held on Nov. 14-15, 2009 at Georgetown University, Washington DC, with participation from IPB member organizations and partners from the USA, Canada, Sweden, Pakistan, Iraq, Egypt, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Thailand, Japan, New Zealand, France, Argentina, Liberia, Syria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya.

Colin Archer, IPB Secretary-General

Tomas Magnusson, IPB President